Jane Friedman

The Journal: To Achieve Success

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * To Achieve Success * A Minor Change to the Journal * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “If I were to tell you today that your project is a waste of time, would you abandon it? If so, perhaps it’s best that you did. … [T]o achieve results that spell success … requires enjoyment of the writing process in and of itself—to see that as the reward.” Jane Friedman To Achieve Success Jane’s take (see “Of Interest”) is spot on: To Achieve Success Requires Enjoyment of the Writing … Read more

A Slightly Belated Happy New Year

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Happy New Year * If any of you enjoy history * I Hoped to Post Links * My Only Real Escape * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “My subconscious mind always knows how to get from A to Z.” Novelist Robert J. Sadler Happy New Year More than one person has reminded me that even though I posted a Journal entry on New Year’s Day, I failed to say happy new year. I’d like to say I thought maybe that was implied, but maybe that isn’t true. … Read more

The Journal: Reader Taste?

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Posts about Christmas * Topic: Reader Taste? I Don’t Think So * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “It’s very important to know what you don’t like. A big part of innovation is saying, ‘You know what I’m really sick of?’ … ‘What am I really sick of?’ is where innovation begins.” Jerry Seinfeld “You don’t question your standards based on what anyone else is doing. You don’t look over at someone else’s race and think, I’m doing a bad job because you’re going faster. You just focus … Read more

The Journal: Goals and Challenges

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Note * Goals and Challenges and Getting Ready * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.” Andrew Carnegie (via The Passive Voice) “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.” Joseph Stalin “Perfectionism isn’t about being perfect; it’s about the fear of appearing imperfect.” Heather Campbell “You only need to know the direction, not the destination. The direction is … Read more

The Journal: Learning and Challenges

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Nothing about my nonsense * Topic: On the Process of Learning * Topic: On the Value of Challenges * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “The halt on the road before the journey serves an important dramatic function of signaling the audience that the adventure is risky. It’s not a frivolous undertaking but a danger-filled, high-stakes gamble in which the hero might lose fortune or life.” Chris Vogler “[T]he difference between amateurism and professionalism is you have people looking after you and holding your hand as an amateur. … Read more

The Journal: All Knowledge is Pertinent

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Welcome * All Knowledge is Pertinent to WITD * Moaning No Longer * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” Ambrose Bierce “November, n. The eleventh twelfth of a weariness.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary Welcome to Lexy, and any others who subscribed recently. Good to have you all aboard. If I can do anything to help, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or email me. All Knowledge is Pertinent to WITD The Kill Zone blog has made … Read more

The Journal: The DeepL Translator

In today’s Journal * The DeepL Translator * Some Great Stuff in “Of Interest” * Of Interest * The Numbers The DeepL Translator I failed to mention last time, when Norbert W in Austria emailed me, he used a translator to translate his Austrian (German language) email into English. I tried the same thing later, and I believe DeepL is a very good translation program. I’ve added it to my Writers’ Resources over on my author site. You can find the free version of the translator at https://www.deepl.com/Translator. The development of this translation program also seems to be heading in … Read more

The Journal: All About Items of Interest

In today’s Journal * All About Items of Interest * Of Interest * The Numbers Today’s Journal is all about items I thought you might find of interest. As a result, a bit ironically, there’s nothing in the actual “Of Interest” section again today. Anyway, I hope you find one or more of these items useful. From Jane Friedman’s weekly blog digest, I culled “NFTs: What Are They and How Much Should Writers and Publishers Care?” just in case any of you are interested. You can find the full article at https://www.janefriedman.com/nfts-what-are-they-and-how-much-should-writers-and-publishers-care/. In the interest of full disclosure, I personally … Read more

The Journal: Sort-of WITD and Pseudonyms

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * One Alternative to WITD * On Pseudonyms * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Spend the best hours of your day on the biggest opportunity, not the biggest problem.” Farnam Street blog “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Hanlon’s Razor by Robert J. Hanlon One Alternative to WITD In “Of Interest” today I linked to an article about NaNoWriMo. The article is written by a young woman who calls herself a “pure ‘pantser’.” (Ahem. Sorry, but I flatly despise that term. It puts … Read more

The Journal: A Little More on Process

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * If you don’t currently practice * Questions from a screenwriter * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.” Elinor Smith If you don’t currently practice writing into the dark, and if you want to, read my previous two posts. I have a feeling some folks see “WITD” in the subject line or in the contents list and skip reading the post. … Read more