Learning

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: Learning Never Stops

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: The Learning Never Stops * Today * A Note in Passing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The key to all story endings is to give the audience what it wants, but not the way it expects.” William Goldman Topic: The Learning Never Stops Seriously. And if you pursue knowledge of any particular topic, then mull over that knowledge, realizations come quickly and often. This will be a thought-process post. A little insight into what goes on in my head during pretty much every waking moment. … Read more

The Daily Journal, Sunday, July 21

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: How to Learn to Write * Daily diary * Of Interest * The numbers Quotes of the Day “A lot of novelists start late—Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you’re young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can’t be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don’t know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.” (Thanks to Bob Beckley … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, May 31

Hey Folks, I keep hammering away at this. But as an instructor, I know some folks “get it” when they hear information one way, and some get it when they hear it another way or from another source. With that in mind, see Kris Rusch’s “Business Musings: An Agent Nightmare Revealed” at https://kriswrites.com/2018/05/30/business-musings-an-agent-nightmare-revealed/. Yep. It’s so important I added it to the main body of the Journal. And shared it with several writer groups on FB. *** Today should be a writing day, and it probably will be. It might be a percolation day. A percolation day is a day … Read more

The Journal, Friday, March 16

Hey Folks, Sometimes I’m in such a foul mood, my only escape is into my fiction. There I can pal around with the people I like. And I can kill the ones I don’t like. *** Topic: Ongoing Learning A couple of days ago, I started reading the second Jack Reacher book Lee Child ever wrote. And his first Jack Reacher book was also very his first novel and a New York Times bestseller. That “bestseller” label doesn’t always do it for me, but this is very good stuff. The guy’s an excellent writer. As opposed, say, to someone else … Read more