Professional Writer Series

The Journal, Thursday, May 24

Hey Folks, Only four days left on the Special Time of Great Forgetting Offer at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/long-day/ (and scroll down to the second bold headline). I want to do this so badly I can barely stand it. Unfortunately, I’ve taken so many workshops there aren’t 4 left (currently) that I want to take. My loss. This is a great value and a great investment in yourself and your writing. $900 worth of training for $500. Check it out. *** Out to the Hovel late at 8:30. I spent some time looking through some of the stuff I started when I was … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, May 22

Hey Folks, Rolled out at 3:30 this morning and went straight to an online workshop. Finished that (6 weeks’ worth) around 9:15. Then I started my daily rounds of the Internet and putting this edition of the Journal together. Finally out to the Hovel at 10:30. I started cycling through the novel again from about the midway point, touching only the intermissions. I took a break around 11:20, then again around 12:15. In the final session I wrote very little and only changed a few names, mostly with a global search. Today actually felt more like work than fun. But … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, May 19

Hey Folks, Well, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect on May 25, 2018. It affects me because I have a few subscribers who live in EU nations. There are half a boatload of requirements. I’m not going to worry about it too much, because everyone who reads this or my Pro Writers blog opted in to receive it. So if you reside in the European Union and you would prefer not to receive this Journal or my ProWriters Blog, please either let me know or click the Unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email. Thanks. … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, May 17

Hey Folks, Topic: How Do You Know You Won’t Like It If You Don’t Try It? Parents? Sound familiar? Well, we’re in the same boat here. I received a very congenial email from a friend and one time editing client that contained a link to an article titled “I Copied the Routines of Famous Writers and It Sucked.” As it turned out, the article was more humorous than serious. I’ve included the link (last) in “Of Interest” below. And just so you know, the author of the article is not a novelist. He’s a columnist and/or contributor to several online … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, May 15

Hey Folks, Tom Wolfe once said, “I do novels a bit backward. I look for a situation, a milieu first, and then I wait to see who walks into it.” May he rest in peace. Be sure to see today’s “Of Interest.” A lot of good stuff there. Another copyedit came in, and from a writer for whom I’ve copyedited before. It’s great fun watching a writer improve at storytelling. I’m looking forward to the story. So I’ll be doing that for awhile in addition to finishing the novel/story collection. Topic: An Update on Process Writing my own current WIP … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, May 12

Hey Folks, Okay, first, a happy Mother’s Day (tomorrow) to all the moms out there. I hope it’s a great day for you. Well, it’s getting too hot in the afternoon even to write out in the Hovel, so adjustments are coming. For those new to the Journal, the Hovel is a rammed-earth structure, basically a cave, with walls that are three feet thick. I have a box fan out there right now, and I bought a portable swamp cooler that works too, though I have no ready source of water out there for it. But both are noisy enough … Read more

The Journal, Friday, May 11

Hey Folks, Wow. I woke up jonesing to get back to writing today. The marketing webinar was great yesterday, but I’ll have to go over it again. It was a ton of information, and they probably needed 3 or 4 hours (or longer) for a proper presentation. They flew through it, not even showing all the slides they’d prepared (but those are all included in the actual video). If you missed yesterday’s Journal, the link to that video is https://youtu.be/2XTd9NcgWWc. As an added bonus, you can dowload the slides they used in the video at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GC3CZUCVQqDN0P7iuLJ44qo9xpkXoqAK/view. (When you get there, … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, May 10

Hey Folks, A little rambling today… This morning I rolled out closer to the time normal human beings get up. That might become the routine since the sun’s coming up earlier now. Doing so enables me to ease my way into the day, spend some time with my wife in the morning and evening, and gives me more of a normal workday. This is me trying to rationalize staying up later at night and getting up later in the morning. But it seems worthwhile, at least so far. We got rid of regular TV programming and the $100+ per month … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, May 9

Hey Folks, I got up much closer to my normal time this morning, but frittered away much of the morning. I did do a little cycling and enjoyed that. I also enjoyed wondering what I might write later today. Even made a couple of starts, but nothing stuck. It wasn’t time yet. For whatever reason, today I’m just not feeling it. So day off today. I’ll check out my window later to see whether the world ended (grin). My little cat’s been sneezing a lot lately, and she’s listless. She’s usually a tightly wound ball of pure energy, so I’m … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, May 6

Hey Folks, Just nothing happening yesterday. Went to bed late, got up late, no writing, so a day off and no Journal. This morning I rolled out late too. Got out to the Hovel at around 8:30, and played a few games of spider. Then a name popped into my head. Ronald Jackson. Just a name and an image of a guy in a suit about to walk through his front door into his house. I opened the novel, typed in Ronald Jackson, and kept typing. With one short break, by 11:40 I’d written “Excesses,” the next short story in … Read more