Sue Coletta

The Journal: On Writing “Fast”

In today’s Journal * Yesterday * An Epiphany from a Friend * Topic: On Writing “Fast” * Of Interest * The Numbers Well, yesterday morning I started writing Terra 2. But it still has to do with the future of humanity, so Terra 2 will be Book 10 in the FOH series. The covers going forward will be different, of course, depicting some view of the planet, but that’s all to worry about in the future. This book won’t go ‘live’ until July 15. (I’m releasing one novel every two weeks from now through then.) An Epiphany from a Friend … Read more

The Journal: Statement by the ALA

In today’s Journal * Oof. The novel * Topic: Freedom to Read Statement * The Numbers Well, no Journal yesterday (my novel and I were arguing) and not much of one today. Sorry about that. Oof. This novel’s being difficult. This one is writing harder than any since way back in the Wes Crowley series when I wrote Book 3 as a bridge between Books 2 and 4. That one was difficult for a reason, though. I had to merge two timelines. Honestly, I’m not sure why this one’s being difficult. Anyway, I haven’t hit my daily word count goal … Read more

The Journal: Random Thoughts

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Random Thoughts * In today’s “Of Interest” * Yesterday * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “In my case all painting… is an accident. I foresee it and yet I hardly ever carry it out as I foresee it. It transforms itself by the actual paint. I don’t in fact know very often what the paint will do, and it does many things which are very much better than I could make it do.” Francis Bacon (via The Passive Voice) “Anything you can make, you make by accident. … you have … Read more

The Journal: A Mind-Control Technique

In today’s Journal * Topic: A Mind-Control Technique * Help Keep Me in Cigars * Be Wary * The Numbers Note: Today’s post is around twice as long as usual, but it’s very informative. Topic: A Mind-Control Technique (and Why to Use It) You’ve heard it here at least a few times: When you allow your POV character (not yourself) to describe a setting, it’s a good idea to let the character use all five of his or her physical senses: sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. I also recommend letting the POV character use his emotional senses: dread, elation, … Read more

The Journal: Dialogue Tag vs. Brief Descriptive Narrative

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * An extremely good post link * I lost a subscriber on the 12th * The purpose behind the Journal * Trigger Alert (joking) * I expect a good day * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Be ruthless about protecting writing days…. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance.” J.K. Rowling (via The Passive Voice) “Jenny told me that the eye passes over ‘said’ and ‘asked’ and … Read more

The Journal: Catching Up

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Last night * More astute readers * Just a thought * Merry Christmas * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.” H. L. Mencken Last night, one sister-in-law and one son from Indiana flew in to Las Vegas and then drove from there for a visit. We are fortunate that they will be with us during Christmas and as we begin the … Read more

The Journal: Challenges

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Challenges * Later today * My own writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man would not be a private detective.” Raymond Chandler “The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.” Bill Watterson “Light travels … Read more

The Journal: Election Day

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Today Is Election Day * Another great day of writing * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “The cat sat on the mat is not the opening of a plot. The cat sat on the dog’s mat is.” John LeCarre “The thing I like best about being a writer is the escape it provides.” Yer Uncle Harv Today is election day. I know, old news. But if you live in the United States, this is probably the most important election day of your life. Today the citizenry and … Read more

The Journal: Writing, and Story Ideas

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Not a lot * Thank you * What is a Y gate? * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Simply put, adding information, such as a message or data, to a particle in one location will make the data appear at the other location: the essence of teleportation.” Dan Hurley quoting on the forthcoming quantum internet Not a lot in today’s Journal. I’m posting today mostly for what’s in “Of Interest.” I wrote a little on the short story yesterday, but (again) I forgot to get caught up … Read more

The Journal: A Few Things

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * On Construction and Pronoun Agreement * Ideas Again * Update on My Silliness * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too.” Kurt Vonnegut ​ “You can do many things by yourself. You have freedom to create things. I think that’s the fascination of computers.” Chang Yiming, founder of ByteDance and TikTok “Writing … Read more