The Passive Voice

The Journal: A Bit of Silliness

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * The Writing Bundles Kickstarter * A Bit of Silliness * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations.” Ray Bradbury According to Dean Wesley Smith, the Writing Bundles Kickstarter has hit the third stretch goal and is closing in on the fourth. As a result, everyone who backs the Kickstarter with at least a $5 donation will get * the First Quarter of Tips … Read more

The Journal: Why I Don’t Talk Much About CoVID-19

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Yesterday * Topic: Why I Don’t Talk Much About CoVID-19 * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “If it’s not on the page, your reader doesn’t know it.” Nathan Bransford Yesterday, I got sidetracked for awhile by a new (to me) source for royalty free photos. See Visual Hunt at https://visualhunt.com/ (via Jane Friedman). The daily word count continues to decrease (see Day 4, sigh). I’ll have to see whether I can do something about that. (grin) It has nothing to do with the novel. The … Read more

The Journal: Think

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Yesterday * Topic: Think * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Nothing will stop you from being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.” John Cleese (from KillZone blog a day or two ago) Yesterday, I got up early to give myself more time on the novel, but that didn’t really work out. I was tired much of the day, and I wasn’t thinking quite right. Lesson learned. Maybe. I got just over 3600 words (see Day 3). At the end of the … Read more

The Journal: Short Post Today

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Authors Give Back Sale * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein (via The Passive Voice) For anyone who’s interested, I’ve just enrolled all my books at Smashwords in the Authors Give Back Sale. All my books are marked at 60% off through May 31. That means, again, that many of my short stories there are free. But all of my books there are at least 60% off. Great time to jump into a series or sample some … Read more

The Journal: On Goals

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: On Goals * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” Orson Scott Card Topic: On Goals Yesterday after I posted the Journal, I hazarded a look at my short story goal spreadsheet. Since I started on January 1, I’ve written 12 short stories. Great fun. Then I missed. So I was thinking I was probably behind by … Read more

The Journal: A Little More on Shared Worlds

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” Louis L’Amour “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” Stephen King Wow. Yesterday I did no writing to speak of, but I did develop a cover for the novel, which is now titled For the Good of the Galaxy | The First Nine Days. I also put … Read more

The Journal: Coherence

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Writers’ Conferences * Discoverability, how it happens * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered anyway.” Stephen King “When an author discovers coherence for the first time, … Read more

The Journal: A Short, Early Post

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Dean Wesley Smith * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.” William Faulkner So yesterday, in addition to writing and posting the Journal, I dropped a note to my friend Dean Wesley Smith. It isn’t like he and I hang out. I consider him a friend because without all I’ve learned from him, I wouldn’t be even a shadow of what I am today as … Read more

The Journal: A Very Short Post

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * You can join Kevin Tumlinson * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.” Natalie Goldberg “Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Stephen King I learned in an email, you can join Kevin Tumlinson and Michael Bunker LIVE for Episode 3 of The Kevin Show, coming … Read more

The Journal: Learn Copyright

In today’s Journal * Yesterday * Topic: Learn Copyright * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Yesterday. Just wow. This is basically an update of Monday’s Journal entry. Literally within minutes of posting that entry, I turned to the writing computer and realized I was actually finished with The Othgygnrks 2, which is mostly the alien viewpoint that was missing back in March. (If you’re curious, it’s pronounced Oth-gig-nurks.) The total word count for that one is on yesterday’s post (20697 words). From here on out, you’ll see only the numbers for the compiled novel, For the Good of … Read more