the writing life

The Journal, Monday, 10/30

Hey Folks, This morning, in a piece I was reading online, I saw this: “In my opinion, less is more, just as it is when you’re writing, period.” Oh dear god. I can almost see him primping. Every time I hear a writer say “Oh, in writing, less is more,” I want to suggest they write nothing at all then. Based on their reasoning, their canon of work should expand exponentially. But I can’t bring myself to do it. The vacant-eyed, slack-jawed stare that would ensue as the moron wondered whatever in the world I was talking about might be … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 10/29

Hey Folks, Well, I didn’t stay up for the whole game last night but I still woke up later than my usual time. Sorry to see that Houston lost their first home game in the post season. Plus although I’d like to watch a seven-game series, I was also kind’a hoping Houston would wrap it up at home. This morning I tweaked my website again. Most notably, I changed the home page back to the ProWriters Blog, moved the bundles into the left sidebar, and moved Writer Resources onto a dedicated page. And frankly, that’s about all I did today. … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 10/28

Hey Folks, Getting back in the habit of walking every day. Only a mile, but still. I’ll increase that later to maybe as far as three, but I won’t go nuts with it like I did a couple years ago. Today started out pretty good. Had to clear a clogged outside drain. That was okay, but then it turned into a lot of other stuff that was mostly unnecessary. Had to do it to see that it was unnecessary though. So I had a few of those wasted hours, where I might as well as rolled them into a ball … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 10/27

Hey Folks, I’m slow on the uptake lately. For example, I feel bad when I don’t have a lot of writing to report in this Journal. But I realized, finally, that’s just silly. A lot of writers (most, even?) intentionally take time off between projects. Well, we assume they’re taking time off. In reality, we don’t know whether they’re just busy with other things, are in a slump, or are fighting some other battle. The difference here is that I’m slathering great gobs of my writing life (and my regular life as it affects my writing life) in public. Probably … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 10/26

Hey Folks, Well, I did some work on my website today and thought about a few more things I’m considering doing but not sure about yet. Also took care of a client’s website for her and chatted with a friend about holding tanks in camper trailers and things like that. Got another Stephen King (Richard Bachman) book in the mail today. I recently bought (or re-bought) a few of his Bachman books. As long as I’m still working through this problem I might as well have something good around to read. I’m not intentionally putting off my writing, but there’s … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 10/25

Hey Folks, Well, trying to use the camping trailer as a writing hovel just isn’t going to work. It’s constantly too cold or too hot and there are myriad other problems I won’t go into here. I’m just gonna have to bite the bullet and do my writing in my office. I’ll have to let the separate small desk and the separate, dedicated writing computer constitute my “space,” and that will have to be enough. I think I’ll also add a different, dedicated chair. Sitting in the same chair to write fiction that I use when I’m browsing the Internet … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 10/24

Hey Folks, One of my new favorite quotes: “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration. The rest of us just get up and go to work.” ~ Stephen King Stephen King introduces the 1986 edition of The Running Man with an essay titled “The Importance of Being Bachman.” The essay is nothing short of a gem, and I encourage you to read it. I took the liberty of transcribing it into a Word document, then saved it as a PDF file and added it to my Free Stuff page on my website. Please go there and download it. Read it. If … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 10/23

Hey Folks, I was going to talk about Dean’s age-based challenge frenzy, but you can see it for yourself in “Of Interest” and draw your own conclusions. I’ll turn 65 in a few weeks. I tried to set up an interesting goal that has something to do with the numeric designation of my age, but I kept coming back to “Why?” I mean, if setting such a goal increased my actual productivity and made writing fun again, that could be something. The closest real challenge I could come up with was to write 52 short stories (one per week) during … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 10/22

Hey Folks, Tomorrow — Another Memorial Day — On October 23, 1983 the Barracks in Beirut was bombed. Please remember. *** I didn’t roll out until 4:15 this morning after watching the Yankees sigh their last for the season last night. Oh well. What a powerhouse they have for the next few to several years. We have a trip to Sierra Vista scheduled for today. I’ve already decided (at 8:20 a.m.) that I won’t write any fiction today. Still in deck-clearing mode. I wouldn’t want to bump into myself in the fog. Soon, as a friend would say, all will … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 10/21

Hey Folks, Well, I spent much of the morning on the Jerry Jenkins website I told you about yesterday. Here are my recommendations: — take advantage of the free giveaway for signing up for his newsletter. You can always unsubscribe later. — take advantage (with a grain of salt, as always) of the appropriate blog posts and other items listed on his Resources page. — take advantage of his blog, which I finally found at https://www.jerryjenkins.com/blog/. — be careful of spending money. Like many of these sites, it exists primarily to upsell you on other products. — avoid getting a … Read more