the writing life

The Journal, Sunday, 7/16

Hey Folks, Wow. Absolutely nothing today. Tell you what. If I don’t break out of this whatever-I’m-in fairly soon — if I feel I don’t have much to offer you here — this Daily Journal might well begin appearing in your inbox with less frequency. No reason to keep sending it every day just to keep a streak alive when I have nothing to say. Today, and Writing Nada. Primarily a day off and watching a little baseball. I should be back tomorrow. Of Interest Just as a heads-up, see “Scammers Break The Kindle Store” at https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/scammers-break-the-kindle-store/ (From Let’s Get … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 7/15

Hey Folks, A realization dawned on me this morning. I’m the kind who always needs an adversary. More often than not, the adversary is a time-siphoning situation, not a person. One of my goals is to write at least one novel or novella per month this calendar year, and 15 on the year. I’ve whiled away half of July already. I still have to write a novel for this month to meet the “one per month” part of the goal. Beginning tommorrow, there are only 15 days left in this month. On several of those days I’ll be on vacation … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 7/14

Hey Folks, Probably another full day of editing in my camp today. Then that will be behind me and I’ll turn my hand back to fiction. Topic: POV—It Belongs to the Character, Not the Writer This is massively important. Summed into one sentence, Everything in every setting in your story or novel must be described through the POV character’s senses and flavored with the POV character’s opinions of the various aspects of that setting. The POV character’s description of a setting enables the reader to see (hear, smell, taste, feel) it. The POV character’s OPINION of that setting brings it … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 7/13

Hey Folks, Wow. Again today I almost forgot to even start this Journal entry, much less post it. Not sure what’s up with that. I carried my new portable swamp cooler out to the Hovel, added water and fired it up. The thing works. It cooled the Hovel from arounf 94 down to 80 in about 15 minutes. Very comfortable. I have a very good topic for you that I stumbled across during the current edit. I started the Journal entry too late to include it today, but I’ll put it in here soon. Today, and Writing Today I’m pressing … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 7/12

Hey Folks, Sorry. Just not much to talk about today, and I almost forgot to even file this report. (grin) So kind of a placeholder post today. Today, and Writing I worked on the edit today off and on. No fiction writing, but several ideas popping into my mind through the day. That’s a good sign. I think part of the problem is that I’ve been looking for ideas. A friend helped solve that problem earlier this afternoon when he tossed out a very vague, very general idea. I have an idea that’s what I’m gonna go with for my … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 7/11

Hey Folks, I started the day a little after 3 with a soft rain falling. Very nice. As I posted on FB, I was sitting under the carport on a folding chair between my Tacoma and my wife’s Avalon. I had a lapboard on my lap, my ‘puter on it, a mug of coffee on the hood of the pickup, and a passably good cigar. And I listened to the rain pattering on the tin (these days, aluminum) roof. I was in hebben. Great start to the day. The landlord (and friend) is supposed to come over sometime this morning … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 7/10

Hey Folks, This is important, so it goes up front. Just in case you happen across “How To Easily Proofread And Edit Your Own eBook” (by The Digital Reader), IMHO there’s only one piece of valid advice in the whole article: Read Your Work Aloud. Everything else there either lets someone else into your work or won’t work. Topic: What a Writer Needs, Post-Story You need a good first reader. By “good” I mean someone who enjoys your work, but someone who will also point out four things: misspellings, wrong words, inconsistencies, and any place where he or she feels … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 7/9

Hey Folks, Doing very little thus far this morning but relaxing my way into the day. And did very little the rest of the day so far too. Puttered around outside, a little yard work, a little more on the Hovel, some automotive stuff. The highlight was a trip to the store for tea and locking gas caps. (Hey. There’s a title for you. “Tea and Locking Gas Caps.) Today, and Writing Nothing today. Unless a plane lands on my house tonight and I’m in it (plane or house) I’ll be writing fiction tomorrow. Probably all day. See you then. … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 7/8

Hey Folks, Basically just a placeholder post today. The Hovel’s back in shape. I’ll be moving out there to write pretty soon, though probably not today. It’s Saturday, so…. Maybe I’ll do some cleaning out there, get it ready. Be glad when this dam breaks. In the meantime, I have a couple other personal adjustments to make too. I won’t bore you with details on those. Just habits to break and habits to assume. Oh, about yesterday’s topic. Hey, if you prefer reading books in the paper edition, good. Enjoy. I was only trying to dispel some longstanding misconceptions. Today, … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 7/7

Hey Folks, Long post today. Sorry about that. But I think you’ll like most of it. I’ve been a bit remiss in not mentioning another bundle that contains one of DWS’ SF books. The Sci-Fi July Fever Fun bundle is on sale at https://bundlerabbit.com/b/sci-fi-july/. I’m not in this one, but if you enjoy great SF, it’s bound to please. Topic: “Real” Books vs. Ebooks On my Facebook pages, I recently announced the BundleRabbit bundle (Guns of the West) that includes two of my books, two of DWS’ books, and one each by five other writers. (You can see it at … Read more