the writing life

The Journal, Thursday, 7/6

Hey Folks, Topic: On Original Thought Know what? Anyone who wants to be a writer should strive, every day, to have at least one original thought. On politics, religion, social hot buttons, or whatever. To become a successful writer — by which I mean a writer who turns out work regularly and that work is regularly sold and read — the writer should strive ALL day every day to have original thoughts. If you’re mimicking the sound bites that pass for news and social repartéé — well, good for you. But chances are, you won’t be successful, or not as … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 7/2

Hey Folks, I always hate registering a zero for fiction writing for the first day of the month. But it is what it is. I didn’t clear the decks quite well enough to approach my much-touted WIP challenge in July. My wife’s birthday and vacation are both this month, and my son recently moved to Arizona, so visits will ensue. I’ll get back to the challenge sometime in the future. No rush. For now I’m going to not think about challenges other than the ongoing novel-a-month thing and just get back to writing. Yesterday, ideas were lining up outside my … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 7/1

Hey Folks, Okay. The roller coaster continues. Maybe I’ll start the challenge today, and maybe I won’t. I’ll know by the end of the day. Or maybe I need to adjust the challenge. I don’t know. Again, I hope I’ll know by the end of the day Enjoying a visit with my youngest son, his wife, and three grandsons this morning. Today, and Writing No writing today. See you tomorrow. Of Interest Via the Passive Guy, see “The Opening as Part of the Closing … of the Deal” at https://killzoneblog.com/2017/03/the-opening-as-part-of-the-closing-of-the-deal.html. This is a really great article. You might also bookmark … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 6/30

Hey Folks, Yay! The last day of what turned out to be a major transition month for me. At least as far as life and websites go. This morning I realized there’s a glitch in my challenge plans. The challenge is to write a short story every day “in public,” meaning I’ll post it scene by scene over at hstanbrough.com. But sometimes a story grows into a novel. I usually recognize a budding novel at around the two-thirds point of a story. Last month, in only 8 stories, two also wanted to be novels. That made me wonder, for a … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 6/28

Hey Folks, Well, frankly I was too tired to keep going yesterday. I didn’t upload stuff to BundleRabbit, and I didn’t update my novel-novella page and my short fiction page on my website. So probably one more nonwriting day today. I’m getting a lot of “writing related” stuff done, but I’m not writing. Writing is putting new (fiction) words on paper. Ah well. Either way it should be a banner July. Guess we’ll see. *** Had a guy unsubscribe today from the big blog. I wouldn’t mention it but he listed the reason as “Did not sign up for list.” … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 6/27

Hey Folks, Wow, there sure are a lot of blank spaces on my spreadsheet where there should be fiction numbers. I don’t imagine that bothers you a lot since they’re my goose eggs and not yours. But just in case, I can promise you they’re going to change pretty soon. (grin) Probably in a big way. What follows is a bit of personal rambling, which is why it isn’t preceded by the word “topic.” I might have mentioned here before an old Marine Corps acquaintance of mine. I won’t mention his name here. It wouldn’t mean anything to you, and … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 6/26

Hey Folks, Wow. I could post this right now and chances are you’d find value in it. Just check out today’s “Of Interest” to see what I mean. There’s a lot there. *** By the way, I requested and received a “free website critique” of my main website from Nate Hoffelder. In a word, the guy’s legit. He’s also super helpful. My website doesn’t suck, but (to continue the analogy) he pointed out a few places where vacuum leaks exist or are forming. So I’ll take care of those over the next week or so. So once again I encourage … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 6/25

Hey Folks, Well, the best laid plans, etc. An unexpected trip popped up for tomorrow morning. We’ll leave here around 6 for a 10-hour turnaround to Flagstaff to pick up Bryan. Job Corps finally decided they have a slot for him. They called a few days ago (did I tell you that?) while I was in New Mexico. Originally, Mona was going to drive to Casa Grande (about 3 hours) to meet Roy and drive Bryan back here. But due to circumstances, Roy can’t do that now, so we’ll drive to Flagstaff to get him. Then on Tuesday, I’ll drive … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 6/24

Hey Folks, Not a lot to report today. It’s Saturday and I’m still clearing decks to prep for the upcoming challenge. This morning so far I made more tweaks on the main website. Then I moved over and made a few tweaks on the Writing in Public website. After that, I worked on this website, The Daily Journal, to include creating a new header. I also narrowed it a bit and revised some of the colors. Finally I made some major revisions on the MailChimp side of things. Now I’ve been to the store (with Mona) and am about to … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 6/23

Hey Folks, Well, here we are back at HEStanbrough.com. Yep, I’ve moved the Journal back over here. Much more on that in the topic below. *** Thirty-three years ago today Mona found out I’m a much better judge of women than she is of men. That’s when we tied the knot, and she hasn’t figured out how to untie it yet. (grin) *** The first gem I took from Dean’s current post (see “Of Interest”) when I started reading was this: “Challenges get me focused for short bursts of time on writing.” There you go. That’s the reason to establish … Read more