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The Journal: Critical Voice vs. Creative Voice

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Critical Voice vs. Creative Voice * Dean’s put out a call * In today’s post at the Kill Zone blog * * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “[N]othing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great ever came out of imitations. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” Anna Quindlen “I plucked hissing, thrashing, horned tomato worms off the plants and tossed them in a bucket, secretly terrified of their alien aggression. Every … Read more

The Journal: WITD, the Novel and Dean

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Despite the playful * Wow. The novel * Yesterday I mentioned * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Don’t get so obsessed with writing advice that you fail to write.” JR Murdock “But how do I do this? How can I type words to a story when I’m not sure what’s happening?” JR Murdock (Harvey, in the back of the classroom, arm raised, hand waving frantically: “Ooh, ooh! Pick me! Ask me!” (grin)) Topic: Despite the playful, tongue-in-cheek jab immediately above this paragraph, reading JR Murdock’s post this morning (see … Read more

The Journal: Succinct Titles

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Succinct Titles * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something… You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” JRR Tolkein “[T]hings that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” JRR Tolkein Topic: Succinct Titles … Read more

The Journal: In Protest of Hatred

In today’s Journal * Topic: In Protest of Hatred * Another good day * The Numbers Topic: In Protest of Hatred There are only two things I cannot personally tolerate: intolerance and hypocrites. But with that statement, when it comes to some writers, I repeat myself. I despise writers (and people in general), who lade themselves with tons of unearned guilt, primarily to call attention to themselves and how wonderful they are, and then attempt to project that guilt onto others. I despise writers who make absolutely certain they’re touching on all the accepted and expected social biases and preferences … Read more

The Journal: Copyright: It Isn’t Rocket Science

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Copyright: It Isn’t Rocket Science * No bites * Great day * The Numbers Quote of the Day “I am a writer, a writer whose work has been published widely, so I have figured out a thing or two about how copyright does and does not work.” Emily Harstone Copyright: It Isn’t Rocket Science Sorry, but the quote of the day is just a really stupid statement. Being a writer, even a widely published writer, doesn’t mean you know copyright any more than being an experienced driver means you know the … Read more

The Journal: A Primer on Learning to Write Fiction

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: A Primer on Learning to Write Fiction * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Those that know, do; those that understand, teach.” Aristotle “We can know something without understanding it. But what a difference it makes when we do understand; when the subject in hand isn’t something that we know a few facts about, but we have personal experience of what that feels like.” John Dsouza “Resident Writing Coach — [name redacted] has been a freelance editor and reader for literary agent [name of agent and agency redacted] for over … Read more

The Journal: Garbage Runs in Cycles

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Garbage Runs in Cycles * Great start * The Numbers Quote of the Day “We often think we need to open with a huge bang, something that’ll catch the reader’s attention and play out like a blockbuster movie. But here’s the thing about those high-powered opening scenes: readers don’t care because they don’t yet know the characters or the baggage….” Becca Puglisi Topic: Garbage Runs in Cycles This morning was weird in two ways. Like so many other natural phenomena, garbage seems to run in cycles. One: I just realized … Read more

The Journal: Today, Yesterday, Sometime Later

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Today * Yesterday * Sometime later * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Saying that taste is just personal preference is a good way to prevent disputes. The trouble is, it’s not true. You feel this when you start to design things.” Paul Graham “It takes confidence to throw work away. You have to be able to think, there’s more where that came from.” Paul Graham Topic: Today in “Of Interest” is a link to an article that purports to list “12 Signs You’re Still in the Learning Phase of … Read more

The Journal: An Addendum

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: An Addendum * It will be interesting, * The Numbers Quote of the Day “My advice to writers who think they’re out of ideas is to tell them to write the word ‘The’ and then follow with another word and… bing-bam-boom straight to the Moon, Alice… there’s your idea.” Dan Baldwin Topic: An Addendum One addendum to yesterday’s post — Everything you are able to learn and absorb and put into practice about writing or anything else is dependent on whether you’re ready to learn and absorb the lesson. Much … Read more

The Journal: Writer’s Block and Coming Up with Ideas

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Writer’s Block and Coming Up with Ideas * The Numbers Quote of the Day “You can not do this from critical voice. You must learn it by reading and typing in openings of top bestsellers (stage four writers) and pay attention to what they are doing. Then you just trust your creative voice to add what it has learned into your stories over time.” DWS on learning pacing Note for any RSS readers: I added the above Quote of the Day after I initially posted today’s edition of the Journal. … Read more