Topic

The Journal: Writing in a Shared World

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Writing in a Shared World * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “No, it’s not a very good story – its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.” Stephen King Topic: Writing in a Shared World One writer asked about the limitations of writing in a shared world. Specifically, the writer wondered how a proponent of writing into the dark could write in a shared world. So I … Read more

The Journal: The Reverse Outline (RO) Revisited and Shared Worlds

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * From James Scott Bell * Yesterday * Topic: The Reverse Outline (RO) Revisited * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E. L. Doctorow From James Scott Bell’s newsletter, ” how about some old-school pulp fiction… free! My favorite genre is crime/detective fiction from the golden era, 1920-1950. Here’s a treasure trove, including issues of the most famous pulp … 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

The Journal: Negativity, Go Away!

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Yesterday * Topic: Negativity, Go Away! * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Why would I want to take a day off from doing something I love?” Dean Wesley Smith Yesterday I realized I wasn’t quite up to “big day” status yet. I wrote some, but not enough to talk about and only as I was cycling through. I sidetracked myself with merging and updating my reverse outlines for the two novels into one. When that was caught up, I also opened a new Word document … Read more

The Journal: Wilhelm’s Law and Other Misunderstandings

In today’s Journal * WMG Publishing Offer * Topic: Wilhelm’s Law and Other Misunderstandings * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers WMG Publishing Offer WMG Publishing has decided to repeat their 50% off sale on everything they have on Teachable for 48 hours beginning last night at midnight. Everything. Lectures, workshops, pop-ups, lifetime subscriptions… everything. I can’t urge you strongly enough to take advantage of this offer. To do so, visit https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/, click “See All Courses,” and use the code SpringTraining2020 at checkout. You can buy more than one, but you have to get them one at … Read more

The Journal: Stores, Distributors and Aggregators

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Here Be Brave New Worlds * Topic: Stores, Distributors and Aggregators * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “Fiction is a lie, and good fiction is the truth inside the lie.” Stephen King in On Writing A new bundle just released: the Here Be Brave New Worlds bundle is now available at your favorite store. To read about it, visit https://bundlerabbit.com/b/here-be-brave-new-worlds. Thirteen novels by thirteen very good writers for only $4.99, including my SF novel The Consensus. To see all eight bundles my work is current … Read more

The Journal: A Rare Occasion of Looking Backward

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Koontz not Kuntz * Topic: A Rare Occasion of Looking Backward * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quote of the Day “The whole idea is to put yourself in a position to be recognized for your work so opportunities increase. False humility or even laziness could prevent that.” Actor Bryan Cranston In yesterday’s post I misspelled Dean Koontz’ name as “Kuntz.” Senior moment. Mea culpa. I’ve corrected it. When you write as many words per day as I do, I guess you can expect to make a phonetic mistake … Read more

The Journal: The Value of an Opening

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Affinity * Yesterday * Today * Topic: The Value of an Opening * Today redux * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “Reacher has remained a loner and a drifter, which allows Child the freedom to put his protagonist in virtually any role and in any setting and still continue the series.” Rick Pullen in an interview with Lee Child (see “Of Interest” below) “Advice to Writers: Ignore all advice because you’ve got to imagine here’s your book and that book is going to be competing with several … Read more

The Journal: Back to The Othgygnrkthers

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Back to The Othgygnrkthers * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Quotes of the Day “The world is visibly changing, and we have no idea what the outcome will be.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch “So release yourself from Outcome. Be unattached to Outcome, take a calming breath and just continue on.” My corollary Topic: Back to The Othgygnrkthers This will be another process topic, complete with a little waffling, so skip it if you want. Yesterday I said I was trashing the book. This morning, I thought Not … Read more

The Journal: Yes, It’s April Fool’s Day (Yawn)

In today’s Journal * Topic: Sigh… Despite the Date * Yesterday * Today * Of Interest * The Numbers Topic: Sigh… Despite the Date This is not an April Fool’s Day joke or hoax: As you know, this whole Journal thing is my way of “writing in public”: my progress and my process, right out where everyone can see it. I share my daily writing progress to illustrate how rapidly the numbers can grow. To that end, I encourage others to set daily, weekly, monthly and annual writing goals and then strive to reach them. Even if you fail, you … Read more