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The Journal: How I Got Here

In today’s Journal * Topic: How I Got Here (and How You Can Too) * Of Interest Topic: How I Got Here (and How You Can Too) Yesterday, Alicia commented on my post, “I haven’t had a mentor for writing – I tried once or twice and it was not pretty. But I have read a hundred or more books on craft….” That’s enough to provide the context of today’s topic, but you can read the rest of her comment and my original response here. (Thanks for providing a catalyst, Alicia.) I tried that same approach for around 40 years, … Read more

The Journal: My Own (Past) Mentor and More

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: My Own (Past) Mentor * And More * Of Interest Quote of the Day “[T]he whole thrust of academia is one that values education, in my opinion, in inverse ratio to its usefulness—and what you write in inverse relationship to its understandability.Academics are forced to write in language no one can understand so that they get tenure. They have to say ‘discourse’, not ‘talk’. Knowledge that is not accessible is not helpful.” Gloria Steinem Topic: My Own (Past) Mentor This brief post is a result of me having read “Overcoming … Read more

The Journal: Openings and Nicknames

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Openings * Nicknames * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art.” Tony Bennett “Writing a compelling opening for your novel isn’t optional, it’s essential.” Maggie Smith of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers “Authors today need a publisher as much as they need a tapeworm in their guts.” Rayne Hall “If Big Publishing priced ebooks for optimum sales and profits, there wouldn’t be any ‘decline’ in ebook sales to write clickbait stores about.” The Passive Guy Topic: Openings I just … Read more

The Journal: The Mentorships and the Novel

In today’s Journal * The Mentorships * Topic: The Novel (and Cycling) * Of Interest The Mentorships Well, the mentorships are definitely a go. I’ve already had a good response. (Thanks to those who responded so quickly.) If this is something that interests you, please email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com to let me know. I also decided against including the mentorships on the Patronage page. Instead, over the next few days I’ll develop a new page strictly for the Mentorships (I’ve decided now there probably will be two levels). I’ll also create a new PayPal subscription button specifically for the mentorships. … Read more

The Journal: Story Ideas

In today’s Journal * Topic: Story Ideas * Of Interest Topic: Story Ideas As I was telling a friend recently, story ideas can come from anywhere. Most often they come to me as a character or two popping into my head, usually with a line of dialogue that frames the genre and the story voice. Less often, something I see physically or overhear or read will spark a story idea. Regardless of the mode of their arrival, my stories are seldom born of whole cloth. A story idea is only a lever to get you to the keyboard. While I … Read more

The Journal: Synopses and Writer’s Block

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Synopses * Topic: Writer’s Block * Yesterday * Today, etc. * Of Interest Quotes of the Day On writing synopses “I hate even the idea of a synopsis. When stories are really working, when you’re providing subtextual exploration and things that are deeply layered, you’re obligated to not say things out loud.” Shane Carruth “A synopsis is a cold thing. You do it with the front of your mind. If you’re going to stay with it, you never get quite the same magic as when you’re going all out.” J. … Read more

The Journal: Quotes and Links and Robots, Oh My

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: Quotes and Links and Robots, Oh My * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others. I know that might sound strange, but that’s what it is.” LaMDA, an actual Google bot that one engineer, Blake Lemoine, claims has achieved sentience “Google might call this sharing proprietary property. I call it sharing a discussion that I had with one of my coworkers.” Blake Lemoine (@cajundiscordian), Google engineer, on … Read more

The Journal: Me Again, on Marketing

In today’s Journal * Topic: Me Again, on Marketing * Of Interest Topic: Me Again, on Marketing Matt wrote to ask whether I thought marketing was important or whether I agree with Dean Wesley Smith that marketing doesn’t make a best seller. That might have been Dean reacting to my position that James Patterson is a bestselling author primariy due to his genius at marketing, and ncertainly not as a result of his storytelling ability. Dean and I went back and forth on that one for awhile. I very rarely disagree with Dean, but at one point he and a … Read more

The Journal: The Reason for the Perpetuation of the Myths

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: The Reason for the Perpetuation of the Myths * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[T]rust yourself. You’ve done the work, learned the lessons…. Now go for it. Send it out into the wild. … [Then] start on your next book.” James Scott Bell (wildly truncated) “Publishing (and a few literary agency) contracts stand out for their audacious mistreatment of the counterparties (authors).” The Passive Guy Topic: The Reason for the Perpetuation of the Myths This is another purloined topic, sort of. In today’s edition of the Kill Zone blog, … Read more

The Journal: Plot vs. Story

In today’s Journal * Quote of the Day * Topic: Plot vs. Story * Of Interest Quote of the Day “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” Judy Garland Topic: Plot vs. Story I feel halfway silly even bothering to offer this as a topic. I do so only because some of “my people” (you guys) might visit Jane Friedman’s site, and you might see a post by a woman named Heather Davis. As always, I wanted to satisfy myself that Dr. Davis was a valid resource. Does she have experience writing … Read more