Writers Helping Writers

The Journal: How to Ground the Reader

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Topic: How to Ground the Reader * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[Patterson’s] a-ha moment in terms of efficiency, he explains, came while writing 1993’s Along Came a Spider: Rather than fill out the story he’d outlined, he decided the outline was the novel.” Mark Athitakis reviewing Patterson’s memoir James Patterson by James Patterson “Character voice bubbles up organically when every aspect of the story is seen through a character’s-eye view….” Lisa Poisso Topic: How to Ground the Reader I’ve said many times before that grounding the reader in the … Read more

The Journal: Nothing Much

In today’s Journal * Nothing much * Of Interest * The Numbers Nothing much to talk about today. I’m still here (waving) and hope to be back to “normal” soon. In the meantime, I wanted you to have the “Of Interest” items below in case you missed them. During this break, if you have any questions about writing or storytelling that you think I can help with, don’t hesitate to ask. Talk with you again when I can. Of Interest See “What Is Writer’s Burnout?” at https://writershelpingwriters.net/2020/08/what-is-writers-burnout/. Thanks to the Passive Guy. See “Scary Scam” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/scary-scam/. See “The Writer’s … Read more

The Daily Journal, Wednesday, February 20

In today’s Journal My apology for the very long Journal today. But it’s all good stuff. ▪ Update on the challenge ▪ Topic: Writers Need Adventure — Don’t They? ▪ Two folks chimed in ▪ Daily diary (yeah, it’s back) ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers With novel 3 of the challenge in the bank, I’ll probably begin novel 4 today. No idea at the moment what it will be. Maybe back to one of my series, maybe a standalone. I guess we’ll see. It won’t be another Blackwell Ops book, though, unless another truly unique character pops into my … Read more