The Journal, Monday, 8/10

The Day This post is longer than usual, but you wanna read it, I promise. (grin) Rolled out late this morning at 3:30. Weird. right at 2:30. Things are different when I get up later than usual, especially a whole hour later than usual. Messes up part of the routine. Barely had time to wake up before I had to let the pets out. Then I started getting ready for my walk, so no writing early. … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 8/9

The Day Rolled out right at 2:30. Turned on the coffee water (I use Kava, which is instant but no acid), then went into the office. I opened the writing computer first thing and wrote an opening sentence that was slapping me around as I was waking up. I won’t count those words unless I work on that potential story later today. Then email etc. then to this journal entry. I might take a day off … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 8/8

The Day Rolled out right at 2. Like yesterday, I spent a short time on email and games to wake up. Then I turned to the writing computer and did a very short session of around 400 words to finish the big battle scene from yesterday. This is an extremely emotional scene. Whew. No walk this morning as I wasn’t feeling well. Nothing serious, just blah. Finally decided to hit Walmart early in the day to … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 8/7

The Day Rolled out at 2:40. Not quite as tired this morning. Spent a short while doing emails, etc. to wake up, then turned to the writing computer. Did a short session of around 700 words, then took a walk. Only went just under 4 miles, but it was over rocky, sloping terrain so it was a good workout. Also took time to get a lot of pictures as well as a few videos. Still learning … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 8/6

The Day Rolled out at 2. Not really sure why. Still tired and unmotivated. Anyway, after a few hours of doing basically nothing, I went for a walk. That was good to the tune of just under 6 miles, so at least I got my blood pumping again. Yay. I guess. Got back, made breakfast for myself and ate. Sat here to waste a little more time and then start this journal entry. Now to the … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 8/5

The Day Back on schedule, rolled out about 2:45. Actually, staying on schedule wasn’t difficult. Although every other state in the vicinity (north/south) was intelligent enough to stay on Central Time, Indiana’s legislature voted several years ago to put most of the state on Eastern Time (Doh!). But it worked out well for me personally. I went to bed around 10 p.m. local time (7 my time) and got up around 5 or 6 a.m. local … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 8/4

The Day After roughly 6 months of driving around the country, I’m back. Okay, it was only 11 days, inclusive, but I drove on both the first and last day, so “inclusive” is also true. Ugh. And yes, it seems like every bit of six months. ANYway, I’m back. Cleaning up email, running updates, issuing a refund to a guy who bought my computer and changed his mind, etc. Today, I am happy to report, will … Read more

More Real Dialogue Tips

Hi Folks, In the previous post I mentioned the nuances of the stuff between the quotation marks. Here’s a second installment on dialogue tips. This is all about the nuances. If you have questions about any of these, please ask in the comments section. Thanks! Well-written dialogue should be colorful, especially the dialogue of flat or secondary characters, and even more especially if the flat or secondary character is used to foreshadow a later event. Strive … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 7/27

Hey folks, just a note to update everyone and hope you’re hangin’ in there. Arrived at our destination today. I was thinking (wrongly, not at all unusual for me) that we’d be on the road three days, then here three days, then on the road again three days. Kind of a weird symmetry in that. But no. Actually, not counting today, we’ll be here four full days. The current intention is to head back early on … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 7/24

The Day Rolled out about 3. Checked email and did some other waking-up stuff. Good rain last night so no walk today. Not sure I can even get out of my driveway. (grin) No matter how the writing turns out today, more than likely I’ll be going on hiatus from this blog for a few days. I might post and I might not. I’ll be driving about 11 hours per day, so I don’t need the … Read more