The Journal, Sunday, 6/4

Hey Folks, Topic: Grounding the Reader Mistakenly thinking I was asking for story ideas (a mistake I invoked by saying a few days ago I was “gathering ideas”), a friend sent me this: “Ralph pulled hard on the paddles fighting the current to pass through the water funneling between boulders. A bullet plowed into the rock directly in front of him as the blast of a high-powered rifle reached him.” When I explained I wasn’t really … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 6/3

Hey Folks, The challenge is going great so far. With only two days in, I’ve already touched the two extremes. First there was a story of around 3,000 words that flowed out as if anxious to get on the page. It was also a possible novel start. Then a story of over 5,000 words that happened only after a false start on another story (almost 1000 words that I didn’t count). So two days in, one … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 6/2

Hey Folks, Wow. It’s really odd how, with this challenge, I go from chock full of self-confidence to being a scared little rabbit-like creature. (grin) That made me think I should use the Journal for this month to record a series of topics on this experience. If you read them, no matter how accomplished you are, chances are you’ll learn something that will help in your own writing. So here goes… Topic: Day Two of the … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 6/1

Hey Folks, Journal entries might be sparse here during this month. I kicked off the challenge this morning at around 5 a.m. by posting the first scene of the first story. Woohoo! You can see it (and others by the time you get this) at https://www.facebook.com/HarveyStanbroughWritingInPublic/. You can also see the whole story in the right sequence by clicking http://harveystanbrough.com/the-june-challenge/. In the “Writing Of” section below, short stories for June will be numbered for now (unless … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 5/31

Hey Folks, Yay, the last day of May! Okay, but more than likely today will be a nonwriting day. I’m going to treat it like that from the beginning. In fact, today for me is Idea Day. I’m gathering ideas for the stories I’ll start writing tomorrow for my June Challenge. For details, see https://www.facebook.com/HarveyStanbroughWritingInPublic/. Mona and I have to be in Tucson at 8 a.m. for her first appointment, and then she has another one … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 5/21

Hey Folks, Well, I decided early this isn’t going to be a writing day today either. I have to get my office situation settled out. Worked on that the better part of the day and think it’s finally there. Tomorrow I’ll dive back into the novel. It’s been going great. No problems at all, and my favorite dictum, “just write the next sentence,” is easy on this one. So I’ll probably blow through a bunch of … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, 5/18

Hey Folks, Huh. Not sure why MailChimp didn’t send last night’s post. Still, any hard-core followers went to the main site to check it out. The post was there. I put it up at around 5:15. And it was tagged appropriately (Daily Journal category) so MailChimp should have sent it out at 7. Here’s hoping it’ll go out today. I’m posting this at 4:41. There was no topic in yesterday’s post. The only matter of any … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 5/9

Hey Folks, Today should be the last day of settling into my office. I think the more difficult task will be getting used to writing in here. I almost look forward to winter, short as it is, so I can move my writing back to the Hovel. I put a lot of stuff through my writing ‘puter out there. Speaking of the writing ‘puter, it’s back. (grin) I had nothing to lose so I plugged in … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, 5/3

Hey Folks, Topic: More on the Challenge I’ve decided to label these “challenge” posts with the “topic” tag. These entries aren’t really topics, but I figure some folks might get some insight from these ramblings. One requirement of the challenge is to write a new story every day for a month (old hat — Dean’s done it twice now). But to fulfill both requirements of my challenge, I also have to post each new scene/page as … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, 4/22

Hey Folks, I spent much of the early morning watching and listening to DWS’ “Lester Dent Master Plot Formula.” Wow. It was as informative as I hoped (and more so) and chock full of gems. I hope you’ll take this opportunity to get it through the StoryBundle offer I mentioned yesterday. If you didn’t, and in case you’re interested, here’s the link again: https://storybundle.com/writing. Again, you get nine books on the craft or business of writing … Read more