Dean Wesley Smith

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

Reverse Outlines Revisited

Hey Folks, This first appeared as a topic over at my Daily Journal at http://hestanbrough.com. It also sprang from a comment (a question from another writer) on Dean Wesley Smith’s website. Awhile back I talked about writing a “reverse outline.” The idea is, as you write your novel off into the dark (no pre-plotting, outlining, etc.) sometimes keeping track of characters, what they’re wearing, major situations, etc. becomes cumbersome. Now when I write a novel, I … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, 5/28

Hey Folks, Well, today or tomorrow I should finish my WIP. This will be my 25th novel (plus 3 novellas). My son’s still visiting at least part of today, so that and other things will decide whether I finish today. Reflecting Reflecting back on May, I kind of wish I’d been able to have the writing days (10) all in a row. I could easily have gotten ahead on my goal of writing 15 novels on … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, 5/23

Hey Folks, Happy birthday to my dad. He would have been 89 years old today. He’s been gone just under 30 years, having left far too soon just to show everyone he could. Today my youngest son comes in from Indiana, so I’m not sure what I’ll get done today. Also my wife is home ill today, so. But we’ll see. Today, and Writing Rolled out way late at 4:30 after a “late” night getting to … Read more

The Journal, Monday, 5/22

Hey Folks, During my morning reading, I hit upon an article titled “A Publisher Tries Podcasts As A Gateway To Audiobooks.” I’d be interested in knowing what you think of this. I’ve toyed with the idea of starting a podcast, perhaps as an extension of the June challenge. Maybe in July I’d read the short stories I wrote for the challenge in June. Something like that. So whaddya think? Interesting? Something you’d listen to? Something you … 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, Saturday, 5/20

Hey Folks, Well, I fully intended to write today, and I did, but only a little. I’ll call today a nonwriting day and pick it up again in the morning. Because Bryan might be heading out for Job Corps this week, we decided to take him down to the San Pedro River. We spent a couple of hours down there, and we got a ton of pictures. I posted a lot on Facebook. But when I … Read more

The Journal, Friday, 5/19

Hey Folks, Well, I was relieved when yesterday’s Journal posted to my inbox shortly after 7 p.m. Remember you can always read the current or back issues of the Journal at http://harveystanbrough.com/category/daily-journal/. Really looking forward to today, and the month is finally moving too fast. Hard to believe today is already Friday. I have other life-roll things coming up, but thankfully they’re all in this month (so far, knock on wood). So June’s still a Go … 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, Wednesday, 5/17

Hey Folks, Well, May is more than half-gone. I almost added “already,” but around here that isn’t really the case. The month thus far has seemed to drag by. I was dawdling much of the morning. Still not happy with my office, so I adjusted the furniture again and ended up putting it all back. What I need is a desk that’s around 4 feet wide and around 2 feet deep. (My old one was 5 … Read more