Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Quotes of the Week

The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. 
—Lorraine Hansberry

This is the extraordinary thing about creativity: If just you keep your mind resting against the subject in a friendly but persistent way, sooner or later you will get a reward from your unconscious.
—John Cleese

The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.
—Sylvia Plath

Maybe the hardest thing in writing is simply to tell the truth about things as we see them.
—John Steinbeck

I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied ... 
—Ernest Hemingway

There is only one way to work—Like Hell.
—Bette Davis

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.
—George RR Martin

Don't be a writer; be writing. 
—William Faulkner

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
—Anton Chekhov 



Thursday, January 21, 2021

Images that Inspire

 


--It occurs to me that the way some of these inspiration images get into my writing is a mystery when I post these...

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Quotes of the Week


The terrible thing about being a writer is that you don’t decide to become one, you discover that you are one.
—James Baldwin

Go a little out of your depth, and when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.
—David Bowie

I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed.
—William Shakespeare

I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.  
—Anne Frank

Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up in your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter, and lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.
—Jack London

If an adverb became a character in one of my books, I'd have it shot. Immediately.
—Elmore Leonard

Writing is a delicious agony.
—Gwendolyn Brooks



Saturday, January 16, 2021

THPP: Writing a Series (26mins)

 

The Hourlings Podcast Project, Episode 13, is all about writing a series of books. It's very popular to do series in both Scifi and Fantasy. 

This Ep's contributors: 

Jeffrey C. Jacobs - https://www.timehorse.com/ 



Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Quotes of the Week

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.
—Ernest Hemingway

If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. A great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last.
—John Steinbeck

We all have time machines, don't we, those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward are dreams.
—H.G. Wells

You must write. It’s not enough to start by thinking. You become a writer by writing. 
—R.K. Narayan

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Quotes of the Week

I don’t sit there waiting for that perfect, beautiful sentence, because I know I’m going to sit there forever. So, as I tell students—start out by tripping, why don’t you? Then get up and fall over again. Just as long as you go.
—Kathryn Harrison

No one cares if you write, so you’d better. NO ONE in your family wants you to write a memoir, but do it anyway. You own EVERYTHING that happened to you. Bird by Bird. Shitty first drafts. Butt in chair.
—Anne Lamott

You can’t be an artist and be safe.
—Francis Ford Cpppola

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
—Stephen King

The best fame is a writer’s fame: It’s enough to get a table at a restaurant, but not enough that you get interrupted when you eat.
—Fran Lebowitz

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
—John Steinbeck

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.
—William Faulkner

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.
—Richard Bach

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Tuesday Tips: Words vs Pages

I have chatted with multiple new authors this week. On multiple occasions, they asked about the number of pages in a book?

Page count is a fuzzy number. It depends on lots of variables like font type and size, margins, line spacing. Therefore, don't bother using a page count. Word count is King!

MS Word keeps a constant word count in the bottom left side info bar. Every word processor keeps a word counter.

--Always use word count when talking about your book size!



Monday, January 4, 2021

The New Podcast!

Since COVID began, the people in my writer's group get together a lot to talk about Science Fiction and Fantasy writing and publishing via Zoom. We were recording these sessions so we could go back and take notes easier so we could be more present in the meetings.

Several of us also participated in virtual conferences that included panel discussions on various topics.

The idea formed and we gave it a try.


--I didn't realize how much fun it would be!



Saturday, January 2, 2021

The Hourlings Podcast Project - E11 - Goals for 2021

Happy New Year!

 

The Hourlings Podcast Project, Episode 11, Happy New Year!  We got together on January 1, 2021, and talked about our goals for 2021. Some writing goals, some personal goals, and some Fun.

This Ep's contributors:

Friday, January 1, 2021