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Newsfeed Trigger Warnings Writing Topics Please include a trigger warning when posting about certain highly sensitive writing subjects. Importance of Grammar, Plotting or Pantsing, Traditional-Self Publishing,Using AI writing. Warning: This newsfeed post may cause stress, anger, and wild rants from crazed writers. |
History and Landmarks Landmarks can have a deep emotional impact on people and mean different things to different people. Here is a new short story about a small town where tensions are growing over a local landmark. Give it a read and let me know what you think.
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Cover Reveal Smoking Pen Press has a new anthology nearly ready to launch, A Twist on Time. Here is an early reveal of the fantastic cover for you special people on WDC. Yes, a bit of self promotion it contains Time Lapse by Damon Nomad. A sci-fi serial killer story with a twist. |
A Dispute at Quill Pub It’s late, not, too long till closing time. The bartender has been listening to Plotter and Pantser argue about how to write a story for hours. The bartender has finally had enough and he interrupts. Bartender interrupts, “You two be quiet for a moment.” He points at Pantser. “You said you have two published novels. Are you saying they don’t have interesting and complex plots?” Pantser answers, “Well of course. They wouldn’t be good stories, if they didn’t.” Bartender responds, “Well, why didn’t you start with a good plot outline in the beginning?” Plotter laughs, “Exactly.” Bartender points at Plotter, “You ever have to alter that plot outline because of the interesting character behaviors that emerge as you write?” Plotter mumbles, “Well, sure.” Bartender taps a fist on the table. “You two are arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It’s closing time.” |
I'm a pantser all the way... I scribble weird notes of frustration and bewilderment (also known as worldbuilding) as I write each story  |
| Billy Wilder once said that in the first act of a story you put your character up in a tree, in the second act you set the tree on fire, and then in the third you get him down. That's my plot outline. For everything I write. Does that make me a plotter? |
Breaking News in the World of Publishing Have you heard! It’s coming. TALES FROM THE CROSSTIMBERS Vol. 3 Summer 2025 Edited and curated by Max Griffin 🏳️🌈   Check it out.
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Pop Into A Notebook I have started dropping into notebooks of writers on my fan list. I am quite surprised by the posts I have missed and it’s given me a chance to drop a note or comment. Give it a try. |
Hanlon’s Razor In one form: “Never attribute to malice that which is easily explained by mistake or stupidity.” What is particularly curious about this philosophical adage is the common attribution to Robert J. Hanlon, who submitted it for a 1980 joke book edited by Arthur Bloch. Mr. Hanlon was a computer programmer who has since passed away. It’s also been attributed to Robert Heinlein, Napoleon Bonaparte, David Hume, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. But it most commonly appears as Hanlon’s Razor, a joke submitted by a computer programmer. It is a sentiment worth remembering, even given the context of the inclusion in a joke book. |
Too Much to Ask? I have a bit of a pet peeve; a minor frustration. Okay, fine. Sometimes it makes me angry. Put yourself in my shoes, maybe you have even been in these shoes. You work on a story for a submission to a publisher, anthology, journal, or -zine. Spend time editing, revising and polishing. Then closely review their submission requirements on format, font, word count, etc. You formulate a cover letter in your email or submission portal and add as the last sentence. Please acknowledge receipt when you have a moment. Some of them have robot responses. Thanks for your submission. No problem. Some of them take a few days and respond. Thanks for your submission. No problem. A few of them never acknowledge receipt. A week later you send a kind request for acknowledgement. and Silence . . . Problem? Is it too much to ask? |
| I think I get around 5% personalised, 80% auto-response, and 15% no response. I will say that adding that line at the bottom can be a red flag to some publishers (from conversations with them), so, in my opinion, I'd not bother. if they respond, great, if not, and you never hear from them, add them do the personal "Avoid" list. Mine is more than 30 publishers long, but I've been at this for a very long time... |
The Fool Reveals Himself I have a pattern that disappointingly repeats. I never see it coming, but I know what underlies it. An arrogance that I deny is there. My most recent experience involved my quiet observation of my silly WDC colleagues chasing the animations for the seven-day streaks for logon, review, blog, forum, and newsfeed. The Story Master was getting them to dance like puppets. Curiosity got to me, so I did the five items the other day, just to see what it took. I found new and interesting corners of WDC that I had not been. I've done it a few more times. I might not chase after the animations, but I realized again, it was me who was the fool. The five-by-seven streak is a creative and fun way to increase participation beyond just the newsfeed. Meanwhile, I await my next encounter with the fool in the mirror. |
WDC Ten Commandments Not exactly, but they could or should be.
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| These are common aspirational standards for collaborative teams in the workplace or classroom. They were abstracted from the research on both what makes such teams effective and what makes them ineffective. The same research generally shows that diverse collaborative teams exhibiting these kinds of interactions perform better than homogeneous teams AND better than any single individual member, no matter how skillful that member might be. While a group on WDC isn't exactly a collaborative team, I think these still are pretty good aspirational goals. |
S 🤦  - I've had the same experience. But WDC proper isn't a collaborative team, it's just a place where it's possible to FORM a collaborative team. I think that's the point here--everyone posting to the Veteran's Forum is part of a team wishing to honor veterans and military service. Given that shared aspirational goal, these seem to be reasonable aspirational standards for interacting with each other. |
Listen to Editors, Reviewers, Beta Readers, and Yourself One thing a writer learns after gaining some experience and as the skin thickens to feedback. Listen to every criticism and suggestion you get and be thankful. All of the big steps I have made in improving my storytelling have come from reviewers, beta readers, and editors. As you get even more experienced you also learn they are not always right. Same as you, they are imperfect. I recently got some feedback for suggested edits. I noticed it was all grammatical and in spoken dialog. Most people don’t speak with proper grammar, and these characters in particular did not. So listen, be thankful, but don’t ignore your own opinion. |
Quickest Rejection in Publishing History Usually within a few days it’s nice to get an acknowledge email for a submission. Assurance that the submission didn’t disappear into the ether of the internet. Yesterday, I got a same day email for a submission, but hours later. Not a robot message. It started with ‘I am impressed’ but then explained why my story wasn’t right for their anthology. Left me wondering what they were impressed about. Barely enough time to enter it into my submission tracking table. |
NanoWriMo No Mo Did you see the announcement that NanoWriMo is shutting down? I never participated, it felt gimmicky to me. Apparently one of the sponsors was predatory and there were other issues causing it to collapse from within. Thoughts and experiences? |
| Nothing stopping anyone from doing NaNo without the website. I've done the challenge three times, with only minimal involvement with their official site (mostly just to paste my work in to verify the word count, which is superfluous since most word processors do that anyway). |
| Yeah. I closed my NaNo WriMo official account before Nano 2024 because of the various issues they had been having. I enjoyed collecting winner shirts (I have 6), but I couldn't be a part of the drama anymore. Besides, it's one less place to update my word count. I always do the Write-a-Thon on WDC, so updating the official NaNo site was just extra work. I never got into the community or did much with it besides update my word count and buy stuff from their store, so it's not a big loss for me. |
Sept 10 2024 I noticed today that according to the WDC visit counter I did not visit WDC on SEP 10 2024. I think that is in error. I parachute in twice a day sometimes more. It’s a habit. Not an addiction mind you, just a rigid habit. I would have remembered. Of course I would have remembered. Anyone remember seeing something of me on the site that day? Surely someone can vouch. It could happen to you next. A false broken streak. Search your archives! Find the evidence to vindicate me. |
Football (Trigger Warning: Sports Taboo and National Pride) Several years ago, a former colleague of mine, British, asked me why American men faired so poorly in ‘football’. By which he was speaking of ‘soccer’. He is a good natured, sensitive and intelligent fellow, but a tad bit sarcastic in this comment. We were living in the Middle East and it was Spring, there was a lot of TV coverage of US College and Professional Basketball Championships. This wasn’t the first time he made the observation and I was prepared with some statistics about ‘football’. First, I explained that for generations, America’s best young male athletes chose basketball, American football, and baseball. Track and field was more popular than ‘soccer’. That is changing in recent years. I asked him, why British men faired so poorly in soccer? He stared at me with a questioning look. Well, only something like 30% of premier league players are from the UK. 1 UK FIFA World Cup Championship in 1966 and last UK Soccer Olympic gold was in 1912. I added with my own sarcastic tone. Sorry for any offense. But Spring is back and basketball championships always bring back this memory. Yeah, I know soccer is the most popular game in the world and is played everywhere. That’s because poor people can’t afford expensive gear. Sorry, again. |
| I find soccer as boring as a lettuce sandwich with the crusts cut off. I had this argument with someone here because of my own sports of choice. He claimed that soccer was the best sport because it was the most popular. And, yes, it is the most played sport in the world because all you literally need is something to use as a ball. I countered with popularity does not mean good. He said what else could it mean? At the time, the Twilight books were at their peak, so I said that, in his opinion, Twilight was the greatest book ever written, McDonalds was the greatest food ever made and 'White Christmas' was the greatest song ever recorded, because they were the most popular at the time. He got flustered and said I was comparing apples with oranges; I asked why; he said because sport was different; I asked why; he got more flustered. Now, amongst that group of friends, we call it McSoccer, and he stopped hanging out with us about 15 years ago. As for sports (and sports science was my first degree before I went to physics, where I majored in biomechanics). Most complex - gymnastics. Uses most muscles in the body - gymnastics, swimming, decathlon. Uses most different skills - pentathlon. Ball sport most endurance heavy - Australian Rules football. Greatest distance travelled in a hoop sport over the course of a high level game - centre in netball. Fastest ball travel - jai-alai. And that's just my memory kicking in. Note: no soccer. Sorry... Fooootboool. |
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We toured Monticello a few years ago. A big part of the tour included the slave quarters and a discussion of how the slaves lived. It certainly changed my opinion of Jefferson and his legacy.