Hey Folks,
Happy Hallowe’en.
I’d planned to return to my WIP novel today, but didn’t. Other things took priority, but it was still a good day. No more pushing it. I’ll write when it’s time.
In the meantime, a brand new bundle launched today. The Trouble Comes Calling bundle contains my mystery novel, The Platinum Blond Perturbance. You can see the ad for the bundle at the top of the left sidebar on my website. The photo will take you to the bundle page.
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“I’m not really that knowledgeable about police work. The real story is in the psychology of the characters.” ~ James Lee Burke
Worked on my website a little more this morning. I’m always trying to tweak it closer to being a writer’s website. I think it’s pretty much there. Take a look and let me know what you think.
The changes today were pretty big, so I thought I’d outline them for you here.
The main blog is still there, of course, but under the Home tab. As a related aside, I’ve thought about publishing a post occasionally on a Friday about my characters or my WIP or whatever. Then again, this Journal kind of covers the bases for that.
I got rid-of or reconfigured pretty much every tab. The new tabs for the long fiction are The Wes Crowley Saga with a drop-down menu, then Mystery/Action/SF with a drop-down menu.
It was kind of neat, grouping the non-Wes Crowley books. I found out I have 8 mystery novels, 6 Action-Adventure novels or novellas, and 7 Science Fantasy novels. Weird. I don’t remember having written that much. (grin)
After that is the Short Fiction tab with a drop-down menu. Then come the Writing Books, then For Writers with a drop-down menu, then my bio and personas.
Under the For Writers tab are Copyediting, Audio Lectures, Writer Resources, and Free Stuff.
Like I said, the change (or rearrangement) was pretty extensive.
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I’ve come to understand that I’m motivated by the novels of Stephen King and James Lee Burke. I mention those two specifically because I know they write in much the same way I do. They just write off into the dark.
When asked by an interviewer, “How do you approach writing a new novel?” James Lee Burke replied, “I never know where a book is going. I have no plan. They just evolve and I incrementally discover the story.”
And King has said publicly he tries to make a habit of turning out four good pages per day (about 2,000 words). When he writes, he does nothing else.
So why am I motivated specifically by these two? Because even as I’m lost in the story, on some subsurface level I’m aware that they’re allowing the characters to shine through. They’re putting their fingers on the keyboard and trusting what comes. And what comes is amazing.
Soon, fingers crossed, I’ll get back to doing the same thing. But for today, no fiction writing. I’m going to read.
Back tomorrow.
Of Interest
If you read “A Story About Piracy” via The Passive Voice, you will be glad you did. See it at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2017/10/a-story-about-piracy/.
For an interview with James Lee Burke, see http://www.januarymagazine.com/profiles/jlburke.html.
To get JA Konrath’s The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing in PDF, visit http://harveystanbrough.com/downloads/ and click The Newbie’s Guide To Publishing.
Via The Digital Reader, see “Create an Ebook Cover with Spark and Canva: Which is Better?” at https://publishdrive.com/ebook-cover-with-spark. I mention this one mostly for the links in the article. Well worth the time to read and play.
Check out Dean’s “Catching Up And Pulphouse Fun” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/catching-up-and-pulphouse-fun/.
Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 610 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 610
Writing of Pulp Novel 5 (a Stern Richards novel)
Day 1…… 1080 words. Total words to date…… 1080
Day 2…… 2167 words. Total words to date…… 3247
Day 3…… 1370 words. Total words to date…… 4617
Day 4…… 1840 words. Total words to date…… 6457
Day 5…… 1193 words. Total words to date…… 7650
Day 6…… 1407 words. Total words to date…… 9057
Day 7…… 1180 words. Total words to date…… 10237
Day 8…… 2834 words. Total words to date…… 13071
Total fiction words for the month……… 15296
Total fiction words for the year………… 449442
Total nonfiction words for the month… 15380
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 168063
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 617505
The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 702 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novels to Date………………………… 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 27
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182
Dearest of Writers – Harvey. Thanks so much for the quotes today. Especially the James Lee Burke two. I never know….etc…definitely testimony to the efficacy of writing into the dark. And the “I’m not that knowledgeable…” quote…well fits me like a glove. My favorite Harvey quote has something t do with “if it ain’t character driven then what’s the point.” Okay so I improvised that one but you do stress the need for work of any value to be character driven. (My characters agree they should have center stage) I have also put to use your most helpful advice about staying in one POV at a time and not ‘head hopping’ and it’s working and it keeps me away from the omnipotent author where I don’t want to go. (I hope I write better fiction than this last paragraph was written) At any rate, Harv, thanks always. Even when you think you aren’t working, you are doing your guru stuff and are most appreciated.
Thanks Bonnie. Yep, always character-driven. If the reader doesn’t care abou the character, there will be no stakes, nothing to lose or gain, and so there won’t be a reason to care about the events of the story.