In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* On yesterday’s post
* Dean Wesley Smith
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“Luck is when an opportunity comes along and you’re prepared for it.” Denzel Washington
“”If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.” Logan Pearsall Smith
“There is one thing that matters—to set a chime of words tinkling in the minds of a few fastidious people.” Logan Pearsall Smith
On yesterday’s post “Five Days Left, and Don’t Kill the Scene,” one anonymous commenter left the following, and I thought I’d share it. To make it a little easier to read, I reparagraphed it:
“I like the daily word count goal. Back when I was doing that, I know I wrote more than I did on some of my other challenges.
“When I was doing my daily word count I was doing easily 1000 words a day. Far more produced than when I was trying to do those crazy story challenges.
“This year I’m doing 2000 words a day. That extra 1000 words I can pull out. It will push me a little but it can be done by easily carving out a small space of time in the evening.”
Interesting that, in the first paragraph, Anonymous likened a daily word count goal to a writing challenge. I’d never thought of it that way before, but so it is.
My personal daily goal/challenge is to write 3000 words of publishable fiction per day. That’s only three hours per day or 21 hours per week. Frankly, I feel a little like a slacker, calling myself a professional fiction writer while spending only that much time in the chair practicing my profession.
Anyway, I hope the rest of you will also employ a daily word count goal/challenge for your own writing days as we move ahead into 2023.
Dean Wesley Smith has launched a new website specifically for WMG Workshops. (You can still find them on the WMG page at Teachable too.)
The new site conveniently sorts the workshops into specific categories. You can see those for yourself at https://wmgworkshops.com/. The new Advanced Craft Workshops (see “Of Interest”) are under the Study With Dean tab.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Advanced Craft Workshops” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/advanced-craft-workshops/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 370 words
Writing of WCG 7 Santa Fe 2 (novel tentative title)
Day 10… 2524 words. Total words to date…… 27438
Day 11… 3156 words. Total words to date…… 30594
Day 12… 1065 words. Total words to date…… 31659
Day 13… 2380 words. Total words to date…… 34039
Day 14… 3159 words. Total words to date…… 37198
Day 15… 3072 words. Total words to date…… 40270
Day 16… 2419 words. Total words to date…… 42689
Total fiction words for December……… 59103
Total fiction words for the year………… 274077
Total nonfiction words for December… 23120
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 221200
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 495277
Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 4
Calendar Year 2022 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2022 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 70
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. Because It Makes Sense, I trust my characters to tell the story that they, not I, are living. This greatly increases my productivity and provides the fastest possible ascension along the learning curve of Craft because I get a great deal more practice at actually writing. It will do the same for you if only you trust it.