A Newsletter Platform, and the State of the Nation for Fiction Writers

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* A Newsletter Platform
* The State of the Nation for Fiction Writers
* Of Interest

Quotes of the Day

“The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up.” Dame Anna Wintour

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” Emily Post

“There is no such thing as a little freedom. Either you are all free, or you are not free.” Walter Cronkite

“Certainly what one is, is of far greater importance than what one appears to be.” Emily Post

A Newsletter Platform

Sorry for my absence yesterday. I’ve been myopic in my search for a new subscriber aggregator. Finally, I believe I’ve found one in a little-known platform called Revue.

The thing is, Revue is owned by Twitter, and the new owner of Twitter is currently making massive cost-saving cuts. Anyway, I’ll post my first “newsletter” from Revue sometime this morning. If it works out, and if it looks like it’s going to hang around, I might import all of you guys into a separate newsletter at the same place and use it to send each new issue of the Journal to your inbox. So we’ll see.

If Revue goes away, I’ll try to move back to Substack and start fresh over there. The only other similar platform (for Just A Newsletter, Not Marketing) I’ve been able to find is Bulletin (owned by Facebook), and to use that I’d have to establish a new Facebook account. And I have just enough free-spirited child in me that Idon’wanna. (grin)

In the meantime, thank you for being here. I’ll launch something from Revue today. Once I know that’s successful, I should finally get back to the novel and back to regular Journal posts.

The State of the Nation for Fiction Writers

To paraphrase Walter Cronkite—a trusted and trustworthy news anchor from the mid-20th century up through early 1981—there is no such thing as a little freedom of speech. You either have it or your don’t.

Writers of SF or fantasy dystopia should rejoice. You can now write your stories at least in part about, from, and because of contemporary America. You can write snapshots. You can pull topics straight from the headlines and sound bites. And in so doing, especially if you are not politically biased, you can write things that will absolutely horrify your readers.

We live in a nation in which freedom of speech (or freedom of “expression”) is no longer a given. Those who would suppress the opinions of others and even facts they find unfavorable no longer even attempt to keep up the façade that freedom of speech is a thing in this nation. Ironically enough, neither do we live in a nation in which one can warn others of that limitation without real risk.

Understand, I’m not making any value judgments here, and I’m not taking a political stance. That’s not my job in this forum, and the Constitution is written in plain English. I’m also not saying anyone is right or wrong in their beliefs or lack thereof. I’m only reporting an observation to fiction writer friends and acquaintances because I found it uniquely bone-chilling. And that’s the way it is.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “An Interesting Opinion” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/an-interesting-opinion/.

See “Perfecting Pre-Orders on Amazon for Maximum Impact” at https://www.amarketingexpert.com/2022/11/03/perfecting-pre-orders-on-amazon-for-maximum-impact/.

See “Priestess, Poet, Politician” at https://www.archaeology.org/issues/488-2211/features/10886-akkadians-enheduanna-poet-politician. The world’s first-known author.

See “Wild Horse Photographer Braves Snake Bites for Breathtaking Images” at https://petapixel.com/2022/11/02/wild-horse-photographer-braves-snake-bites-for-breathtaking-images.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 580 words

Writing of The Stirchians (novel, tentative title)

Day 10… 1330 words. Total words to date…… 28459
Day 11… 2337 words. Total words to date…… 30836
Day 12… 2115 words. Total words to date…… 32951
Day 13… 2242 words. Total words to date…… 35193

Total fiction words for November……… 2242
Total fiction words for the year………… 163767
Total nonfiction words for November… 2450
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 178080
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 341847

Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2022 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2022 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 68
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this Journal I promote Writing Into the Dark, a Zen-like letting go and trusting yourself and your characters. I have never said that WITD is the “only” way to write, but it greatly increases both your productivity and the amount of practice you get as a writer, and it provides a rapid ascension along the learning curve of Craft. This is not opinion. It is all numbers and facts.