In today’s Journal
* Welcome
* Addendum to the Past Two Posts
* A Christmas Gift for You
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Welcome
Welcome to “muktarmomoh” and any other new subscribers or readers of the Journal. I hope you will find it useful.
Get the Archives and other free downloads at the Journal website. Just click the links and a PDF will download in a new page.
If you download the Journal Archives, I suggest downloading and reading the most recent one first. Then, if you want to see how I personally progressed as a fiction writer, you can go back and download the others. It has been an interesting journey.
When I compile the archive for 2023 in early January, I will add it to the Archives page. I will also announce it and make it available in a post in the Journal.
I also recommend reading the posts “I Believe in You” and “Fear”. Can’t hurt, and it might help.
Oh, and check out this half-hour video where bestselling author Vin Zandri and I are chatting about writing on The Writer’s Life
Addendum to the Past Two Posts
I had one other qualifier to add to the two previous posts on letting chapters be what they are and trusting the creative subconscious. You might well write differently than I do, and that’s fine.
In each of the previous two posts, I was talking about what works for me with chapters in my novels.
In my books, each chapter is a major scene and/or a collection of related smaller scenes (sections within the chapter).
Most often a scene is contained within a chapter. Typically (but not always), if a scene runs longer than around 1200 words, the chapter most often also contains one or more of those smaller, related scenes in sections.
If a scene runs longer than 2000 words (and of course, I don’t know until I write it), I will most often scroll back to see whether there’s a natural breaking point. If I find one, I break the scene in two and make the second half a new chapter. Especially if there are no sections within the long chapter.
The chapter or scene break serves three purposes.
Primarily, from a stricly structural standpoint, it is to separate what has come before with what is coming next. It also gives the reader a place to “rest,” a little white space before s/he delves into the story again.
But it also provides the writer with a natural place to add information, such as the POV character name (if the POV switches to a different character), to indicate a date stamp or other passage-of-time information, or the new “topic” of the chapter or section.
Of course, you don’t “have” to have any of the above. I’ve written novels before that have no chapter headers. Only a centered asterisk (or something) to indicate subliminally to the reader a change of scene.
Write how you write. I submit the above discussion, as with those in the previous two posts, only for your consideration.
A Christmas Gift for You
Awhile back, I removed the audio lectures I created from the menu at HarveyStanbrough.com. Now I have decided to offer them to any readers of the Journal free of charge as an early or belated Christmas gift.
So any time from now through December 31, 2023, visit the Audio Lecture Series. Scroll down to read the topics and descriptions and make your selection(s).
Then email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com with your request(s) and I will send them to you. The audio files will arrive as attachments in MP3 format. You may save them to your computer and listen to them as many times as you like. For longer courses, it might take two or three emails.
After January 1, as I have time, I will update or delete the courses and then add whatever’s left to the Writer Resources page on HarveyStanbrough.com.
Of Interest
8 Easy Ways To Use Book Mockups To Market Your Books
Five Top Tips To Smash Your Writing Goals in 2024
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 670
Writing of Tarea-Garcia 1
Day 1…… 4968 words. To date…… 4968
Day 2…… 3677 words. To date…… 8645
Day 3…… 3307 words. To date…… 11952
Day 4…… 4467 words. To date…… 16419
Day 5…… 4193 words. To date…… 20612
Day 6…… 2061 words. To date…… 22673
Day 7…… 3250 words. To date…… 25923
Fiction for December…………………… 76053
Fiction for 2023…………………………. 476887
Fiction since August 1………………… 361263
Nonfiction for December……………… 15490
Nonfiction for the year……………… 271070
Annual consumable words………… 744450
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 10
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 8
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 81
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 236
Short story collections…………………… 31
Note: If you find this Journal of value and want to make a one time or recurring donation, please do not pledge through Substack. I don’t use Stripe. Instead click this link. If you can’t donate, please consider sharing this post with friends.
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.