In today’s Journal
* Adios, 2023
* They’re Doing It Again
* Audio Lectures Adios
* Reminder
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Adios, 2023
I have most of my “year in review” post written. I had planned to post that today.
But my year, like yours, won’t end until well after this edition of the Journal is published. And I write fiction AFTER I publish the Journal each day.
Duh.
So if I published my year in review today, it would be my year-minus-one-day in review. An’ ‘at just ain’t right.
So you’ll see the year in review post tomorrow morning instead.
Some of you know I was shadowing Kris Rusch’s Sprint to the End challenge (or whatever she called it), so in tomorrow’s post I’ll also break out separately what I wrote over the last 14 days of December.
I’ll be interested to see whether Kris posts her numbers (or Dean posts them for her) publicly or whether that will remain a secret among those who joined the challenge.
As a friend wrote to me yesterday, it’s pretty ballsy to charge people money (usually $300) to write, something we all do for fun anyway. 🙂
And as I wrote in a couple of earlier posts, you can challenge or shadow me anytime with your writing. I won’t charge you money to do it, and I’ll even cheer you on to outdo me.
I have to thank Kris R anyway, because if I hadn’t remembered as I walked to the Hovel this morning that I was shadowing her challenge, I probably would have published the year-end post a day early. (grin)
They’re Doing It Again
See the first item in Of Interest.
This is a really great idea, challenging yourself to write 2024 words per day (on average) for the entire year of 2024. In fact, setting ANY daily word count goal and challenging yourself to reach it every day (or average) is a great idea.
But as I mentioned above, paying someone $600 for the “privilege” of doing something you, as a writer, should be doing anyway? Not so much.
I have to be fair. If you pay the money and “win” the challenge you DO get some nifty prizes for your $600. (Read the post in Of Interest.)
But still. You can learn anything you want to learn about writing free of charge from this Journal, the free archives, and many of my books. In fact remember the audio lecture series offer?
Audio Lectures Adios
If you remember, awhile back I offered all of my audio lectures free to anyone who asked. The value of the whole series is $220. Even if you paid full price, that’s only $5 per lecture. And I’m offering them free. (But then, I’m trying to siphon your bank account. I’m trying to help you with your writing.)
But as of this writing, only 11 writers (out of around 150) wanted them. Frankly, I was astounded, but hey, it’s your call. Anyway, today is the last day of that offer.
Visit HarveyStanbrough.com/lecture-series, read the course descriptions, and email me let me know which lectures you want. No limit. I’ll send them out via several emails in MP3 audio files.
Reminder
You who are still in the Bradbury Challenge, remember to get your story information in to me before midnight Arizona time (2 a.m. on the east coast). Of course, as always, I’ll include any info that’s in my inbox before I publish that edition of the Journal.
Because the year-end post is already over 1100 words, I’ll truncate the Bradbury Challenge post to the bare essentials tomorrow. But of course I’ll list your names and story info.
Also, I’ve heard from a few folks that they want to jump into the Challenge in the first week of January (so the week ending January 8). You will be welcome. Just remember to write your stories and get the info in to me before January 7 at midnight.
It’s going to be a great year for all of us. I can just feel it. (grin)
I’ll talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 660
Writing of Blackwell Ops 17: Julia Stern
Day 1…… 4204 words. To date…… 4204
Day 2…… 4284 words. To date…… 8488
Fiction for January…………………….…
Fiction for December…………………… 116410
Fiction for 2023…………………………. 517244
Fiction since August 1………………… 402020
Nonfiction for December……………… 24550 (done)
Nonfiction for the year……………… 280130 (done)
Annual consumable words………… 793867
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 11
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 10
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 82
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 238
Short story collections…………………… 31
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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.