In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* A New Story
* Another Great Comment
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“First sentences are doors to worlds.” Ursula Le Guin
“I would like to invite in a new New Year practice for my writing, and for yours: Let’s make the month of January our time to actively reflect on our writing goals and intentions.” Julie Christine Johnson in “Writing with Inentionality”
Or, I dunno, how about you just write?
“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” Stephen King
A New Story
“Maldito & Tomás,” the fifth story in an interconnected series of ten magic realism stories, went live yesterday on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. If you enjoy magic realism or Mexico, you probably don’t want to miss this series of stories.
To subscribe, click the link above and then the Subscribe button at the end of the story. You’ll receive a new short story every Friday, and it’s free.
Below the Subscribe button, there are other short stories you can read in most genres. Enjoy!
Another Great Comment
On yesterday’s post, Tiffanie G posted a really good comment.
It and my response might help with your writing. To read both, Click Here.
When I wrote “oversimplifes,” of course that was a typo. I meant for the last S to be a D. I hope you read past things like that.
The Writing
Another short day. I had a lot of cycling to do and fell short on the word count. Once this LONG scene is finished (6 chapters so far), I suspect the novel will fly.
Back at it tomorrow.
I’ll talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Writing and self-publishing your books in 2024 – what to expect this year
Writing with Intentionality Notice the title. Then look at the quote of teh day. To “actively reflect on goals and intentions” is not writing. It is time you could be writing.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 390
Writing of Blackwell Ops 19: Soleada Garcia: Trying Times
Day 1…… 4398 words. To date…… 4398
Day 2…… 4889 words. To date…… 9287
Day 3…… 3412 words. To date…… 12699
Day 4…… 3384 words. To date…… 16083
Fiction for January……………………. 96294
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 96294
Fiction since October 1…………… 399349
Nonfiction for January……………… 26270
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 26270
2024 consumable words…………… 118790
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 2
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 84
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 239
Short story collections…………………… 31
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.
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“Writing With Intentionality” sounds like wasting time on trying to decide to do something one has already decided to do and calls to my mind the words of Jedi Master Yoda: “‘Try’? No. Do. Or do not. There is no ‘try.”’
Yep, to me too. But what do I know? 🙂
I wish to have as a motto for writing an old saying about Alexandre Dumas père: Does Dumas make you think? Not very often. Dream? Never. Go on turning the pages? ALWAYS!
I’m not sure, does dream in original text mean sleeping or just dreaming while reading, when description of feelings of characters dream reader away from story. French “Rêver” can mean both.
I really don’t know who did say it – I’ve found this quote in Russian translation of Titans: A Three-Generation Biography of the Dumas by André Maurois. English version of it was released by Harper, 1957 (translated by Gerard Hopkins).
Original of it in French is: Dumas fait-il penser ? Rarement. Rêver ? Jamais. Tourner les pages ? Toujours. It’s attributed to André Maurois, but in his original book it’s quoted (without mention of source)
Thanks, Rikki.