In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Write Your Book This Morning!…
* Final Updated List of Books for Sale
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.” Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General
The Bradbury Challenge
As I told one writer this morning, Bradbury’s original advice to writers about writing short fiction was this: “Write a new short story every week for a year. Nobody can write 52 ‘bad’ short stories in a row.”
The whole point of this Challenge is to keep that advice alive. To compel writers to have fun with their fiction and grow their skills as a writer.
There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Feel free to jump in at any time.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Loyd Jenkins “The Broken Turbine Run” 2720 Space Western
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Smooth & Suave” 3002 Speculative
- Christopher Ridge “Whispers in the Closet” ghost/ crime. 2036
- Christopher Ridge “The Knock” horror 2520
- Dave Taylor “The Face in the Window” 3,641 Speculative
Congratulations to these writers.
Write Your Book This Morning! Be Published This Afternoon!
a guest post by Dan Baldwin
Note: This was originally an email to me. Dan and I—we’re two old gringos waiting for a train—enjoy grousing back and forth occasionally. He graciously allowed me to pass this along to you as a guest post. HS
I just lost, I assume, a ghostwriting book to AI. I wrote the guy’s first non-fiction book. He was happy, and even consulted me for marketing advice. It’s logical that I’d be first in line for his second book.
Not so. He discovered AI and has “written” his second book and is apparently giddy about it. I ghost books for his mentor, who has read the little gem and he says it’s total trash: bland, uninteresting, boring, slog-reading.
He’s happy, but I suspect his product and eventually his name and reputation will also be trash. I think sales and reviews will prove me right.
This is the same client who ignored my marketing advice for his first book to avoid like hell the sharks that would soon circle.
He didn’t listen and was, again, giddy at all the promotion he would soon get for his $5000 investment: editing by a pro, copyrighting the work, formatting the manuscript, designing cover, setting up media interviews and coverage, and—pause for effect—writing awards. You see where this is going.
A few months later he called me. “Dan, I got screwed didn’t I?”
Yep, he did. Not one of those paid-for promises were ever kept. Lesson learned?
Nope.
People who want to become a writer by taking the so-called easy way of AI don’t realize the true easy way is to embrace the fun and the joy of writing the damn thing.
As for those who just want their name on a book cover, they need a ghostwriter who personifies the reliability, professionalism and integrity of a proven master of the craft.
Sigh….
Final Updated List of Books for Sale
Apparently there was a glitch in my brain. Now Write! Mysteries is only $7.50, not $22 as I previously reported. No idea where that came from.
Anyway, here’s an updated list of the remaining books:
General Writing Books
- Becoming a Writer—5.00
- The War of Art—6.00
Genre-Specific Craft Books
- Conflict, Action & Suspense—8.00
- Now Write! Mysteries—7.50
- Police Procedure and Investigation—10.00
- Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Sourcebook, 2nd ed.—10.00
- Space Travel: A Writer’s Guide—8.50
- Spycraft Essentials—7.50
- The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells—8.00
- The Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference—9.00
Back tomorrow with a bit on the “artisan author” vs. “rapid release”. And (frown) why can’t you do both?
Of Interest
Kickstarters That I Suggest… New Weekly Feature This is Dean Wesley Smith, not me.
Virtual walks of over 200 major cities Great stuff for a writer.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 660
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360
Fiction for August..………………….. 1110
Fiction for 2025………………………. 527757
Nonfiction for August………………… 12290
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 180690
2025 consumable words…………….. 700833
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
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If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
- On Writing Fiction
- Gifts
- Writing Resources
- Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions on writing and publishing are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.