In Today’s Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Report
* On Writing Challenges, Writing Advice, and Writing Fiction
* Of Interest
My Quote of the Day
“As for writing a new story every day, wonderful. Of course, how often you write and even streaks don’t really matter except as a way to drive you to the writing chair. But they’re invaluable for that. As a bonus, each time you write a new story, you’re increasing your inventory and learning or realizing new things.”
The Bradbury Challenge Report
Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer.
The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Fix It!” 3109 Slasher
- Christopher Ridge “A Clean Safe Work Environment” 1477 horror
- Christopher Ridge “It’s What’s for Dinner” 1423 horror
- Christopher Ridge “Baby Lickin’ Good” 1717 horror
- Dave Taylor “A Reunion of Sorts” 2,207 Science Fiction
- Dave Taylor “A Slight Disagreement” 853 Domestic Drama Flash Fiction
- Glynn Young “Glynn Young, Surgery Day 2708 General
Congratulations to all of these writers.
On Writing Challenges, Writing Advice, and Writing Fiction
a short guest post by Horror Writer Christopher Ridge
A after some thought and because it keeps bothering me, I am upping my personal challenge to a story a day for a year. I feel I am perfectly capable of doing this. I have learned a great deal. Plus writing a story a week is getting boring when I know I am capable of doing much more.
I did however accidentally stumble across an interview by a writer who did this for 90 days and then said the stories weren’t any good.
I thought, According to whom?
I’m pretty sure the old pulp writers never felt that way. If they had they surely would not have been able to write all those stories.
I’ve gotten to the point where those kinds of interviews and comments by other writers really irritate me. I need to move on and not bother reading them. I can’t believe there are still so many writers out there who think everything has to be a struggle and good quality stories should take forever.
Even worse is being accused of using AI to write a story because it was written fast. A story still takes me a couple hours to write. I just make sure I set the time aside to do that instead of doing other things. I don’t think it makes any difference whether you write your story in a couple hours or it takes you a week.
I’ve proven to myself that a story I write in a couple hours, clean it up, and move on is actually better than if I take a week to write it. In fact, I’ve proven that to myself. Every story I’ve sold was the result of me writing the story that day, followed by a quick clean up. Then I submit or publish it and move on.
I look at it this way: I get plenty of practice.
A story a day comes to 365 stories a year. That is 365 opportunities to better myself as a storyteller, make more sales, and publish more stories.
The publishing side of things did kind of slow me down a bit, but I have a cure for that. Dean Smith gave me a good bit of advice: There will be days when I might not be able to write. Life just gets in the way.
But instead of skipping a day and thinking I’ll play catch up, Dean suggested that I write an extra story from time to time when I can. Then I will have some stories in the bank and still stay on target.
Also, this helps me shove the critical mind out of the way because that really will stop me from writing or being able to produce what I’m really capable of.
*
Thanks, Chris!
Of Interest
A Former Publisher Confesses: The Dirty Trick We Used on New Authors (I’ve Never Told Anyone) #7 This should be a must-read for all writers. Thanks to Bob B for the link. I subscribed to get the archives. (If you’d like a free one-month paid subscription to this, let me know and I’ll send you one.)
The Archives to the Above (You might have to subscribe to see this, but it’s free.)
Explore an archive of classic radio horror programs from the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s
How H. P. Lovecraft Shaped the Horror That Still Dominates Pop Culture
Conflict in Fiction Writing, 7 Main Types A good awareness post.
This November, finally write your book Repeat.