In Today’s Journal
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Two Fiction Collections: 793,300 Words
* A Few Personal Epiphanies
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Balázs Jámbor “The bookstore at the gate of hell” 2400 fantasy
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “The Princess is a Dragon” 2964 Fantasy
- Christopher Ridge “What’s for Dinner?” Horror 2350
- Christopher Ridge “Attack of the Giant Baby” Horror/Sci-Fi 1852
- Harvey Stanbrough “The Anatomy of a Hit” 3323 Action-Adventure/Thriller
- Dave Taylor “The Wedding Day” 2,482 horror
Congratulations to all of these writers!
Two Fiction Collections: 793,300 Words
Okay, to see all five of my fiction omnibus collections at my discount store click that link.
Here are the two new ones:
- The Wes Crowley Original Story (6 novels) came in at 266435 words.
- The Journey Home Saga (10 novels) came in at 526865 words.
I couldn’t believe I’d written all of that, and of course that’s only a fraction of the total fiction. Mind boggling. It really does seem like I started only yesterday.
All thanks to Heinlein’s Rules and writing into the dark.
And that doesn’t include all the nonfiction books and blog posts. Sheesh, no wonder I’m tired. (grin)
A Few Personal Epiphanies
gleaned from the last three days in the trenches doing mostly boring, mind-numbing stuff:
1. When the chapters of my books are not titled, it’s better to dispense with chapter heads. What purpose does a chapter serve if it’s only Chapter #?
2. I probably won’t write anymore nonfiction books. A blog post is fresh and new. Compiling a series of them into a book is boring and time-consuming. Even the next-level stuff.
If you see something you like in TNDJ going forward, I recommend you copy/paste/print it and put it into a binder or something for your own use.
3. I definitely will not put together anymore nonfiction omnibus collections. I already know all of that stuff (it’s part of “my” story) so I was pretty much bored out of my mind.
4. I will probably put together more omnibus collections of my novels. I’d be a fool not to. Also, putting those together is never boring.
The novels are my characters’ stories, so they’re endlessly entertaining. Seeing snippets and recalling situations here and there is like visiting with old friends.
5. My manuscript formatting (and the templates I’ve developed and used) has evolved dramatically over the years.
I’m glad the templates are pretty much set in concrete now. That will make putting together any further fiction omnibus collections a copy and paste exercise.
These are not actual .dot templates. They’re preformatted Word documents. When I want to write a new story or novel, I open one, click Save As, and start typing.
If you’d like to see them, you only have to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com, then adapt the ‘template’ to your stories or novels. Again, it might cut your learning curve. If not, I strongly suggest you create your own.
6. Nothing is more fun than writing the next story. Even after only a few days, I miss it like air. I will get back to writing fiction today.
- Anyone who thinks writing fiction is hard work is doing it wrong, and
- anyone who thinks anything else is more fun than writing fiction probably shouldn’t bother ‘trying’ to be a fiction writer.
If you have to ‘try’ to write fiction, seriously, I suggest you go find something fun to do instead. Life is short, and once you’re only bones bleaching under the desert sun, there are no more chances.
7. Other than writing fiction, I’m not very good at what I do. If my job was leading horses to water, I’d soon get fired for all the dead horses lying around the stock tank.
Of course, I do take a little pleasure in watching the few who drank over the years out there winning races.
Of Interest
Coaching… Getting Your Stuff Out… This Is Major. Maybe the best thing Dean has offered in the past ten years. If I was a younger man, I’d sell a child to get in on this, especially numbers 2, 3 and 5. But it’s up to you.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 710
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for February………………….. 37682
Fiction for 2025………………………. 159047
Nonfiction for February………………. 13010
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 44990
2025 consumable words…………….. 197517
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2899
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3612
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 7
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 277
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: 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.