In today’s Journal
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* This Writer Got It
* On Mentorship “Requirements”
* The Numbers
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
To take part, the only requirement is to write at least one short story per week.
Then, if you want to share your success, submit the story title, word count, and genre to me each week for publication in the Journal on Monday.
The whole point is to have fun and grow as a writer. You can join or rejoin the challenge at any time.
There’s no cost. You can even do it on your own, without reporting numbers to me or anyone else.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Bloodshed and Moonshine” 3129 Urban Fantasy
- Adam Kozak “Self-Made Man” 3760 Humor
- Christopher Ridge “A Horsemen’s tale” 2400 Memoir
- Dave Taylor “The Fishing Trip” 3122 SF
- Alexander Nakul “Dasha and rain” 1526 Erotic
Longer Works
- Alexander Nakul “Look, how the roads darken” 6154 (10795 words total) Thriller, Noir
This Writer Got It
A writer in the upcoming 2500 words per day challenge emailed to say,
“I like the word count challenge idea better than the story a week. If a story I start wants to be a short story then that is fine, and if it decides it wants to be longer that’s fine too. Either way the fiction word count will be there.” (emphasis added)
As I responded to him,
Exactly. That’s exactly why I’ve always used a daily word count goal. I don’t really care where the words go (short story, novella, or novel). If I set a goal to write 3,000 words per day, the stories and novels will come.
And if I happen to fall short one day, that’s fine too. The daily goal resets to zero every morning, so every morning begins a new potential 3000-word day.
On Mentorship “Requirements”
Another writer emailed me to bemoan the demise of the mentorships. Sorry about that.
Knowing me, I’ll probably offer mentorships again in the future. But one thing the writer said struck a nerve:
“[O]bviously, my ‘passion’ isn’t writing. Or at least it’s not enough
for me to be able to drop the ball on the rest of life, or to write
after hours/before hours at this time. So I wouldn’t be able to fulfill your requirements….”
To be honest, I think my response to that writer via email was inadequate. So just to clarify, when you’re doing a mentorship with me, the whole purpose is to fulfill Your requirements, not mine.
And I certainly never said anywhere at any time that you should “drop the ball” on the rest of life or that you have to write at any particular time of day. Or even every day.
I’m only trying to help, so I’m flexible. In a mentorship
- We will work on whatever craft or non-craft topic(s) you want to work on.
- You will write according to your schedule, when you can make time to write.
- You will even pay me whatever you feel you are able to afford comfortably.
The writer might have confused mentorships with doing an apprenticeship with me. In a full-on apprenticeship, my job is to teach the writer everything I know, and in so doing, push you up through the stages.
But for mentorships, my only “requirement” is that you write fiction. And even in that, I’m only mimicking Heinlein’s Rule 1 for those who want to be fiction writers: You must write.
Then you send me what you’ve written so I can teach you what you want to know while using your writing as the example.
Otherwise I don’t levy any “requirements” until the mentorship begins, and those are based on the time you have available to write and what you want to learn.
For just one example, one current mentorship student is trying to relearn how to write into the dark (overcome the critical mind), how to manage his time and regain his writing discipline, and how to increase his daily word count. He emails me with his new writing every day.
Others might have fewer days per week when they have even one hour per day available for writing. The “requirement” I would levy on them would be different.
Everything depends on you. Please bear that in mind if and when I offer mentorships again.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 720
Writing of Blackwell Ops 27: Sam Gentry
Day 1…… 3004 words. To date…… 3004
Day 2…… 2111 words. To date…… 5115
Day 3…… 1726 words. To date…… 6841
Day 4…… 2092 words. To date…… 8933
Day 5…… 1306 words. To date…… 10239
Day 6…… 2523 words. To date…… 12762
Day 7…… 3018 words. To date…… 15780
Day 8…… 1443 words. To date…… 17223
Day 9…… 3024 words. To date…… 20247
Day 10…. 2275 words. To date…… 22522
Day 11…. 1566 words. To date…… 24088
Day 12…. 2009 words. To date…… 26097
Day 13…. 2813 words. To date…… 28910
Fiction for August…………………….….… 28910
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 526220
Fiction since October 1………………… 760960
Nonfiction for August……………………… 16210
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 263220
2024 consumable words………………… 721123
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 11
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 93
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 241
Short story collections…………………… 29
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 are lies, and they will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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