In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Writing Better Fiction
* The Novel’s Dragging
* In Other News
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“”You take people as far as they will go, not as far as you would like them to go.” Jeannette Rankin
“I ended up selling a story which was written because of this challenge. I encourage anybody that may be thinking about doing this but may be afraid for various reasons to do themselves a favor and do it. Ray Bradbury is right. It is impossible to write 52 bad stories in a row as long as you keep reading and learning.” Christopher Ridge
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
Rules of the Challenge
The challenge is to write at least one short story per week (or add to your novel), then submit the story title, word count, and genre to me each week for publication in the Journal on Monday.
You can join or rejoin the challenge at any time. There’s no cost. The whole point challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer.
The proper format for Short Fiction is Story Title 1234 Genre
The proper format for Longer Fiction is Story Title 1234 Genre (5678 to date)
If you send you info in the proper format, I can copy/paste. (grin) Make it easy on an old man.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:
Short Fiction
- George Kordonis “Calculating Mr. Right” 4358 Humorous Urban Fantasy
- Adam Kozak “Waiting on Main Street” 1624 Humor
- Alexander Nakul “Russian Dumas” 2318 Historical
- Alexander Nakul “Flash in the night” 11399 Historical Fantasy
- Christopher Ridge “Rats” 3200 horror
- K.C. Riggs “A Bumper Crop” 1473 General Fiction
Longer Fiction
- Erin Donoho *Untitled* 3400 Middle Grade (3400 to date)
Writing Better Fiction
Yeah, I know, I keep talking about this book—
and you really should pre-order a copy from yours truly while the price is only $9 for the ebook or $18 for the paper copy ’cause the regular prices will be considerably higher—
but I’m hoping this will be the last update to the long process of my most recent nonfiction book.
If you remember, first the title was going to be called Writing Character-Driven Fiction.
But to me, that title led subliminal credence to the idea that writing plot-driven fiction is even a thing. And the fact is, it isn’t.
So I changed the title to Writing Fiction.
But that was too bland. As one reviewer said, it wouldn’t separate me from the crowd. First time I’ve had to use three fonts for only the title.
He was right.
So to get the best of both worlds—to NOT mislead people into thinking there is such a thing as plot-driven fiction and to stand out a little—I changed the name again yesterday to Writing Better Fiction.
I figure that’ll do it. And I even got to use a carat on the cover.
On the other hand…
The Novel’s Dragging
If you’ve been watching my numers, the novel’s been dragging almost from the start. I hope it’ll pick up soon.
Part of that’s because my new chair isn’t here yet and I’m making do. Part of it’s because I’ve been busy with other things.
But part of it’s also because sometimes a story drags. Almost like the character doesn’t really want to share as openly as he could.
You all know I typically write very fast and turn out big numbers. So I’m just kind’a letting you see, dragging novels (stories) happen to everyone from time to time.
In Other News
Blackwell Ops 20: Soleada Garcia: Looking to the Future went live today.
See the book page/description. This is the book just before she is “tasked” with finding and terminating Charlie Task, a tall order to say the least.
Soleada has developed confidence in herself, and she is certain about some of the bigger concepts she has considered. But the future has a way of dashing and rebuilding those concepts.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Call for Submissions at LibraryCall (Be sure to read “Copyright” too.) (Thanks to Frank T for this heads-up.)
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week An invaluable resource for writers and readers.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 710
Writing of Blackwell Ops 21: Johnny Mercer
Day 1…… 4190 words. To date…… 4190
Day 2…… 2599 words. To date…… 6789
Day 3…… 3380 words. To date…… 10169
Day 4…… 2812 words. To date…… 12981
Day 5…… 1726 words. To date…… 14707
Fiction for March…………………….…. 7918
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 172510
Fiction since October 1………………… 475565
Nonfiction for March…………………… 3600
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 102790
2024 consumable words……………… 275300
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 4
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 86
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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