In today’s Journal
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* The Livestream on YouTube
* Another Reason for Cycling
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
To take part, 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.
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.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:
Short Fiction
- Balázs Jámbor “Shadow Man” 3500 Superhero crime fantasy
- George Kordonis “The Magic Eraser” 2877 Urban Fantasy/Horror
- Adam Kozak “The Other Side” 2800 Science Fiction
- Christopher Ridge “House” 2300 horror
The Livestream on YouTube
See the live stream here.
It was fun. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.
My apologies to you who commented and I didn’t respond. I don’t have the hang of keeping an eye on the live comments yet (like you didn’t know that).
George K, No sir, no definite “best” writing time. Toward the end of my day (so from about 1 or 2 a.m. to 4 p.m.) I tend to write more, but that’s because I know the end of the day is approaching. So I shove aside email, etc. and Just Write.
Buck, I hope you enjoy Nemerov. The other guy I mentioned is Anthony Hecht. I also really like Wilfred Owen (WWI poet), famous for “Dulce et Decorum Est” IMHO one of the greatest poems ever written. And that’s from a retired Marine.
Peter, writer’s (critique) groups suck. And I actually used to “moderate” one. It was like trying to herd p’d off cats.
My email addy is harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Another Reason for Cycling
There are only two internal voices you’ll hear while you’re writing. One negative and one positive.
The negative one is always the critical voice.
Sometimes, if you go back over your work consciously, as in “editing,” you’ll make a change you feel is necessary—only to feel a little sick twinge in your gut as you make the change.
When you feel that twinge, that’s the other voice. It’s the creative subconscious telling you the change was a mistake. It’s your characters telling you to trust them, to leave off the editing, and just let the story unfold with what they give you.
That’s sound advice.
I’ve known that for years, and I experienced it often in my earliest days of writing novels. Fortunately, specifically because I was experiencing it more often, I was on guard for it, so I most often nipped it in the bud and got back on the right track.
In my current novel, way back when I first started writing it (16000 words ago) I realized I hadn’t “dated” the characters or action in the Blackwell Ops seriens. That is, the stories might’ve taken place a year or two ago, or today, or a year or ten or fifteen or twenty in the future.
Which was cool. That lack of any specific dating would give me licence to write the current novel—the origin story of TJ Blackwell himself—with all the modern tech and conveniences: cell phones, laptops, VaporStream, etc.
Who knows? In the other books in the series, TJ is a small, twisted, cranky old man. But if the other books in the series take place in the 2050s or ’60s or 70s, who’s to say when he was born?
And of course, writing the book with all the modern tech would be much easier than writing it set in the “old days.” Right? Right?
Yeah, right. Only nope. It’s wrong. It isn’t TJ’s authentic story. And I knew it right from the start, but I didn’t act on it.
So yesterday it all caught up with me. I finally tired of that little sick feeling pinging away at my gut. So day before yesterday I went all the way back to the Prologue and started cycling through the whole story.
Listening to TJ. Making it real. Making it authentic, like I preach so often you should do from the beginning.
Like I most often do from the beginning. Like I said, I started the day before yesterday with the prologue, and I finished yesterday partway through Chapter 11. And now the story reads true. And again, who knew? The thing is so much more interesting now it isn’t even up for debate.
It’s green grass instead of Astroturf. It’s paper instead of plastic. It’s real instead of fake.
For a few days there, I got lazy and forgot my place as a writer. I forgot my role is only to convey what was given to me. Now I’m back on track. Now TJ and I, as two twisted, cranky old men, can be friends again.
Again, there was no editing. Just cycling and listening to the character as he conveyed the story—HIS story—through my fingertips.
I expect the rest of the novel to fly. But for awhile, I’ll regret that I cost TJ and myself what amounts to a full day of writing.
Oh, one other note—I fully expected this long cycling session would cost me a lot of words. After all, I had a LOT of stuff to cut and throw away.
But when I finished the cycling session and the smoke cleared enough so I could see the screen of my laptop again, I’d actually increased the word count by 1462 words. Is that amazing, or what? I was really (and pleasantly) surprised. I only wrote a little more than that on the day, but I’ll take it.
Regarding the YouTube thing—Yesterday was fun, so I’m open to possibilities.
If any of you have something you’d rather watch live (or later) and listen to me blather-on about, feel free to leave a comment or drop me an email and I’ll consider it.
But for the most part, I say pretty much everything I want to say here on the Journal, and you have the added bonus of not having to look at my mug while you try to decipher what I’m talking about.
Of Interest
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 1040
Writing of TJ Blackwell: The Origin Story
Day 1…… 6139 words. To date…… 6139
Day 2…… 1781 words. To date…… 7920
Day 3…… 2692 words. To date…… 10612
Day 4…… 3383 words. To date…… 13995
Day 5…… 2575 words. To date…… 16570
Day 6…… 1563 words. To date…… 18133
Fiction for March…………………….…. 50899
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 215491
Fiction since October 1………………… 518547
Nonfiction for March…………………… 24640
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 123830
2024 consumable words……………… 339321
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 5
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 87
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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