In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Opening Up Copyediting Again, Redux
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Important: If You Want to Donate
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“I can tell you now that Plotting with Depth, Magic Bakery, Teams, Action in Depth, Applied Depth,and Advanced Depth will not be regular classes starting in 2024. We will be starting up new ones as the spring goes along. So grab them on the sale while you can if you want feedback on assignments. If not, they will be classic workshops.” Dean Wesley Smith, from today’s post (See “Of Interest”)
If you don’t need Dean’s often very vague feedback from the classes above, I recommend waiting to take them until after they go to Classis (and half-price). Then you can get them in a sale and pay only $75.
Opening Up Copyediting Again
I’m running this again from yesterday, but with an addition:
A writer asked whether I would accept a short story collection for editing.
Yes, I will. The minimum overall length of the collection would have to be 10,000 words from the beginning of the first story title to the last word of the last story. (I’ll look at any front matter and back matter, but it will not count in the total.)
If I accept the collection for editing, the price will be one cent per word. (So for a 10,000 word collection, $100.)
Be sure to have the stories in the order you prefer in a single .rtf, .doc or .docx document. The document requirement for novels is the same. And please be sure you have run a spell check before you send it.
Another writer asked whether this would dirupt my own writing too much.
Thanks, but no, it won’t. I’ll write my own stuff in the morning, from whenever I file the Journal (usually very early morning now) until noonish.
Then in the afternoon I’ll work on edits if I have any. Otherwise I’ll catch up on other things I have to do, like updating the landing page on StoneThread Publishing or compiling the next day’s Journal or uploading episodes to Vella or whatever else.
Here’s the rest of the updated original post if you haven’t seen it:
I’m probably crazy, but I’ve decided to open my copyediting practice again. But only for readers of the Journal.
I’ll copyedit any completed, spell-checked novel you want to send me for one cent per word. Or I’ll tell you why I won’t.
My lowest usual rate is one and one-half cents per word. With a 90,000-word novel, that’s the difference between $900 and $1350. With a 50,000 word novel, it’s the difference between $500 and $750. Quite a difference. And you get explanations and instruction on the side.
If I accept your novel for copyediting, I’ll even copyedit a couple of pages and send them back to you free so you can see the result before you decide to have me edit the whole novel (or not).
For details on what a copyedit includes, please visit https://harveystanbrough.com/copyediting/. Or go to HarveyStanbrough.com, click the Writer Resources tab, then click the first link on that page.
Any other questions, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
Note to Challenge participants — I’m heading out to the Hovel earlier now, so be sure to get your story informatin to me on Sunday night. It has to be here before the Journal goes out on Monday morning, even if that’s 3 a.m. Arizona time
Anyone can jump in and join the challenge at any time. This is a great way to jumpstart your writing and get more practice pushing down the critical voice.
There’s no cost.
Notice, there’s no pressure re submitting or publishing either. That’s up to you. I just want to help you enable the sheer fun of writing and learning to keep track.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:
Short Fiction
- Erin Donoho “Self-Perception” 4800 YA
- George Kordonis “Consumer Culture” 2347 Urban Fantasy
- Chynna Pace “Endora’s Feast”, 1520 Fantasy
- Christopher Ridge “The Man Next Door” 3500
Horror - K.C. Riggs “The English Ghost” 1763 Paranormal
- Frank Theodat “Electric Love” 980 Corpo Dread Speculative Fiction
Longer Fiction
- Balázs Jámbor Trilogy of the Lora Stories (novel) 4000 (12000 total to date) Fantasy
- Alexander Nakul Horses of Mayhem 14202 Historical fantasy( (23586 total to date)
Important: If You Want to Donate
If you find the Journal of value and want to donate, I very much appreciate it. Donors keep the Journal alive.
But instead of “pledging” through Substack, please visit this link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=X5L5EX52NW2MA.
With that link, you can make a one-time donation or a recurring monthly donation in any amount. Plus you can use your PayPal account or a debit or credit card.
Substack wants me to set up a Stripe account, etc. I found Stripe difficult to navigate. Besides, I already have the PayPal account set up. (grin)
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Flash Drive Curiosity Leads to Identity Theft
Questions About the Workshop Sale
Seven Questions to Test Your Characters Or write into the dark and let your characters do what they do.
How to Write a Compelling Transition Sentence
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 850
Writing of “Finally Home” (a take-off on the song “Seven Spanish Angels”)
Day 1…… 1530 words. To date…… 1530 (done)
Fiction for September…………………… 54180
Fiction for 2023………………………… 206489
Fiction since August 1………………… 111729
Nonfiction for September……………… 19500
Nonfiction for the year……………… 193970
Annual consumable words………… 398079
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 4
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 75
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 232
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.