Day Zero, Day One

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Day Zero
* Day One
* Not a Daily Report
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity.” Amelia Earhart

Thanks to Sam T for the quote of the day.

Day Zero

On July 31, after morning chores and breakfast, I got out to the Hovel before 7:30. That boded well for my practice day. I wasn’t rushed at all.

I didn’t do any writing, but I read over the current novel to find where it went bad. As part of the mess I was in, I let finishing the novel become important. I needed to finish it so I could get back to writing.

That caused me to force part of the story, which of course took me off the course of the authentic story. It spoiled everything after that and the story ground to a cold, dry halt. As I’ve said many times, what matters is THAT a writer writes, not WHAT s/he writes.

Honestly, with what I was going through, I didn’t care that I couldn’t write. I had to wait until I was ready.

So I’ll re-read the last few chapters of the previous novel to get the situation back in my head. Then I’ll probably toss out 6000 to 8000 words of the current novel. Then when the characters are ready, we’ll dive back in and I’ll finish the novel.

Day One

In the meantime, I have other stories to finish. That’s what I’ll work on today. We also have a scheduled trip to Sierra Vista later this morning, so when l woke early I took the opportunity to get out to the Hovel by 2:15. I’d forgotten how beautiful the predawn morning sky is out here.

I admit I thought yesterday about pushing my start date by one more day, but that’s silly. Making excuses only makes it easier to make excuses. If you want something badly enough, you stop putting it off and find a way to just do it.

I wrote this little intro to get today’s Journal entry going. It’s almost 3, so I’m going to read my recent story starts, pick one that appeals to me, and finish it.

I looked around a bit in my files and found two other novel starts I’d forgotten about—both crime-thrillers, one of them in an established series—in additon to the new Stern Talbot mystery I started awhile back. But I didn’t work on any novels today.

I did finish two short stories: “Pretend Writer” by me and “Marvin McTavish Decides” by my persona Eric Stringer.

At a little over 2500 words I fell a little short on word count, but I halfway expected I would. It will be hard to get there at least consistently while I’m feeling my way around and getting used to spending time in the chair again, so not a big deal.

Not a Daily Report

Don’t worry. I won’t turn the Journal into a day by day report of my comeback. Besides, that will be covered in the numbers below.

But I think I might hold off on posting the Journal until later in the day, as I did with today’s edition. I hope it isn’t too inconvenient for you, if at all.

The result will be that you’ll receive the Journal a few hours later than you’re used to, but the numbers section will be current instead of being a day behind. And of course, once I report a story finished, it will drop off the numbers report the following day.

I’ve noticed too that very few of you are clicking links that I include in “Of Interest.” I’ll keep it going for now for the few who seem to enjoy it. Even if I eventually get rid of it I would still insert links occasionally to items and articles that complement the current issue of the Journal.

Correction

For anyone who follows the numbers, yesterday somehow I reported my total fiction for teh year at 143100 words. That was not correct. I probably glanced at the wrong column. The correct number is shown below.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Why We Built an Artistic Cooperative” at https://pulppipepoetry.substack.com/p/why-we-built-an-artistic-cooperative.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 710

Writing of “Pretend Writer”

Day 1…… 2322 words. Total words to date…… 2322
Day 2…… 0540 words. Total words to date…… 2862 done

Writing of “Marvin McTavish Decides”

Day 1…… 0326 words. Total words to date…… 0326
Day 2…… 0346 words. Total words to date…… 0672
Day 3…… 1997 words. Total words to date…… 2669 done

Writing of “A Midnight Sketch”

Day 1…… 1341 words. Total words to date…… 1341

Writing of “Untitled Stern Talbot Mystery”

Day 1…… 190 words. Total words to date…… 190

Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)

Day 1…… 4283 words. Total words to date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. Total words to date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. Total words to date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. Total words to date……12154

Total fiction words for August……… 2537
Total fiction words for 2023………… 117084
Total nonfiction words for August… 710
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 150610
Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 267694

Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 221
Short story collections…………………………………………. 31

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.