Different Choice, Different Story

by

In Today’s Journal

* Different Choice, Different Story
* Why I Recommend Establishing…
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Different Choice, Different Story

I’ve mentioned before something we all know of ourselves: every choice we make leads to a different future. It leads to our personal story unfolding in a different way.

It’s the same with your characters. Every choice your POV character and other characters (your creative subconscious) make leads to their story unfolding in a different way.

To see a real-life example, click “As of today, we are no longer enemies” (video). It’s an amazing story.

As you watch and listen, bear in mind, had Rich not fired, the other might have and the story would have taken a turn into any of several different futures. You never know.

As a conscious-mind exercise, write down as many of those story turns (futures) as you can, all based on that one key encounter.

If you want a creative-subconscious writing exercise, write the emotion you see on the faces (all of them) in the video. Each is potentially another story (or two, or three).

Every story and every major event in every story (along with how the characters react) potentially contains dozens or hundreds of other stories.

Why I Recommend Establishing…

At the moment, I’m experiencing a writing slump due to a life roll. In general terms, the life roll comprises concern for a close personal friend, my own physical and mental ailments, and a poor decision or two all in the same short time frame. For me creatively, it was the perfect storm.

The potential for life rolls

is why I recommend establishing a rhythm in writing and publishing.

I wasn’t thinking about life rolls when I set out to release a new novel every two weeks. But check it out: Because I established that rhythm,

  • my personal streak of releasing a new novel every two weeks (I started on Oct 19, 2024) now stands at 21 novels released in 42 weeks, and
  • my previous novel, Blackwell Ops 26, will release wide on July 19, which means
  • that every-two-week release schedule gave me a built-in buffer to absorb life rolls.
  • As long as I write, finish, and publish my next novel on or before August 2, I’m golden.

The potential for life rolls is also why

I recommend writing as much as you can in every session on every day that you can write:

  • I’m only barely still on pace to reach my annual fiction goal of 1,000,000 words of new fiction this calendar year.
  • At 520,807 words through June, I’m on pace for 1,041,614 words on the year.
  • If I’d stopped “early” on any given day, that number would be lower.

So I’m just sayin’, do what you can do in every moment, hour, and day that you have available.

In case I’m not back

with a new issue of TNDJ tomorrow, a new short story will post this morning at 10 a.m. (Arizona time) over at Stanbrough Writes. It’s free. Go check it out.

Of Interest

From Author to eCommerce Brand More than you might expect

Every Part of a Book, Explained (With 15+ Examples)

Larry Kelter is in the House! (with Vin Zandri)

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 500

Writing of

Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXX

Fiction for July..………………………. 2590
Fiction for 2025………………………. 523397
Nonfiction for July…………………….. 8730
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 160360
2025 consumable words…………….. 676143

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29

Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.

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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.