In Today’s Journal
* Welcome
* A Few Giveaways Are Ongoing
* Help Others Find You
* One More Personal Goal
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Welcome
Welcome to all new TNDJ subscribers!
Whether you found TNDJ via Substack or Facebook or Twitter or my buddy Vin Zandri or Dean Wesley Smith or wherever else, welcome.
In TNDJ my goal is to pass along all I’ve learned as a prolific professional fiction writer. By prolific, I mean I’ve written and published over 100 novels, 10 novellas, 270 short stories, 16 or 18 nonfiction books, and thousands of blog posts over a period of 9 years.
I’m very transparent, sharing lows as well as highs. I report my numbers daily in The Numbers below. Thus far, January has been a stellar month.
Here are a few tips for you:
Please be sure to check out the Disclaimer at the end of this post. I hope you’ll find it encouraging.
Also, although you’re probably reading this in your email inbox or on Substack, I hope you’ll take some time soon to visit the Journal website.
- The Gifts tab—All sorts of free books and articles there, and you’re more than welcome to download any or all of those.
- The On Writing Fiction tab—Even if you’re already an established fiction writer, you might find a gem or two in these essays. Feel free to copy/paste anything you’d like to save for your personal use.
- The Writing Books tab—This will take you to my publisher website, but the books at the bottom of the page are all free. The ones at the top of the page are for sale, but they’re unlike 99% of the books out there.
TNDJ and all of my websites are myth-free zones.
A Few Giveaways Are Ongoing
Just as a reminder or in case you haven’t read TNDJ for a while, a few giveaways are ongoing here at the Journal. To get any or all of these, all you have to do is email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Creating Realistic Characters
This is a nonfiction book I wrote several years ago, but it holds up. It’s for conscious-mind learning, not for creative subconscious application. Read it, browse the accomanying documents, and let it sink in.
I’m considering revising CRC, but that might or might not come to fruition. If I do revise it, I’ll probably only combine the three elements below. You can get them now. Email me and I’ll send you, free, three PDF documents:
- Creating Realistic Characters
- A Comprehensive List of Character Traits
- A Brief Essay on Cliché Traits, Character Arcs, and Rooting Interest Techniques
The Full Archives of the 2024 TNDJ
In 2024 I covered some great writing topics in TNDJ. But I was unable to load the 2024 archives to the Journal website. Email me and I’ll send you, free, the TNDJ archives for 2024.
The Archives for 2019 through 2023 are still available for download on the site. For 2014 through 2018, you’ll have to email me.
An Example Annual Production Spreadsheet
My Example Annual Production Spreadsheet contains formulas to track your ongoing cumulative word count per writing project for the month and year as well as your daily, monthly, annual, and project fiction totals. Email me and I’ll send you, free,
- The example spreadsheet (just fill in the blanks) and, in the body of my email response,
- Detailed instructions for use of the spreadsheet.
I probably won’t mention these offers again, so if you want any or all of them, let me know via email.
Help Others Find You
Re tasks for 2025, if you haven’t yet created a signature for your outgoing emails, do that too for 2025. Every active fiction writer should have a signature block on every email s/he sends out.
The biggest argument I get to this notion is “But I don’t have a website!”
Okay. But do you have a Facebook, or Twitter or Instagram (or other) social media account? Link to it in your signature.
Do you have an Amazon or D2D author page (if you don’t, get busy and set one up) or a Substack? Link to it in your signature.
Do you have an online store such as Payhip (my personal fave) or that glitzy other one people are always talking about? Link to it in your signature.
Don’t leave anything to chance. Help others find you and your work.
The second biggest argument I get to this notion is “But I don’t regularly email readers.”
Maybe not. But maybe you regularly email people who know you and are proud of you and maybe someone who IS a reader will ask that person where they can find your work.
If you’d like an example of an effective email signature block, email me. Even if you don’t ask a question or leave a comment, I’ll reply and you’ll see the signature block that goes out on every email I send.
Of course, your email signature block will also contain ready links that you can easily copy and paste into the body of specific emails as necessary. Trust me, that comes in handy.
One More Personal Goal
In the wake of yesterday’s post on goals, I’ve also created one more goal for myself.
On those rare days when I don’t write a post for TNDJ, I feel a little like a slacker. For that reason, I mentioned in passing in an earlier post that I intend to post to TNDJ every day, and no filler.
So now I’ve added another goal and shifted my schedule a little.
From now on, after I’ve read and responded to any emails, checked for items for the Of Interest section, and published the current issue of TNDJ, I intend to write the next day’s issue for TNDJ before I start writing fiction through the day.
Of course, during breaks I’ll check and respond to newer emails, check and read possible items for Of Interest, let my wife know I’m still alive, etc. (grin)
So stay tuned. And please tell others about TNDJ or use the Share button at the end of this post. 2025 should be an interesting ride.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Michael W. Lucas DWS mention that Michael does some good work on his blog and site, so I thought you might wanna check it out. He’s even endorsed by Kris Rusch.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1050
Writing of Blackwell Ops 34: Solomon Payne
Day 1…… 2005 words. To date…… 2005
Day 2…… 2992 words. To date…… 4997
Day 3…… 3998 words. To date…… 8995
Day 4…… 4591 words. To date…… 13586
Day 5…… 4503 words. To date…… 18089
Day 6…… 4499 words. To date…… 22588
Day 7…… 2391 words. To date…… 24979
Day 8…… 2704 words. To date…… 27683
Day 9…… 4462 words. To date…… 32145
Fiction for January…………………… 40803
Fiction for 2025………………………. 40803
Nonfiction for January……………….. 10300
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 10300
2025 consumable words…………….. 51103
Average Fiction WPD (January)……. 4534
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 0
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………. 104
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 271
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: 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.