In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Holiday Recap
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Holiday Recap
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Independence Day celebration, if you chose to celebrate at all.
We spent much of the day in Sierra Vista, first shopping at our favorite antique mall, then lunch at Culvers right at noon, and then a stroll through the several rows of booths at the annual Sierra Vista celebration at the Veterans’ Park. The whole time, a band played marches and other patriotic songs.
Later, at home in St. David, we watched the national Independence Day celebration from Washington, complete with probably the most incredible fireworks display I’ve ever seen, all with the Washington Monument in the foreground.
Later, I dragged myself into the 21st century (yes, 23 years late) by learning a lot of things about my smart phone. I’m still amazed that little phone has tons more storage and memory than the entire computer system on which NASA relied when they sent the first men to the moon.
But frankly, I’m even more amazed and a bit disheartened that today, even with all the enhanced computing power, they’re almost too timid to do it again. Great achievements, whether national, regional, local or personal, require commitment and a certain amount of daring.
You know, like writing into the dark. Daring to trust in your ability to tell a story without input from a thousand different directions. If you dare nothing you will achieve nothing.
Anyway, you all came this close || to suffering through another amateur YouTube broadcast from me. I was going to live stream directly from my phone, mostly to see whether I could do it.
After all, with my flashing through the learning curve (well, flashing at a snail’s pace) I learned to check and answer emails, and that the phone would much rather I’d use an app than going to a platform via a browser, and so on..
Anyway, you were spared that live stream when, fortunately, YouTube flashed a notice that my channel isn’t yet adequate in some way to enable me to live stream from a mobile device. They assured me I could still do so from my desktop or laptop computer though.
(I guess the ability to move my laptop from one place to another doesn’t make it “mobile” in this new world. Whatever.)
So in a day or two or three, after I’ve checked out my new webcam (currently still in the box), I’ll annoy you with another live stream. Until then, I just wanted to toss out this update.
Talk with you later.
Of Interest
See “I Tried Writing Like…Ray Bradbury (and you should join me)!” at https://youtu.be/Rp2UPQ6ydzk. I didn’t watch all of this. Too bubbly for me, but maybe there’s something in it that will help you. One thing—Bradbury never limited himself to 1000 words per day or even thought of such things. He just wrote.
See “Everything Wrong with the Hero’s Journey” at https://www.literaryrebel.com/everything-wrong-with-the-heros-journey/. Something to ponder, think about, and discuss, but forget while you’re writing. Thanks to Alex T for the tip.
See “The Savage Realm” at https://www.literaryrebel.com/savage-submissions/. If you write sword and sorcery fantasy, this might be a good market for your short fiction. Thanks to Alex T for the tip.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 540
Writing of “A Midnight Sketch”
Day 1…… 1341 words. Total words to date…… 1341
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 July……… 1341
Total fiction words for 2023………… 111363
Total nonfiction words for July… 3340
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 134890
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 246253
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.