In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Welcome
* The Current Novel
* How TNDJ Comes Into Being
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Big things happen an’ you deal with ‘em, that’s all. Got no choice. But most often the little things determine which big things happen, or at least which ones get a foothold.” Wes Crowley, in Chapter 19 of The Rise of a Warrior, now streaming on Your Morning Serial.
Welcome
I haven’t said this for a while, so welcome to all the new subscribers to TNDJ. I hope it will help in some way with your fiction writing and/or publishing. Feel free to email me at any time with questions on writing or publishing fiction.
The full archives for the past four years are available free in searchable PDF. In that time I’ve probably covered all the craft topics I talk about at least once.
If you’d like to receive those archives, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
There is also a plethora of resources and free gifts at the Journal website.
And if you stop by my author website, you’ll find
- a ton more free writer downloads and
- other free writer resources
Oh, and if you want to check out any of my own novels, collections, or nonfiction books on writing, save yourself a buck or two and visit my online discount store.
The Current Novel
I like being transparent here at TNDJ about my own writing journey. Doing so lets other writers know we all go through the same things.
I usually exceed 3000 words of publishable fiction per day. In that way, I’m used to finishing a short novel of 35,000 to 45,000 words in 10 to 14 calendar days.
But on the current novel, the POV character isn’t as forthcoming as my characters usually are, so this one’s coming along in bits and pieces.
I usually write fiction every day, but if you follow my numbers below, you’ll see that I’ve had only 9 writing days and written only a little over 20,000 words over the past 13 calendar days. I hate when that happens.
Anyway, onward and upward.
When I finish Blackwell Ops 53: Jack Striker | The Next Level, it will release on January 3 and extend my current New Release Every Two Weeks streak to 7 novels in 14 weeks.
That’s a far cry from my previous ‘record’ of 21 novels in 42 straight weeks. We’ll see how long I can keep this one going.
But either way, it’s not something I worry about or fret over.
After all, I’m just having fun doing what I love to do. I practice more and learn more every time I put new words on the page. And it’s great fun racing through a story with my characters as it unfolds around us.
That’s only possible because I believe in myself, trust my characters, and write into the dark. Try it, folks. It works, and there’s no better, more freeing way to write fiction.
I know what some of you are thinking. For the record, I’m not able to write into the dark because I’ve written so much. The truth is, I’ve written so much because I write into the dark.
Of course, much depends on your personal time constraints, but you can do the same thing or better.
To learn how, email me for my free archives, then search those for ‘writing into the dark’ or ‘cycling’ or any craft topic like ‘character’ (or POV character) and ‘setting’ and ‘scene’ and ‘description’ etc.
Now, for any curious types out there…
How TNDJ Comes Into Being
I often write TNDJ the day before it goes live. I write it on a Notepad text (.txt) document. The text document is kind of a boilerplate, with the recurring items on it permanently.
First I write whatever topic(s) I’m going to write about. That often comes from topics you ask about in emails and comments. There are no stupid questions.
I often forget to talk about something because I’ve been doing this so long and so fervently. So if you have questions or comments, email me so we can spread the wealth of knowledge I’ve gleaned over a 9 year period during which I put over 6,000,000 words of fiction on the page.
The morning that issue of TNDJ will go live, I read over it again in the text document to be sure it says what I want it to say.
Then I pop online, read a few newsletters, and check a few websites for items to include in Of Interest. I add those and the links.
Then I post everything to the Journal website as a new post. There I read it over again, setting the headings and other formatting as I go. I also check the word count from whatever’s in Of Interest up through In Today’s Journal. (In other words, all the new stuff.)
I open my Annual Production spreadsheet, add whatever fiction I wrote the day before and the word count from the current issue of TNDJ, then add the updated numbers to the text document.
Then I copy/paste what’s in the text document into the new post on the Journal website, then copy/paste the whole completed post into Word and run a spell check.
After that’s done, I open the TNDJ Substack, and copy/paste everything into it.
There I read over everything a final time, adjust formatting as necessary for the different venue, be sure the various links are ‘live,’ then click Send to Everyone. A moment later it pops into your email inbox.
I also post the link to X and Facebook, then go back to the Journal website and finally click Publish there.
That’s for every issue of TNDJ that goes out.
When I’ve written something the day before for the next issue of TNDJ, the process of going live takes from 1 to 2 hours.
Rarely, I write the current issue of TNDJ on the morning it goes live. When I do that, posting it takes from 2 to 3 hours.
That’s why, every now and then, I ask for free subscribers to upgrade to a paid subscription. (grin) You know, if you’re getting something good from it. Of course, you’re free to continue as a free subscriber too. Mostly I just want to get the knowledge out there.
That said, beginning on January 1, 2026, free subscribers will continue to receive only the Monday issue each week plus occasional other posts.
If you’re uncertain of your status (free, paid, or comped)—or if you don’t receive an issue of TNDJ on 1 January and believe you should have—please email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
You may subscribe in either of two ways:
- Click the Upgrade to Paid button at the bottom of this email and select either the $6 monthly contribution or the $65 annual contribution (current subscribers are grandfathered in at your current rate), OR
- Set up a recurring $6 monthly donation or a $65 annual donation via PayPal. (My email is harveystanbrough@gmail.com.)
- If you pay via Substack, you’ll be added to the Paid Subscribers list automatically.
- If you pay through PayPal, I will mark your subscription status in Substack as Comped (same as a paid subscriber).
Thanks for your support, and I’ll talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
This Is Next-Level Stuff A once-restricted post I decided to take wide.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 1210
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 1210
Writing of Blackwell Ops 53: Jack Striker | The Next Level
Day 1…… 2035 words. To date………… 2035
Day 2…… 2217 words. To date………… 4252
Day 3…… 3751 words. To date………… 8003
Day 4…… 2218 words. To date………… 10221
Day 5…… 2181 words. To date………… 12402
Day 6…… 1673 words. To date………… 14075
Day 7…… 1972 words. To date………… 16047
Day 8…… 2081 words. To date………… 18128
Day 9…… 2694 words. To date………… 20822
Fiction for December……………………… 20822
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 775469
Nonfiction for December.………………… 18030
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 283160
2025 consumable words………………… 1051060
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 18
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 122
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29