In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* I Keep Forgetting
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.” Golda Meir
“Prompt engineering is the imminent future. Do you have it in your arsenal of skills?” from an advertisement for classes on Skillshare—This would be an excellent line of dialogue in an SF story.
“Peggy Dean’s ChatGPT for Creatives is a great start for anyone who wishes to learn how to integrate this AI tool seamlessly in their workflow and increase productivity.” from the same ad.
Listen, Fiction Writers, if you want to increase productivity,
1. spend more time in the chair (actually ‘be’ a writer),
2. write what happens and the characters’ reactions to that as you and they race through the story together, and
3. trust that.
I Keep Forgetting
The world has gone crazy, and I keep forgetting that.
We’re living in a different age now, one in which the participation trophy trumps accomplishment and the “process” of a beginning writer is just as valid as that of a veteran who has written dozens of novels and hundreds of short stories.
Whatever works for you, right? In this new participation-trophy world, the person who chooses not to learn or practice the craft is just as much a writer as the person who does choose to learn and practice the craft. Hey, whatever works—even if it doesn’t. If what you’re doing doesn’t work, don’t change what you’re doing: change the definition of “works”.
Because really, whether your process actually works or not is “totes” beside the point. All that matters is that people respect you for, um, er, what you can’t do and aren’t interested enough to learn because however you choose to do it is fine.
God I hate this world.
The other day I left a comment on a post over on Jane Friedman’s site. Here’s the comment I posted:
“One word: spreadsheet. Every evening I post fiction and nonfiction (blog or nonfiction book) numbers on my spreadsheet. Amazing how quickly even smaller numbers add up. It enables me to check progress toward my goals at any given time. I also write an almost daily blog for writers (https://hestanbrough.com) where I hold myself publicly accountable as I teach other writers what they can accomplish, reporting my fiction and nonfiction numbers each day. And I’m no beginner. I’ve written over 70 novels, 9 novellas, and around 220 short stories.”
Yesterday morning I was alerted by TalkWalker to a response. Because I respect others’ time I popped over there to read the comment.
Jessica A Conoley (I looked her up. She’s the author of ONE fantasy novel and a bunch of books on how to write fiction) was very nice in her response and, I’m sure, exactly on script:
“Thanks for sharing what works for you, Harvey. It’s always good to give other writers ideas on how they may want to experiment with celebration.”
Celebration? I said nothing about celebration. I celebrate beginnings, not endings.
Sigh. They have ears, or appendages that look remarkably like ears. I can see them, right there, glued on the sides of their head. But they don’t listen. And again, we’re in an age now where hard-earned expertise means nothing. Why bother searching for a mentor when one person’s “process” is just as valid as any other?
I’m not sure, even, why anyone would ever want to read this Journal.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Finding The Beginning” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/04/finding-the-beginning.html.
See “What Hemingway Means in the 21st Century” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/what-hemingway-means-in-the-21st-century/. Easy to take shots at a man who can no longer defend himself, but Ernest Hemingway was a better writer on his worst day than the author of this bit of hackneyed prose will ever be. I wonder, will anyone be writing an article titled “What David Barnes means in the 22nd century”?
See “The first transformable nano-scale electronic devices are finally here” at https://interestingengineering.com/science/transformable-nano-scale-electronic-devices.
See “An Air National Guardsman was arrested after allegedly applying to be a hitman online” at https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170603863/guardsman-hitman-tennessee. Hmm. Isn’t this a little “Minority Report”ish? Arresting a person for a crime s/he hasn’t yet committed?
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 700
Writing of “The Gate” (short story)
Day 1…… 2074 words. Total words to date…… 2074
Day 2…… 0374 words. Total words to date…… 2448
Writing of Wes Crowley: Deputy US Marshal 2 (WCG9SF4)
Day 1…… 3231 words. Total words to date…… 3231
Day 2…… 2990 words. Total words to date…… 6221
Day 3…… 1805 words. Total words to date…… 8026
Day 4…… 2025 words. Total words to date…… 10051
Day 5…… 1451 words. Total words to date…… 11502
Day 6…… 1886 words. Total words to date…… 13388
Day 7…… 2002 words. Total words to date…… 15390
Day 8…… 1060 words. Total words to date…… 16450
Day 9…… 1903 words. Total words to date…… 18353
Day 10… 1143 words. Total words to date…… 19496
Day 11… 0323 words. Total words to date…… 19819
Day 12… 2445 words. Total words to date…… 22264
Day 13… 3184 words. Total words to date…… 25448
Total fiction words for April……… 15089
Total fiction words for 2023………… 81277
Total nonfiction words for April… 14390
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 76650
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 157927
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 72
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. But hey, whatever “works” for you.