In Today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* My Quote of the Day
* I’m About to Find Out
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“We were slaves prior to the indie revolution, at the mercy of the process. … Now I can write what I want, when I want, and as much as I want.” Vin Zandri
My Quote of the Day
“Is it possible to write an ‘alternate history’ fiction based on another fiction?” HS
I’m About to Find Out
Okay, chronologically, the first thing I did yesterday after I posted that issued of TNDJ was write an opening for a short story for the Bradbury Challenge.
Only the opening didn’t take off, so I dropped it. I did save the really cool ‘opening hook’ sentence though. Like most good hooks it’s also a great story starter. It would serve a variety of stories in any of several genres.
Then I came here to write this for today’s issue of TNDJ. When I’ve finished this (yesterday), I get to start on a project that has me really excited.
Why am I excited?
Because I’m about to find out whether I can write an ‘alternate history’ fiction based on another fiction.
So it’s kind’a like fan fiction, but it’s based on my own work. So unlike fanfic I can make it part of the Blackwell Ops series and sell it right along with the other Blackwell Ops books.
Here’s the thing:
I love learning new things about writing fiction. And the best way to learn is to do it and see what happens. Plus writing this one will be a boatload of fun.
I very much liked the main characters in Blackwell Ops 31: Jack Temple.
To put that into perspective, I liked those characters as much as I liked Wes Crowley and the two main characters in the Soleada Garcia subseries (one of whom is also featured prominently in three novels of his own).
So I’ve decided to take a shot at completely recasting an alternate-history novel titled Blackwell Ops 36: Temple’s Dream.
And yes, BO-33 will sort of break that often-uttered and utterly ridiculous but popular advice doled out by writers’ groups everywhere to ‘never start with a dream.’
Like I said, sort of. Actually it won’t start with a dream. Actually it will start with Jack Temple waking up from a nightmare-turned-dream. And yes, that and the POV character are all I currently know.
A Brief History of Jack Temple and Me
(Yeah, it’s ‘me,’ not ‘I.’) If you aren’t familiar with the history, after BO-31: Jack Temple I took a break from Jack and wrote BO-32: Harry Tidwell. Then in BO-33 Jack and I collaborated on Temple’s Way.
Temple’s Way was the continuation of Jack’s authentic story in just under 37,000 words. The opening worked fine, but I didn’t like it.
I swallowed my pride and followed Jack through the story because it was there. I faithfully recorded the events of the story and his and the other characters’ reactions to those events, but I still didn’t care for it.
The main thing I didn’t like was how the story opened. But of course, everything else in the story hinged on the future laid out by that opening, so why would I like it? And of course, other readers might love it.
But ever since BO-33 wrapped and I held my nose and sent it to my wonderful first reader, I’ve been asking Jack, re the opening of BO-33, “What if that hadn’t happened? What if pretty much anything else had happened instead?”
So me asking that is a little like a fiction writer who wants to write a history of events in the United States based on “What if president Kennedy hadn’t been killed that day on Dealey Plaza in Dallas?” The result of that question would be an alternate history.
So Back to the Story
Anyway, being who he is, Jack didn’t get back to me on my question until early yesterday morning. I was beginning to think the guy was shunning me.
When he finally did get back to me, he seemed a little agitated at my nagging, but he only shrugged. “I dunno, Harv. Why don’t we find the f— out?” (Sorry. That’s how Jack talks when he’s annoyed.)
So because that’s the response I’d hoped for, I took it to mean he was fully on board.
So I came here to my TNDJ boilerplate and wrote this first, and then I opened my novel template, typed the title, then skipped down to the white space below the Chapter 1 heading and started writing.
We’ll see how it goes.
If I’m successful—and I don’t lack in confidence that I will be if Jack is really on board—the end result will be two ‘sequels’ based on BO-31.
If you happen to read BO-31 and then BO-33 and that opening and the ensuing future that unfolds from that opening and it works for you, great. No harm, no foul.
But if you’re like me and it doesn’t work for you or disappoints or even harms you, you can always pick up BO-36 and read what happened if the opening for BO-33 had been different.
I’m even thinking about making a boxed set of BO-31, BO-33, and BO-36 and then giving it away as a prize for some of the contests I’m sponsoring later in 2025.
The Writing
Sort of a slow start on the novel, but that often happens so no biggie. Things will pick up today or tomorrow (see below). For now it just feels great to be chatting with Jack Temple and running through another story with him.
Also I got first reader input from Russ early this morning, so I’ll get BO-35 up for pre-publication sales. Then I might write a story for Bradbury before going back to the novel.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Fourthwall Integration at BookFunnel I’m perfectly happy with Payhip, but apparently Fourthwall is yet another direct sales venue you can check out.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1010
Writing of Blackwell Ops 36: Temple’s Dream
Day 1…… 2476 words. To date…… 2476
Fiction for January…………………… 87849
Fiction for 2025………………………. 87849
Nonfiction for January……………….. 22620
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 22620
2025 consumable words…………….. 110469
Average Fiction WPD (January)…….. 3993
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 2
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 106
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 274
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.