In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Welcome
* Making Time to Write
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“She tapped me on the chest with one finger. ‘Soy la jefa de ti’.” Soleada Tarea to Charlie Task in Tarea-Garcia. When Soleada (5’2″ 100 pounds) said this to Charlie (6’3″ 212 pounds). I laughed so hard Coke almost snorted out of my nose. 🙂
GAWD I love writing into the dark! Oh, and I suggest you ladies out there memorize this is case you need it. It means “I am the boss of you.” 🙂
Welcome
Welcome to Tremeur and any other new subscribers or readers of the Journal. I hope you will find it useful.
Get the Archives and other free downloads at the Journal website. Just click the links and a PDF will download in a new page.
If you download the Journal Archives, I suggest downloading and reading the most recent one first. Then, if you want to see how I personally progressed as a fiction writer, you can go back and download the others. It has been an interesting journey.
When I compile the archive for 2023 in early January, I will add it to the Archives page. I will also announce it and make it available in a post in the Journal.
I also recommend reading the posts “I Believe in You” and “Fear”. Can’t hurt, and it might help.
Making Time to Write
How do you make time to write?
I personally write every day. On the few days when I’m not writing new fiction, putting new words on the page, I’m doing writing-related things.
On those days, I still write, albeit nonfiction, here in the Journal. So even on days when I “don’t write,” I generally write 1000 words or so for this venue.
You can be a professional writer even if you have a day job, children, a spouse and so on. Just set a daily goal and then strive to meet or exceed it every day.
Some can carve out only an hour a day to write. That’s a thousand words a day, or 30,000 per month, or 365,000 per year.
If you can get only a half-hour per day to write, that’s still a lot. 500 words per day, 15,000 per month, 180,000+ per year. That’s three 60,000 word novels and a bunch of short stories.
Some advocate writing when you can, in 10- or 15-minutes spurts. If that works for you, go for it. But I recommend still setting a goal so you have a reason to “find time” for those 10- or 15-minute spurts.
You might also experiment a little. Try getting up an hour earlier than normal. Or going to bed an hour later. Push a little, lightly. See what your body and its rhythms can take.
Of course, all of the above is dependent on how important writing is to you.
Not that the story is important — no single story or novel is important — but WRITING the story is important. Because you’re a writer. And writers write.
Me, I get up and go to work very early in the morning. My work is an often erratic combination of writing the Journal (nonfiction), checking the blogs and newletters I check each day, corresponding with writers, and writing fiction (and occasionally poetry).
This past week I’ve worked on the current novel, submitted a Journal every day, written a short story, started another. And yes, I’ve also spent ample time with my family and doing necessary everyday chores, etc.
In other words, every day (yes, including holidays) I do what I love. I am very fortunate. I’ve found work that truly matters to me, and I get to do it every day. I look forward to it every day.
Which leads me to this:
If writing isn’t high up somewhere on your list of priorities, don’t.
Seriously. Find something you truly enjoy, something you look forward to doing, and do that instead.
If writing fiction IS important to you, find a way.
The Writing
Yesterday I fell short of my goal strictly on the novel with 3700+ words.
On the other hand, I write into the dark so I experienced sheer joy (and laughter) when my characters surprised me with the scene from which I extracted this morning’s Quote of the Day. (grin)
But I had also added 200+ words to a short story that is coming along slowly and is kind of an addendum to various scenes in the novel.
So overall I exceeded my daily goal with 4014 words.
Well, plus the 790 words in yesterday’s Journal. I’ll take it. (grin)
Of Interest
How Writer’s Fail… How To Avoid Some Failures
Major Data Breach at Xfinity I recommend this free daily newsletter.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 780
Writing of Tarea-Garcia 1
Day 1…… 4968 words. To date…… 4968
Day 2…… 3677 words. To date…… 8645
Day 3…… 3307 words. To date…… 11952
Day 4…… 4467 words. To date…… 16419
Day 5…… 4193 words. To date…… 20612
Day 6…… 2061 words. To date…… 22673
Day 7…… 3250 words. To date…… 25923
Day 8…… 2036 words. To date…… 27959
Day 9…… 3789 words. To date…… 31748
Writing of “The Love of Soleada”
Day 1…… 1079 words. To date…… 1079
Day 2…… 1444 words. To date…… 2523
Day 3…… 0225 words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for December…………………… 85208
Fiction for 2023…………………………. 486042
Fiction since August 1………………… 370418
Nonfiction for December……………… 17060
Nonfiction for the year……………… 272640
Annual consumable words………… 755175
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 10
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 8
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 81
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 236
Short story collections…………………… 31
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Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.