In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Welcome
* Happy Diwali
* (Morbid?) Research
* By Popular Request
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“A step backward, after making a wrong turn, is a step in the right direction.” Kurt Vonnegut
“Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.” Dave Barry
“The recast of an idea is how I do things when a manuscript isn’t working. I also switch from prose to screenplay and visa versa on ideas that don’t seem to work in one format and much of the time that helps a lot.” Matthew Gordon Pettipas
“The big news of 2006 is that I’m still alive. After being in hospice waiting to die, I said, ‘To hell with it. I’m going to write a book’.” Art Buchwald
Wish I’d seen this quote when I wrote “It’s Never Too Late”.
Welcome
Welcome to George(? geo974…) 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. And I don’t do the ambush thing requiring an email address. Just click the links and a PDF will download in a new page.
I also recommend reading “I Believe in You”.
If you wanna see my tired old mug, catch this half-hour video where Vin Zandri and I are chatting about writing and a bunch of other stuff.
And here’s a second video of us chatting at The Writer’s Life.
Happy Diwali
This five-day festival of lights begins today. For anyone who hasn’t heard of it, Diwali is celebrated by over 1 billion people worldwide of the Hindu faith.
From the article I’ve linked to below, “The holiday celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.” I’m all for that.
Since the Journal now has a worldwide reach, I wanted to mention it. Click this link to learn more about the history of Diwali.
(Morbid?) Research
If you’re writing a story in which the preparation of dead bodies is necessary, check out this videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv_SuYmu8DY. A mortician shows every step a body goes through at a funeral home.
By Popular Request
I’ve decided to reinstate the Of Interest section in the Journal. You’ll find it below.
Of course, I curated the links. Other things might interest you, so don’t be shy about visiting the sites I mentioned in an earlier edition of the Journal.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Motivational Monday 2024 Is Live!
Genre Juggernaut: Measuring “Romance”
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 400
Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)
Day 1…… 4086 words. To date…… 4086
Day 2…… 3609 words. To date…… 7695
Day 3…… 3971 words. To date…… 11666
Fiction for November…………………… 29174
Fiction for 2023………………………… 347818
Fiction since August 1………………… 233416
Nonfiction for November……………… 9670
Nonfiction for the year……………… 237560
Annual consumable words………… 581871
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 7
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 7
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 78
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 235
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.