In today’s Journal
* Just a Bit of Dialogue
* A New Story
* New to “Free Archives & More”
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Just a Bit of Dialogue
That popped into my head a few days ago.
Him: “”You don’t care. You probably won’t even be in the room with me when I die.”
Her: “I will if you die of a gunshot wound.”
A New Story
“The Storyteller,” the fourth story in an interconnected series of ten magic realism stories, went live yesterday on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. If you enjoy magic realism or Mexico, you probably don’t want to miss this series of stories.
To subscribe, click the link above and then the Subscribe button at the end of the story. You’ll receive a new short story every Friday, and it’s free.
Below the Subscribe button, there are other short stories you can read in most genres. Enjoy!
New to “Free Archives & More”
Awhile back, I shared with anyone who asked a copy of the short story or novel template I use when I’m starting a new novel.
No, the template isn’t from any kind of AI either. (grin) With Styles set for body text, headings, front matter and back matter, indents, etc. I simply transfer all of that to a new document before I begin typing the next story or novel.
A comment on yesterday’s post reminded me that I’ve also added a new disclaimer section to the end matter on that template.
Here’s the new disclaimer. Feel free to use it as-is or to modify it for your own use.
Disclaimers
- This is a work of fiction, strictly a product of the author’s imagination. Any perceived resemblance or similarity to any actual events or persons, living or dead, and any perceived slights of people, places, or organizations are products of the reader’s imagination.
- This fiction is the result of a partnership between a human writer and the character(s) he accessed with his creative subconscious as he raced through the story with them, trying to keep up.
- In no part is this story the block-by-block, stolen construction of any sort of generative AI or the artificial construction of any conscious, critical, human mind. What you read here is what actually happened there.
I’ve also added it to HEStanbrough.com as a free PDF download. At the site, click the Free Archives & More tab. Scroll down. Just below the Journal archives you will see “Disclaimers Disavowing Any Use of Generative AI.” If you click that link, a PDF file will download automatically to your computer.
As I wrote in the document, feel free to use the same disclaimers (or not) or to modify them for your own use.
Just FYI, I offer all this free stuff strictly because a rising tide lifts all boats.
I’ll talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Generative AI Has a Visual Plagiarism Problem They could have left “Visual” out of the title and still been accurate.
Important Dos and Don’ts When Writing Novellas I included this only to give you something to laugh at. I almost busted a gut. I do not endorse or recommend ANYTHING Kobo Writing Life says in this silly article.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 520
Writing of Blackwell Ops 18: Soleada Garcia: Settled
Day 1…… 4078 words. To date…… 4078
Day 2…… 4194 words. To date…… 8272
Day 3…… 4277 words. To date…… 12549
Fiction for January……………………. 41855
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 41855
Fiction since October 1…………… 344900
Nonfiction for January……………… 13200
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 13200
2024 consumable words…………… 55075
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 1
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 83
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 238
Short story collections…………………… 31
Note: If you find this Journal of value and want to make a one time or recurring donation, please do not pledge through Substack. I don’t use Stripe. Instead click this link. If you can’t donate, please consider sharing this post with friends.
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.