No Questions, and Writing Again

by
In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Welcome
* No Questions
* Writing Again
* Recommended Nonfiction
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.” John D. Rockefeller

“He is short-sighted who looks only on the path he treads and the wall on which he leans.” Khalil Gibran

Welcome

Welcome to Ryan (are you part of the famous racing family? [grin]) and any other new subscribers or reader of the Journal. I hope you will find it useful.

Be sure to check out the Archives and other free downloads.

No Questions

I was a little surprised I didn’t get more comments and/or emails about the post from yesterday, “Some Notes on Pacing.”

And only one comment and no emails at all on “A Brief History of Publishing, and Story Lengths” from the day before.

I’m thinking maybe all of you know that stuff already. (grin) If you do, that’s a good thing. It’ll make my job a lot easier if you decide to have me edit your work.

And I’ll tell you right now, if you have Pacing down and if you have Tag Lines and Reverse Structures down and if you have Depth down, your edit will be super easy.

It would basically a first-read with comments. I’d love that, and of course I’d charge you less than my minimum to show my appreciation. (grin)

Remember, if you send me something for editing, you get a few pages edited free so you can see first-hand what I can do for you before you decide. It’s a no-risk deal.

Writing Again

Yesterday I pressed through and finished the edit I’ve was working on, then took the rest of the day (about a half-hour early) off to just sit and chill.

This morning after I posted the Journal on Pacing, I started practicing again. I was wavering between recasting the last Wes Crowley novel I was working on awhile back — I think it will be the 21st in the series, tentatively titled Rose Padilla — and writing another Blackwell Ops novel while Jeremy Stiles is more or less still fresh in my mind.

I chose the latter and started writing Blackwell Ops 11: Jeremy Stiles. The tentative subtitle is A Circle of Doubt.

And the best news of all — I had the best writing day I’ve had since sometime in 2021. I churned out a mind-bending (for me personally) 5214 words. That included cycling, and they’re all good words. No cuts. Woohoo!

Also, today at 3 p.m. eastern time, if everything works out I’ll be the guest on Vin Zandri’s podcast. Hope you can stop by.

Recommended Nonfiction

I promise, you’ve never read anything like my nonfiction books on writing. I don’t mimic the silly fiction writing myths like most do. If you want to learn a ton about writing, and quickly, check out these books:

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Episode No. 814: Writer FUD! Watch this. Good stuff. Great stuff.

Writing About Pain: Best Practices for Great Fiction

3 Days Left on Workshop Sale

The Best Fiction vs Nonfiction Book Covers: Ways They Differ

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 490

Writing of Blackwell Ops 11: Jeremy Stiles (novel)
A Circle of Doubt

Day 1…… 5214 words. To date…… 5214

Fiction for September…………………… 62576
Fiction for 2023………………………… 214885
Fiction since August 1………………… 120125
Nonfiction for September……………… 23030
Nonfiction for the year……………… 197500
Annual consumable words………… 412385

2023 Novels to Date……………………… 4
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 6
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 75
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 234
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.

2 thoughts on “No Questions, and Writing Again”

  1. Hello,
    I bought the punctuation book, but didn’t finished yet. Cool stuff.

    I wouldn’t say I knew everything you mentioned during the past few days. They were nice posts, interesting ones. Mainly the pacing one. I’m glad you wrote it. It was helpful, and I sent the link to a few of my fellow writers.

    I had no question though, it was clear what you wrote. Thanks for writing them.

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