Nothing

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Nothing
* Of Interest

Quote of the Day

“I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.” Margaret Mead

Nothing

Nothing, really, to talk about today. But some of the stuff in “Of Interest” was too much fun to keep to myself.

The novel is inching along. That’s all I can say about that at the moment without yelling a lot.

Writing it brings up a less than fond memory of climbing Mount MF in full gear and drenched plastic ponchos at Camp Pendleton, California during a heavy rain some 52 years ago during my ITR training. (If you don’t know the acronyms, don’t worry about it. Trust me, you’re better off. Just proves you were smarter than I was.)

Anyway, the hill was so steep in places, you could touch the ground (well, the mud) by putting your hand straight out in front of you. One step forward, slip three steps back, all the way to the top. How, you ask? Impossible, you say? Nope. I’m doing it again with this stupid novel.

Some progress is better than no progress, maybe, but it’s no kind of fun.

The bit about the “long-form synopsis” below is not in “Of Interest” because I recommend it. It’s there because I find it ridiculous. It might be construed as “good advice” only if you want to delay writing as long as possible so you can seem to others like a writer and maybe even feel like a writer without actually being a writer.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Kurt Vonnegut’s Daily Routine…” at https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/kurt-vonnegut-daily-routine-iowa-writers-workshop.

See “Have the Courage to Ignore Expert Advice” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/11/have-the-courage-to-ignore-expert-advice.html. I added a comment.

See “How to Use a Long-Form Synopsis to Plan Your Novel” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/how-to-use-a-long-form-synopsis-to-plan-your-novel/. Just for fun. (‘Cause nothing’s quite as much fun [or as productive] as writing the Same Novel two or three times: once in the long-form synopsis and/or in the outline, and then once when you, well, um, you know, actually write the story.) (grin)

See “Desperate Writer Query Template” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/desperate-writer-query-template/. Just for fun.

See “We might be alone in the universe” at https://interestingengineering.com/science/we-might-be-alone-in-the-universe. Because climate change or something.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 370 words

Writing of The Stirchians (novel, tentative title)

CUTS……… 6805 words. Total words to date…… 37750
New ……… 1928 words. Total words to date…… 39678
Day 19… 0982 words. Total words to date…… 40660
Day 20… 0860 words. Total words to date…… 41520

Total fiction words for November……… 134466
Total fiction words for the year………… 174971
Total nonfiction words for November… 11530
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 187160
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 362131

Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2022 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2022 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 68
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: Because It Makes Sense, I preach trusting your characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living. Duh. This practice greatly increases your productivity and provides a rapid ascension along the learning curve of Craft because you get a great deal more practice at actually writing. This is not opinion. It is all numbers and facts.