In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* I Left a Comment
* Peggy K
* Questions
* Number Watch
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“I suspect authors … don’t give a hoot about belief in themselves, trust in their characters, or authentic stories. They [sho use generative AI] will be marketing a product. Consumers will decide.” elliot01 in response to my comment
Maybe he’s right. Maybe as an old guy who remembers Craft and is still in possession of a moral compass, I’ve simply been barking up the wrong tree.
I Left a Comment
Here’s the comment to which elliot01 responded:
“I think I will never understand the propensity of many successful writers (and others) to teach those coming along behind them that dependence on crutches or easy ways out like generative AI instead is a good thing.
“They could just as easily attempt to instill or shore-up others’ self-confidence and teach independence rather than dependence.
“Writers who believe in themselves and trust the characters to tell the story that they, not the writer, are living will always write original, authentic stories. Those who don’t, won’t.”
Peggy K
Subscriber Peggy K asked left an excellent comment on the post “You Don’t Need Thought Tags.”
I wrote almost a whole Journal post in my response. But rather than repeat any of that here, I thought I’d just send you over there to read her original comment and my esponse. Take a look.
If you scroll a little farther after you read my comment, you’ll also see a comment by Balázs J whose native language is Hungarian. Of course, me being mouthy, I responded to his comment as well.
Questions
I suppose sometimes I somehow convey the sense that I’m too buy to answer your questions. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m always willing to help those who are trying to improve their game.
If you ever have any questions for me about this Journal or about writing or editing or publishing, please don’t hesitate to either leave a comment or email me.
I only write this Journal to pass along what I have learned as I’ve written and published 77 novels, 9 novellas, and over 230 short stories during the past nine years.
Number Watch
Simple math can be your friend. I’ve said many times that Average Matters. So it’s good to check in with yourself from time to time.
I can only use my own numbers to illustrate this concept, but for me they were eye-opening. You can apply this same approach to your own numbers.
If you care about your production, look for growth and ways you can improve. Strive to do better today than you did yesterday, better this month than you did last month.
As of the end of October, I’d written 315,197 publishable words of fiction in 2023. Looks impressive on the surfact, but that’s only an average of 31,520 words per month, or 1051 words per day. Remember, I don’t have a day job. Writing IS my day job.
Let’s break those numbers down:
In the first 7 months of the year, I wrote only 114,547 words. That’s an average of only 16,364 words per month, or about 545 words per day. A meager half-hours’ work.
Again, if you can only make time to write a half-hour per day, that’s fine. But I don’t have a day job.
Although I stumbled along during the year, only writing a little here and there, I wasn’t able to start writing in earnest again until a week or so into August.
Since then, I’ve written 200,650 words of publishable fiction. That’s better. It’s an average of 66,883 words per month, or about 2,229 words per day. So about two hours’ work per day.
Still, in the past three months I wrote 63% of the fiction I’ve written all year.
But let’s zoom-in and break it down further:
August — I wrote only 37,762 words of fiction, an average of only 1259 words per day (about an hour’s work).
September — I doubled my production to 65,233, an increase of just under 59% and an average of 2174 words per day. Getting better.
October — largely because I rededicated myself to my daily word count goal — the total jumped to 101,102 words. That’s an increase of another 64%, and an average of 3370 words per day.
Not including writing the Journal and responding to emails, and because of the cleaner, more efficient way I write now, that’s still only about five hours or work per day. Not a bad gig for a day job if you can get it.
But again, all of these are averages. There were days in August, September and October when I didn’t write at all because I allowed something else to take precedence. We all set our own priorities.
I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the year. I hope in your writing you’re looking forward too.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Nada.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 810
Writing of Blackwell Ops 13: Jenna Crowley
Day 1…… 3815 words. To date……3815
Day 2…… 3116 words. To date…… 6931
Day 3…… 3090 words. To date…… 10021
Day 4…… 4073 words. To date…… 14094
Day 5…… 3447 words. To date…… 17541
Day 6…… 4403 words. To date…… 21944
Day 7…… 3025 words. To date…… 24969
Fiction for November…………………… 7428
Fiction for 2023………………………… 326072
Fiction since August 1………………… 211525
Nonfiction for November……………… 2770
Nonfiction for the year……………… 230660
Annual consumable words………… 553225
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 6
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 7
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 77
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.