In today’s Journal
* Welcome
* A New Stanbrough Writing in Public Substack
* Reminder
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Welcome
Welcome to Drew E and any other new subscribers or readers of the Journal. I hope you will find it useful.
Be sure to check out 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.
And here’s a video where Vin Zandri and I are chatting about writing and a bunch of other stuff.
A New “Stanbrough Writing in Public” Substack
I currently have two substacks:
In Harvey’s (Almost) Daily Journal (https://harveystanbrough.substack.com/) I write this Journal. It will continue as-is, morphing over time as the Journal has since I started it 9 years ago (almost to the day).
What I write in the Journal is not for myself. The quotes and feature articles and free giveaways and topics and tips and items in “Of Interest” section are me paying forward what I’ve learned and know to be true today.
The Journal is for those writers and would-be writers who are coming up behind me. They are for the me who existed 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 year ago.
Among the wisest things I’ve ever heard is that a fictionist should write stories s/he would like to read, but that don’t yet exist. The same is true in instructional nonfiction. I wish fervently I’d found and started reading this Journal all those years ago.
I had found and read Dean Wesley Smith’s blog. What I learned there gave me my start as a fiction writer. But today it’s mostly promotion and a very thin shadow of its former self. So I’m glad you have the Journal.
Right here is the only place on the internet where you can read regularly about Heinlein’s Rules as they were written, and about writing into the dark.
In Stanbrough Writes (https://stanbroughwrites.substack.com/) I publish a new short story each week. It too will continue in perpetuity as long as I keep writing and readers keep reading. I can pre-post stories to that one, so it’s a little less time-intensive than the Journal.
Now, a New “Stanbrough Writing in Public” Substack
The notion of writing in public has always fascinated me. Doing so is the ultimate test of faith in writing into the dark. For some time I have been considering this notion.
A long while back (I believe before Substack was even a concept), I set up a website devoted to publishing clean (but unrevised and unedited) work as I wrote it.
Now, with Substack as my platform, I’ve decided to pull the trigger on writing in public again. I was going to wait to see how much interest there was — specifically among you, the readers of the Journal — but I decided this morning I would do it for myself. I very much enjoy personal challenges.
The process won’t be quite as transparent as Harlan Ellison sitting behind a department store window and writing short stories on his typewriter (his assistant “posted” them one page at a time against the window) as onlookers watched from the sidewalk, but it will be close.
If you would like to read a novel as it unfolds, one to four chapters at a time (whatever I write that day on the novel), read the introductory post and subscribe at https://stanbroughwritinginpublic.substack.com/p/a-new-stanbrough-writing-in-public.
Like my other two substacks, I expect this one will remain free, although donations are appreciated.
Finally, instead of waiting for the next novel to begin, I’ve decided to leap in.
Beginning this afternoon, I will play catch-up and publish seven chapters per day of the current novel, unrevised and unedtied.
On the fourth day, I’ll published whatever I’ve written up to the current point. With any luck, in the final post or two for the current novel, you’ll see brand-new chapters.
It won’t always be such a deluge. (grin)
Beginning with the next novel, you’ll see whatever I actually write on each writing day (probably 1-4 chapters), fresh and new. It will be spell checked, but unrevised and unedited.
‘Cause I’m writing into the dark. I hope you’ll come along, judge the writing for yourself, and see what is possible.
Reminder
Bradbury participants, remember to get your info in to me by tonight (Sunday) at midnight.
Please try to use this format, no quotation marks, no punctuation:
Story Title 1234 Genre (Link if you want)
Make it easy on yer Uncle Harv. (grin)
Thanks! That’s it for today.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Full disclosure, the first four items below are links to old posts of mine that still hold up. The first three should be read in sequence.
The Top 7 Mistakes Writers Make
10 Lesser Mistakes Writers Make
For Purveyors of the Soup Sandwich
How Al Capone Criminally Captured Chicago
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 820
Writing of Blackwell Ops 12: Nick Soldata (novel)
Day 1…… 3683 words. To date…… 3683
Day 2…… 3186 words. To date…… 6869
Day 3…… 3315 words. To date…… 10184
Day 4…… 3260 words. To date…… 13444
Day 5…… 3175 words. To date…… 16619
Day 6…… 3649 words. To date…… 20268
Day 7…… 3061 words. To date…… 23329
Day 8…… 3705 words. To date…… 27034
Day 9…… 3237 words. To date…… 30271
Day 10…. 3566 words. To date…… 33837
Fiction for October…………………… 65877
Fiction for 2023………………………… 283419
Fiction since August 1………………… 168872
Nonfiction for October……………… 20230
Nonfiction for the year……………… 218570
Annual consumable words………… 501929
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 5
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 6
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 76
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 234
Short story collections…………………… 31
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.