In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* The Benefits Of and Tips On Blogging
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Anxiety is the space between the ‘now’ and the ‘then’.” Richard Abell
The Bradbury Challenge
The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Feel free to jump in at any time.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Balázs Jámbor “The Ghost of Boyhood” 3800 general fiction
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Ransoming Tomorrow” 3005 Fantasy
- Harvey Stanbrough “The Quiz Master” 5776 Action-Adventure
- Harvey Stanbrough “Instant Replay” 2137 Romance
- Harvey Stanbrough “Aspen When She Tries” 870 Erotica
- Dave Taylor “The Guy at the End of the Bar” 2,888 thriller
Congratulations to all of these writers.
The Benefits Of and Tips On Blogging
I’ve been blogging about the language and about writing since the mid-1990s.
More recently, with a few short breaks, I’ve been blogging specifically about fiction writing almost every day since early 2014.
Usually before I write fiction or AS I’m writing fiction, I prepare “tomorrow’s” post for TNDJ.
When I don’t do that, I usually write a post in the morning on the day it’s due to go out. Often I write part of a post the day before and the rest the day of.
Why am I telling you all of this?
Because there are benefits to blogging regularly. Blogging regularly has taught me two big lessons:
- Writing every day is good. The discipline inherent in writing a blog post for immediate publication each day translates over to writing fiction every day. One feeds the other.
- Writing a blog post every day provides a sense of purpose, or as we used to say in the USMC, “a place to report.” In other words, doing so enables me to keep moving forward. That’s much preferable to lying supine in a box with my hands at my waist and taking a dirt nap.
A Few Tips on Blogging
1. Write and Post Regularly.
It doesn’t have to be every day. You can post something once a day or once a week or every two weeks or once a month.
But bear in mind, the longer the timespan between posts, the longer it will take you to establish the habit and the longer it will take you to reap the benefits.
2. Write About Something That Interests You.
Don’t cast about for something that you think might be interesting to others.
Instead, assume or develop a ‘chatting with neighbors over the back fence’ voice and write about something that interests YOU. If you do that, your audience will find you.
In that regard, for example, you might write about
- your own writing habits (what works for you, but the audience is much thinner than you might expect, given the millions of writers drowning in the myths), or
- (for your eventual readers) your short stories or novels or fictional worlds or characters, or
- your life or your favorite hobbies or
- whatever else. The list is endless.
3. Give Your Blog a Specific and Appealing Title.
The specific title of TNDJ should be ‘The New Daily Journal for Fiction Writers and Aspiring Fiction Writers’, right? But of course that’s far too long.
I got away with the non-specific The New Daily Journal only because my audience was already established when I switched from The Daily Journal to The New Daily Journal.
Using a title that can readily be pronounced and remembered as an acronym (TNDJ) doesn’t hurt either. (Goes to branding, your honor.)
4. Find an Adequate-to-Excellent Platform
whether that’s Substack (highly recommended) or Medium or Patreon or Blogger or The Next New Platform that hasn’t come along yet.
Or use your own website (I recommend signing up with a paid service provider like Entirely Digital and using WordPress.org [NOT WordPress.com or Wix or any of that nonsense]). You can do that with or without a list-building distribution service like MailerLite.
I use both HEStanbrough.com and Substack.
If I had it to do over again, I’d post only to Substack and regularly reference HarveyStanbrough.com and my online StoneThreadPublishing discount store, which is located on the free Payhip platform.
5. Keep Your Paragraphs Short.
Make it easy for your readers to read your post (or your short story or novel, for that matter). I’ve closed more than one blog (even some to which I’m a paid subscriber) because the massive blocks of text simply aren’t worth the time it would take me to wade through them.
Okay, there are probably more tips, but I’ve run out of steam for this post. I wrote at least most of this one yesterday, and I want to get to my novel now.
Pop in with comments if you want to add to the discussion. And thanks for reading.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “Anxiety” Oops. I forgot to pass this along yesterday, and it lends itself heavily to characterization.
Last Day of Early Bird 50% Sale
The Novel: Explore the centuries-old practice of long-form writing, including some of history’s most impactful works, in this week’s 1440 Society & Culture newsletter. Signup link. The newsletter comes once a week on Sunday.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 830
Writing of “Aspen When She Tries”
Day 1…… 870 words. To date…… 870 done
Writing of Blackwell Ops 43: Sam Granger | The Quiz Master
Day 1…… 2242 words. To date…… 2242
Day 2…… 3315 words. To date…… 5557
Day 3…… 3192 words. To date…… 8749
Fiction for April……………………….. 100966
Fiction for 2025………………………. 367916
Nonfiction for April…………………….. 18370
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 99900
2025 consumable words…………….. 461306
Average Fiction WPD (March)……… 3727
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 9
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 113
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
- On Writing Fiction
- Gifts
- Writing Resources
- Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.