In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The TNDJ Challenges Report
* Dreams vs. Goals
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Stephen King writes on Christmas because why not? If we eat and sleep and brush our teeth how is this different?” George Kordonis
Note: If you received TNDJ twice in your email inbox yesterday, my apologies. Substack said they were having a ‘network issue’ and I should ‘try again later,’ so I did. As it turned out, they sent it both times. Shrug.
The TNDJ Challenges Report
Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer.
There is no cost. Feel free to jump in at any time. Email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
Bradbury Challenge
The requirement is to write at least one short story or short-short story per week.
During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Wired” 2957 Fantasy
- Christopher Ridge “Congestion” 2247 psychological suspense
- Christopher Ridge “Annual Review” 2006 psychological suspense
- KC Riggs “One More Minute” 864 words Humor
- Dave Taylor “The Hermit” 4,453 Magical Realism
The Stephen King Challenge
The requirement is to strive to average at least 1000 words per day. The words can go into any short or long fiction or both.
- Erin Donoho No report this week
- Balázs Jámbor 3052 words this week
- Christopher Ridge 4253 words this week.
- Violet Vincent 1974 words this week.
Congratulations to all of these writers.
Note: Dave Taylor reports that many of his short stories are also going into a novel-length work that is currently at 50,103 words! 🙂
Dreams vs. Goals
I just realized I’ve been remiss in 2025. I haven’t talked about the difference between dreams and goals. They aren’t quite the same thing.
As I wrote yesterday,
“Luck has something to do with dreams, but nothing to do with goals. Reaching goals is a matter of perseverance and determination.”
A dream is something you want or want to achieve, but whether you attain or achieve it is not fully within your control. It depends at least in part on the actions of others.
For example, becoming a bestselling author is a dream. It’s a wonderful thing to aspire to, but it’s dependent on how many people buy your books and when they buy them. Certainly you can do things to affect sales and the frequency of them in various ways, but you can’t control them.
A goal, on the other hand, is completely within your control. Whether you achieve it is up to you. Attaining a goal is a matter of setting your own priorities and sticking to them.
For example, whether you can maintain an average daily word count depends only on you, and it’s basic math: wph x hic = wpd.
The number of words you can write in one hour multiplied by the number of hours you spend in the chair (and writing) per day equals your words per day.
If you want to increase the number of words you put out in one day, you have to increase one of those two factors. And the number of words you can write in one hour largely depends on how much you trust yourself and your characters.
Yes, sometimes working toward a goal is derailed by outside influences: life rolls, other people calling for you, health issues, etc. That’s why it’s a good idea to base daily (and other) writing goals on an overall average, and that’s also where priorities come into play.
What you feel you ‘have’ to give time to other concerns on one day, you can give time back to your writing goals on another day.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Website Tools If you’re looking at putting together a website in the new year, check these resources.
Dean Koontz on His Writing Process (Video, a little over an hour and 47 minutes) Thanks to Dave Taylor for this one.
Pros Talking Prose: What to Prepare for in 2026 (Video, a little over an hour and a half)
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 660
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 660
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for December……………………… 31000
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 785647
Nonfiction for December.………………… 27400
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 292530
2025 consumable words………………… 1070608
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 19
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29