In Today’s Journal
* The TNDJ Challenges Report
* Re Subscribing or Donating
* A Little About Excel Spreadsheets
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
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. To do so, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com with your results anytime before TNDJ goes live on any Monday.
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 “Cosmic Jim” 3003 Syfy
- Christopher Ridge “Dead Things Don’t Call back” 1076 Flash fiction / crime
- Christopher Ridge “Nothing to Worry About” 761 horror
- Christopher Ridge “Snowstorm” 1307 horror/apocalyptic
- KC Riggs “Go to the Mountain You Have” 2575 Magical Realism
- Dave Taylor “The MRI ” 3434 Magical Realism
Congratulations to all of these writers.
Discontinuing the Stephen King Challenge
I’m pulling the plug on this challenge.
The requirement was to average at least 1000 words per day (basically one hour of writing). The words had to be fiction, but they could go into any short or long fiction or both.
For some reason it’s been some time since anyone hit even the baseline of 7,000 words per week, so no reason for this challenge anymore.
Re Subscribing or Donating
Hey, from time to time I’ve asked for paid subscriptions or for donations. I won’t be doing that anymore.
But when I’ve done so in the past, I’ve usually tried to make it clear that I’m not trying to take food off anyone’s table or leave anyone in a financial bind. It really isn’t that big a deal.
If you find TNDJ (or Stanbrough Writes) of value to your writing or entertainment—and if you can afford to do so—you can donate via PayPal at my usual email address. But if you can’t afford a paid subscription or a donation, don’t do it.
A Little About Excel Spreadsheets
A writer asked me about spreadsheets. What I told her is below.
But I emphasize, this is not a primer. I’m no expert when it comes to using spreadsheets. I know just enough about them to use one to keep track of my daily, monthly, and annual word count.
As a visual aid, I’ve included two screen-capture photos of October 2025 from the spreadsheet I use to report my Numbers on TNDJ each day. There’s some overlap on the photos.
The first shows from October 1 through October 17, and the second shows October 16 through 31 plus a few other columns. If you refer to the photos, you can follow along as I explain them.
- On a spreadsheet, the Lines go left to right and the Columns go top to bottom. Each cell is identified by where it appears on each line and under each column.
- On each picture, you’ll see the spreadsheet line numbers down the left side (1, then 634, 635, etc.) and column headers across the top (A, B, C, etc.)
- I ‘froze’ Line 1 at the top and Column A at the left, so when I scroll down (or right) in the spreadsheet, that line and column remain stationary ‘in the picture’ for reference.
- I use Line 1 for my personal column headers. Those are Title and then the days of the month, going left to right, then my totals.
- Each Cell of a spreadsheet contains different information. For example, Cell A1 (column A, line 1) contains the word Title. Then Cell B1 through Cell AG1 contains the dates of the month. I’ll talk about Columns AH, AI, and AJ a little later.
- Line 634 is blank to leave a space between September and October.
- In Cell A635, you’ll see the title of an actual work. Below that in Cells A366, A367, etc. you’ll see the other titles I worked on that month.
- To the right of each title, each cell contains the number of words I wrote for that title on that date.
- Across the bottom in Lines 642, 643, etc. you’ll see titles for totals I want to keep track of. The information in the cells to the right of those are all done automatically by formulas I’ve entered.
- To the far right in the second photo, you’ll see column headers (AH, AI, and AJ) for totals in fiction, nonfiction, and all totals combined. The cells below those are also filled by formulas.
- I most often work on only one project at a time, though on some days I’ll add some words to a novel and also write a short story. (In Column A, the titles of short stories are shown with quotation marks around them.)
By the way, working on one project at a time is not a recommendation. That’s just what I do most of the time. I know others who work on several stories at one time. You do you.
Here are the photos:
Hope this helps. Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
How to Craft Accurate Fight Scenes – Part 2 Another take you might find useful. I didn’t vet it, and I don’t know whether she tells you where to find “Part 1.”
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 850
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 850
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date………… XXXXX
Fiction for January………………………… XXXX
Fiction for 2026…………………………… XXXX
Nonfiction for January.…………………… 15630
Nonfiction for 2026………………..……… 15630
2026 consumable words………………… 15630
2026 Novels to Date……………………… 0
2026 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2026 Short Stories to Date……………… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 123
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29