The Daily Journal, Saturday, March 9

In today’s Journal

▪ Update on my challenge
▪ On Daylight Saving Time
▪ Daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers

In today’s “Of Interest,” Dean Wesley Smith talks about firing up his challenge again. And again, I picked up a gem that helped me.

At the moment and for the past few days, all three of my sons are visiting. I’m blessed. All are adults and successful in their own right, and each has a (very) unique personality. I love that about them, so I’m trying not to miss even a single moment of observing those personalities while they’re here. (grin)

As you know, writing is important to me too. Not what I write, but that I write. Every day.

That’s why my current challenge (to write 10 novels of 35,000 to 60,000 words) is important to me, but it’s also why it was pretty much an easy-peasy snap even back when I started it. It’s easy to do something you love to do.

I thought I could just write through the visit. I have to have a few hours a day alone (I suspect everyone is like that) so I figured it would be fairly easy to write during those few alone-hours and that no quality visiting time would suffer.

I was wrong. This visit is just another life roll, albeit (I hastily add) a very good life roll.

But it’s something that often necessarily disrupts the routine. I don’t regret that it breaks the routine, but of course I wish I could do both: visit and write.

I can do that to some degree, of course, but the visit is my priority right now, so often the time I am able devote to writing has to suffer.

The overall visit will continue for another ten days or so, and as usual the only finite measure boils down to math.

For me, the remaining visit represents a potential loss of 40 hours of actual writing time, so a potential loss of 40,000 words: a short novel. Again, I don’t regret that potential loss, At All. It’s just what’s happening at the moment.

So I wrote all of that to write this: I might end up putting my challenge on hold.

I won’t cancel it or end it. But I might take an intermission.

I’ll still write a little (fiction) every day during the remaining visit time, but probably not nearly as much as I would otherwise.

In fact, I’ve been jonesing to take a break from life in general and go camping for a few days. I’ll probably do that a few days after the visit ends. (Give my bride a few days to wind down a bit without going from a full house to herself alone.)

And that’s all right. When I come out the other side of the camping trip, I hope to have at least five novels finished, although I probably won’t finish the fifth one (my WIP) in the time allotted by the challenge.

So at that point, I’ll restart the challenge, appropriately adjusted: maybe I’ll begin a new challenge with new target dates to write ten (more) novels from that point in fewer days (maybe 140 or 130 or something).

Or maybe I’ll just re-start the original challenge (again, with new target dates) to write five novels in 75 days.

I don’t know, but I’ll come up with something. (grin) Stay tuned and we’ll see how it all comes out.
***

In one blog I visit occasionally but very seldom include in “Of Interest,” a writer complained about having to adjust her clock one way or the other for Daylight Saving Time.

I live in Arizona where common sense regarding such things prevails, so I am not privy to the concept of “losing” or “gaining” an hour.

Anyway, she said she just doesn’t need to lose 60 minutes of writing time. (grin)

Yeah, you’re ahead of me, aren’t you?

When the only considerations are 1) The Writer, alone in 2) A Room, the clock really has no bearing. Does it?

You can still write at the same time every day (if that’s your thing) regardless of where the hands are pointing on the clock.

Despite the dreams of governments everywhere, it simply isn’t possible to create a longer blanket by cutting a foot off one end and sewing it to the other end.
***

Very odd hours today. I rolled out a little before midnight, was in the Hovel by the witching hour, and spent a little more time “waking up” than usual, then wrote everything above this.

As I turn to the novel (with my second mug of coffee at my right hand) it’s almost 2:30.

A good-enough day with a hair over 1400 words

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “Challenge Is On (Again)” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/challenge-is-on-again/.

See “New Method of Using Blood, and Lucky Charms, to Solve Crimes” at https://www.leelofland.com/new-method-of-using-blood-and-lucky-charms-to-solve-crimes/.

Fiction Words: 1407
Nonfiction Words: 830 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2237

Writing of Stern Talbot, PI: The Case of the Wayward Bullet (novel)

Day 1…… 2412 words. Total words to date…… 2412
Day 2…… 1563 words. Total words to date…… 3975
Day 3…… 1407 words. Total words to date…… 5382

Total fiction words for the month……… 19927
Total fiction words for the year………… 178985
Total nonfiction words for the month… 6730
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 57950
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 236935

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… 4
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 41
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31