The Daily Journal, Tuesday, February 19

In today’s Journal

▪ Please read this, and update on PWW
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers

Please read this.

Looking back, I wish I’d set up this blog with only an excerpt via email from the beginning. Folks are just more likely to comment on the blog if they’re reading it on the website itself.

Of course, I tried the experiment of going to a click-through model with the Journal, but most respondents didn’t like it, so I switched back.

And don’t get me wrong. I don’t blame them.

The format of the Journal isn’t conducive to excerpts. For example, I don’t write a topic every day, and even when I do, the Journal is titled in a way that doesn’t display the topic.

So to the recipient of the email, it looks like same ol’, same ol’.

I won’t go to an excerpt-only email for the big blog over at HarveyStanbrough.com either, primarily because email subscriptions go through MailChimp and it isn’t friendly to excerpts.

But I’m changing that one (today) to display only excerpts on the home page. Then if readers want to read a particular full post, they have to click through to read it.

The benefit of this is obvious, and if you visit my big blog today (https://harveystanbrough.com), you’ll see that benefit. Instead of seeing one long post, you will see excerpts from the current post plus the previous nine posts. It makes for a great browsing experience.

So lessons learned.

1. The PWW blog will be available for subscription vie email and RSS, but both will be handled through a plugin called JetPack, which allows for a better experience with excerpts vs. MailChimp.

2. The PWW blog will show only an excerpt via email. If the excerpt interests the subscriber, s/he will click through to read the entire post (and I hope, leave a comment).

3. Like most professional blogs I follow, the PWW blog will also show only excerpts on the blog page at the main site. So those who wander by can read a few excerpts and cherry-pick what they want to read in full.

Finally, I’m still reaching out, striving to find a few more regular contributors who are enchanted-by and devoted-to indie writing and publishing. Those for whom writing is a main priority.

If you know of any such writers, please email me with that person’s website URL. A cadre like that, I believe, is essential for a blog of this kind to succeed.

My goal is to get seven such writers lined up to post regularly on Monday through Sunday every week. At present, I have six, including me. But I want to have seven, not including me.

Then everyone else, including myself, will be relegated to “guest contributor” status. There, they (we) will occasionally share posts but we won’t have the pressure of having to post every week.

This will be better for those who are less experienced. Not having to blog every week will leave them more time for writing fiction. And it will be better for those who are more experienced but hyper busy writing the next book.

The reader will see the title and the accompanying excerpt, and if it interests them, they will click Read More (or something similar), which will take them to the full blog post.

Then, if the post moves them in some way, we hope they will leave a comment or question. Comments on posts drive the popularity of those posts and of the websites themselves.

Pro Writers Writing will always be free, like both of my blogs, at least as long as I’m running it. But it will also be an invaluable resource for indie writers, both those who post and those who read it.

The PWW blog won’t even ask for donations or contributions, so asking for readers to leave a comment doesn’t seem like such an unreasonable request.

Again, the appeal: if you know of any indie writers out there whom you believe would make a good regular (or guest) blogger, please email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com with that writer’s information.
***

There are two items in “Of Interest” today about the Superstars Writing Conference. I posted them in case you might be interested.

However, for $1 (one dollar) more you can attend the annual Master Business Class in Las Vegas with Dean Wesley Smith and a lot of other instructors and it’s ALL geared toward indie writers and publishers.

Just sayin’.

Finished the novel today, so I’m on track with the challenge. Tomorrow I start a new one. (grin)

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “More Challenges Faced by Indie Authors” at https://donmassenzio.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/more-challenges-faced-by-indie-authors/.

See “Real Las Vegas Workshops Deadlines” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/real-las-vegas-workshops-deadlines/. Even if you don’t read the rest, scroll down to the paragraph that begins with “So for 2020, what I am stunned about….”

See “MISSION CRITICAL: A Conversation with Mark Greaney” at https://therealbookspy.com/2019/02/17/mission-critical-a-conversation-with-mark-greaney/.

See “Sci-Fi Author Robert Heinlein Was Basically MacGyver” at https://www.wired.com/2019/02/geeks-guide-gregory-benford/. Thanks to Robert C. in California for the heads-up.

See “Critique” at https://tonydwritespulp.com/2019/02/18/critique/.

See “Story Structure – Superstars Recap 2” at https://terryodell.com/story-structure-superstars-recap-2/. I mention this, but I emphasize you shouldn’t be thinking about these things (consciously) while you’re writing. All stories have these structures naturally. All of this stuff comes from “deconstruction.”

Also see “Superstars Writing Conference” at https://lindamayeadams.com/2019/02/19/superstars-writing-conference/.

See “Free Fiction Monday: Scars” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/02/18/free-fiction-monday-scars/.

Fiction Words: 3190
Nonfiction Words: 900 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 4090

Writing of Blackwell Ops 3: Marie Arceneaux (novel)

Day 10… 5757 words. Total words to date…… 31706
Day 11… 0775 words. Total words to date…… 32481
Day 12… 3747 words. Total words to date…… 36228
Day 13… 3085 words. Total words to date…… 39313
Day 14… 1315 words. Total words to date…… 40628
Day 15… 3270 words. Total words to date…… 43898
Day 16… 3190 words. Total words to date…… 47088 (done)

Total fiction words for the month……… 50210
Total fiction words for the year………… 133613
Total nonfiction words for the month… 17200
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 42610
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 176223

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… 3
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 40
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31