In today’s Journal
▪ Dean Wesley Smith
▪ Mea culpa
▪ Catching up
▪ Daily diary
▪ Of Interest (a boatload of links)
▪ The numbers
If you missed it, do yourself a valuable favor and watch the half-hour video at https://selfpublishingadviceconference.com/how-to-write-a-novel/.
Dean basically presents a masters class on writing fiction. I recommend you take notes. I did, and I also watched and listened to the video twice. It is incredible. I added this in several categories to my Writers Resources page.
And for one of the most excellent and shortest posts I’ve ever seen, see “A Reminder” at https://phillipmccollum.com/a-reminder/.
***
Oops. Even with all the hubub of me reminding all the contributors to be sure to pre-schedule their posts so there would be no glitches with Pro Writers Writing… there was a glitch.
My fault. My problem. My apologies.
In the midst of everything else, I forgot somehow to design an actual campaign for PWW. A “campaign” (I don’t like that word) is something I have to do behind the scenes so MailChimp can send posts on our behalf.
Thanks to Karen R. for letting me know she hadn’t received an email from PWW.
I rectified the problem this morning, as evidenced when I received a post from PWW at 7 a.m. (Yay!)
If you haven’t subscribed yet and you’d like to receive advice from a variety of sucessful indie writers and publishers, you can subscribe by clicking http://eepurl.com/gjwnWT.
***
To catch up over the past couple of days, as it turns out, this time of year the Lower Gila Box has little to recommend it unless you’re a penguin. (grin) The view, certainly, is specatular. But it’s there all the time.
I fell asleep late because it was so cold, though I still awoke at 4 a.m. And I awoke to a thick layer of ice (dew frozen from the night before) on my sleeping bag. Not good.
I was cold all night despite being fully clothed and with my heavy coat on inside my sleeping bag. A miserable night. Dan reported similar results.
But it was our own fault. There is no such thing as bad weather. There is only weather as perceived by humans who are inadequately prepared. (grin)
Anyway, to top off everything else, when I pulled out Hal2 and opened my WIP, I found it hadn’t saved all of Saturday’s writing, something over 3,000 words. GASP!
It’s saved in my Dropbox, but apparently I’d already packed Hal2 for the trip, so it didn’t update on Hal2.
Fortunately, my brain was functioning just well enough that I was able to remember the sentence of the last scene I’d written. (grin)
So on Sunday after my fingers thawed out (I’m not kidding) I quickly wrote that line in all caps across the bottom of the version of the WIP that I had with me. Then I started on the continuation of that scene. I rounded out that chapter and the next one. (grin)
Sunday, as it turned out, and Sunday night and Monday were wonderful. Very temperate, no wind to speak of, etc.
I didn’t write at all on Monday. Not long after we got up, we packed, went into town for coffee and breakfast, and then headed west.
So my total fiction writing for the trip consisted of just over 1500 words. I thought about writing more after I got back on Monday, but it was noon and I was tired and I had follow-up chores to do. So back to writing today. You’ll see the results below.
I’ll get back into my routine as the days ensue.
***
Slow start this morning, but that was to be expected. Like anyone getting back into a routine, I had a lot of things to do. In my case, a lot of reading for myself and for “Of Interest.” (grin)
I rolled out a little after 3 a.m., read the email from Karen and went to MailChimp to create an actual campaign for PWW (duh). Then as I waited to find out whether I’d fixed the problem, I looked around the internet for items of interest and added them below.
Then at 5 as I was about to open the WIP, I remembered I had two versions: the original and the one I used in the field. Naturally, I forgot to change the filename of the field version. Remembering that this morning created yet another tense moment.
Fortunately, good luck prevailed. Word had saved one as a “conflicted copy.” (They have no idea how appropriate that word “conflicted” was.) So I was able to mesh the two without having lost anything. (Whew!)
I need more coffee.
After that I waited around until 7 a.m. to see whether MailChimp would send out today’s PWW post. If it did (fingers crossed) I’d go to the WIP. If it didn’t, I’d go back to MailChimp, do more there, then go to the WIP.
AND IT POSTED! A few minutes after 7 a.m., an email from PWW appeared in my inbox! I can’t tell you how relieved I was. (grin)
Then I took a break up to the house to catch my breath and spend a little time with my bride before she heads off to work.
I was about to go to the WIP (again) at 9 a.m. when a topic occurred to me. So I wrote that. It will be in tomorrow’s Journal. This one’s more than long enough. (grin)
Finally to the WIP at 10 a.m. I’ll begin by cycling through the last 5,000 words or so, then take off from there.
Not a good fiction writing day at all. Finally through cycling (with breaks) and I think I’m through for the day. I’m tired. I added just over 700 words and greatly enhanced the main action scene.
Back at it tomorrow.
Of Interest
See “Emotion Workshop…A Sample” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/emotion-workshop-a-sample/.
See “Get Grammatical or Get Lost” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/03/get-grammatical-or-get-lost.html. I’ve been teaching the same thing for twenty or thirty years. (grin) And I recommend reading the comments. There are a ton of them.
See “Terminology for the Savvy Crime Writer: Abrasion Collars to the Rare Cadaveric Spasm” at https://www.leelofland.com/terminology-for-the-savvy-crime-writer-abrasion-collars-to-the-rare-cadaveric-spasm/.
See “Words. They’re Important to Your Readers. Use Them Wisely” at https://www.leelofland.com/words-theyre-important-to-your-readers-use-them-wisely/.
See “The Ordinary Detective” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/03/the-ordinary-detective.html.
See “How to Get Your First Speaking Gigs” at https://www.novelmarketing.com/178/. To “get new episodes of Novel Marketing delivered to an app on your phone,” you can subscribe at https://www.novelmarketing.com/add-this-podcast/.
See “Power of a Streak…2,417” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/power-of-a-streak-2417/.
See “Golden Donut Short Story Contest” at https://www.writerspoliceacademy.com/golden-donut-writing-contest/. (Be sure to read the very restrictive and weird rules. Seriously, “don’t” is two words?)
See “Behind the Scenes of Silent Mayhem + Giveaway!” at https://www.suecoletta.com/behind-the-scenes-of-silent-mayhem-giveaway/.
Fiction Words: 731
Nonfiction Words: 1116 (Journal)
FTotal words for the day: 1847
Writing of Blackwell Ops 5: Georgette Tilden (novel)
Day 1…… 2494 words. Total words to date…… 2494
Day 2…… 3107 words. Total words to date…… 5601
Day 3…… 3076 words. Total words to date…… 8677
Day 4…… 1515 words. Total words to date…… 10192
Day 5…… 0731 words. Total words to date…… 10923
Total fiction words for the month……… 34003
Total fiction words for the year………… 193061
Total nonfiction words for the month… 15380
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 66600
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 259661
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