The Daily Journal, Tuesday, May 7

In today’s Journal

▪ Sign up for this!
▪ Rare Photos!
▪ Topic: To Share Something Interesting
▪ Daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers

Penny Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts is conducting a fee webinar on Marketing on May 16 at 11 a.m. It’s hosted in collaboration with Draft2Digital.

Be sure to register. Penny will email a recording of the event to all registrants even if they can’t attend live.

Sign up at https://www.amarketingexpert.com/marketing-basics-and-beyond-webinar-draft2digital.
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Recently unearthed! An actual photo of my creative voice!

And to give him equal time, here’s a pic of my critical voice:

Any questions?
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Topic: To Share Something Interesting

I have a feeling the writing of In the Cantina at Noon is going to take awhile, not only to write but to start. What’s weird about that is that I don’t mind. I’m too excited to mind. And today I found out I’m actually doubly excited. (grin)

For one thing, I get to spend some quality time in a cantina with my old buddy Wes Crowley again.

For another, I’m starting over on the WIP to appease my two year-old subconscious (see the guy in the pic above).

As you can probably tell from the pic, the little guy’s excited. He’s all over the place. Here’s why:

When I wrote the opening for In the Cantina at Noon, I wrote it in what English teachers would call third-person limited omniscient.

That’s also how I wrote the 10-novel series that precedes this story, so it felt natural. But I’ve learned a lot since the origianl saga ended, not to mention how much I’ve learned since I started the first book.

So when I was about 4,000 words into the WIP, my two year old tugged on my sleeve. “Hey, how about letting the characters tell the story?”

I shrugged him off. “I am.”

“No, I mean how about letting them tell the story directly. How about setting that narrator in the corner and letting Wes and the others speak for themselves? Or don’t you trust them?”

Well, you probably know how a two year old can nag. Besides, he was making sense and wearing a S&W Model 19 Combat Magnum. So who am I to argue?

So I saved the WIP with a slightly different file name and started through it again, changing from third-person blah blah blah to first-person with alternating POV characters.

Interesting. I’ve written several first-person POV stories and novels, but never one with alternating viewpoints.

Intellectually, I know it can be done. More importantly, I’m confident I can do it. Though frankly the thought of it is a little scary. Since I haven’t done it this way before, it’s an experiment. I’m taking a major risk, and that’s got my adrenaline pumping. (See my post over on the big site today.)

So I’m not only excited to get to spend time with my old friend Wes again, but as a writer I’m excited to get to try something that, for me, is brand new.

Honestly, I’m so excited that it was all I could do to come here and share this as a topic. (grin) I hope it helps you in some way.
***

Rolled out at 3 this morning after catching up on my sleep. Wrote a little on the WIP, had a revelation, wrote the stuff above and took a break a little before 6. When I come back, it’s straight to the WIP.

And straight to the WIP it was. Mostly cycling through the new version. I think it’s going to work out well.

Interesting how much more of the story comes through (and more cleanly) when it comes diretly from the character in first-person POV. This was a revelation for me too. It pretty much guarantees I’ll never write in third-person again except possibly in prologues.

Anyway, despite my excitement, I cycled/wrote in one-hour segments, taking time every hour for a break, sometimes to do other off-computer things.

Talk with you again tomorrow.

Of Interest

See “Week Three Great Challenge” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/week-three-great-challenge/. Scroll down, too, to see an example of writing sales copy.

See “Things We Can Learn
From Good Openings In Movies” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/05/its-a-gas-things-we-can-learnfrom-good-openings-in-movies.html.

See “Writers Need Adventure — Don’t They?” at https://harveystanbrough.com/pro-writers/writers-need-adventure-dont-they/.

Fiction Words: 1876
Nonfiction Words: 700 (Journal)
Total words for the day: 2576

Writing of In the Cantina at Noon (novel)

Day 1…… 1538 words. Total words to date…… 1538
Day 2…… 2456 words. Total words to date…… 3994
Day 3…… 1876 words. Total words to date…… 5870

Total fiction words for the month……… 5870
Total fiction words for the year………… 267340
Total nonfiction words for the month… 8300
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 120160
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 387500

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 6
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 193
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31