In today’s Journal
▪ A great day
▪ There’s a great writing-book bundle
▪ Thoughts on Realizations and Legacies
▪ Daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers
I had a great day yesterday in Sierra Vista. I bought some new jeans that are actually blue, don’t have frayed cuffs and aren’t falling off me. (grin)
I also bought a few items to outfit my 4Runner for upcoming camping trips, got a haircut, and bought some other stuff. Topped it off with a visit to my favorite burger joint.
It was a necessary trip, but if I’d tried to write plus do all that, the whole thing would have been pressured and neither the writing nor the shopping trip would have been fun and relaxing. Like I said, it was a great day.
I hope yours was too.
***
There’s a great writing book bundle out. I bought it just to get Kris’ new book and Kevin J. Anderson’s boxed set (mostly for the book on collaboration).
For only $15, you can get 12 books on writing plus a lecture from DWS on how to carve out time to write. You can find the bundle at https://storybundle.com/writing.
***
Thoughts on Realizations and Legacies
Yesterday I took a day off, and it taught me something, or helped me realize something I hadn’t thought of before.
Sometime or other I’ve settled comfortably into being a novelist. Others probably realized that before I did. In a way, it’s odd that the realization didn’t strike me until I’d written and published over 40 novels.
But in another way, I understand it.
Through the first probably 30 or so novels and novellas, I was more or less frantic.
I could only barely wait to get back to the story of Wes Crowley when I was away from it. At the same time, between Crowley novels, I was also frantic to branch out.
I tried my hand at writing science fiction and science fantasy, both “they come here” and “we go there.” I wrote detective novels and war novels and crime novels and PI novels, both contemporary and dated noir. Romance worked its way into my repertoire, and even a bit of erotica for awhile.
The feeling through all of that was that it all might come to a screeching halt at any moment. Not that I might suddenly go off-planet or anything like that, but that the words or the ability to come up with ideas might desert me.
That’s about the time I also realized a truism for professional writers: that it isn’t important what what I write, meaning no one story was any more “special” or any more important than any other story.
The only thing that mattered was that I keep writing. If I wanted to leave a legacy as a writer, I had to consciously make writing my number one priority.
And then somewhere along the line that settled into the realization that writing WAS my number one priority. It must be, because even when I’m not writing, the current or next story is uppermost in my mind.
Not that I’m taking the words or ideas for granted now, but I DO know now that I can take off for a day, enjoy myself in other pursuits, and that the stories will be waiting for me when I come back.
It’s a relaxing, comforting feeling, and I consider myself fortunate to be in this position.
Now, even when I’m occasionally faced with the possibility of going off-planet, I know my stories and novels and poems and knowledge won’t. All of those things will be around long after I’ve stopped “being” at all.
And that’s a relaxing, comforting feeling too.
***
Rolled out early as usual this morning and did all my normal stuff. I cycled through what I wrote yesterday and added bits here and there.
Also answering emails back and forth with a possible mentoring client, so the going is a bit slow, but no worries there. The novel is moving along fine.
Today mostly I cycled through old scenes to correct a glitch.
Talk with you again tomorrow.
Of Interest
See Alison Holt’s “Listen with a writer’s ear” at http://prowriterswriting.com/listen-with-a-writers-ear/.
See Neil Gaiman’s “It’s been a while…” at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2019/04/its-been-while.html. Not specifically about writing but very interesting. And he’s thinking about posting to his blog more regularly again now.
See “First Page Critique: Coyotes” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/04/first-page-critique-coyotes.html. I almost didn’t list this one. See what you think.
Fiction Words: 1202
Nonfiction Words: 750 (Journal)
Total words for the day: 1952
Writing of Blackwell Ops 6: Charlie Task (novel)
Day 1…… 2774 words. Total words to date…… 2774
Day 2…… 1776 words. Total words to date…… 4550
Day 3…… 4190 words. Total words to date…… 8740
Day 4…… 2662 words. Total words to date…… 11402
Day 5…… 2087 words. Total words to date…… 13489
Day 6…… 2220 words. Total words to date…… 15709
Day 7…… 1202 words. Total words to date…… 16911
Total fiction words for the month……… 26949
Total fiction words for the year………… 2444750
Total nonfiction words for the month… 20760
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 97830
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 342580
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 5
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 42
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 193
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31