In today’s Journal
* Topic: A Gentle Reminder
* Fiction Lengths
* The Numbers
Topic: A Gentle Reminder
A gentle reminder today not to believe every bit of every article you read about writing. Better to consider each statement and question posed in such articles, then assign each a value.
The values I assign personally range from Valid on the high end to Maybe Useful in the middle to PBS on the low end, and I’m not talking about the television network. In my rating system the P stands for “Pure” and the B stands for “Bat” or “Bull,” your choice. Feel free to use my rating system if you wish, or devise your own.
For me, both “Writing to Escape” and “Focus on Short Fiction” in today’s “Of Interest” have a Valid point or two and several points that slide quickly to the low end of my personal scale. I included links to the posts here because every writer is different and your test results might vary.
Actually, I was overwhelmed with a flood of topics for blog posts by each of those articles. Most notably from the first, in response to the key question “Do you ever write just to escape?” I left a comment: “Every single day.”
I did not elaborate or question or comment on anything else in the article. The target was far too easy, and my time’s too valuable to waste verbal bullets. Besides, doing so would be like shooting a real gun into a pile of mush. It would have no visible effect.
I could have argued endlessly with almost every point made in the second article too. But again, I chose one question (because it was so inane I felt as if I’d been slapped) from the article: “[D]o you know anyone your age who has earned a decent hourly wage for a short story?” Again, I left a comment. When I left the site the comment was being held for moderation, so it might get through and it might not:
“If the definition of ‘a decent hourly wage’ would include the neighborhood of $100 per hour (in my world, that’s a very nice neighborhood), then the answer is a resounding, ‘Yes, many.’
“And that includes pretty much every writer I know who sells a short story to a magazine or anthology, then gets the rights back (usually 6 months after publication), and puts the story out independently so it can keep earning more money.”
And I was struck with a personally deflating observation: So very much in life is based on common sense, which today seems an uncommon luxury for so many. Sigh.
But it’s all right. Very soon I will escape back into my current novel.
Fiction Lengths
Because another writer brought up the topic, here are the fiction lengths to which I ascribe personally. They do not fit with traditional publishing’s price-point and folio-driven lengths for pricing. They are more in line with fiction lengths around the world:
Flash fiction is up to 99 words, including the title. (I publish these only as fillers or in collections.)
A short-short story is 100 to 1999 words.
A short story is 2000 to 6999 words.
A novelette is 7000 to 14,999 words.
A novella is 15,000 to 24,999 words.
A short novel is 25,000 to 39,999 words.
A novel is 40,000 to 69,999 words.
A long novel is everything over 70,000 words.
All are a boatload of fun and an enjoyable escape.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Writing to Escape” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/02/writing-to-escape.html.
See “Focus on Short Fiction” at https://writerunboxed.com/2021/02/27/focus-on-short-fiction/.
See “Burning Books: Akram Aylisli on Literature and Cultural Memory” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/burning-books-akram-aylisli-on-literature-and-cultural-memory/. There are people in America today who advocate burning books and finding other ways to erase thoughts they don’t like.
See “My Publishing Values” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/my-publishing-values/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 620 words
Writing of The Journey Home: Part 7 (novel)
Day 1…… 6065 words. Total words to date…… 6065
Day 2…… 3887 words. Total words to date…… 9952
Day 3…… 3170 words. Total words to date…… 13122
Day 4…… 3862 words. Total words to date…… 16984
Day 5…… 3905 words. Total words to date…… 20889
Day 6…… 2845 words. Total words to date…… 23734
Day 7…… 2480 words. Total words to date…… 26214
Day 8…… 2857 words. Total words to date…… 29071
Day 9…… 3249 words. Total words to date…… 32320
Total fiction words for February……… 98262
Total fiction words for the year………… 195379
Total nonfiction words for February… 20700
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 46030
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 241769
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 57
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates it both regularly and publicly, I will continue to do so.