In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Welp, I’m back
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“The writer who thinks the whole purpose of writing is suffering isn’t one I’m much interested in. The one that tells a story for the joy of telling it is the one I’m interested in.” Joe Lansdale
“All I want is a story. If you want to send a message, call Western Union.” Samuel Goldwyn
Writing this yesterday (Wednesday) about an hour and a half after I got back to get a jump on the Journal for tomorrow.
Got back from a tiring, emotional trip yesterday afternoon and caught up as well as I could on emails. Still some to go through but mostly stuff I have to read this morning before I post the Journal (Passive Guy, David Farland, et al).
I took a computer with me on the off-chance I would add to the story about The Origins of Rider Jones while I was gone, but I didn’t. Monday was all driving. Only 8 hours, but there’s nothing “only” about it anymore. Straight to the hotel for a little TV and then sleep.
Tuesday was filled (other than a very nice “visiting” lunch with my daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters over excellent Mexican food) with going through my mother’s house and taking what we didn’t want to lose to anyone else. We were the last to show up, which was fine. What we wanted was still there.
And yesterday was another 8 hours of driving, then unloading the back seat and bed of my pickup after we got back.
Anyway, it’s good to be back (as it always is) and after I file this edition of the Journal I plan to spend the balance of the day writing. That will feel very good too.
I listed no links today from The Passive Voicehttp://www.thepassivevoice.com/ but there are a lot of articles there that might be of interest to some of you.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Shut Up And Write Stories” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/04/shut-up-and-write-stories.html. GREAT article.
See “Writing Quote From Joe Lansdale” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/writing-quote-from-joe-lansdale/. Several great quotes in fact. Almost made me want to get back on Facebook if only to read more from Joe Lansdale.
See “Joe R. Lansdale on Austin Liti Limits” at https://vimeo.com/527039659. About a 25-minute video.
See “Here Are The Words You Need To Kill, She Advised Ruthlessly” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/04/here-are-the-words-you-needto-kill-she-advised-ruthlessly.html.
See “The Day Uneducated Men Fell From the Sky: A Writing Faux-Pas” at https://leelofland.com/the-day-uneducated-men-fell-from-the-sky-a-writing-faux-pas/.
See “Jim Steinman” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/jim-steinman/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 410 words
Writing of The Origins of Rider Jones (short story, maybe longer)
Day 1…… 4293 words. Total words to date…… 4293
Total fiction words for April……… 60021
Total fiction words for the year………… 347098
Total nonfiction words for April… 12310
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 79710
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 426808
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 61
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 WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.