The Journal: Checking In

In today’s Journal

* Writing lags
* Carmelita Ramos
* Kill Zone blog
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Writing Lags

I was recently reminded that only last year I had a four-month (May through August) lag in writing. Weird how the mind forgets things like that. Here I was thinking this is the longest I’ve gone without the ability to write, but that just isn’t true. I’m currently only about six weeks into my current lag, and it’s for a much better reason. So I’m going to try to not worry about it so much and just wait it out.

That said, I can feel my superpowers returning. (grin) Joking aside, thanks for continuing to be there. Your support means everything.

Carmelita Ramos

Apparently Carmelita Ramos will appear in the next short story or novel I write. She popped into my head one day, and she actually said, “Write me down.” So I wrote her name down. Surely that’s what she meant. Write down her name so I wouldn’t forget it.

But that wasn’t it. She wants me to literally write her. Not her name. Her. Should be interesting. I guess we’ll see.

I was actually mentioned by name in the Kill Zone blog post this morning about Pixar’s Rules for storytelling. Cool.

Talk with you again later.

Of Interest

See “Pixar’s 22 Storytelling Rules” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/09/pixars-22-storytelling-rules.html.

See “Coming Up With New Stretch Awards” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/coming-up-with-new-stretch-awards/ and see the comments.

See “Amazon A+ Content” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/09/amazon-a-content.html.

See “Viktor Frankl on the Human Search for Meaning” at https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/03/26/viktor-frankl-mans-search-for-meaning/. After reading this, I bought Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which according to the article, he wrote “in 9 consecutive days.” That’s an average of around 5000 words per day.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 280 words

Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for August……… XXXX
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for August… 4590
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 159810
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 783092

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
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.