In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Musing on Autumn in southeast Arizona
* Short stories abound
* Dialect revisited (lightly)
* Writers of the Future contest
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“[Y]ou have hopes and then you plan to fulfill them by doing things in the present: that’s utopian thinking. Meanwhile, you have middle-of-the-night fears that everything is falling apart, that it’s not going to work. And that’s dystopian thinking. So there’s nothing special going on in science fiction thinking. It’s something that we’re all doing all the time.” World-renowned science fiction novelist Kim Stanley Robinson
Autumn is rapidly becoming my favorite time of year. It’s cool enough in the morning that I can wear my sweats, but warm enough later in the day that I can change into shorts and a t-shirt. The morning walk is comfortable and each day is filled with possibilities.
As an added bonus, my Hovel, with its 3-foot thick adobe walls, is warm in the morning and cool later in the day. As near perfection as I could ask.
Well, I’m writing again. For whatever reason, a rush of short stories have flooded through my head and so far I’ve managed to get them on paper. Three short stories in the past two days, and probably more to come today and, I hope, through the rest of the month.
On Friday (as I reported) I wrote “Five Tight Indians,” a memoir/story of just over 2700 words. Then yesterday, I wrote two, both very twisted tales: “At the Moment” for 2557 words and “A Gesture of Frienship” for 4073 words. Yesterday was a great day at over 6500 words on the day.
None of these want to be novels, but I don’t mind. Both of the last two stories seem to fit under a phrase I took from “At the Moment.” The phrase was “dark scenarios.” So probably sometime or other I’ll publish a collection called Dark Scenarios, and I’ll brand each story in that collection as “a Dark Scenarios short story.”
Interesting. Makes me wonder how my brain comes up with some of this stuff. And frankly, it frightens me a little. But not enough to make me stop writing them.
If you read my recent post on dialect and were at all interested, I urge you to read the comments. They and my response are illustrative of the fact that dialect is difficult to write well. They’re even more illustrative of the fact that you must remember there’s a reader on the other side of the page as you’re writing.
From David Farland, “Please note that we are nearing the end of the quarter for the Writers of the Future Contest, one of the world’s largest short-story contests. You could win thousands of dollars in cash and prices for your submissions! Check it out at www.writersofthefuture.com.”
Talk with you again when I can.
Of Interest
See “Publish 100 Cat Stories” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/publish-100-cat-stories/.
See “Fun With Bloopers” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/09/fun-with-bloopers.html.
See “How Science Fiction Works” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/__trashed/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 500 words
Writing of “At the Moment” (short story)
Day 1…… 2557 words. Total words to date…… 2557 (done)
Writing of “A Gesture of Friendship” (short story)
Day 1…… 4073 words. Total words to date…… 4073 (done)
Writing of Body on the Beach (novel, working title)
Day 1…… 1135 words. Total words to date…… 1135
Day 1…… 1409 words. Total words to date…… 2544
Total fiction words for the month……… 17162
Total fiction words for the year………… 332445
Total nonfiction words for the month… 11380
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 148950
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 481395
Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 5
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 12
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 50
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 211
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31