In today’s Journal
* Despite the bluster
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Well, despite all the bluster, I didn’t start the next Gap novel yesterday. Probably today, maybe tomorrow or the next day. No biggie. It’ll come when it comes, and I’ve been doing this long enough not to be worried about it.
I’d rather not get too far behind the curve ball for the 80,000 words I need per month for the rest of the year to attain my ‘big’ goal, but if I do, I do. I’ve missed that particular goal before. The world didn’t end or anything.
I started a short story yesterday inspired by a painting hanging in the office. It’s titled “The Brown Door.” I wrote only about 700 words. I won’t count them at all unless the story takes off. If it does I’ll count the words then, and if it doesn’t I won’t.
I did check in on Wes, but he didn’t want to talk. I figure that’s all right. Even young spring roosters like him need to rest now and then, especially after riding through 5 novels in 5 months, vanquishing various and sundry bad guys and annoying normal folks.
So as I said, when Wes is ready again, or when any character wants to come out to play, I’ll be ready too. In the meantime, whatever happens is fine. Shrug.
For now I just have to focus on leaving the bad stuff behind. I’ll be back when I’m a writer again (i.e., when I’ve put some new words on the page in a fiction).
The good news is I’ve written 13 novels in the first 7 months of this year. That puts me on track for 22 novels this year total. That would be really cool.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Dealing with Writer’s Block” at https://mystorydoctor.com/dealing-with-writers-block/. I suppose this might be valid for some. Writer’s block doesn’t actually exist unless you allow it, but what Farland is talking about here is a good way to assess one possible cause of feeling “stuck” in your story.
See “The Secret Ingredient of a Commercially Successful Novel” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/the-secret-ingredient-of-a-commercially-successful-novel/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 320 words
Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for August……… 6933
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for August… 2530
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 148960
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 772242
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.