The Journal: Fiction Lengths and Much More

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* A Brief Introspection
* A reminder
* A heads-up
* Fiction lengths
* Fairly good day
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Marilyn Strathern

If you set a solid goal, chances are you will fall short. You want something to reach for, not something to obtain.

“Most readers will subliminally appreciate the specificity even if they don’t know the reference.” James Scott Bell

“No pressure, no diamonds. Little pressure, little diamonds. Great pressure, great diamonds.” Matshona Dhliwayo

“Books do tend to end up the length they want to be.” Lincoln Michel

A Brief Introspection

Yesterday I talked a little here about Wholeness vs. holiness and how I used to teach a retreat and course called Observation for Writers based on that concept.

While teaching that concept, I soon realized I had over estimated humans’ ability to be open minded. Many humans (if not most) will revert to the tried and untrue (what doesn’t work) rather than strike out in an exciting, possibly minimally frightening new direction that challenges what passes for common wisdom. One more flaw that can be dismissed as “human nature.”

Anyway, after I posted the Journal yesterday I began to wonder why I still talk about and try to teach writing into the dark. Humans will resist anything that threatens their preconceptions. And who am I to try to get them to resist?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not going to stop spreading the joy of WITD. I’m not a “I’ve got mine, you go find yours” kind of guy. But it’s an interesting idea to ponder.

Just a reminder to all of you who support this blog with your generous contributions each month: You have rewards due if you want them according to which tier you signed up for. To check, take a look at https://hestanbrough.com/become-a-patron/.

But you have to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and let me know each month which rewards, if any, you want. I wouldn’t presume to guess which genres you like, which nonfiction books you don’t have yet, and so on.

So let me know what you’d like (and please indicate whether you want them in Kindle, Apple/Nook or PDF) and I’ll ship them straight out to you. And the same goes for my first readers. Pretty much anything you want, any time you want it. Thanks for your support! Harvey

A heads-up: Lee Child will have a conversation with Laurie R. King on Facebook Live about How to Write a Mystery to promote their new book by the same name.

That event will happen on Monday, April 26 at 8 p.m. CDT. According to the screenshot my friend Robert S. sent me, it’s free for anyone “on or off Facebook.” But there was no URL listed on the screenshot, so you’ll have to do a little research.

There’s a post in “Of Interest” today about the lengths of novels, novellas, etc. Because my books sell around the world where such lengths fluctuate, I’ll stick to my tried and true method of gauging length.

Short-short story: Up to 1199 words
Short story: 2000 to 7999
Novelette (long short story): 8000 to 14,999
Novella: 15,000 to 24,999
Short novel: 25,000 to 44,999
Novel: 45,000 to 79,999
Long novel: over 80,000 words

And yes (taking genre into account) there are price points associated with all of those.

Had a fairly good day of writing yesterday, and it looks like The Origins of Rider Jones will be at least a novella. It’s already a novelette (long short story), so it’s looking good.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “The 2021 Guide to Manuscript Publishers” at https://authorspublish.com/free-book-the-2021-guide-to-manuscript-publishers/. From AuthorsPublish.com.

See “A Long Post about Short Stories (and Magazines)” at https://countercraft.substack.com/p/a-long-post-about-short-stories-and.

See “New Workshop Sale” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/new-workshop-sale/.

See “Using Pop Culture References in Fiction” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/04/using-pop-culture-references-in-fiction.html.

See “Novels and Novellas and Tomes” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/novels-and-novellas-and-tomes/.

See “Outcry over book ‘censorship’ reveals how online retailers choose books — or don’t” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/outcry-over-book-censorship-reveals-how-online-retailers-choose-books-or-dont/. From the Washington Post, so severely slanted. But see PG’s take.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 670 words

Writing of The Origins of Rider Jones (short story, maybe longer)

Day 1…… 4293 words. Total words to date…… 4293
Day 2…… 2458 words. Total words to date…… 6751
Day 3…… 3722 words. Total words to date…… 10473

Total fiction words for April……… 66201
Total fiction words for the year………… 353278
Total nonfiction words for April… 14730
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 82130
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 435408

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.