The Journal, Friday, 6/30

Hey Folks,

Yay! The last day of what turned out to be a major transition month for me. At least as far as life and websites go.

This morning I realized there’s a glitch in my challenge plans.

The challenge is to write a short story every day “in public,” meaning I’ll post it scene by scene over at hstanbrough.com.

But sometimes a story grows into a novel. I usually recognize a budding novel at around the two-thirds point of a story. Last month, in only 8 stories, two also wanted to be novels.

That made me wonder, for a short time, whether maybe I should delay the postings. Maybe wait to begin posting a scene at a time until I’m sure the story will wrap as a short story.

Then I realized that’s my conscious mind again, coming through a side door to try to shut down the process. Silly.

I still wrote 8 short stories last month. I was able to wrap them as stories, so there was no interruption in the process.

So I’ll go with scene by scene in real time and let the chips plop where they wanna.

I’ll also have to work out a schedule, a routine, as I go. The Hovel is out for now. Too hot. So we’ll see what happens in that regard. That’s another major change for me.

Today, and Writing

I rose late, did Facebook and email, wrote the stuff above and started the water on the yard.

I cast about for awhile for story ideas, but nothing came to me. I was still searching old files and my brain when noon rolled around.

I guess the calendar matters more to me than I thought it did. Shrug. So I’ll start the challenge tomorrow.

It’s kind of funny, really. I wrote a book called Writing Great Beginnings, but I’m having trouble coming up with a beginning (an opening line). Go figure.

Anyway, I’ll use the balance of today exercising my idea muscle, getting back into the routine of allowing story ideas to come to me.

Actually, I wrote fiction only 15 days this month and still exceeded 45,000 words of fiction for the month. Somehow I’m okay with that. (grin)

See you tomorrow.

Of Interest

A great post if you’re interested in how to plan for a challenge. See “Just Getting Ready For July” at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/just-getting-ready-for-july/.

If you’re interested in Orwellian horror/sf come to life, check out “Netherlands Considers Euthanasia…” at http://thefederalist.com/2017/06/30/netherlands-considers-euthanasia-healthy/.

For yet another eye-opener re Amazon, see “Amazon Has a Fake Book Problem” at https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/2017/06/03/amazon-has-a-fake-book-problem/. (Thanks, Alison.)

Alison also introduced me to David Gaughran’s Let’s Get Digital website. Just remember to take any advice with a grain of salt: https://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/start-here/.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 430 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 430

Writing of

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

Total fiction words for the month……… 45050
Total fiction words for the year………… 337957
Total nonfiction words for the month… 17850
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 107830
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 445787

The Daily Journal blog streak……………………………………… 582 days
Calendar Year 2017 Novel Goal (15 novels or novellas)………………… 7 novels or novellas
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 25
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 176