The Journal: Good Stuff and Bad Stuff

In today’s Journal

* First, Happy Easter
* Yesterday
* Today
* If you want to learn
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

First, Happy Easter. Whatever it means to you, I hope it’s an enjoyable day.

Yesterday, again I wrote only a little over 1000 words (see Day 6 below). We took an early drive to Sierra Vista mostly to get out of the house. We also had an enjoyable walk down along the San Pedro River. The pic is a selfie Mona took with her phone. That part of the day was wonderful.

Then things went wrong. Almost immediately upon our return my cat caused irreversible harm to a hummingbird. Of course, the little hummer didn’t understand.

I won’t describe the injury for you (and didn’t even tell my wife about it) because I don’t want to put the picture in your mind. Suffice it to say it’s the stuff horror novels are made of. It was bad enough that despite King’s advice to write what horrifies you I will never write it even in a fiction.

I’ll just say that on a scale of 1–10, this was an 11. By comparison, a deranged person with a set of lopping shears standing over a crib in which a baby is wailing and kicking her arms and legs is maybe a 4.

I put the little bird out of its misery, an emotionally traumatic experience, and didn’t write for the rest of the day. I’ve been through this sort of thing enough to know I needed to sit, do nothing, and let the image seep out of my mind. Not a good day.

Today, however, is a new day. The image is still in my mind (will be for a few more days), but it’s faded enough to let me focus on other things. So I will escape into my novel.

If you want to learn to write openings, either take Dean’s Writing with Depth online workshop or just check out my book, Writing the Character Driven Story. You can find it in any e-format at https://www.books2read.com/u/bQLXP4. Chances are it will save you a lot of money.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Card Sharp Silver… Day 16” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/card-sharp-silver-day-16/. I can relate.

See “Thanks to Bookshop, There Is No Reason to Buy Books on Amazon Anymore” at https://www.insidehook.com/article/bookshop-independent-bookstores-amazon. What’s this unreasoning hatred of Amazon? And Bookshop won’t allow indie authors to upload books to them, so why should I support them?

See “Almost Everything About Goodreads Is Broken” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/almost-everything-about-goodreads-is-broken-2/.

See “US Senate IP Chief Questions Internet Archive’s ‘National Emergency Library’” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/us-senate-ip-chief-questions-internet-archives-national-emergency-library/.

See “A Story in One Sentence” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/a-story-in-one-sentence/.

See “This Week in the Blogs, April 3 – 9, 2020” at https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2020/04/this-week-in-the-blogs-april-3-9-2020/. Several good, worthwhile articles. Take from them what you need.

See “Storytelling Lessons in 60 Seconds or Less” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/04/storytelling-lessons-in-60-seconds-or-less-2.html.

See “Adding Texture to Your Stories” at https://prowriterswriting.com/adding-texture-to-your-stories/.

The Numbers

Fiction words yesterday…………………… 1248
Nonfiction words today…………… 470 (Journal)

Writing of For the Good of the Galaxy (novel)

Day 1…… 2645 words. Total words to date…… 2645
Day 2…… 2573 words. Total words to date…… 5218
Day 3…… 3604 words. Total words to date…… 8822
Day 4…… 2958 words. Total words to date…… 11780
Day 5…… 3241 words. Total words to date…… 15021
Day 6…… 1248 words. Total words to date…… 16269

Total fiction words for the month……… 16269
Total fiction words for the year………… 224251
Total nonfiction words for the month… 10250
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 91400
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 315651

Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 12
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 48
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 208
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31