In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Mentorships Updated
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.” Octavia Butler on inspiration
“I tell the students that there comes a time when you want to either burn it or flush it. But if you keep going, you know, that’s what makes you a writer instead of an ‘I wish I was a writer.” Octavia Butler
Mentorships Updated
Sigh. Owing to yet again stumbling into a political ambush on a blog that is disguised as being ostensibly about the business of writing, I’ve added a note to my mentorships introductory page:
“Note: These mentorships are intended to help you become a better fiction writer. I will not air my personal beliefs regarding politics, religion, or anything else that has nothing to do with writing fiction, and for my own sanity I require that any students I accept exercise the same discretion.”
I also updated the Becoming A Writer, Part 2 (on the Becoming A Writer Mentorships page) and the Essential Craft Topics on the Writing Craft Mentorships page (they are identical).
The update consisted of me adding a class on Inventory and another one on Licensing. Finally, I also lowered some of the prices on Becoming A Writer, Part 2 and on the Essential Craft Topics. Prices on those areas now vary between $29 and $39.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “The Benefits of Building a Street Team” at https://authorspublish.com/the-benefits-of-building-a-street-team/.
See “Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket: Amazon Edition” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/putting-all-your-eggs-in-one-basket-amazon-edition/. See PG’s take.
See “Moving Forward or Onward or Whatever” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/moving-forward-or-onward-or-whatever/.
See “This is Octavia Butler’s best writing advice” at https://lithub.com/this-is-octavia-butlers-best-writing-advice/.
See “‘Enterprise self-publishing’ is coming” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/enterprise-self-publishing-is-coming/.
See “Down the Road” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/06/down-the-road.html.
See “Six Things Writers Need To Stop Worrying About” at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2019/07/five-things-writers-need-to-stop.html. It’s been awhile so I posted this for our new readers.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 340 words
Writing of WCGN2: The Comancheros (novel)
Day 1…… 1216 words. Total words to date…… 1216
Day 2…… 1913 words. Total words to date…… 3129
Day 3…… 3103 words. Total words to date…… 6232
Day 4…… 2490 words. Total words to date…… 8722
Total fiction words for June……… 54113
Total fiction words for the year………… 508602
Total nonfiction words for June… 16990
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 123220
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 631822
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 10
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 63
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.