The Journal, Monday, October 21

In today’s Journal

* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Today I’m posting here mostly to pass along the stuff in “Of Interest.” After working on my email a little last night and a lot this morning, I finally got through what had accumulated while I was gone.

Dan and I had a great time escaping life in general, social media, Home Shopping Network and all the other mind-numbing stuff that washes over us all in everyday life. I posted a few pics on Facebook. If I can figure out how to download it from my camera, I might upload a 360° video too. Maybe not. The still pics are pretty good.

For a radical change, we didn’t talk writing much at all this time. Of course, we’re both professional fiction writers, so I thought about writing a lot, as I assume Dan did.

I did figure out why I’ve had such trouble with my WIP, though. It came to me in a flash. Two different novels, one in a series and one stand-alone, have been clashing in my subconscious over the past few months. As I’m writing the second (which I insisted on writing), the first keeps intruding with “Why aren’t you writing me?”

So now, with a simple one-click protagonist name change in the second (current) WIP, I’ll be able to finish it soon. Then I’ll move back to the first storyline and finish that one, or put it on the back burner and write something else entirely in a different genre.

I’d written the opening of the first storyline before attempting to “force” it into a series structure, hence the subconscious confusion.

Anyway, no writing today and very little else. I need to recuperate from my mini-vacation, and besides, I’m not in a good mood. Ever feel like you could chew wheels and spit nails? Yeah. Like that.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “How You Too Can Build a Literary Festival” at https://writerunboxed.com/2019/10/14/how-you-too-can-build-a-literary-festival/.

See “How to Use MailerLite (So You Can Dump MailChimp)” at https://socialmediajustforwriters.com/how-to-use-mailerlite-so-you-can-dump-mailchimp/. This is a very informative article that goes far beyond the topic. So even if you don’t have a newsletter or want one, you might want to read this.

See “7 Non-Literary Ways for Writers to Get into the Flow” at https://www.janefriedman.com/get-into-the-flow/. Some very good advice.

See “Joyce Carol Oates Talks Crime Fiction, Character, and Cats” at https://crimereads.com/joyce-carol-oates-talks-crime-fiction-character-and-cats/.

See “Bringing Life to the Dead with CGI Technology” at http://dyingwords.net/bringing-life-to-the-dead-with-cgi-technology/.

The Numbers

Fiction words today…………………… 0
Nonfiction words today…………… 390

Total fiction words for the month……… 3237
Total fiction words for the year………… 383468
Total nonfiction words for the month… 10990
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 273680
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 658266

Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 2
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 195
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31