In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Not Much Today
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“This is a hard technique to teach writers: how do you write setting from the point of view of someone who sees the same thing every day? You write about what’s different, as well as describe what they’re actually doing. If you’re not careful, you’ll overdescribe—or underdescribe. And if you’re wondering, overdescribing is better.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Not Much Today and a Minor Change
If you missed yesterday’s post, I encourage you to read it. It’s necessarily long. If there’s a way I can help you, let me know.
A day or two ago, someone asked me (in a comment, I believe) about whether I “count” emails in my nonfiction word totals. I don’t.
But I’m writing a lot of nonfiction words each morning in my mentoring sessions, so I’ve decided to include those in my nonfiction totals below. I’ll figure that out sometime later today. Or before too long.
I started the day by spending a couple of hours responding to a mentoring student. I have five of them now, and starting my day that way is slowly becoming a habit. I do that first thing, even before I browse for items for “Of Interest.”
Mentoring in this way is fun, and in addition to the good feeling of helping someone else, I’m also learning a ton about other people and about new ways to teach certain techniques.
I’ve also noticed that recently I’m puttering around, letting much of the morning and mid-day fritter away. Then, driven by my daily word-count goal, I write almost in a frenzy the last couple of hours of the day (early afternoon). Seems to work.
Today I have to buy a new battery for my pickup, swap it out, and return the core. So I’m trying to get my fiction writing done early today. Maybe. Mostly cycling to begin with.
Ah, then I remembered I had to make some adjustments over at PWW. I did that, then sent out an email to that effect for our contributors, then took a break at 6 a.m. up to the house.
Then my neighbor dropped by to talk. He’s leaving for a few days so I’ll watch his horses for him.
Wow. Then I had to make some MORE adjustments to the PWW schedule. And at 9-ish I have to go swap the battery for my truck. Then there will be lunch, maybe. The day is slipping away. I almost decided to call it and just not write fiction today. We’ll see.
Got the battery, installed it in the pickup, threw away the stupid cover they had over the old battery because it’s a massive PITA to take off and put on. Washed my hands, learned to breathe again.
Then a sample edit came in, so I did that and got it sent back out. Then fielded a few more questions re PWW.
Okay. Nope. Fiction writing isn’t gonna happen today. That’s okay. Back at it tomorrow, maybe, depending on how early I get up. I’ll be out smoking ceegars and terrorizing the locals with an insane brother of the cloth tomorrow. So I might not be back here (and to fiction writing) until Satiddy.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “DMCA Review Begins. Watch the Red Flag.” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/dmca-review-begins-watch-the-red-flag/.
See “The Convertible Cloud, Extended — Google Docs” at https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2020/02/the-convertible-cloud-extended-google-docs/.
See “Business Musings: The Upside to Crap” at https://kriswrites.com/2020/02/19/business-musings-the-upside-to-crap/.
See “Collaboration Spots” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/collaboration-spots/.
For fun, see “Kick Starting WITD” at https://prowriterswriting.com/kick-starting-witd/.This is the brother of the cloth I mentioned above. Nutcase extraordinaire.
The Numbers
Fiction words today…………………… XXXX
Nonfiction words today…………… 510 (Journal)
Writing of The Three-Year Turn (novel)
Day 11… 3442 words. Total words to date…… 36545
Total fiction words for the month……… 46134
Total fiction words for the year………… 111678
Total nonfiction words for the month… 16450
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 47810
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 159388
Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 5
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 47
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 201
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31