In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Topic: On Goals
* Yesterday
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” Orson Scott Card
Topic: On Goals
Yesterday after I posted the Journal, I hazarded a look at my short story goal spreadsheet. Since I started on January 1, I’ve written 12 short stories. Great fun.
Then I missed. So I was thinking I was probably behind by two or three stories.
Nope. I haven’t written a short story in April at all. So I’m four behind on my original goal to write one per week and to write 78 short stories in 78 weeks.
I could easily catch up at a rate of one short story per day for a week, but I don’t know that I want to. Meh. I just don’t really care because at the moment I’m not in the mood to write short stories. And I’ve already blown the “one a week” goal, so no pressure there.
That leaves my desire to write 78 in 78 overall. I might well still pull that off, but I’m thinking I probably won’t. Too much depends on what I want to write, and the driving urge to write short stories comes and goes. Oh, I could easily pull a chapter or two from a novel, wrap the ending and call it a short story, but that wouldn’t be in the spirit of the challenge, so I won’t.
I feel okay about my novel goal (one new novel per month and 18 novels in 18 months). Yes, I took it on myself to not count the one I wrote in March, but I did write a novel in that month. But then I added to it in April, so I’m only counting it as the one novel.
But as I said, I feel all right about that, so no big deal. And I have zero doubt I’ll reach or exceed my goal to write 18 novels in 18 months.
At the moment that’s made a little easier by my desire to add to the saga I started with The Good of the Galaxy. I already know the older characters, the first major situation has wrapped nicely, and I’m excited with the anticipation of adding new characters and new situations and storylines.
So if you get depressed about your goals, remember that the goals exist to serve you, not the other way around.
Yesterday, I started Book 2 of the Othgygnrk Invasion Series. I started with the alien POV. We’ll see what happens. Just over 1300 words in the first session.
Maybe interesting to some of you, I learned the structure of this particular novel and series (the structure for me, not for those writing in the shared world) with the last one I wrote. So this time there will be no back and forth, no unwieldy omissions that I have to put together later. Just writing.
I’m excited about this. It should be fun to see how “fast” this novel writes compared to the previous one.
For future comparison, the previous novel came to life in 36 writing days (88,379 words), with an average of 2455 words per day. I should easily shoot past that average today and (I hope) on successive days.
If I can finish this one by early May, I should be caught up with my novel goal by the end of May, just in time for the launch of Book 1 of this series.
By 3:15 I spent about 5 hours of the day in the chair actually writing. I wrote a little over 6000 words on the day. A great start.
Today I’ll write. (shrug) Here’s hoping I have another day like yesterday.
And this morning while reading for “Of Interest,” an idea popped into my mind. What happens post-CoVID-19? Will society return to the pre-plague normal or will everyone realize even with that one virus under control, we Still Don’t Know what disease the other guy is carrying? Will we continue to practice “social distancing” on into the future? Will supply chains be forever disrupted by the mistrust and fear that was fostered during this era? And what are the ramifications of all that?
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “If it’s not on the page, your reader doesn’t know it” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/if-its-not-on-the-page-your-reader-doesnt-know-it/. Some of the best writing advice I’ve ever read.
See “What Might Happen” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/what-might-happen/.
See “The Hardest Writing I’ve Ever Done” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/04/25238.html.
See “Rebuilding the Porterville Library” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/rebuilding-the-porterville-library/.
See “What Is Emotional Context And…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/what-is-emotional-context-and-why-does-your-story-need-it/.
See “Addding Je ne sais quoi to your stories” at https://prowriterswriting.com/adding-je-ne-sais-quoi-to-your-stories.
See “Army Ranger School Is a Laboratory of Human Endurance” at https://www.outsideonline.com/2411895/army-ranger-school. In case you’ve ever wondered. As for “toughest training challenge,” I think I’d have to wonder how it stacks up against Navy SEAL training.
The Numbers
Fiction words yesterday…………………… 6138
Nonfiction words today…………… 820 (Journal)
Writing of The Good of the Galaxy 2 (novel)
Day 1…… 6138 words. Total words to date…… 6138
Total fiction words for the month……… 42908
Total fiction words for the year………… 250890
Total nonfiction words for the month… 17270
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 98420
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 349310
Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 4
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 12
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 49
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 208
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31