In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Today
* Pulp Speed Revisited
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“My novels are what is known as popular and sell very well, but I am not a critic’s favorite; indeed I am generally dismissed with a sneer as a bestseller and not reviewed at all.” Daphne du Maurier
“Sometimes I wonder what the difference is between being cautious and being dead.” Sue Grafton
“When fiction writing isn’t fun, you are doing something wrong. And that is usually a myth or critical voice….” Dean Wesley Smith
“The enjoyment is in the writing of the story, the fun of the puzzle, the thrill of creating something.” Dean Wesley Smith
And a bit of pure gold, from Dean to a writer who’s snagged at 300-500 words per hour:
“Time how fast you write emails. If you write them faster than your fiction rate, you have a critical voice problem that is making fiction more important than an email to a friend or a business email. Should be the other way around. Fiction is just made up. It should be faster than emails.” Dean Wesley Smith
“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking.” Joan Didion
Today
I’m here, so I figured I’d send out a Journal edition today. After I post this, I’ll open The Journey Home: Part 9 and let my characters tell me about some of the animals and other creatures they saw or heard in passing when they first started exploring the new planet (Terra 2).
As I’ll still be here in the early morning tomorrow too, I’ll probably post an edition of the Joural tomorrow too. Then there will probably be a lag.
Pulp Speed Revisited
This is a rare time when Dean’s bringing back some of his earlier, excellent posts.
There are some good comments on Dean’s post from yesterday. You can find that post and those comments at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/pulp-speed-flashes-to-the-present/#comments.
There’s also a second “brought back” post from Dean in today’s “Of Interest.” I urge you to read it. I’ve added both those post links to my Writer Resources under two or three categories over on my main site at HarveyStanbrough.com. That’s how important I think they are.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Pulp Speed Writers (Take Two)” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/pulp-speed-writers-take-two/. Not to be repetitive, but again, this is sheer gold.
See “Five ways artificial intelligence can help space exploration” at https://www.space.com/artificial-intelligence-for-space-exploration. Minus the bulky backpack, the astronaut in the illustration appears to be wearing a stipplesuit. (grin)
See “How To Be A Successful Digital Age Writer” at http://dyingwords.net/how-to-be-a-successful-digital-age-writer/.
See “Writing for a Brighter Day” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/04/writing-for-a-brighter-day.html. As hope is a universal emotion among humans and others, I “hope” it occurs naturally in your writing, along with all the other emotional senses. Not something you should have to “think about” or force.
See “Minds Without Brains?” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/minds-without-brains/. Story ideas. I submit that most AI is as trustworthy as are most humans. And where AI is not trustworthy, that’s because there’s a human mind behind it.
See “How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book in 2021?” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-self-publish-a-book-in-2021/. I list this link as a foil to common sense and a willingness to learn and work. Aside from time and less than a dollar for cover art, it costs the writer nothing to self-publish a book. See PG’s cautionary take.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 560 words
Writing of (novel)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for April……… 55728
Total fiction words for the year………… 342805
Total nonfiction words for April… 11460
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 78860
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 421665
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 61
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.