The Journal: Reminiscing

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Reminiscing
* In response to my comment
* A good month
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“You are a jigsaw puzzle piece of a certain shape. You could change your shape to fit an existing hole in the world. That was the traditional plan. But there’s another way that can often be better for you and for the world: to grow a new puzzle around you.” Jessica Livingston

“My grandmother was the most important female role model in my life. … She did what she wanted, and she didn’t care if people thought she was unconventional.” Jessica Livingston

“The right solution is expensive. The wrong one costs a fortune.” from FarnamStreetBlog.com

Reminiscing

I realized this morning that back in the day, when the only way to publication was writing and submitting a manuscript, I became very good at disconnecting myself from Outcome. Basically, I’d stick a manuscript in the mail and forget it.

If I got a rejection, I’d read over the story or article again, clean up anything I found wrong (typos, etc. and often there were none), then mail it right back out to a different venue and forget it again.

When an acceptance and a check came, it was always a happy surprise because I’d forgotten I’d even mailed anything to the venue who’d sent the check. Of course, there were no computers in homes back then, email, all of that.

So I was kind of living by Heinlein’s Rules before I even knew they existed. The only part of the Rules I wasn’t following back then was Rule 1: You must write. I wrote now and then, mailed it off and forgot about it, then wrote something else sometime down the road. Maybe.

In a way, I miss those days. Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad I write as much as I do now and I’m glad my storytelling skills have grown as much as they have. I just miss the heady anticipation of that surprise.

These days, because I’m fortunate enough to be writing so much, what I forget is what I wrote, not that I sent it off or published it. But partly because I’m writing so much, I haven’t been taking time off writing to do the publishing stuff. Well, as you know.

Soon I’ll rectify that, I guess. I’ll take two or three days off from having fun and writing to enter the sheer-drudgery world of Business (the very word almost puts me to sleep), designing covers and publishing what I’ve written since The Ark.

I’m a schedule-oriented kind of guy, so I really wish I had the kind of brain that can just turn off Writing Fiction and turn on Business all in the same day, but I don’t. I have to completely leave one behind for days at a time to attend to the other.

So very soon I’ll do that. While I’m at it, I’ll probably go ahead and brand all the covers for the FOH series (The Ark, et al) so they’re readily recognizable.

The first 7 or 8 books will all have a view of the same spaceship (The Ark) and the books that take place after the passengers reach the target planet will all have different views of the planet. Or at least that’s what I’m thinking right now. I’ll have to look at the photo I used for the cover of The Ark and make sure I can zoom-in on different parts of it for different covers.

So how’s your writing and publishing going?

In response to the comment I left yesterday on WriterUnboxed.com that yes, I know several writers my age who make a good hourly rate writing short fiction, the author wrote

“[I]f you can write, revise and market a 4K story in 3 hours then yes, you’re getting that $100/hr rate. Or if you have an established track record a writer can command a higher rate.”

Sigh. Revise? Is that a requirement? Why not write it well the first time through? Seriously, why not? And market? In the same three-hour time period it takes you to write the story in the first place? That doesn’t even make sense. Marketing occurs after the story is written. And I won’t even address the myth of the “established track record” nonsense.

Whatever. I didn’t bother replying again. It’s a major source of frustration for me that so many have absolutely no clue what a sheer joy writing fiction can be. And will never have a clue. And don’t want a clue.

It’s as if they’re all facing west and wondering why they’ve yet to see the sunrise.

I didn’t realize until late yesterday that February was over. Wow it went fast.

I had a pretty good month, with two novels and two short stories finished and another novel about two-thirds of the way there in over 101,000 words. Can’t complain. I also wrote over 20,000 words of nonfiction in this silly blog.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Grow the Puzzle Around You” at https://foundersatwork.posthaven.com/grow-the-puzzle-around-you. Not specifically about writing, but filled with gems you can apply to writing.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 860 words

Writing of The Journey Home: Part 7 (novel)

Day 1…… 6065 words. Total words to date…… 6065
Day 2…… 3887 words. Total words to date…… 9952
Day 3…… 3170 words. Total words to date…… 13122
Day 4…… 3862 words. Total words to date…… 16984
Day 5…… 3905 words. Total words to date…… 20889
Day 6…… 2845 words. Total words to date…… 23734
Day 7…… 2480 words. Total words to date…… 26214
Day 8…… 2857 words. Total words to date…… 29071
Day 9…… 3249 words. Total words to date…… 32320
Day 10… 3269 words. Total words to date…… 35589

Total fiction words for February……… 101531
Total fiction words for the year………… 199008
Total nonfiction words for February… 20700
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 46030
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 245038

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 57
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 it both regularly and publicly, I will continue to do so.