The Journal, Saturday, December 16

Hey Folks,

Okay, I’ve figuratively traveled some twisted, warped subterranean depths over the past month or so. In that time, I’ve tended to (or dealt with) a lot of tasks that have little if anything to do with writing in any specific way. In fact, they touch writing only in that they added to my general overall experience. I won’t bore you with details.

Suffice it to say some of them are tasks that are common in the human experience. There also were a few that I’m glad are not common in the human experience, at least where my friends are concerned.

Now I’m in a place from which I can look back and see that I’ve encountered hand- and footholds here and there that are bringing me nearer the surface all the time.

The most recent of those was today’s blog post from Linda Maye Adams, which you can see at http://lindamayeadams.com/2017/12/16/calling-time-out-on-writing-in-public/.

It rocked me a bit, frankly, as a kind of indirectly shared experience. But I want to thank her publicly here for posting it, chiefly (and first) because of her candor, and secondly because she pointed to another post, one by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

You can read that one in its entirety at http://kriswrites.com/2017/12/06/business-musings-sustainability/.

As some of Ms. Rusch’s posts are lengthy, I especially recommend you skip down to the subhead “Scheduling.” Depending on your own experience, you might also want to read the subheads “Attitude” and “Product” above that and “Cash Flow” below it.

But for my particular situation, “Scheduling” (prefaced with Linda Maye Adams’ post) is what I needed to see. If that wasn’t the final leg-up I needed to pull myself from the subterrain, it was one of the last few.

So I thank Ms. Adams for her candor and join her in recommending you read that post, or at least that part of it. It’s pure gold.

Back soon.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 300 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 300

Writing of “”

Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXX (done)

Total fiction words for the month……… XXXX
Total fiction words for the year………… 453762
Total nonfiction words for the month… 2460
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 178013
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 631775

Calendar Year 2017 Novels to Date………………………… 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 27
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182