The Journal, Saturday, December 29

Hey Folks,

Well, another day, another lesson. From now on, when I’m ending the writing day early for some special reason, I’ll check to make sure the special reason is worthwhile before I send off the Journal. (grin)

Yesterday I shut down a little before noon. The football game I wanted to watch was well into the first quarter by then. So I sent off the Journal, closed the Hovel and headed for the house.

Turned on the TV and saw the score was already 42 to 6. Oh my.

Even though I like both teams (Auburn and Purdue), I saw no reason to watch the rest. My only regret about all that was that I didn’t continue writing and hold off on publishing the Journal. So from now on….
***

A day or two ago I mentioned a couple of WMG Publishing’s lectures on designing book covers. The lecture I took (on thriller and mystery covers) is very good, but basic. Each lecture consists of several videos and costs $50.

This morning I remembered another resource. See “12 Free Ways to Learn Design” at https://creativemarket.com/blog/12-free-ways-to-learn-design.

Topic: Writing Prompts vs. Story Ideas

Reedsy puts out a weekly newsletter with writing prompts. Sometimes, the prompt is an actual story idea. Other times, it’s only a prompt.

What’s the difference?

Here’s a story prompt:

A person coming home late from a New Year’s Eve Party stops by a McDonald’s. A person staying home for New Year’s Eve goes to McDonald’s for a late night snack.

And here’s a story idea:

As the countdown on New Year’s Eve reaches midnight, you look around to find all your party guests have vanished. You think it’s a clever prank until you glance at your phone and see the date is listed as, “January 0th.”

See the difference?

In the first, the prompt, you’re given an interesting (maybe) situation, but no problem, so no conflict.

In the second, all the necessary ingredients are there: you have a character with a problem (conflict) in a setting.

If you want to write a story based on the McDonald’s thing, you have to come up with a conflict.

1. Maybe both people are tired or tipsy or both.

2. Maybe there’s a minor fender-bender in the McParkingLot.

3. Maybe one customer accidentally jostles the other at the counter.

4. Maybe the two people were sweethearts in high school and haven’t seen each other for 30 years. One is widowed and the other divorced, having sworn off taking on another wife or husband.

5. One is wearing a custom-made necklace that was stolen during a burglary at the other’s home a few months earlier.

So with a little imagination, you can turn a “prompt” into an idea. All you have to do is add the missing ingredient: character, setting or (in this case) the problem (conflict).

If any of these ideas strike you, feel free to write it. Then submit it to Reedsy’s short story contest if you want to. The winner gets $50 cash. (For more on this, see https://blog.reedsy.com/writing-contests.)
***

A few good football games coming up today, so I’m in the Hovel early. (grin)

As I had hoped a day or two ago, the characters have thrown me a few curve balls. (grin)

I still know I’m in the final push of this one and nearing the end of the story. But as a result of those curve balls I’ve had to do a lot of selective cycling (going back to foreshadow something the characters suddenly come up with in the present).

Well, at 9 a.m. the WIP is all but finished. I still need to cycle back a bit and make sure I got some things right, and I still need to write a denoument, but I can take care of all that tomorrow. That will leave me one extra day in case something goes wrong.

Thanks for being there, folks. It’s nice to be able to share stuff like this with someone.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Looking at Gaining Energy” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/looking-at-gaining-energy/. If this stuff (elephants) still bothers Dean, isn’t it all right that it still bothers you and me? (grin)

See “No Flashlight and No Ghosts: A Murder by Hanging” at https://www.leelofland.com/no-flashlight-and-no-ghosts-a-murder-by-hanging/.

Fiction Words: 5903
Nonfiction Words: 710 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 6613

Writing of Blackwell Ops (novel)

Day 10… 2629 words. Total words to date…… 36453
Day 11… 1322 words. Total words to date…… 37775
Day 12… 2013 words. Total words to date…… 39788
Day 13… 4626 words. Total words to date…… 44414
Day 14… 2101 words. Total words to date…… 46515
Day 15… 5803 words. Total words to date…… 52418

Total fiction words for the month……… 76928
Total fiction words for the year………… 535611
Total nonfiction words for the month… 18890
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 190576
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 725937

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 10
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 36
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31