The Journal, Saturday, June 30

Hey Folks,

Adios, Junio!

Dean’s post on what he learned from other writers (see “Of Interest”) started me thinking about influences on my own writing and my life as a writer.

I’ll post more about those influences here in other posts, but for today, the six most important life-changing lessons I’ve learned from Dean and Kris over the years (counted down):

6. Heinlein’s Rules,

5. The importance of grounding the reader,

4. Use all five of the POV character’s physical senses and his/her opinion of the setting,

3. Put time in the chair,

2. Keep Coming Back, and (drum roll, please)

1. Write the Next Sentence.

And the most important, overriding thing I learned from Dean Wesley Smith and Ray Bradbury is to let the characters tell the story. That I’m only the recorder, down in the trenches with them, attempting to keep up.

***

I have a lot of non-writing household stuff to do today. I got a couple of hours early for writing, but I’ll post this now so I don’t forget later.

See you soon. ​

Of Interest

See “What I Learned” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/what-i-learned/.

Fiction Words: 1491
Nonfiction Words: 190 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 1681

Writing of Stern Talbot, PI: The Case of the Burned-Out Building

Day 1…… 1926 words. Total words to date…… 1926
Day 2…… 2884 words. Total words to date…… 4810
Day 3…… 1874 words. Total words to date…… 6684
Day 4…… 1716 words. Total words to date…… 8500
Day 5…… 2107 words. Total words to date…… 10607
Day 6…… 2105 words. Total words to date…… 12712
Day 7…… 1491 words. Total words to date…… 14203

Total fiction words for the month……… 27252
Total fiction words for the year………… 234216
Total nonfiction words for the month… 15686
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 79196
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 313142

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 5
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 31
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 5
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193