The Journal: The Internet, blah blah blah

In today’s Journal

* The Internet, blah blah blah
* I won’t be trashing
* The Numbers

My internet was down earlier today. Add to that the fact that I was under the weather last night and didn’t wake up until after 5 this morning, and I’m just not in a good mood.

But the internet—well, the wind blew a little, and it rained a little (less than a half-inch spread out over 8 or 10 hours). Of course, neither wind nor rain have anything whatsoever to do with electricity and the signals it carries as long as the latter never comes into direct contact with either of the former. Which, at my house, it doesn’t.

Nonetheless, at my house the internet dropping is the number one indicator that the wind is blowing harder than 5 mph or that the sky is drizzling or that a gnat farted in Nebraska somewhere. My internet service is just that fragile.

Of course, I shouldn’t complain. After all, we get to enjoy the ultimate privelege of paying a massive corporation every month for service. As long as we receive said service now and then, well, that should be good enough. And especially these days, you can’t really call the corporation to complain. If you do, they might be ‘offended’.

For anyone who cares either way, I won’t be trashing and recasting the novel. I cycled through the whole thing again yesterday (see the minuscule word count below), and the story is sound. I guess this is just how this particular novel’s going to write, so I’ll keep plugging away at it and see what happens.

The best part of being a fictionist is getting to escape the ugly, silly little realities of the world we live in. I’m going there now.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “The Preposition ‘Amid'” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/the-preposition-amid/.

See “Peter S. Beagle and Ownership Group Regain Control of Rights…” at http://file770.com/peter-s-beagle-and-ownership-group-regain-control-of-rights-to-his-work-following-sale-approved-by-bankruptcy-court/. Thanks to KC for the tip.

See “The Mystery of Harriet Cole” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/the-mystery-of-harriet-cole/. Story ideas abound. Also, an interesting, well-written article.

See “Mars is leaking water into space…” at https://www.space.com/mars-water-escapes-to-space-in-dust-storms. Exciting news for any who might get to live there someday. I won’t be allowed, though I would welcome the opportunity. For one thing, the internet’s probably better there.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 380 words

Writing of The Journey Home: Part 9 (novel)

Day 1…… 2019 words. Total words to date…… 2019
Day 2…… 3650 words. Total words to date…… 5669
Day 3…… 3760 words. Total words to date…… 9429
Day 4…… 2834 words. Total words to date…… 12263
Day 5…… 2959 words. Total words to date…… 15222
Day 6…… 3394 words. Total words to date…… 18616
Day 7…… 2727 words. Total words to date…… 21343

Total fiction words for March……… 58331
Total fiction words for the year………… 257339
Total nonfiction words for March… 17230
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 63260
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 320699

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 5
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 59
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.

2 thoughts on “The Journal: The Internet, blah blah blah”

  1. If you live in rural Az, you’re pretty much screwed as far as internet. My daughter lived in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, Tanzania,with no electricity and she still had better internet than I do. (She had one tiny solar panel to charge her computer & phone batteries and a solar lantern).

    • Just griping to hear myself gripe. I don’t like my routine being interrupted. 🙂 But I haven’t forgotten how spoiled we all are either.

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