In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* The Main Impurity
* Dean, another half-price sale
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“Asking for feedback creates a critic. Asking for advice creates a partner.” Farnam Street blog (I love this. h)
“The main impurity is your ‘inner editor.’ That is the judgmental voice that assesses every creative move the moment you try to make it. It loves to reject things. It tells you what not to write. … The way you turn off that voice is by writing through it.” James Scott Bell
The Main Impurity
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Bell that “the main impurity” is what he calls the “inner editor” and what I call the critical mind or critical voice.
The difference is that he believes it’s a good idea to allow that “inner editor” back into his writing later to “correct” what his creative mind has done. Hey, whatever works for him is fine.
I do not believe that’s a good idea. I want my creative mind to know I have faith in its storytelling ability, and I won’t shoot myself in the foot by sending it negative signals. For example, that it needs to be “corrected” by what Mr. Bell describes as “the judgmental voice.”
Speaking of judgmental voices, Dean’s offering another half-price sale. You’ll see it in “Of Interest.” If you’re thinking of buying a particular workshop and you want my advice, email me. If I’ve taken the workshop, I’ll respond with whether I recommend it (or not) and why.
When you get to his post, I recommend you scroll down to the all-caps “SETBACK” and read from there. Otherwise you’ll have to wade through several paragraphs of him griping.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Summer Setback Sale” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/summer-setback-sale/. If you want to email and ask me about a workshop
See “What’s the Perfect Time to Launch an Ebook?” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/whats-the-perfect-time-to-launch-an-ebook/. See PG’s take.
See “Solving the 5,000-Year-Old Murder of “Otzi The Iceman”” at http://dyingwords.net/solving-otzi-the-icemans-murder-a-really-cold-case/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 330 words
Writing of WCGN 5: Tentative Title (novel)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for August……… 6933
Total fiction words for the year………… 623282
Total nonfiction words for August… 5840
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 152270
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 775552
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 13
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
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.