The Journal: The Novel and Thoughts on Mentoring

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* The Novel
* Thoughts on Mentoring
* Of Interest

Quotes of the Day

“I almost think it is the ultimate destiny of science to exterminate the human race.” Thomas Love Peacock

“Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.” Brian Aldiss

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” Mae West

“It isn’t true that you live only once. You only die once. You live lots of times, if you know how.” Bobby Darin

The Novel

I expect (and hope) I’ll finish the novel today or maybe tomorrow. I’ve made slow progress over the past few days, and I have only a scene or two to write.

A couple of nights ago, as I slipped into alpha (subconscious) on my way to sleep, I realized for only the third time since April 2014, I actually wrote past the ending of the novel without realizing it. That’s why the writing became so difficult for awhile.

Because the occurrence is so rare and because I haven’t written regularly for so long, I didn’t recognize the sudden slogging of the story for what it was. Instead of recognizing the ending, I struggled, casting about and writing different scenes that went nowhere.

If you’re wondering, those totaled about 14,000 words. These are not ‘wasted’ words, though they’ll never go into a story. It’s all practice. But it’s still frustrating. The only other two times I wrote past an ending (once the end of a scene and once the end of a novel), I wrote only a few sentences past before I realized what was happening.

But I fought through that period of slogging, and as a result, the novel will have a few additional scenes and chapters and be around 8,000 words longer than it would have been had I ended it where I might have.

I’m one who believes things happen for a reason. I suspect I needed this process in this novel as I emerged from my year-long hiatus. It forced me to deal with my critical, negative mind and relegate it again to the dark corner where it belongs while I’m writing.

Thoughts on Mentoring

It dawned on me this morning as I responded to one of my mentoring students that they’re getting an enhanced and more focused version of what I write in the Journal.

My email responses to them alone are generally a few hundred to a thousand words, but focused specifically on their issue(s) or question(s), yet any of those responses could easily make a topic for the Journal.

Then again, it wouldn’t seem right, sharing that information publicly when my students have paid for my time and my opinion.

If you’d like to receive that kind of focused attention on your own writing habit or the writing itself, I can still take on another student or two. Just email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com or see https://hestanbrough.com/new-mentorships/ (or both).

I’m also thinking of starting a new blog on Substack. It would be a paid blog only. For a fee (probably $12 or $15 a month) subscribers would get access to all the topics I talk about with my mentoring students. To be clear, this would not be my actual exchanges with my students, but topics based on those exchanges.

Of course, all of my mentoring students and any patrons in the Patron Writer tier would automatically have access to those posts as well.

Those posts wouldn’t be tailored specifically to the subscribers’ issues or questions, but they would provide valuable insights the subscribers could apply to their own writing or writing practice.

Just something I’m thinking about doing. I welcome your comments.

Talk with you later.

Of Interest

See “Engineers saved a baby’s life by printing the missing part of her skull” at https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/engineers-saved-a-babys-life-by-printing-the-missing-part-of-her-skull. Science fiction becomes science fact.

See “This dual-powered submarine isn’t like anything you have seen before” at https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/kronos-futuristic-dual-powered-submarine. Um, unless you’ve seen a manta ray. (grin)

See “Thirteen Strange Superstitions About Death” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/08/thirteen-strange-superstitions-about-death.html.

See “That Was My Idea! How Hollywood Is Avoiding Story Theft Claims” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/that-was-my-idea-how-hollywood-is-avoiding-story-theft-claims/. See PG’s take.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 700 words

Writing of Blackwell Ops 8 (tentative title, novel)

Day 19… 2117 words. Total words to date…… 41729
Day 20… 2025 words. Total words to date…… 43754
Day 21… 1770 words. Total words to date…… 45524
Day 22… 3296 words. Total words to date…… 48820
Day 23… 3259 words. Total words to date…… 52079
Day 24… 2712 words. Total words to date…… 54791
Day 25… 1068 words. Total words to date…… 55859
Day 26… 1003 words. Total words to date…… 56862
Day 27… 1222 words. Total words to date…… 58084
Day 28… 1515 words. Total words to date…… 59599
Day 29… 2030 words. Total words to date…… 61629

Total fiction words for August……… 12809
Total fiction words for the year………… 65305
Total nonfiction words for August… 11600
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 117840
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 183145

Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: Along with discussing various aspects of the writing craft, I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. WITD is “the only way” to write, but it is by far the easiest, most liberating, and most fun.