Hey Folks,
If you own your own hosted website, this will be of interest to you. It’s important enough that I’m putting off my own writing to report.
Below in “Of Interest,” Kris Rusch talks about problems with a particular web host. Having had similar experiences with that web host, I concur.
So I’m searching for a new web host. The first lesson is not to believe everything you read online, at least at first glance.
For example, I clicked a link that offered the “Top 15 Web Hosts.” But when the page came up it listed only 7 hosts, and in the small print said they were all owned by the same conglomerate that owns the web host in Kris’ post. Umm, I’ll pass.
I won’t recommend a specific web host, and I won’t be moving mine anytime soon, but take all of this as a cautionary note: As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, Be careful out there.
***
Topic: A Brief Rehash of an Old and Valuable Lesson
Writing off into the dark works, folks. Writing the next sentence that occurs to you works.
For the past two days, I’ve gone to the Hovel, sat down and thought maybe I ought to give up on this novel. It would be so easy to start something new.
A character with a problem in a setting — that’s all it takes to begin something new, to write a new opening. And writing new openings is pure fun.
But both times I pushed that thought aside (it was conscious-mind stuff, trying to protect me from myself). Instead, I put my fingers on the keyboard, read back a few lines and then typed the next sentence.
I let the characters take me away, and in both cases I didn’t look up for about an hour. Both times I’d written around a thousand new words in the story.
The same story I’d been ready to give up on an hour earlier.
Just sayin’.
This is how you train yourself to trust your subconscious.
Acknowledge whatever little stumbling-block thoughts the conscious mind tosses out (remember, they’re always negative), then dismiss those and write the next sentence that occurs to you.
Then write the next sentence. Then write the next sentence. Soon you’ll be racing along, immersed in the story with your characters.
As as I hope many of you know from experience, there is no better feeling.
***
A half-day today, as is the case on Thursday, but even with a late start I managed a few good hours of writing.
Of Interest
See “Business Musings: Website Issues” at https://kriswrites.com/2018/08/22/business-musings-website-issues/. She reports a lot more than I mentioned the other day. Some good lessons here.
See “Eight Lessons from Digging in the Dirt” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/08/eight-lessons-from-digging-in-the-dirt.html. Pretty much every point she made caused me to wonder (and hope) whether she indie published her first nine novels. But no, I didn’t bother to comment.
See “Canada’s Rakuten Kobo Arrives in Amazonian America at Walmart: Ebooks and Audiobooks” at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/canadas-rakuten-kobo-arrives-in-amazonian-america-at-walmart-ebooks-and-audiobooks/.
See “A Great Question” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/a-great-question/.
Talk with you again soon.
Fiction Words: 3077
Nonfiction Words: 520 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3597
Writing of Nick Spalding 1 (novel, tentative title)
Brought forward…… 17778 words
Day 1…… 1449 words. Total words to date…… 19227
Day 2…… 1611 words. Total words to date…… 20838
Day 3…… 3169 words. Total words to date…… 24007
Day 4…… 3077 words. Total words to date…… 27084
Total fiction words for the month……… 45203
Total fiction words for the year………… 293500
Total nonfiction words for the month… 14670
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 112946
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 406206
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 6
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 32
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193