The Journal, Thursday, February 15

Hey Folks,

I realized today, I’ve been writing fiction over the past few days. Not a lot, relatively speaking, but as I read over my previous novel, I’ve added to it. A lot.

I finished my journey over the novel this morning and it’s much better for it. That’s because I never allowed the conscious mind to intervene.

I added 3895 words to it (that is now reflected in the fiction totals below), but I also realized a few things that will be important for at least the first sequel. (grin)

I call this effort a revision. It was something more than cycling, or it was cycling through the entire novel.

I still don’t advocate “rewriting” although that’s that’s the term that some will apply to my efforts over the past few days. I don’t even advocate re-reading anything you’ve written, although I made an exception in this case.

This story, you will remember, began as a series of short stories. The first pass was to combine those into a novel. Then I sent it to my first reader.

He found only a handful of recommendations (8) to make, and none of them had to do with content (per my instructions).

This last pass was to round out the story into a novel. I added a great deal of depth of description, always from the POV character’s viewpoint and including the POV character’s opinion of the setting.

I don’t foresee ever having to use this method again, but for this particular novel, it was right.

Especially if you don’t have a first reader, I DO still advocate (strongly) reading your finished work aloud. As you do, allow your fingers to rest on the keyboard, and when a character tells you to include something, do it.

But remember, that’s always done as a function of the subconscious, creative mind.

Back tomorrow.

Of Interest

Check out John Gilstrap’s YouTube channel, “A Writer’s View of Writing and Publishing” at https://www.youtube.com/c/authorjohngilstrap.

His website is interesting too, at http://www.johngilstrap.com/. He’s also one of the bloggers at the KillZone blog.

Fiction Words: 3895 (novel revision over the past week)
Nonfiction Words: 340 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 4235

Writing of The Age Exchange (novel, working title)

Brought forward…… 6985
Day 1…… 1285 words. Total words to date…… 8270
Day 2…… 1120 words. Total words to date…… 9390
Day 3…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 6300
Total fiction words for the year………… 44456
Total nonfiction words for the month… 4040
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 12400
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 56856

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 1
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 28
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182