The Journal, Thursday, January 4

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Hey Folks,

Dean accidentally deleted his post from yesterday. He wrote over it, he said in today’s post. So if you go there looking for it, you won’t find it. There wasn’t a lot to it anyway.

I got up a little late this morning, and still didn’t start on the novel until 9. An hour later, I had just over 1000 words. So a good start on the day.

A break, then to the post office, then a slightly early lunch.

Damp (in the air), chilly and heavily overcast here today, so the babies are staying inside mostly.

Well, I got my word count today (still cycling) but not much over. Still, it’s all good.

Still wondering whether any of you set any specific writing goals with the advent of the year. Comments welcome.

Back soon.

Of Interest

Via The Passive Voice, see “The Big Five (2017 in Review” at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2018/01/the-big-five-2017-in-review/.

See also “Pseudonymous litigation…” at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2018/01/pseudonymous-litigation-and-alleged-skulduggery-in-the-world-of-romance-novelists/.

And see “Paying to Play: On Submission Fees in Poetry Publishing” at http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2018/01/paying-to-play-on-submission-fees-in-poetry-publishing/. The article is even longer than the link, but it’s very much worth reading.

Fiction Words: 2525
Nonfiction Words: 200 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2725

Writing of The Origin Novel (working title)

BF…………… 32658 words.
Day 1…… 2689 words. Total words to date…… 35347
Day 2…… 2636 words. Total words to date…… 37983
Day 3…… 3189 words. Total words to date…… 41172
Day 4…… 2525 words. Total words to date…… 43697

Total fiction words for the month……… 11039
Total fiction words for the year………… 11039
Total nonfiction words for the month… 2110
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 2110
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 13149

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 0
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 27
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 4
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182

8 thoughts on “The Journal, Thursday, January 4”

  1. I’m going for 5000 words a week for 50 weeks for the 250,000 words for the year and publish everything. I’m also revamping my blog and going to journal about it as well.

  2. I’m trying for 10,000 words/week. Not off to a great start… Computer crashed, and it took 3 days to fix. Now I’m driving to Dallas tomorrow to drop off my daughter and won’t return until Monday. I already have 3000 words despite all the drama, so I should be able to reach the 10,000 mark by Sunday. I’ll let you know 🙂

    • Life rolls. You can’t count the days you didn’t have a computer (unless you write longhand), and you can’t count driving time. So don’t sweat it. The goal resets on Monday anyway, right?

  3. I’m headed for a big change in March/April, and have to do a lot of prep work in the preceding months. So my goal is to clear out a lot of mental hangups around writing, by finishing one short story per week.

    This will challenge me to come up with ideas and not make them precious, to guard my writing hours and actually write during that time, and to just see where each story goes, instead of trying to plot things to death.

    That last one is killer – so far I’m flailing a bit, because I don’t know when to start the story. Dean starts with a character in a setting with a problem; I feel like even that much thought beforehand sets my critical voice screaming at me. What’s a problem? Is this one a good fit for the character? How about that setting – you don’t have a good mental image, or enough information to write it accurately. Better do some research first. I know that last one is a trap, but I don’t know how to sink into the story without real details.

    But this is just story one, and it’s all practice, anyway. Eventually the basics will become second nature, and I’ll be able to learn more subtle techniques.

    • Great idea, Michelle. But remember, when you start with a character with a problem in a setting the “problem” doesn’t have to be “the” big problem of the story, and usually it isn’t. It might be nothing more than an untied shoelace or a locked door that the character expected to be unlocked or anything else. Once you trust it, put your fingers on the keyboard and just go with it, the character will lead you through the rest. 🙂 Try to remember it’s the characters’ story. You can’t really plot it, because you don’t know the story until the character reveals it to you. More in tonight’s post. Happy writing!

  4. Thanks, Harvey. I am not a person who enjoys adrenaline, like Dean, so writing into the dark seems more stressful than fun right now. But I do love stories, and this focusing on the character is something I’ll just keep coming back to until it’s ingrained. Like you often say, if the character is living through an event, I am just along for the ride. It’s not my job to orchestrate. So hard to remember right now, but eventually it’ll stick!

    • Hang in there. I finally learned to back off and stop being the Almighty Writer on High when I realized how little I’d like some writer controlling everything I said and did. 🙂

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