In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Welp, I won’t
* Still a spot open
* Microsoft Word for writers
* Yesterday I was reminded
* There’s an article
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” Ray Bradbury
And what quality must you possess in order to jump off a cliff and build your wings on the way down? Keep learning and believe in yourself. Nothing else is necessary.
***
Welp, due to a thoroughly underwhelming response to yesterday’s question, I won’t be setting up a podcast. At least not here, and not yet.
Not only did nobody leave a comment or email me, older supportive emails actually started disappearing out of my inbox. I assume they were being rescinded. (grin)
***
Just a reminder for anyone who didn’t know about it: I wrote a series of blog posts on Microsoft Word for Writers awhile back.
Topics include how to use the Find & Replace tool, how to use the Paragraph Formatting tool, How to Set Word Options and many others.
The series is free, it’s extremely informative, and you don’t have to listen to me talk. (grin) You can find the series at https://harveystanbrough.com/microsoft-word-for-writers/.
***
Yesterday I was reminded of how wonderful it is to be a teacher, to have knowledge and be able to pass it along to those who want to learn.
Which in turn causes me to let you know I still have one spot open for mentoring.
For those who have attended my live seminars, my mentoring is even more informative and more focused because it’s one-on-one, specific to your own writing and what you want to learn. You will get a lot more than you pay for.
We’ll work on whatever’s important to you at the time: all aspects of writing (dialogue, narrative, pacing, etc.) as well as formatting, cover design, submitting and/or publishing, etc.
If you’re regional, we can even meet face to face regularly. If you aren’t, we’ll do everything by email with occasional phone calls when necessary. I’ll even serve as your first reader (free), and I’ll give you a discount for copyediting if you want and need that.
I’m not sure how long I’ll continue to offer this service, so if you want it, now would be a great time to let me know that and jump in. Email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com.
***
There’s an article in today’s “Of Interest” section on how to find and work with editors.
A few disclaimers—As an editor myself,
* I would never recommend so-called “developmental” editing (for the same reason I don’t recommend critique groups). Nobody can know your work like you do.
* I would never recommend content editing (beyond the editor mentioning redundancies, etc.).
* I strongly recommend copyediting, during which a set of fresh, knowledgeable eyes (mine) look for inconsistency; redundancy; punctuation, spelling and wrong-word usage; pacing and flow; and anything else that might confuse or otherwise interrupt the reader.
* And the fees listed in the article are ridiculously high. After you read the article, check out my Copyediting page at https://harveystanbrough.com/copyediting/. Just sayin’.
***
Today will be partially filled with a trip to Sierra Vista to shop for groceries and browse treasures in second-hand stores. I’ll spend the balance listening to more videos on the Licensing Transition.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Business Musings: But I Can’t Afford…(Rethinking The Writing Business Part 15)” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/10/23/business-musings-but-i-cant-afford-rethinking-the-writing-business-part-15/.
See “The Book Designer : Working with (Those Dreaded) Editors” at https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2019/10/working-with-those-dreaded-editors/. Frankly, I was stunned by the prices they list for copyediting. I’m an excellent copyeditor and I work for a LOT less. Just sayin’.
See “Kill That Sagging Middle” at https://prowriterswriting.com/kill-that-sagging-middle/.
See the Passive Guy’s take on “Major Public Library System Will Boycott Macmillan E-books” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/major-public-library-system-will-boycott-macmillan-e-books/.
See “I Will Not Tell You Where To Get Free Forms Online” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/i-will-not-tell-you-where-to-get-free-forms-online/. And again, see PG’s take. Forewarned is forearmed.
See “16 Concrete Tips for Effectively Editing Your Own Fiction” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/10/16-concrete-tips-for-effectively-editing-your-own-fiction.html. Disclaimer: My inclusion of this link in no way indicates my agreement with much of the article.
The Numbers
Fiction words today…………………… 0
Nonfiction words today…………… 690
Total fiction words for the month……… 3237
Total fiction words for the year………… 383468
Total nonfiction words for the month… 13560
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 276250
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 660836
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 2
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 195
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31