The Journal, Tuesday, September 24

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Today’s Journal is mostly
* Topic: Have Faith
* Still mostly on hiatus
* The numbers

Quotes of the Day

Via The Passive Voice,

“It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke–or a lie. How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and Satan, the first consultant.” Mark Twain

“The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.” Karen Blixen (This may well be my new favorite quote.)

Today’s Journal is mostly a compilation of links I think you will find helpful.

Especially if you are not in Dean’s Licensing Transition course, do yourself a favor and see “Playing with Numbers and Math” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/playing-with-numbers-and-math/. If you have created ANY IP at all, this is important.

See “Questions for Indie Authors” (and the comments) at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/questions-for-indie-authors/.

See “100,000 Faces Generated By Ai Free For Any Use” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/100000-faces-generated-by-ai-free-for-any-use/. TPG mentioned that some of the faces have “artifacts that tell you this is not a real person.” Which started my mind spinning.

See “Don’t be Afraid to Go There in Your Writing” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/09/dont-be-afraid-to-go-there-in-your-writing.html in which James Scott Bell alludes to Wilhelm’s Law.

Finally, you might check Nate Hoffelder’s “10 Tips for authors going to their first book fair” at https://preview.mailerlite.com/h3j7r1/1250156267767338694/i6p7/.

Topic: Have Faith

This was prompted by a conundrum a friend found himself in. Basically, he endured a technical glitch caused by a Windows update. It was frightening for him, and I understand why. He temporarily lost his WIP, and permanently lost part of it. You can read his post on PWW at https://prowriterswriting.com/a-cautionary-tale/.

Here’s my comment, amended a bit:

From a strictly philosophical standpoint, I believe things happen for a reason even when that reason is not readily apparent.

Especially when writing into the dark, when the book is finished, I believe the pure story exists as it was meant to exist, even if we have to recast the part of it that was lost due to a technical glitch, etc. And of course, recasting that part leads to a different “future” in the story, etc.

For one thing, what we perceive as a technical glitch might well be a “test” of sorts, administered by some extra-dimensional source. Do I believe in extra-dimensional sources? Not necessarily, but then again, who knows? The longer I live, the more I realize I don’t know. What’s left is what I believe.

I believe the only thing that will change a story from its original intended form is the author or others exerting undue external influence on it. (Yes, the finished story will still exist, but not in its original, unique vision.)

For just one example, my own WIP might not have been quite the same story had I continued writing it straight through instead of taking the hiatus from which I’m currently (and finally) emerging. That faith is one reason I haven’t been overly worried about not writing fiction for awhile.

The story definitely would not have been the same had I tried to consciously think my way through it when I came back to it. Then it would have been MY story, not my characters’ story.

But then, I’ve come to trust (have faith in) the process.

So when I returned to the story after basically two months’ absence, I read the last few paragraphs of the previous chapter, then wrote the next sentence the characters gave me. The story is flowing nicely now (as it was before the hiatus) and around 6,000 words farther along.

Don’t get too wrapped around the wheel of process, folks. I hope you know the unbridled joy of writing into the dark, but that’s all up to you. The bottom line is Just Write and don’t sweat the small stuff. Remember, what you write isn’t important. Someone out there will love it, most will like it, and a few will hate it. What’s important is THAT you write.
***

Still mostly on hiatus out here but slowly emerging. I return to the WIP off and on, writing a bit of fiction. I think I’m building my way back into writing fiction every day. Overriding everything is my unreasoning fear of the relatively minor medical procedure I’ll have on October 3. It seems always in the back of my mind.

Publishing tasks, including putting together the Stanbrough Monthly Reader, has taken an even deeper back seat for the moment. I spend most of the day doing mundane but necessary tasks or nothing at all. But the current and next story are always in the back of my mind.

The upshot is, I suspect (and feel I “know”) everything will come together again before too long, though I’m not sure what form “everything” will take when I emerge from this transition.

But I can say I know (have faith) it will include writing, publishing (and otherwise licensing) and marketing my fiction, probably at a higher rate than before. “Higher” meaning both faster and with an improved skillset.

You know how children (at least boys) tend to stop growing “up” and grow “out” for a little while just before a growth spurt? I think I’m in one of those, in a literary-career sense.

I’m sharing all of this in case you find yourself going through a similar stage someday so maybe you’ll know it’s “normal” or at least that it happened to someone else.

On a personal note, we had a great weekend. My son Roy visited on Saturday, and on Sunday Mona and I went to Sierra Vista (we’ve come to think of it as St. David West) to view the Downton Abbey movie. If you enjoyed the series, the movie was great. If you’ve never heard of the series, the movie was still great, and watching the film won’t ruin the series for you.

Today is a cloudy, drizzly, smudged-sky kind of day as Lorena passes over. Of course, all the exciting hurricane stuff is gone. We’re putting up with Tropical Depression Lorena, and I’ve never been adequately good with depressed women. (grin)

Talk with you again later.

The Numbers

Total fiction words for the month……… 5578
Total fiction words for the year………… 380231
Total nonfiction words for the month… 12350
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 259060
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 639291

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