In today’s Journal
* Update: Game On
* Topic: Inventory
* More and more patrons
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Update: Game On
I reached out to a writer who has attended the Master Business Class and asked him whether anyone there talked politics during the sessions.
His answer was a resounding No.
He wrote “at the beginning of both Vegas workshops I attended, they announced that there was to be absolutely NO discussion of politics or religion inside or outside of the classroom. They said they have sent people home for doing so.”
Good enough. I am relieved. Thanks, PM.
***
Topic: Inventory
Note: This is a follow-up to the first post in “Of Interest” below, so I recommend you read that first.
Not surprisingly, I concur with Dean.
My own inventory is mostly complete. Fortunately, I started keeping it from the very beginning, but almost by accident.
Many people have an “I love me” wall or shelf, a place where they keep any their plaques or trophies or other marks of achievement.
My inventory spreadsheed was originally that, a kind of “I love me” wall. I could see what I’d written at a glance, which motivated me to write even more.
Over the years, I’ve written thousands of poems. Some were award-winning, some were later set to music by others, and most are included in one collection or another. The collections (though not the individual poems) are included on my inventory spreadsheet.
I’ve written 40-some novels, 8 novellas, and almost 200 short stories. All are on the spreadsheet.
I’ve also written a dozen or so flash-fiction stories (complete stories of 100 words or less) that are NOT yet listed in my inventory, despite the fact one has been made into a short film at least twice by different producers. (That one went out free both times because I was flattered and because I didn’t know anything about licensing.)
Many of those FF stories are included as examples in my nonfiction book, The Art of Writing Flash Fiction. Of course, that book and all my other nonfiction books are already in my inventory. We’ll be finding and adding the individual flash fiction stories as well.
Now we’re in the process of organizing the inventory I’ve kept all these years, separating it into novels/novellas, short stories of all lengths (and collections), poetry (and collections) and audio lectures.
Oh, and we’re also in the process of digging through old magazines to find articles and essays I wrote in the past. As we find them, we’ll add them to the inventory as well. It’s all IP. The magazines include The Writer, Writer’s Digest, The Candlelight Poetry Journal and other publications.)
And wow, is Dean right (as usual). Once it’s done, an inventory is a massive time saver.
What goes into a spreadsheet? Dean’s post describes his.
My overall master spreadsheet (the one we’re separating) includes the fiction or nonfiction or collection title, the author name (for when I use pen names), the word count, date finished and date published, the D2D universal link, the eprice and paper price (where applicable), the ISBNs (ebook and paper) and then other distributor and purchase links. When I begin publishing short stories through traditional mags, I’ll include that information too, how much I earned on the license, etc.
Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Yet it takes only a minute or so to hop over to my inventory and add another piece of IP to the spreadsheet when I finish it.
Finally, it’s also a good idea to glance over your inventory from time to time. The title of a poem or other work might lead to another new short story or novel. That has happened to me several times.
So even if at the moment you see yourself as a hobby writer, I suggest you create and keep up an inventory spreadsheet. You never know.
***
More and more patrons are signing up at various levels. Thanks everyone!
If you haven’t yet looked over the patronage levels, take a look at https://harveystanbrough.com/be-a-patron/. I’m gearing up to begin sending out the patron-only blog posts.
I’ve already written several. I just need to figure out the best way to organize their distribution.
***
Today I’ll meet with a mentoring student and then do some other stuff. (grin)
I don’t mean to be vague. I have a feeling I’ll write (or start) another story. But I have three covers to create and three stories to send out to the world, so I might focus on knocking that out of the way instead.
I’m gonna go ahead and publish this now so I don’t forget later.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “The Power of Having Inventory” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/the-power-of-having-inventory/. This is an invaluable post for any writer.
From the Old Dogs Learning New Tricks department, see “Three Hours A Day” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/11/three-hours-a-day.html.
See “The Problem Confronting Memoirists: Overabundance of Material” at https://www.janefriedman.com/memoir-overabundance-material/. I list this because there’s some great writing in it. Worth your time even if you aren’t a memoirist.
See “Alway Improving as a Writer” at https://prowriterswriting.com/alway-improving-as-a-writer/.
See “It’s complicated…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/its-complicated-and-sometimes-you-have-to-break-the-rules/.
The Numbers
Fiction words today…………………… 0
Nonfiction words today…………… 850
Total fiction words for the month……… 6481
Total fiction words for the year………… 391574
Total nonfiction words for the month… 4810
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 285890
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 677464
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 197
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31