The Journal: Why I Post Every Day

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Why I Post Every Day
* The Novel
* An interesting newsletter
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
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Quotes of the Day

“It is as if these authors were in a dark prison cell, pulled up by the bars to look out the window at Armageddon, and fail to look behind them to see that their cell door is open. … It’s really hard to feel pity for those who willfully disregard changing reality.” Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt on tradpubbed authors who can’t believe indie publishing works

“[T]hese companies are now dispensing with any pretense in actively barring criticism of government policies and viewpoints.” Jonathan Turley on censorship

“And when memory failed and written records were falsified—when that happened, the claim of the Party to have improved the conditions of human life had got to be accepted, because there did not exist, and never again could exist, any standard against which it could be tested.” George Orwell in 1984

Why I Post Every Day

One reader asked why I post (almost) every day. The quick answer is because I want to share what I’ve learned with other writers.

I’m aware that some readers read my posts every day, while others catch up every few days or once a week or whatever. That’s fine. But the extended reason I post almost every day is because I generally write whatever occurs to me, and I generally write it when it occurs.

For example, I’m actually writing this yesterday, after I’ve transferred most of yesterday’s Journal post to the back end of the website and before I’ve added the updated Numbers section and clicked Publish to make it go “live.” In the interim, I skipped back over here to write this so I won’t forget it.

If I chose to post to the Journal only once a week, you’d miss a lot of potentially useful information. Because that’s how my mind works. Once I’ve had a thought and let it go, either into the Journal or off into the nethersphere, it’s gone.

Actually, yesterday is a great example. I almost didn’t post yesterday because really I had nothing to say. Nothing had come to mind.

Then I read the comments on the post over at The Passive Voice. Mr. Hall’s comment (see yesterday’s Quote of the Day) caught and engaged my attention, and I was off and running with the bit on adverbs.

So if you read the Journal and find something useful to your practice in writing (or to your marketing or publishing efforts) good. If not, there’s (almost) always tomorrow.

The novel feels like it’s going to wrap in the next day or two. Which is a good thing. I should have it back from my first reader and up for pre-publication sale before I run out of cigars and enter the Eerie Fog Zone. (grin)

Once I enter that zone, I might or might not continue to post (almost) every day. I honestly don’t know what will happen.

I do know I’ll “desmoke” the Hovel (necessary), and I do know I’ll still come to work every day (or most days). Again, that’s necessary if only to get accustomed to a personal new normal of being in the Hovel without cigars.

I also know I’ll still post the Journal if I have anything to say that I think you might find useful. And I know I’ll still sit at my writing ‘puter at least once a day and see whether any of my characters want to allow me to check in with them. During that time too, I plan to set my Royal typewriter on my writing desk and see what happens.

Beyond those things, which I can control, I have no clue what will happen while I’m in that zone.

I do NOT plan to bore you with “Ooh, I feel like this or that” as a result of being in that zone. Though if you’re in the midst of stopping a long-ingrained habit or addiction yourself and you’d LIKE to know about my experience (like maybe what to expect), email me and we’ll correspond about it privately.

Either way, I’ll talk with you again soon.

You can read an interesting newsletter from aggregator StreetLib by Clicking Here.

Although the newsletter is personalized to me, it contains a lot of goodies. To get your own newsletter subscription (they don’t come very often) visit https://streetlib.com.

Of Interest

See “State of the Author July 2021 edition, ending an era” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/state-of-the-author-july-2021-edition-ending-an-era/. If you read nothing else today, read this, including PG’s take and the comments.

See “liebjabberings” at https://liebjabberings.wordpress.com/. A site that is new to me. Worth checking out.

See “The Shadow State: Twitter Suspends Commentator for Criticizing Vaccine Policies” at https://jonathanturley.org/2021/07/30/the-shadow-state-twitter-suspends-commentator-for-criticizing-vaccine-policies/. Censorship matters.

See “Resonance and The Reader’s Journey” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/07/resonance-and-the-readers-journey.html. Meh. Readers want to be entertained. Whether they want to escape or re-invision their life while doing so doesn’t matter.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 820 words

Writing of WCGN 4: William J. Pinchot (tentative title, novel)

Day 1…… 1965 words. Total words to date…… 1965
Day 2…… 2624 words. Total words to date…… 4589
Day 3…… 1824 words. Total words to date…… 6413
Day 4…… 3160 words. Total words to date…… 9573
Day 5…… 3504 words. Total words to date…… 13077
Day 6…… 4704 words. Total words to date…… 17781
Day 7…… 2552 words. Total words to date…… 20333
Day 8…… 2234 words. Total words to date…… 22567
Day 9…… 2227 words. Total words to date…… 24794
Day 10… 3968 words. Total words to date…… 28762
Day 11… 4779 words. Total words to date…… 33541
Day 12… 3875 words. Total words to date…… 37416

Total fiction words for July……… 84324
Total fiction words for the year………… 613003
Total nonfiction words for July… 20640
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 146430
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 759433

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 12
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 65
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.