In today’s Journal
* Yesterday, and Computers
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Yesterday, and Computers
Well, I planned to spend the day yesterday reading Wes Crowley 1-12. I decided I didn’t need to create a separate reverse outline for each book—that would just be silly—but I will create a series bible as I go and maybe publish it as a “companion” book to the series. It will contain all the names, locations, physical descriptions of places and characters, etc.
Don’t worry. I’m not going to offer to let anyone else write in the Wes Crowley world. For one thing, most people don’t write westerns nowadays, and for another, the characters are my friends. I can’t just shove ’em out the door. (grin)
Writing in Crowley’s life/world is the only thing I love writing more than action-adventure or crime or “soft” SF. So as I do read through the series (as I said yesterday), I’ll watch for time gaps, opportunities for me to write more stories and novellas and novels in that world. And that’s really why I want to create the series bible, for my own reference.
Anyway, I didn’t start that process yesterday as I had planned. My business computer has been going doowacky for the last several days, with the text on documents and even internet web pages jumping from one size to another as I type, etc. (I even switched to a brand-new mouse. Didn’t make a difference.)
So I decided to make some changes. To keep from having to buy another SSD computer (the only SSD computer I currently own is my 13″ HP ProBook writing ‘puter), at first I switched my writing ‘puter to my business computer.
And for my “new” writing ‘puter, I hooked up an old Compaq Presario 1200 that I bought a while back in an estate sale for around $10. The feel of the keyboard is almost like an old IBM Selectric. But it has Word 2000 on it, and that’s all I really need for a writing ‘puter.
And then something went south with the Compaq (go figure), so I spent the rest of the day restoring my original writing ‘puter to its original place and brought another 14″ HP ProBook down from the house to use as my business computer. So everything’s back to some semblance of normal.
Not the kind of day I’d wish on anybody, but I guess things happen.
Today I’ll sanitize my old business computer so I can get rid of it. Then I’ll probably start scanning through the Crowley series looking for time gaps I can fill. And tomorrow or the next day I should be able to start writing again. Man will that be a relief.
So that’s how I spent the balance of the day yesterday. We’ll see how everything else goes.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See the comments on “Traditional Book Publishers” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/traditional-book-publishers/#comments.
See “Why Are There 5,280 Feet in a Mile?” at https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/25108/why-are-there-5280-feet-mile-making-sense-measurements.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 490 words
Writing of (novel)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for May……… 71896
Total fiction words for the year………… 443175
Total nonfiction words for May… 16740
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 101600
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 544775
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 9
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 62
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.