In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Novel Wrapped
* The Sale Continues
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” Madeleine L’Engle
Novel Wrapped
Blackwell Ops 19: Soleada Garcia: Trying Times wrapped early yesterday afternoon with a little over 3600 words.
This morning I’ll create the cover and the promo doc. I’ll start on Blackwell Ops 20 in the next day or two.
As soon as I get my first reader’s notes back and apply them (update: I did that this morning), I’ll slap the cover on this one, schedule it for publication on Amazon and D2D, then send it out to those of you who took advantage of the sale.
The Sale Continues
This isn’t a flash thing. The sale I mentioned a few days ago will continue until I have finished Blackwell Ops 20.
If you aren’t yet aware, I’m offering Blackwell Ops 14 through 19 (and 20, at no extra charge, when it’s finished) right now for a donation of $18. That’s more than half-off the cover price. If you bought them individually via Amazon or whomever else, they would be $5.99 each, so a few cents under $42.
In those books, I illustrate exactly how to draw the reader into the book and the scene, and how to make the reader experience the same emotions the character is experiencing in real time.
If you bought BO-18 earlier (in the flash sale) the cost for the entire subseries is only $15.
And for monthly donors at any level, the entire subseries is FREE.
Ask yourself, How rare is it for a professional fiction writer to offer books that illustrate and illuminate such important specific topics?
I’ve know I’ve never seen it before.
This is like Stephen King offering a subseries with a very strong central character from which you can learn how to make your readers’ hair stand on end. (grin) Or Hemingway offering what he considers his best novels as an example of how to write tersely. (Yeah, I went there.)
This subseries is a masters class on how to write setting, high-action scenes, transitional scenes, and emotion, all the while experiencing what’s going on in the POV character’s mind as she herself transitions through all of that.
And if you want, you can even email to ask me questions as you read.
Think about it. All your life you’ve heard “show, don’t tell.” That’s a valid concept in writing fiction. It’s also a valid concept in learning: experience, don’t simply sit passively in an audience and listen.
This is an opportunity to actively experience lessons in grounding the reader AND conveying to the reader high-tension physical action as well the POV character’s thought processes and emotions — instead of sitting passively in an audience while the instructor drones-on about how to convey those things.
All of that said, I won’t mention the sale again.
Tomorrow I’ll be back with the first of a series of pretty good craft posts. To my knowledge, they are not included even in the Archives.
I’ll talk with you again then.
Of Interest
Editing and Reading Observations… Part 8
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 530
Writing of Blackwell Ops 19: Soleada Garcia: Trying Times
Day 1…… 4398 words. To date…… 4398
Day 2…… 4889 words. To date…… 9287
Day 3…… 3412 words. To date…… 12699
Day 4…… 3384 words. To date…… 16083
Day 5…… 4105 words. To date…… 20188
Day 6…… 5684 words. To date…… 25872
Day 7…… 4413 words. To date…… 30285
Day 8…… 3045 words. To date…… 33330
Day 9…… 4063 words. To date…… 37393
Day 10…. 3686 words. To date…… 41079 (done)
Fiction for February……………………. 3686
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 121290
Fiction since October 1……………… 424345
Nonfiction for February……………… 1050
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 33010
2024 consumable words…………… 154300
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 3
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 85
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 239
Short story collections…………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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