In Today’s Journal
* The Purpose of TNDJ
* Occasionally in TNDJ
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Purpose of TNDJ
The whole purpose of TNDJ is to teach fiction writers it’s all right to believe in themselves.
That you don’t need (or want, actually) critical input from critique groups or beta readers, and that you shouldn’t revise or rewrite as a result of any critical input you inadvertently receive.
If you’re compelled to rewrite on advice of a beta reader or critique group member, then you should also rewrite every time a general reader points out something s/he doesn’t like.
I know. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? But everybody has an opinion, and one person’s opinion is no more valid or important than another’s. Even your own opinion of your work is only one opinion.
Believe in your characters, and believe in yourself.
Don’t seek critical input, and when someone offers it anyway, don’t listen. Write what you need to write. If others want to tell you how they would have written it, maybe suggest that they go write their own.
Yes, that flies in the face of the “normal” way of writing fiction that’s most often touted far and wide on writers’ boards and in writers’ groups and pretty much everywhere else.
The standard “wisdom” is that you must outline, revise, seek critical input, then rewrite X or XX number of times before you even think of publishing
That’s all pure, unadulterated bull cookies.
Your task as a fiction writer couldn’t be simpler:
Simply observe your characters as they live their story. Write what happens. Then write how the characters react in word and deed. That’s really all there is to it.
Write one clean draft. Cycle back over the story (still in your creative subconscious) as you go to allow the characters to add anything you missed as you were writing (usually you’ll add more in-depth description).
Then either send the whole thing to a good first reader (not a critical-mind beta reader) or Read Your Work Aloud to catch wrong words (e.g., waste for waist) and typos (th vs. the). Then publish it, period, and move on to the next story or novel.
To learn what to required of a good first reader, click here.
There are really only three rules for success as a writer:
1. Write.
2. Publish (or submit and keep submitting until it’s accepted).
3. Start the next story or novel, no excuses.
There are a million ways around those rules, but all of them lead to not writing. Writers write.
One writer emailed me recently with (paraphrasing) “I stopped writing because, um, you know, AI.”
My response?
So what? I don’t like AI either, but it’s there. Just ignore it and follow the rules above. Be an adult. Writers write. And writer-publishers write and publish. No excuses.
I know: “But I have a job.” “But I’m a caregiver.” “But (whatever else.)”
Right. We all have commitments. So honor your commitments. And then, if you’re a writer, carve out time and write. Millions of people just like you do it every day.
“But I’m (age).” I know. And you have the same choice you had yesterday. Tomorrow you’ll either be a writer or you won’t. Either way you’ll be (age) plus one more day. Writers write.
Only practice will improve your craft skills, and practice is putting new words on the page. When you’re revising or rewriting, you’re not practicing. You’re hovering. Your costing yourself your most valuable asset: time.
All of the above starts with believing in yourself.
You’ve got this. You learned a long time ago how to use the alphabet to form words and how to write a cohesive sentence, and that’s all that’s required.
Yet I’ve known dozens of people who had the self-confidence to build their own business from the ground up or who had a successful career in the military or in other endeavors but who froze solid with fear when faced with writing something so insignificant as writing a short story.
And yes, I mean insignificant. Your short story is nothing more than a few minutes’ entertainment for the reader. Likewise, your novel is only a few hours’ entertainment.
Neither your story nor your novel is earth shakingly important, so get over yourself and just write your characters’ story.
Most readers will enjoy what you’ve written, and some won’t. But the ones who do won’t make you an overnight success, and those who don’t won’t drive to your house and beat you up.
There are ZERO real-world consequences, and that’s a good thing. It’s a freeing thing.
It means you can Just Write the Story you want to write and don’t worry about it. And the more you write, the more your craft skills will steadily improve and the faster the number of readers who enjoy your work will increase. And you’ll have a career.
But everything—ALL OF IT—is up to you.
If writing is something you want to do and it’s fun for you, write. Writers write.
If it ISN’T fun for you or you don’t want to write or your too intimidated by things you can’t control (AI, etc.) then don’t write. Go find something fun to do instead. Life’s too short to do things you don’t want to do.
Occasionally in TNDJ
I also teach advanced craft skills, often illuminated by a real-life example of the technique in action from my own writing-in-progress. In TNDJ, I published probably a dozen of those in 2024 alone.
Those skills most often have to do with the nuances of the language. Not so much what is written in narrative or dialogue, but how it’s written: which is to say, how it’s presented to the reader in the final short story or novel.
Unfortunately, I haven’t written much fiction to speak of since July 1.
I’m sure that doesn’t seem so bad to some of you, but at my normal pace (a novel every two weeks), I would have finished three novels during that time span. I would normally have written about 130,000 words of fiction.
Maybe my critical mind is saying “Great accomplishment! Now you can stop for awhile.” I dunno.
For me personally, this should probably feel like a bit of a crisis.
Except apparently it doesn’t. I’m not overly concerned about it. The characters and their stories will either come back or they won’t.
If they do, no doubt TNDJ will continue because I’ll have something of value to pass along to you. If they don’t, I’ll probably shut down TNDJ and move on to the next adventure. Weeshul See.
Anyway, until I know for sure I’ll keep showing up and making my fingers available to my characters on the keyboard. I’ll keep opening my current WIP, or maybe I’ll open my novel or short story template and start something new.
In the interim, I’ll keep writing and publishing TNDJ for those who get something out of it.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “Compassion”
The Big Three: Where Authors Should Really Be Advertising Their Books
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1170
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360
Fiction for August..………………….. 1110
Fiction for 2025………………………. 527757
Nonfiction for August………………… 11630
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 180030
2025 consumable words…………….. 700173
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29