In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The TNDJ Challenges Report
* “Is This Good Enough?”
* Pet Peeves Redux
* I Retired a Mouse
* A Challenge from Mardy Grothe
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw
The TNDJ Challenges Report
- The whole point of these challenges is to have fun and grow as a writer.
- There is no cost. Feel free to jump in at any time.
- Participating in any challenge is a way to drive yourself to the computer or legal pad and write fiction.
- It’s also a great way to build and maintain a streak that will, in turn, push you to write more.
- As if writing more and better fiction isn’t enough, I even offer prizes. To see those, please visit The NEW TNDJ Challenges.
Bradbury Challenge
The only requirement is to write at least one short story, short-short story, or essay per week.
During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Loyd Jenkins “The Lantern of the Covenant” 5270 Weird Western
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Bad Fun” 3057 Farce
- Christopher Ridge “The Perfect Smile” horror 1402
- KC Riggs “The Viewing Part 2” 2539 General Fiction
- Dave Taylor “The Voyage of La Cauchemar” 4,045 Dark Fantasy
The Stephen King Challenge
The requirement is to maintain an average of at least 1000 words per day as you proceed through writing a novel or novella.
- Jacob Hawes “Crystal God 2” 7649 Fantasy To date 66591
The Run With Harvey Challenge
The requirement is to strive to average at least 1000 words per day. The words can go into any short or long fiction or both.
- Balázs Jámbor 9000 words this week
- Christopher Ridge 8223 words this week.
Congratulations to all of these writers.
“Is This Good Enough?”
Every so often, I get an email accompanied by a short story or an excerpt. Sometimes out of the blue, and sometimes in response to my offer of a critique.
And sometimes the writer says some version of, “Really I just want to know if this is good enough [important enough] that I should continue spending time on it.”
Not wanting to dissuade the writer, I usually smile or sigh (depending on my mood), shake my head, and respond with “Well of course it is.”
I usually don’t elaborate, but here’s the thing: The story is important to the characters or you wouldn’t be writing it.
So believe in yourself. Defend (don’t attack) your own work.
Pet Peeves Redux
I’ve also received a few emails recently about my post on “A Few Pet Peeves.”
I’m happy to answer questions, but you can also find a great deal about grammar and syntax problems and all sorts of craft topics by searching the free PDF archives of TNDJ.
If you don’t have them yet, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and I’ll send you the last four years of TNDJ in fully searchable PDF files.
I Retired a Mouse
Yeah, I know. Probably not really a big deal, but yesterday my Microsoft 3500 mouse finally bit the dust. I thought it deserved a brief homage.
It’s one of those black and silver ones, except the silver on top was worn through to the grey plastic from me clicking it for the past 11 years.
I’ve had several different writing ‘puters during that time, but only the one mouse. I moved it from writing ‘puter to writing ‘puter.
And over the last 11 years, I’ve put 120 (and nine-tenths) novels, 10 novellas, well over 300 short stories, around 20 nonfiction books, around 30 short story collections, probably two-thirds or more of the 3,000 or so blog posts and probably two-thirds or more of the emails I’ve written through that little mouse.
That’s around 6 million words of fiction alone, and probably 10 million total.
I set the little mouse up on a shelf in the Hovel to remind me of what’s possible. Then I broke out a new one I had in stock and wrote this.
A Challenge from Mardy Grothe
In a comment on yesterday’s post, Dr. Mardy Grothe challenged us to “Write [a story with] an opening line with the word ‘sweat’ or ‘sweating’ in it.”
There y’go, folks. There’s your initial problem for the formula. Now all you need is a character in a setting. (grin)
And please don’t simply repeat Mardy’s challenge and then add “That was the challenge.” (grin)
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
How the God You Worship Influences the Ghosts You See
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 740
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 740
Writing of Blackwell Ops 50: Sam Granger | On Rocky Ground
Day 1…… 1440 words. To date………… 1440
Day 2…… 2986 words. To date………… 4426
Day 3…… 3523 words. To date………… 7949
Day 4…… 3315 words. To date………… 11264
Day 5…… 4128 words. To date………… 15392
Day 6…… 2990 words. To date………… 18382
Day 7…… 3330 words. To date………… 21712
Day 8…… 3572 words. To date………… 25284
Day 9…… 3101 words. To date………… 28385
Fiction for November……………………… 6673
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 668714
Nonfiction for November.………………… 2970
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 242440
2025 consumable words………………… 903585
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 16
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 120
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29