In Today’s Journal
* Why I Do TNDJ
* Paid Subscriber?
* A Rumination on Story Ideas
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Why I Do TNDJ
One of the major reasons I still publish TNDJ dawned on me yesterday morning when yet another email came in from the Writer’s Digest newletter. It was titled “9 Dos & Don’ts of Writing What You Know.”
In that moment, I realized how much impure, thoroughly adulterated crap I waded through in the past about writing in order to be here now writing another issue of TNDJ.
Now and then I share in Of Interest an article that at least sounds good on the surface, but one I haven’t read. Most of the time, when I link to one of those, I caution you to watch out for the myths.
The myths completely permeate society, and especially our little fiction-writers’ corner of it.
But I didn’t have that warning when I came up. I trudged, slogged, and sometimes swam through the myths, and I swallowed a lot of filthy water in the process.
Only when I eventually and almost accidentally found Heinlein’s Rules and writing into the dark did I recognize the foul taste in my mouth and start spitting. And writing.
Imagine what I might have accomplished as a fiction writer by now if I hadd found those Rules and that non-techique when I was 20 or 30 or 40 or 50.
Even in my first 18 months of WITD, I turned out 72 short stories and 10 novels. Yet before I found HR and WITD I’d written zero novels and a handful of short stories.
That’s why I average two to three hours almost every day writing and publishing TNDJ. I want to keep as many others as I can from having to make their way through that same cesspool.
Paid Subscriber?
It also dawned on me that especially my paid subscribers and I are already involved in an ongoing mentorship. Any questions about writing at any time, email me. I’m here.
If you aren’t yet a paid subscriber, please consider signing up. It’s only $5 per month or $60 per year. That’s what, about one-fourth the cost of a burger and fries or a single pizza these days?
A Rumination on Story Ideas
Okay, you might get something out of this rambling and you might not. I hope you do. Yesterday, I shared a version of this with a writer who emailed me, and it struck me that this might make a good post for some of you.
Seven or eight years ago, I wrote In the Siberian Fields, an SF novel. Here’s the elevator pitch:
On future Earth, human bones and the calcium derived from them are a necessary, lightweight resource for building a moon colony.
Unlike the deterioriated bones buried in other mass graves around the world, in Sibera the bodies are practically flash frozen. The bones are fresh.
But the faces are always there too.
Jonathan Kirski is prepared to do what he must do. Could you mine the bones of your own ancestors? And if so, at what cost?
Years later I also wrote a sequel (with possibly the worst cover I’ve ever designed) titled The Claim.
Several story ideas sprang from In the Siberian Fields as I was writing it, and for whatever reason I scribbled them down. I came across them again recently:
- the group (World Equality Organization) that has established itself as the world government and all that derives from that,
- one particularly ruthless will-be member of the WEO and his tie-in with the main character,
- one person (maybe living in the moon colony) and her tie-in with the main character (maybe JK tours the colony, they meet, and romance ensues?),
- the WEO’s decision to purge the Jews (God’s Chosen) whom they see as barring the path to equality for all,
- the Inter-Arab war (fighting over the division of Jewish nation and assets),
- the repercussions and leavings of a semi-world war,
- the reason for and/or the fate of the first moon colony and whatever other stories or novels spring from that, etc.
- Also, why is the main character able to do what he does for a living?
- What are the effects, if any, on his psyche?
- What are the living conditions in the mining camp?
- What are the effects, if any, on the other miners?
You may purchase In the Siberian Fields and/or the sequel (and thanks if you do), read them and then write in that world if you want.
But selling books isn’t my purpose with this post.
If any of the ideas above (including the four paragraphs in the elevator pitch) appeals to you, feel free to write any of them in any genre you wish.
In my mind, they suit SF, but they also suit Action-Adventure, Thriller, and Romance. And of course you may remove any SF elements to render them NOT SF (e.g., the moon colony could be a settlement somewhere). They also suit short stories, novellas, or novels.
Of Interest
Coaching… Getting Your Stuff Out… I’m repeating this because as I said yesterday, This Is Major. Maybe the best thing Dean has offered in the past ten years. If I was a younger man, I think I’d sell a child to get in on this, especially numbers 2, 3 and 5. But it’s up to you.
Cult Killings Ripped from the headlines. Want a great action-adventure or thriller story idea? Help track down this creep and his minions.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 900
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for February………………….. 37682
Fiction for 2025………………………. 159047
Nonfiction for February………………. 13910
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 45890
2025 consumable words…………….. 198417
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2217
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3245
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 7
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 277
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.