In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Grand Opening Sale
* Yesterday
* Today
* Reminder
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.” Kurt Vonnegut
“[O]nly when we slow down, relax, and distract the busy chatter of the conscious ego—grounded in the left hemisphere—we experience the silence and space necessary for the right hemisphere to make itself known.” Matt Perryman
“[Rapid release of fiction is] just sitting your ass in a chair and writing new material every day. That’s all it takes.” Vin Zandri
The man knows what he’s talking about. H
Grand Opening Sale
Dean Wesley Smith is having a grand opening sale to celebrate his new Shopify store. The sale includes everything, including WMG workshops. Read all about it at these two links:
https://deanwesleysmith[dot]com/grand-opening-sale/
https://deanwesleysmith[dot]com/questions-about-new-workshops-and-sale/
If you’d rather go straight to the sale, visit https://pulphousemagazine.com/.
Yesterday
I didn’t write much yesterday and didn’t even check my usual stops on the internet, but the “Midnight Sketch” story took an interesting turn when the secondary character took over as the primary character. Now it’s a race to the ending.
I feel like I’ll finish that one today. Then, unless “Sketch” runs longer than I expect it to, I’ll work on something else.
Today
Not that you can tell, but I haven’t quite gotten the hang of putting off writing the Journal until the end of the day. I wrote most of this early, and more during a break from fiction.
It still feels weird not to write and post the Journal first thing, then do everything else. But I still would rather publish same-day numbers, so I’ll try this way a bit longer.
As I hoped, I finished “The Substance of Shadows: A Midnight Sketch Story” (formerly “A Midnight Sketch”). I realized this is only the first of what might be many stories inspired by the DeGrazia mixed-media picture titled “A midnight sketch 3AM Summer of 1972, Arizona, USA.”
Oddly enough, this story insisted on a slightly different process than my usual. It will be interesting to see whether other stories emanating from this picture require the same process.
Also (as often happens with my stories) the characters in this story hinted at some “off-stage” events and situations that interested me. This story might spur a novel to explore some of those events and situations.
Anyway, for now I’m moving on to something else. ‘Cause right now I’m just trying to get off the wall I slapped myself into two years ago.
Okay, as it turns out, I also wrote “Penance.” No idea where it came from. The numbers are below.
Since my official restart was on August 1, I’ve also decided to add another line to my cumulative numbers section. I’ll track my “Total fiction words since August 1” at least through the end of the year, and probably through July 31, 2024. Hey, a new year begins every day. (grin)
Oh, and listen—I always say this and nobody ever takes me up on it. If you would like to piggback my personal challenge with one of your own, you’re more than welcome. Just set a daily word count goal (doesn’t have to mimic mine) and start.
Reminder
Bradbury Challenge participants, don’t forget to update me with your story titles, word counts and genres this week.
This format makes it easy for me to cut and paste (notice the lack of punctuation), but I’ll take it however you send it: Story Title xxxx words Genre
Thanks!
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “How you make writing hard on yourself (and what to do about it)” at https://mattpmn.substack[dot]com/p/how-you-make-writing-hard-on-yourself. Extremely interesting post.
See “Making Your Books Stand Out” at https://www.youtube[dot]com/watch?v=jeP9YSW15hI. Of course, rapid release calls for actually spending time in the chair and writing a lot. (grin)
See “Friday Reader-Writer Connections” at https://killzoneblog.com/2023/08/friday-reader-writer-connections.html.
See “This Nazi-style megagun hopes to replace space rockets” at https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/longshot-mega-gun-space-launch. Despite the unfortunate title, this is an exciting prospect.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 630
Writing of “The Substance of Shadows: A Midnight Sketch Story”
Day 1…… 1341 words. Total words to date…… 1341
Day 2…… 1823 words. Total words to date…… 3164
Day 3…… 1084 words. Total words to date…… 4248
Day 4…… 1502 words. Total words to date…… 5750 done
Writing of “Penance” (short story)
Day 1…… 2147 words. Total words to date…… 2147 done
Writing of “Untitled Stern Talbot Mystery”
Day 1…… 190 words. Total words to date…… 190
Writing of Rose Padilla (WCG10SF5)
Day 1…… 4283 words. Total words to date…… 4283
Day 2…… 3963 words. Total words to date…… 8246
Day 3…… 1463 words. Total words to date…… 9709
Day 4…… 2445 words. Total words to date……12154
Total fiction words for August……… 8009
Total fiction words for 2023………… 122556
Total nonfiction words for August… 1740
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 15160
Total fiction words since August 1…… 8009
Total words for the year (fiction and nonfiction)…… 274196
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………… 73
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 221
Short story collections…………………………………………. 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark, adherence to Heinlein’s Rules, and that following the myths of fiction writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.