In Today’s Journal
* Welp
* Writing Longhand?
* Ongoing Offers
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Welp
The novel didn’t wrap yesterday, but the characters handed me the ending. So it will wrap today.
Oh, and on the admin side the Stanbrough Writes Substack is populated with short stories out through the end of February 2026. I plan to finish at least out through December 2026. After that we’ll see.
Writing Longhand?
A writer emailed me,
“I’m out of town this week and next and my schedule has been completely thrown off course. … I’ve been writing on my phone on my processor app which works great. Little different writing this way. It does take some practice and patience.
“I suppose I could’ve written in longhand but I’m so used to writing one draft and done [that] to type out everything I’ve written seemed like work considering I already wrote it and know how it ends.
“I wrote this week’s story on this phone, so I’m getting better. It’s actually been pretty neat that I learned to do this because I find I can knock out some parts of a story just about anywhere. Word count tends to be a little slower because it’s not my normal writing ‘puter but it gets the job done….”
Interesting! Thanks!
I know a lot of folks can write on their phones. I’m not one of them, blessed as I am with big, wide, fat thumbs. (grin) My paternal grandfather called them “strangler’s thumbs.”
But re writing in longhand, I know at least one person who does exactly that, or who did a year or two ago.
If anyone wants or needs to write in longhand, consider that typing-in later what you wrote longhand earlier can be useful. The typing can be your cycling session. As you type-in what you’ve written, you can allow the characters to add whatever you might have missed.
Just something to think about.
Not much else to talk about so I thought I’d repeat a couple of…
Ongoing Offers
Book Giveaway
In case you’d like to compare and contrast my characters’ version of a moon colony with the colony NASA’s planning, I’m giving away The 13-Month Turn for a limited time. All you have to do is email me.
Or you can click The 13-Month Turn, add the book to your cart, then enter coupon code RRKV66BOWU when you’re prompted for a coupon.
And yes, my characters’ story was forward-looking science fiction. But at this point, so is NASA’s. Just sayin’.
I’ll also send along a copy of “The Stipplesuit,” a short story I wrote years earlier that describes a new kind of personal environmental ‘space suit.’ Especially if you’re an SF writer, you want to see that.
The TNDJ Archives
I can easily send you, free, the last four years of TNDJ in printable, searchable PDF. All you have to do is email me to let me know you want them.
I’ve covered pretty much every topic about the fiction writing craft and a lot on publishing in those issues.
Have a great week.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 520
Writing of “Interlude 1”
Day 1…… 1393 words. To date…… 1393 (done)
Writing of Blackwell Ops 48: Razor Edge
Day 1…… 2213 words. To date…… 2213
Day 2…… 1210 words. To date…… 3423
Day 3…… 1318 words. To date…… 4741
Day 4…… 2481 words. To date…… 7222
Day 5…… 1588 words. To date…… 8810
Day 6…… 2215 words. To date…… 11025
Day 7…… 4168 words. To date…… 15193
Day 8…… 2645 words. To date…… 17838
Day 9…… 1682 words. To date…… 19520
Day 10…. 3234 words. To date…… 22754
Day 11…. 1982 words. To date…… 24736
Day 12…. 3079 words. To date…… 27815
Day 13…. 3095 words. To date…… 30910
Day 14…. 2615 words. To date…… 33525
Fiction for October………………… 21053
Fiction for 2025…………………… 599591
Nonfiction for October.…………… 4690
Nonfiction for 2025……………….. 214800
2025 consumable words………… 806822
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 14
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 32
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 118
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 302
Short story collections……………………. 29