The Journal, Friday, 7/3

Happy 4th of July Independence Day to everyone. Hope it’s an enjoyable one for you.

The Day

Slept ’til almost 3 this morning. Woohoo! But a little late to work.

Okay, first, a very brief announcement. Beginning with tomorrow’s post (so July 4), this particular post will go out at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. As it is right now, sometimes this post cuts into my real writing time. Can’t have that.

I wrote the topic of the night for this post, then posted a similar one to the Pro Writers blog (the main blog, over 500 subscribers). That post will go out on the morning of July 5. You guys get the challenge first. (grin) See below.

I was hoping to walk this morning (that would be right now, 5 a.m.) but sporadic rain and a hellacious wind negated any possibility of that.

Now that I have most of this post written, I’m moving  over to my writing computer to spend some quality time with Wes Crowley and friends.

As part of the day this morning I remembered that although I’d written the story of the week (“Saved”), I forgot to post the cover on the website on The Short Fiction page. Got that done and then, for some reason, I did a count. Sixteen rows of six book each, plus three: 99 short stories, 99 covers. Goodness.

The next short story I write will be my 100th short story, and the 71st story I’ve written since April 15, 2014. As of July 6 (Monday) in my own story-a-week challenge there will have been 66 weeks. In that time, I will have written and published 71 short stories. Not too shabby for an old guy. (grin)

Topic of the Night: Issuing a challenge

Okay, it’s probably been way too long since I issued a challenge. I’m issuing it here first. I will also send it out on my Pro Writers blog (the main blog, over 500 subscribers) probably tomorrow.

This is only an effort to help some of you get to writing. The good thing about a challenge is that you may choose to accept it or not. Completely up to you.

This challenge comes in two forms:

1. Write one new short story every week. The story may be any length and any genre (other than graphic erotica), as long as it has a setting, characters, conflict and a satisfactory resolution. That last one’s a biggie. If it’s missing either conflict or resolution, it isn’t a short story. It’s maybe a vignette.

2. If you don’t write short stories, then your challenge is to write at least 5,000 publIshable new words every week. (This can be from a longer fiction work in progress [WIP] or in memoir or even creative nonfiction.) Or maybe you don’t have a WIP. Here’s the perfect opportunity to write that novel you’ve been wanting to write.

I will set up a website where those of you who accept the challenge may post your weekly story. (grin) Again, this is all up to you, but if you don’t show your story to others, how can you prove you wrote it?

A few things up front:

1. You retain all rights (copyright) to your work. Seriously. I’m a writer too. I don’t want to steal your stuff.

2. You may use a pen name on the site if you want. No problem. Just let me know what it is and I’ll set up your account that way.

3. Nobody’s going to critique your work. That isn’t what this is for. This is only to get you to the keyboard, to get you writing. Birds fly. Fish swim Writers write. I probably will close comments on the website.

4. I can’t guarantee you a particular number of readers, obviously. I do encourage you who participate to spread the word to your friends, family, etc. This will be a great opportunity to gain new readers for your work, and for the other writers on the site.

5. Of necessity, I reserve the right to remove any writing from the site at any time. I also reserve the right to close any account at any time.

So there you go.

If you want to accept the challenge, please leave a comment below or email me directly at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. (That’s a lot of stuff. I recommend you click the link or copy/paste rather than trying to type it in.) Please let me know your desired pen name (the name under which your stories will be published on the site).

I will respond fairly quickly. If you haven’t heard from me within a few hours, email me again.

Once I begin receiving the names of a few participants in this challenge, I’ll set up the site and send out the URL, login information and brief instructions to all participants.

The Writing
My own writing went well today. GAWD I love this writing into the dark stuff. Bradbury said if you don’t surprise yourself, how can you expect to surprise the reader. Absolutely true.

In the writing yesterday, the mayor revealed something to Wes that made me stop typing and sit back from the computer for a moment. It was incredible. And then today, Wes did the same thing. We even had an old friend from way back in Book 3 pop up here sixteen or seventeen years later.

Wonderful and absolutely the best fun you can have with your clothes on and without a fishing pole in your hand.

Today’s Writing
Fiction words: 3201

Writing of Book 8 in the Wes Crowley saga
Day 1…… 4125 words. Total words to date…… 4125
Day 2…… 2624 words. Total words to date…… 6749
Day 3…… 2766 words. Total words to date…… 9515
Day 4…… 1412 words. Total words to date…… 10927
Day 5…… 3441 words. Total words to date…… 14368
Day 6…… 1052 words. Total words to date…… 15420
Day 7…… 2486 words. Total words to date…… 17906
Day 8…… 3201 words. Total words to date…… 21107

Total fiction words for the month…………… 6402
Total fiction words for the year……………… 412085

2 thoughts on “The Journal, Friday, 7/3”

  1. I would love to participate in this challenge, but I have too many challenges going on already and must pass on this one. Best of luck and wordage to all of you who do take this one up!

    • You can always jump in later if you want, Ann. If it gets off the ground. If there’s anything to jump into. (grin)

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