The Day
Rolled out at 1.
Spent an hour or so just waking up, checking out a few websites. I shouldn’t do that. Most often when I look at other websites that have anything to do at all with writing I am disappointed or flat out annoyed.
- JA Konrath is an avid supporter of Amazon Kindle Unlimited. For some reason, he apparently sees nothing wrong with supporting Amazon’s drive toward a monopoly.
- Another famous guy constantly talks about being certain to hit plot points and rewriting etc. which is contrary to everything I teach. He (and his editor) do occasionally come out with some good stuff so I won’t diss ’em too bad. Steven Pressfield and Shawn Coyne. Also a major shout-out to Jeffrey Simon, Steven and Shawn’s web guy, who taught me out of the kindness of his heart how to send more than one blog from one URL. Thanks Jeff!
- CampNaNo (I heard) expects around 1600 words per day (they think that’s a lot) and preach that writing sloppy is all right. Plus some of the completely irrational crap I read from some of the folks who participate just flat boggles my mind. (I do know there’s also some good things coming from good people on NaNo and I know some of you probably swear by it and that’s fine. I just can’t handle all the negative stuff I hear people telling writers who don’t know better than to listen.)
- And then there’s ol’ Chuck Wendig, who is a prolific profesional writer and could do SO much good but still preaches rewriting and a bunch of other stuff that I believe is mega-bad advice. He also feels compelled to curse, purely gratuitously, in very annoying ways. I guess the fact that there’s simply no reason for all the garbage language is what makes it so stinkin’ annoying.
Every time I do browse the web like this (about once every other month or so) I feel so very frustrated for all the young writer minds out there that are being twisted out of shape by these successful people who are sitting back and flinging the smelly stuff far and wide. I absolutely abhor it.
Then I remember all over again why I’m so very glad I finally found Heinlein’s Rules and Writing Off Into the Dark and the (most of the time) true common sense of people like Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rush. Bless their hearts. And I don’t mean that as a Texas epithet.
Turning to the writing ‘puter now to write the next short story. This is number 100 overall and the 71st story I’ve written since April 15, 2014.
Okay, finished the short story in three average sessions. About another hour to create a cover, publish it to Amazon and Smashwords, and post it to my website. This is not only number 100, but it’s also the first ever to be posted to the main site. Hope it works. (grin)
In the meantime, if you want an advance look, you can find it on my main site at HarveyStanbrough.com. Just click the Free Short Story of the Week tab.
Oh, re the challenge I issued yesterday, it’s a GREAT way to hold yourself accountable. So jump on in.
Topic of the Night: No topic tonight. Sorry. Too tired.
The Writing
went very well today. Conceived of, wrote, and published “Death of a Persona,” a dark but humorous jaunt through the imagination. My personas are characters in this one. Eric Stringer’s personality really shines through. Read this one, and I think you’ll see what I like about Eric. And why I had to let another persona go.
I was going to write some with Wes too, but I decided to take the rest of the day to do nothing. My brain’s tired. (grin)
Today’s Writing
Fiction words: 3201
Writing of “Death of a Persona” (story of the week)
Day 1…… 3192 words. Total words to date…… 3192 done
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
Day 9…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for the month…………… 9603
Total fiction words for the year……………… 415286