The Journal, Sunday, 8/30

The Day
Rolled out right at 2 this morning. Good to feel back on schedule.

Spent more time this morning on email than usual but for a good reason. I woke to Dr. Mardy Groethe’s weekly newsletter in my inbox. Dr. Mardy is a verbivore. He is the author of I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like, Oxymoronica, and several other books in the same general vein.

Each week his newsletter contains an interesting “puzzler” regarding a famous literary figure. Dr. Mardy provides a brief history and several quotes about the person, and at the end of the newsletter he reveals the person’s name.

After the puzzler hints and before the revelation, he provides “This Week’s Theme.” Then he offers up a bit of introductory prose and then a collection (usually a dozen) of his own favorite quotes on the topic.

And that’s what I like best about his newsletter. The listing of quotes he provides is a never-ending source of story titles and story ideas. And if you title and/or write a story based on part of a quote, the quote becomes a ready-made epigraph if you want one. (grin)

I will write the story of the week today, and I will write it based on a title derived from a quotation taken from this week’s newsletter.

And to slightly adjust my personal challenge, each new short story I write for the foreseeable future will be based on a quote from Dr. Mardy’s newsletter. That should be a blast. (grin)

You can find Dr. Mardy’s website at http://www.drmardy.com. To sign up for his newsletter, send a blank email to drmardy-on@mail-list.com. Again, I highly recommend it.

No topic tonight other than the above.

Good walk today. Only about 3.5 miles but new ground through a new wash. And not too sandy so no slogging, or not much. Cool.

Started the story of the week. Then my new Internet browser (Opera) crashed on me three times in an hour. So I’m looking again. Spent the last couple hours doing that, so back to writing for a bit now. I want to see how this story ends. (grin)

As it turns out, I’m not gonna find out how it ends today. Like I said the other day, the good thing about a recurring goal is that it resets if you miss it.

Today’s Writing

Well, I won’t finish the new short story I started today. No biggie. I’ll just start my new streak next week, or the next. I’ll get back on track.

I DID get a good opening written, and it’s a great title that I borrowed from a quote by Herodotus (5th c. B.C.). So I’ll run with that later.

But for now I’m not gonna worry about it. Talk with you all tomorrow.

Fiction Words: 1056

Writing of “A Hiding Place for Weary Men” (short story, but not of the week)
Day 1…… 1056 words. Total words to date….. 1056 words

Writing of Book 9 of the Wes Crowley saga
Day 1…… 3213 words. Total words to date….. 3213 words
Day 2…… 1046 words. Total words to date….. 4259 words
Day 3…… 1858 words. Total words to date….. 6117 words
Day 4…… 1023 words. Total words to date….. 7140 words
Day 5…… 1587 words. Total words to date….. 8327 words
Day 6…… X943 words. Total words to date….. 9270 words
Day 7…… 1084 words. Total words to date….. 10354 words
Day 8…… XXXX words. Total words to date….. XXXXX words

Total fiction words for the month…………… 22641
Total fiction words for the year……………… 465041

2 thoughts on “The Journal, Sunday, 8/30”

  1. I like the idea of using a quote, a sentence, a title for writing short stories. Have done that few times, so far not good enough. No publishing. But fun to write. Keep on truckin as we used to say. I still do. 😉

    • Susan, why not? As DWS once told me, you’ll tick off a lot of publishers and other readers by deciding for them what’s good enough and what isn’t. That isn’t your decision to make. Stop pre-judging your work and ship it out.

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