A Request, and Black Friday ‘Deals’?

November 28, 2024 by Harvey

In Today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Happy Thanksgiving!
* A Personal Request
* Black Friday Deals?
* The Writing
* Attaining New Heights
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“A good editor knows which changes will solve a problem or two. The majority just know ‘It should have been rewritten.’ Meanwhile, a good editor could help, and teach a lot. But to find a good editor is not necessary to write a good story, and everything starts with a good story.” Balázs Jámbor

“I’ve been tracking my words like a hawk, and wring like a mad man. Tonight, I did a bit of projection. If I can hit 3,000 words per day for the next four days, my story will exceed 50K [for NaNoWriMo with three days to spare].” Dave Taylor

Happy Thanksgiving!

I almost forgot to wish you guys a happy Thanksgiving. I usually learn what day it is when I go to the house for a break.

So holidays are basically just another day for me, except sometime during the day today I get to gorge on great food. (grin) And thanks, Mona.

A Personal Request

If I or TNDJ have helped you in your fiction writing efforts, I recommend you click the first link in Of Interest. Then read the post and leave a comment. Please mention The New Daily Journal.

If you add the URL for TNDJ, I would appreciate it. The URL is https:// followed by thenewdailyjournal.substack.com/.

Maybe a few readers over at Writers in the Storm will listen and discover a fresh new myth-free encouragement zone. Maybe we can help pull them out of the ‘storm’.

Thanks.

Wow. Black Friday Deals?

In the link below on Black Friday Deals for Writers, I noticed that as a Black Friday deal, something called “Fictionary” is offering “StoryCoach Edits” for ‘only’ 3 cents per word (normally 4 cents per word).

Whaddayou, kiddin’ me?

Use them if you want—as always, how you spend your money is your business—but when I read “StoryCoach” an immediate alarm went off in my mind: Book Doctor.

And when I read “only 3 cents per word (normally 4 cents per word),” fuggedaboudit. But more on that tomorrow.

For now, let’s tackle that “StoryCoach” thing:

How can anyone who lives outside your mind presume to know your characters more intimately than you do? How can they presume to change your content? Believe in yourself. Staunchly defend your work.

Here’s a word to the wise: Allow NO critical mind input—even yours, much less anyone else’s—to intrude on your characters’ fictional world.

If you do, that intrusion will only screw up the story, and you will never know how good it might have been had the intrusion not happened.

Not knowing the authentic story scares me more than any of the myths do. And writing the authentic story is much easier than writing according to the myths. More on that tomorrow too.

In traditional publishing, persons exist who hold the title Acquisitions Editor. An acquisitions editor is a valid editor, especially if you submit stories to magazines or if you’re still living in the 1980s.

Otherwise the ONLY valid editor is the Copyeditor. Still, your chosen copyeditor should only correct and/or comment on your use of

• punctuation, spelling, and wrong-word usage

• grammar and syntax, but remaining true to the diction of the narrator or character (your style), including obviously accidental shifts in verb tense and point of view

• redundancies (Usually these are in narrative, the result of the writer intruding on the story to tell the reader what the reader already “saw” or “overheard” as he read.)

• consistency in punctuation, hyphenation, numerals, fonts, and capitalization

• consistency in character names, clothing, scene details, etc.

• pacing and flow (primarily I’ll recommend reparagraphing to improve pacing and I’ll provide examples from your work)

• anything else that might confuse or otherwise interrupt the reading of your work

In other words, the copyeditor should edit only your (the writer’s) PRESENTATION of the story, not the actual CONTENT of the story itself.

I can’t speak with any authority for what you can actually expect from Fictionary or anyone else, but before you spend 3 or 4 cents per word, I strongly recommend you ask them.

And if they mention recommending rewrites or anything else that’s content-related, I strongly recommend you delete them from your list and move on to the next copyeditor you’re considering.

The Writing

Yesterday, having set aside The Imp (novella) probably until after the first of the year, I wrote a short story for this week’s Bradbury Challenge. I wanted to also start a new novel, but I got sidetracked with a screwup.

An Adjustment

Astute readers will notice that the number of short stories I’ve written since April 15, 2014 has jumped from 255 to 268 overnight. And the number of novels completed this year and overall dropped from 17 to 16 and from 99 to 98, respectively.

Nope, I didn’t write 13 new stories or lose a novel yesterday.

For my short stories, I went back through issues of the Journal since I rejoined the Bradbury Challenge on September 1 and counted the number of stories I’ve written that I hadn’t recorded: 13.

And as I was adding those stories to my IP Master Spreadsheet, I realized I’d written only 16 novels this year, not 17, and therefore only 98 novels overall, not 99.

Accurate story, novella, and novel counts go to my credibility as a fiction writer.

Attaining New Heights?

My best novel count in previous years was 11 or 12, so I’ve already bested that with 16 on the year so far. I still hope to finish my 19th novel on or before December 31. Hey, could happen, but probably not. There are fewer than 5 weeks left in the year.

Still, if I fall short, I should still be able to reach 18 this year, for an overall total of 100. Woohoo! I love attaining new heights.

We’re all at different places in our fiction writing career, but no matter where we are, we should all be striving to improve our word/story/novel count, which will in turn improve our skill at the craft.

If you’ve attained new heights as a fiction writer this year, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and tell me about it. I’ll be happy to share those achievements in a future issue of TNDJ so we can all celebrate with you.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

The Writerly Things WITS Bloggers Are Grateful For

Black Friday Deals for Writers 2024

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 1050

Writing of “The Journey of Jackson Trimble to Fifth and Main”

Day 1…… 2927 words. To date…… 2927 done

Fiction for November………………… 87261
Fiction for 2024………………………. 924393
Nonfiction for November…………….. 26020
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 360440
2024 consumable words…………….. 1,108,872

Average Fiction WPD (November)…. 3232

2024 Novels to Date…………………….. 16
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..… 98
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 268
Short story collections……………………. 29

Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.