A Writing-Publishing Streak
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A Writing-Publishing Streak
* A Friendly Nudge Toward WITD
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel. A facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal." Fred "Mister" Rogers
A Writing-Publishing Streak
I first published a segment titled "A Writing-Publishing Streak" on January 24. I'd just finished and published BO-35. So this is basically an update and (I hope) a little motivation.
As I wrote in that post,
"When I put BO-35 up for pre-release sale on D2D and Amazon, it became the twelfth novel in my streak of publishing a novel every two weeks.
"Barring any major life rolls, I also know the release dates of at least my current novel and the two after that: BO-36, which I started writing the day before yesterday, will release on March 1. The next two novels will release on March 15 and March 29."
I mentioned yesterday that BO-38 had wrapped. Sure enough, it will go live on Amazon and everywhere else ebooks are sold on March 29 (the last Saturday in March).
Why Saturday? No special reason. I picked Saturdays as publication dates because they occur at the end of every week on my computer calendar, so they're easy for me to see. No other reason.
When BO-38 goes live, that will extend my streak of publishing a novel every two weeks to 15 novels (and 30 weeks).
There are only 52 weeks in a year, so that already isn't half-bad. (grin)
I like pre-release sales
specifically because Amazon reminds me every few days of the release date in case I want to update the novel before it goes live.
That email reminder is just one more motivation to write.
I never want to update the novel because I write into the dark. Since I cycle back as I go, when I finish the 'first draft' the novel is publication ready.
But keeping the publishing streak alive depends on me writing the novels in the first place. And writing them means I have to
Show Up for 'work' every day, and
Keep Coming Back through the day until I’ve reached or exceeded my daily word count goal.
My goal is 3250 words per day. Some days I make my goal and some days I don't. Currently, on the year, my wpd average is only 3132. So I have some work to do. (grin)
As I also wrote in that original post
"I couldn’t do any of that—writing ‘fast’ or publishing every two weeks—if I didn’t trust myself and my characters.
"And for the record, I don’t write ‘fast.’ I write only about 1000 words per hour, a blazing fast 17 words per minute. Only 17 words per sixty seconds."
DWS even does that, and he types with two fingers.
A Friendly Nudge Toward Writing Into the Dark
Again, from the original post,
"You’re only writing fiction. It isn’t important at all. It’s only a bit of fun.
"So when a ‘traditional’ fiction writer tells me he has to rest after finishing a novel, I immediately wonder why. Maybe to make how he spends his time seem more like ‘work’ and therefore more important?
"My next thought is that if you have to rest from writing fiction, obviously whatever you’re doing does NOT ‘work’ for you.
"Maybe—just maybe—instead of ‘making stuff up’ you should trust your characters and just write what happens and their reactions as you run through the story with them.
"Do that and you’ll have nothing to rest from. It’s just a boatload of great fun.
When you write into the dark, everything depends on you
believing in yourself and your characters,
understanding that a story or novel is nothing more important than a few minutes’ or a few hours of entertainment, and
that your job as a writer-recorder-presenter is simply to leap into the story with your characters, race through it with them as it unfolds all around you, then
write down whatever happens and the characters’ reactions to whatever happens.
Keep doing that until the story or novel wraps.
I hope this helps.
The Writing
In yesterday's post I said I would start BO-39. That will be easy enough to do because I really liked the BO-38 POV character and the way he presented his story thus far. So he and I will continue that in Blackwell Ops 39: More Paul Stone.
But as I write this (yesterday) I'm not sure whether I started BO-39 or wrote my next short story for the Bradbury Challenge. I know I did one or the other, or maybe both. To see which, check the Numbers below.
But again, it doesn't matter to me in advance whether the words go into a short story, into the next novel, or both. All that matters is that I put words on the page. 'Cause (shrug) I'm a writer.
Update—Okay, it's the novel. But a short story for the Challenge too (excerpted from the novel, so I don't count the words separately). It's all good. Slow start on the novel too, but that's normal.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Since some of you really enjoyed the recent Bradbury video, here are a few more. I suggest you save these for future reference:
Ray Bradbury speaking to aspiring writers Nobody motivates writers better than Bradbury does.
Ray Bradbury interviewed on Tom Snyder Radio Show
Ray Bradbury on Space as The Theology for Our Time Full Speech April 21, 1968
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 940
Writing of "Cleanup in Aisle 4"
Day 1…… 986 words. To date…… 986 done (included in novel count)
Writing of Blackwell Ops 39: More Paul Stone
Day 1…… 2789 words. To date…… 2789
Fiction for March…………………….. 14298
Fiction for 2025………………………. 200129
Nonfiction for March……………........ 5320
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 59250
2025 consumable words…………….. 252869
Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 2860
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 5
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 109
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 279
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.
Lovely quote.