An Excellent Comment

In Today's Journal

* Quote of the Day
* An Excellent Comment
* Thanks to a Google Alert
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

"I'm a celebrity, but people are very polite and pretend they don't know who I am." Kurt Vonnegut

An Excellent Comment

I hadn't planned to post anything today. Then I received an excellent comment from Emilia on "I write a lot because I'm a writer". (Thanks, Emilia.)

I decided to include that comment today so more of you would see it:

"I read the same post by Johnny B. Truant and also felt similar that it put down rapid release authors in places. But he does write in the post that artisan author doesn't work for everyone and there is more than one way etc.

"I can see why he wrote the post. A lot of the advice I've seen for indie authors is geared towards rapid release and it can feel like that is the only way to be successful. (I've also seen people advocate using A.I to write stories for them and release those quickly, which is another issue.)

"I think releasing stories quickly sounds like a good business plan and when it becomes possible I'll aim for it. I still felt a bit annoyed when people giving (good) advice spoke as if it were the only way, it felt like being pressured rather than offered a way to publish.

"I used the word "felt" a lot. From my point of view that's what's causing minor annoyance with the talk about rapid release. It's a good way to do publishing business. It's just not presented in the best way currently.

"Also there needs to be more information on how to write quickly and that if you write large books you can keep up the rapid release schedule with short story collections.

"I don't think a lot of writers know how to write quickly and clean. I didn't when I first started, but I learned."

And here's my response:

Excellent comment, Emilia. As far as "there needs to be more information on how to write 'quickly'," I couldn't agree more.

Of course, that's what TNDJ has always been about: trusting yourself, trusting your characters, and simply writing the story that the characters, not the writer, are living.

But then, I'm only reaching around 200 subscribers. And it feels to me like convincing people to simply believe in themselves is the most difficult challenge I've ever faced."

Note: Very soon, I'll post my take on Rapid Release and attempt to present it "in the right way" to help others understand what it is and how to get there if you want to.

As a special bonus, I'll also post my take on being an Artisan Author and what that takes and how to get there if you want to. So stay tuned. I might surprise you a little.

Thanks to a Google Alert

I just learned I have 411 "products" available for the reading public at a store called Saxo in Denmark. Woo hoo! I didn’t even know Saxo existed.

Some are short stories and short story collections, some are novels, and some are omnibus collections of novels or nonfiction works. Really cool.

Of Interest

Kurt Vonnegut on the ‘shapes of stories’ This is HIGHlarious and good!

If you liked that, here's the full Vonnegut lecture (The lecture begins at about 8 minutes. At about 48 minutes, the chart on the board from the clip above resumes.)

How Not to Embalm a Pope An excellent look at morbidity and other things that can inform the authenticity of your writing.

Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week: “Live Like You Were Dying”

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 600

Writing of "Garage Sale Find"

Day 1…… 1254 words. To date…… 1254
Day 2…… 2134 words. To date…… 3388
Day 3…… 1743 words. To date…… 5131 done

Writing of Blackwell Ops 43: Sam Granger | The Quiz Master

Day 1…… 2242 words. To date…… 2242
Day 2…… 3315 words. To date…… 5557
Day 3…… 3192 words. To date…… 8749
Day 4…… 3439 words. To date…… 12188
Day 5…… 3017 words. To date…… 15205
Day 6…… 4041 words. To date…… 19246
Day 7…… 2706 words. To date…… 21952
Day 8…… 3302 words. To date…… 25254
Day 9…… 2335 words. To date…… 27589

Fiction for May………………………... 13474
Fiction for 2025………………………. 391887
Nonfiction for May………………........ 2260
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 103350
2025 consumable words…………….. 488727

Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 4493

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 9
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 113
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29

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.

If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!

If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:

• On Writing Fiction

• Gifts

• Writing Resources

• Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.

Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.