Bradbury, and A Writer on Writing

September 23, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* A Writer on Writing
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“Soul is when you take a song and make it a part of you—a part that’s so true, so real, people think it must have happened to you.” Ray Charles

The same is true of Story….

The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting

To take part, the only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. If you want to share your success, submit the story title, word count, and genre to me each week for publication in the Journal on Monday. (Yes, you can also write a longer story and submit your progress each week.)

The whole point is to have fun and grow as a writer. You can join or rejoin the challenge at any time.

There’s no cost. You can even do it on your own, without reporting numbers to me or anyone else.

During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:

• Vanessa V. Kilmer “Specter Behind the Red Door” 3001 Horror

• Adam Kozak “Death and Vengeance” 2009 Detective Fiction

• Alexander Nakul “With a smile of corpse” 4032 Thriller, Noir (from last week)

• Alexander Nakul “Ermine in the Misty Land” 3762 (11304 words total) Fantasy, Wuxia (from last week)

• Alexander Nakul “Lev Gumilev Theatre” 11597 Historical

• Harvey Stanbrough “The Tear as Process” 3211 Magic Realism/Horror

• Dave Taylor “Lights on the Prairie” 3764 Paranormal

A Writer on Writing

From X, an excellent storyteller who preferred his name be withheld

I’m not the greatest writer on the face of the earth. I don’t care about that. I just write it down as I see fit.

I began in life as a factory worker while still in high school to make some money to the get the hell out of town. Thankfully, I did that, because I didn’t want to live and die within a mile of the cemetery.

Along the way, I picked up a helicopter pilot’s license and thousands of hours of flight time and miscellaneous illegal ventures in various and sundry countries around the world. Not guilty, yer honor, and I’ve never seen those guys before in my life (just as they never saw me).

I climbed on my motorcycle and ran around the southwest U.S. and the Mexican Baja for six or eight years as an illegal. While I was down there, I was sitting poolside at my favorite reclusive desert inn watching a bunch of models on a photo shoot.

My first short story was born of that shoot, and from there a biker series evolved. I was never in a club. I’m an Independent.

Somewhere on the road, I thought I might tell a tale about some beat-up, broke-down crew of men doing things in Africa, having fun, and making cash by buying and selling gemstones and other things. Well, it didn’t stop there. That has evolved into an on-going series as well.

Finally, thanks to my Baja adventures and the people I encountered, I started a PI/romance series. Oh, and there was the job I had in that old-school bike shop in the high desert. Man, the characters who went through that place on a regular basis would curl your hair.

Have I been fortunate? Hell, yeah!

Could I have done it without all of life’s “little” ups and downs? No idea, but I’m putting it down on paper with quill and ink-well.

Is it any good? How the hell would I know? I’m having too much fun laughing and reminiscing over former comrades who are long gone.

I have no idea why I’m still here, but I’m telling some stories with a little bit of fact thrown in with a lot of bullshit and having fun doing it.

I’ve forgotten all about more than a few villages and towns and cities, but that’s what a search engine is for.

Would I go back to some of those places? Not likely these days. Or any other day. It’s all in the past, and they deserve better.

What I’m trying to say is, write what you want. If you don’t know something, look it up and ruminate for a bit. Let your mind wander.
Then let your fingers do the same over the keyboard.

Close your eyes. Imagine. Pretend. Research. Put yourself there. Surely you’ve seen enough moves and read enough books or newspaper articles or watched news reports that will make it happen.

Or not. As always, your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. I know mine sure did, a lot faster than I wanted it to, in many cases.

Write on!

Thanks, P.

Talk with you again soon.

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 780

Writing of Stern Talbot: The Origin Story

Day 1…… 4327 words. To date…… 4327
Day 2…… 3822 words. To date…… 8149
Day 3…… 3250 words. To date…… 11399

Fiction for September…………………….. 66310
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 704496
Fiction since October 1…………………… 846848
Nonfiction for September………………… 21860
Nonfiction for 2024……………………….. 296700
2024 consumable words…………………. 843741

Average Fiction WPD (September)……… 3014

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 13
2024 Novellas to Date……………………. 0
2024 Short Stories to Date………………. 14
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 95
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………. 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………. 251
Short story collections……………………. 29

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer, but please try this at home. You can do it. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies. They will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

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