Bradbury, and Copyediting
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* You Know I'm a Copyeditor Too, Right?
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives ... on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." Carl Sagan's comment on Voyager 1's image of Earth
The Bradbury Challenge
The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Feel free to jump in at any time.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
Balázs Jámbor "The key to get rid off the fear" 4106 Fantasy
Vanessa V. Kilmer "Blind Eyes" 2999 Fantasy
Harvey Stanbrough "Silence. Ah, Silence" 2754 SF
Harvey Stanbrough "Focus, a Hit, and the Stages of Egress" 2885 Action-Adventure
Harvey Stanbrough "Aspen Delaney" 6607 Romance
Harvey Stanbrough "Blue Aspen" 1547 Erotica
Dave Taylor "The Easter Weekend” 3,061 paranormal
Congratulations to all of these writers.
You Know I'm a Copyeditor Too, Right?
Welp, I didn't have to start a copyedit yesterday after all.
I say "have to" because copyediting is actual work. You'll never hear me say in a disparaging way that I "have to" get back to my novel. :-)
Anyway, I spot checked several places in the manuscript the potential client sent me and found the whole thing very well-written.
I corrected a few minor mechanical errors (replacing -- with — and things like that) and then sent it back to him.
Then I held my breath.
Years ago a novelist sent me what could've been a great payday in a novel that approached 100,000 words.
Alas, it was very well written and didn't need a copyedit. (Hey, good writing is good writing.) So I sent it back to him with the good news.
He was so disbelieving in his own work that he wrote a fiery email back to me saying I obviously wouldn't know bad writing if it bit me on the butt, and he was going to send it to a different copyeditor. I'm not kidding.
I enjoy a good payday as much as the next person, but I won't make work where none is required for a payday I can't earn.
Whatever. Believe in your work, folks.
The writer I turned down yesterday took it as I intended. He wrote me this morning to say now he’s confident enough to write another part to his story.
After yesterday's good bit of work (meaning no more than a half-hour), I went back to the novel to begin cycling over what I wrote the day before. Life is good.
Anyway, if any of you need a good copyeditor, I'm right here. If I accept your work for a copyedit, my price is never over one cent per word and often lower, depending on how much work is needed.
To see what I do in a copyedit, click Copyediting.
And of course, if your work doesn't need a copyedit, I'll tell you that too. No charge.
I'm anxious to get back to the novel now, so if you'll excuse me....
Of Interest
PSA: Important Info About Alzheimer's Makes perfect sense to me. Please read this. When you get there, click the little right arrow to continue. It isn't long.
The Pale Blue Dot An extremely interesting and quick overview of your home planet. Click the link, then scroll down slightly and read The Pale Blue Dot.
The best pictures of Mars from space
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 620
Writing of Blackwell Ops 42: Sam Granger
Day 1…… 2873 words. To date…… 2873
Day 2…… 1873 words. To date…… 4746
Day 3…… 3717 words. To date…… 8463
Day 4…… 2353 words. To date…… 10816
Day 5…… 3236 words. To date…… 14052
Day 6…… 3767 words. To date…… 17819
Day 7…… 4457 words. To date…… 22276
Fiction for April……………………….. 71874
Fiction for 2025………………………. 338824
Nonfiction for April………………........ 13900
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 95430
2025 consumable words…………….. 427744
Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 3594
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 8
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 23
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 112
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 293
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.
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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Glad the alzheimers info is getting out. I have been following Dr Ken Berry on YouTube and others who advocate a keto or carnivore diet for at least 10 years now. Once read of a nursing home administrator who cared for alzheimers patients and was willing (along with her family) to try giving an alzheimers patient a strict carnivore diet vs the usual carbage they are fed. She recovered enough to be able to return home.