Bradbury, and November Challenge Expanded

October 28, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* November Challenge Expanded
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Writers Write
* The Writing
* KKR’s Reading Program
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

November Challenge Expanded

Owing to a friend reminding me that November is also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, and see below), I’ve expanded the upcoming November challenge.

On October 26 I announced the Stephen King Challenge (see below): 1000 words per day, or 30,000 words for the month.

I’m adding a second challenge for anyone who’s intrigued with the NaNo goal of writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. The difference is that I will never encourage you to write sloppily. Oh, and I offer prizes.

So the TNDJ NaNo Challenge is to write 1667 words per day every day for the month of November.

The same rules apply and the same rewards are offered. You can see the rules and rewards and the original Stephen King Challenge here. I hope you’ll jump into one or the other. If you dropped out last time, here’s an excellent chance to get back on board.

Also, if you read my “Two Essential Tips” post yesterday but you still can’t see your way clear to buying a copy of Writing Better Fiction, you can claim it or any of my other books as a free prize as early as November 10.

You only have to meet the weekly total of either the Stephen King Challenge (7000 words on the week) or the NaNo Challenge (11669 words on the week).

So jump into either challenge. There’s no cost and there are some pretty good prizes.

The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting

I really wish more of you guys would jump into this too. C’mon, show us what you’ve got. The whole point 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. (I’m no longer keeping track of your longer fiction. Too erratic.)

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

• Vanessa V. Kilmer “Fireflies” 3945 Fantasy

• Adam Kozak “Rhyme and Punishment” 2561 Speculative Fiction

• Harvey Stanbrough “Supper and More in Nassau” 3793 Fantasy

• Dave Taylor “The Dia De Los Muertos Display” 3,184 paranormal/horror

Writers Write

from Balázs J in Hungary

I don’t care anymore what is the quality of my own writing. I do my best and I am already writing the next story. With this I will write more and better.

If my actual novel doesn’t meet some readers’ expectations, they don’t have to read it. But if I just rewrite the same thing over and over again, I don’t even have the chance to satisfy my potential readers.

And for the [Wheel of Fortune] marketing trick, I’ll give it a shot. I’m nowhere with my marketing. With this technique maybe I can produce some stuff. We shall see. At the very least it is a good idea for not always being on the social media.

The ideas. Yes! They are everywhere. I just don’t understand why some people think an idea must be something special. That’s great if one has an extraordinary idea, but the important thing is what the writer does with the idea.

And Nemere said so many things happen in only one day he could write stories based on them for the next hundred years. (Nemere … had 794 printed books in Hungary when I last looked.) Why do the most prolific writers say the same thing?

*

I watched some videos of the Write Conscious YouTube channel.

[On that channel] Ian talked about Murakami Haruki’s numbers. According to Ian, Murakami works 600 hours on his first draft, and 3640 hours on revision. The channel talked a lot about revising: what it is, and why a writer needs it. As a total beginner in the writing field I had some thoughts:

First, the owner of the channel [evidently] has no novels. I didn’t find any. But he has a writing school. It free, but still….

Second, I want to be a writer, not an editor. As Murakami said, rewriting is … taking off some commas and putting them back again. What is the point?

Third, a kind of revelation: What is the guy talking about? The importance of sentence structure, choosing the best word to convey the character’s personality, experience and everything. Yes, [those things] are important. But as a writer I must put them there right away. It is difficult, yes, but why would I try to write sloppily first?

Fourth, and finally, he always talked about wasting the readers’ time. It’s nonsense, building fear, and catching the ones who want a career. It’s like ‘Oh, yes, I’ll make a megahit with this method, but only with this method!’

Meanwhile, I don’t say he doesn’t teach valuable things. As I like Murakami Haruki’s writings, it is interesting to know the numbers behind his works. How he plays with words. But he likes editing.

And kudos to Ian for teaching other writers’ methods. He talks about how Murakami writes, how Faulkner wrote, how [Cormac] McCarthy wrote, and so on. So the listener just should take the core points without the BS myths.

However, I want to be in the [TNDJ] November challenge.

It is interesting, NaNoWriMo has no more power as an official event, because the reinventing of the organization went wrong. with my Hungarian circle we do the challenge anyway with our own rules.

I didn’t like some aspects of NaNo, like writing sloppily was much more than accepted, but with my own conditions it can be helpful to have a community with the same goal.

The Writing

Yesterday after the second day in a row of writing zero fiction (Aaargh!), I wrote my short story for this week for the Bradbury Challenge.

In casting about for the next novel, I’m entertaining three different strong ideas. By “strong” I mean all three are pulling at me. I’m not a guy who likes to work on two of my own projects at one time, so I’ll probably write three starts today and see where they go or which one tugs at me more strongly. Not a bad problem to have.

KKR’s Reading Program

In Of Interest, I linked to Dean’s post just in case anyone wants in on the final day of the 60% off WMG workshop deal. I neither recommend it nor recommend against it. That’s up to you. Email me if  you want my personal recommendations on which lectures/workshops are more informative.

In Dean’s post, he also mentions and links to the original post about KKR’s “Reading Program,” which costs $2000.00 and almost brings me to tears of frustration and anger. You don’t even get a critique of your writing. You get zero input except on “trends in your writing” on what you write and send to her.

Please note that I neither endorse nor support any “program” that provides no feedback and plays directly on writers’ fears and misplaced admiration, never mind the ridiculously exorbitant cost.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: “Political Indifference”

Last Day of Workshop Sale I mention this only because a few of the WMG workshops helped me. But trust me. If you aren’t writing new fiction regularly, nothing will help. You have to be in that space first.

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 1090

Writing of “Supper and More in Nassau”

Day 1……3793 words. To date…… 3793 (done)

Fiction for October……………………. 81695
Fiction for 2024……………………….. 823203
Nonfiction for October……………….. 27400
Nonfiction for 2024……………………. 330990
2024 consumable words……………… 978232

Average Fiction WPD (October)……… 3026

2024 Novels to Date……………………….. 15
2024 Novellas to Date……………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date………………… 18
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..……. 97
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………. 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………..… 255
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.

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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