Bradbury, and Short Stories
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Looking to Write a Short Story?
* Blackwell Ops 41: León Garras
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"We are entertainers. And good characters are not whiners. (How long do you want to be around a whiner in real life?)" Dean Wesley Smith
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 "How many ways are there wasting a life?" 2500 General fiction
Vanessa V. Kilmer "Scars & Laurels" 3145 Fantasy
Harvey Stanbrough "Marisa" 5723 SF
Dave Taylor "A Time of Discoveries” 2,507 post- apocalyptic
Congratulations to all of these writers.
Looking to Write a Short Story?
Writers Digest asked me that in an email as a way of hooking people into a virtual conference. For only $199.
Tell you what. Here's all you need to know to write a great short story:
A short story is ALWAYS about One Event and how the characters react to that event.
Remember to ground the reader in the setting.
Remember to enable the readers to see and hear the characters with good description.
That's it. Now, anybody out there feel like sending me $199?
Blackwell Ops 41: León Garras
I mentioned yesterday that this book had wrapped. I sent it to my first reader, Russ Jones, who read it and shipped it back.
On Amazon and at all other retailers, it will be available on May10 for $5.99.
However, it's available for only $5 right now, at my StoneThread Publishing online discount store.
Of course, you can also read it a few chapters every other day at Your Morning Serial. But if you want to snatch it up and read the whole story early (grin), as I said it's only $5.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
5 Red Flags Your Novel Might Be Too Much Work to Read
Reading Pulphouse Stories Some gems.
Kickstarter Success: Crowdfund Like a Rockstar with Kevin J Anderson I'm repeating this because I finally finished listening to it. There's some "I I I stuff" to wade through and the host is intrusive at times, but there are a LOT of gems. Be ready to take notes.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 400
Writing of "Marisa"
Day 1…… 5723 words. To date…… 5723 done
Fiction for April……………………….. 45415
Fiction for 2025………………………. 312365
Nonfiction for April………………........ 8900
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 90430
2025 consumable words…………….. 396285
Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 3493
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 8
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 17
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 112
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 287
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.
Thank you. Above all else, writing should be FUN. If it's not, we may as well be working jobs we hate. You work on craft, of course, but if it's grueling and no fun, the reader will most likely pick up on it. Writing and storytelling should be a joy. Great post, Harvey.