Bradbury, and Typos Happen

October 21, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Typos Happen
* Once in a Blue Moon
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting

I really wish more of you guys would jump into this. 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 “Indulgence” 3789 fantasy

• Adam Kozak “Birdland” 2675 Magical Realism

• Alexander Nakul “Shadow of Tiger 2925 Historical Fantasy

• Harvey Stanbrough “A Hot Slice to Go” 4670 Erotica

• Dave Taylor “Tommy’s Quest – The Perfect Apple Pie” 5502 paranormal

Typos Happen

Okay, up front, if you notice a typo on my websites (hestanbrough.com, harveystanbrough.com, or stonethreadpublishing.com) please let me know. I’ll fix them immediately. (Thanks to Peter A. for pointing one out yesterday.)

But if you spot a typo in a TNDJ post, though, not so much.

Between writing fiction and writing articles for TNDJ, I typically turn out 4,000 to 6,000 words of prose per day. Typos happen.

Once a post goes live on Substack, I can’t correct it. So if you happen to notice a typo in a TNDJ post, please do this:

1. Unless it confuses you, ignore it.

2. If you want to quote something from TNDJ, feel free (please give me credit) but please correct the typo if you’re certain of the correction.

(If you aren’t certain, please ask. For example, you would add the “c” I omitted yesterday in this passage: “Like an insect fossilized in amber, past events are locked in time and space. A particular thing happened at a particular place and at a partiular time, and nothing can change that.” (Thanks, Mardy G.)

I really do exercise due diligence.

I read every post at least three times: once when I write it on my boilerplate Notepad (text) document, once when I post it to the Journal website (hestanbrough.com), and once again (usually) when I post it to TNDJ on Substack.

But as I said at the top, typos happen.

I’ve tried putting a spell-check plugin on the website. You know, something like Microsoft Word’s spell checker. But I haven’t found any reliable ones, at least not from WordPress.

If you know of a good one, feel free to email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com with a recommendation. (Please don’t recommend JetPack. It slows the site too much.)

Once in a Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon (by which I mean Almost Never) I write past an ending. Here, I’ll repeat one of Dean Wesley Smith’s mantras: Every novel writes differently.

My current novel wrapped on Saturday. I think. The story felt finished, but it also felt like there was more story to tell. Maybe.

That second feeling came after I noticed the word count was a little less than I had in the back of my mind. (Hint: Critical Mind screwing with me a little maybe?)

Then yesterday I had a weird day, which thankfully also happens only once in a blue moon. I woke up at 1 a.m., but I had a medical appointment (routine) at 10 a.m. (yes, on a Sunday) and I had to go in fasting.

So no coffee and no food. For around 16 freakin’ hours. Probably needless to say, my morning did not go well with regard to writing. (grin)

So I decided to take the day “off” from the novel. I want to read over what I have so far and see whether there’s actually more story or whether it wrapped.

Fortunately, I had enough words in the bank that I could go two days without writing fiction and still be above 3000 wpd on average, so skipping a day on the novel didn’t harm anything.

And then I decided to stop whining and grow a pair’a—well, you know. There’s nothing I’d rather do than write fiction, but I didn’t want to mess with the novel yet, so I started another story instead. You’ll see it in Numbers below.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

I Tried Stephen King’s (disciplined) Writing Routine for 30 Days… I thought some of you might find something worthwhile in this. (Note that this writer is still stuck in at least some of the myths.) Some good tips directly from Stephen King too

Last Day of Workshop Sale

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 750

Writing of “The Jack Temple Blues”

Day 1…… 1412 words. To date…… 1412

Writing of Blackwell Ops 29: John Quick

Day 1…… 1781 words. To date…… 1781
Day 2…… 3792 words. To date……. 5573
Day 3…… 3087 words. To date……. 8660
Day 4…… 3545 words. To date……. 12205
Day 5…… 2667 words. To date……. 14872
Day 6…… 1665 words. To date……. 16537
Day 7…… 3073 words. To date……. 19610
Day 8…… 5593 words. To date……. 25203
Day 9…… 1963 words. To date……. 27166
Day 10…. 3557 words. To date……. 30723
Day 11…. 3235 words. To date……. 33958

Fiction for October……………………. 65444
Fiction for 2024……………………….. 806952
Nonfiction for October……………….. 21230
Nonfiction for 2024……………………. 324820
2024 consumable words……………… 955811

Average Fiction WPD (October)……… 3272

2024 Novels to Date……………………….. 14
2024 Novellas to Date……………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date………………… 18
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..……. 96
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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