Bradbury, Stepping Aside, and Jumping In
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* I'm Stepping Aside
* Today Is a Great Day to Jump In
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive." Jean Cocteau
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:
Vanessa V. Kilmer "Trigger Warning" 3109 Fantasy
Harvey Stanbrough "The Dunlap-Denman Hit" 1869 Assassination Thriller
Harvey Stanbrough "Garage Sale Find" 5131 Erotic Fantasy
Dave Taylor " So Far to Yesterday” 4,014 Post apocalyptic Sci Fi, Time Travel
Congratulations to all of these writers.
I'm Stepping Aside
No, not from TNDJ, you poor unfortunates.
I'm stepping aside from reporting my results in the ongoing Bradbury Challenge.
Not discontinuing the Challenge itself. I'll continue writing new original stories and deriving short stories from the novels I'm writing because I love the short form.
"Garage Sale Find" was my 52nd short story since I re-started my challenge on September 7, 2024. That's a year's worth of stories in just under seven months.
Part of me kind'a feels like maybe I'm one reason others have dropped out or haven't joined the Challenge yet. I only want my own writing and productivity to be an example of what you can do, not an excuse to not do it.
Besides, I report each story and novel I write in the Numbers below anyway, so it feels a little blowhardish reporting them every week in the Challenge report too.
Today Is a Great Day to Jump In
But some of you other folks should really jump in. This is a GREAT challenge to get you in the habit of writing short stories. When something occurs to you, just sit down and write it.
That really is all there is to it. After all, the characters do all the heavy lifting. They're the ones who are living the story. All you have to do is love writing stories.
As a bonus, sometimes a story you're writing for the Challenge will want to become a novel. Which is way cool.
When that happens, I can't advise you on whether to drop writing short stories until you finish the novel or to put off writing the novel (though I always advise against putting off doing anything) or keep doing both. That has to be your call, and it depends on your situation, your personality and attitude and fears, and so much more.
But I've also noticed when I'm writing a novel and step aside for a moment to write an original, separate short story (meaning one that isn't also derived from the novel), my word count jumps significantly.
So that's just one more thing to think about.
Anyway, here's a bottom line for you. Everyone out there can do exactly what I'm doing with fiction, scaled up or down to what time you have available.
It's all a tradeoff. I have more time available to write but I'm older'n dirt. You have less time available, but you're a little (or a lot) younger, still have children at home, etc.
Most importantly, I didn't stumble across Heinlein's Rules OR Writing Into the Dark until 2014 when I was 61 years old.
You, whatever your age, have it Right Now if you want it. You only have to trust yourself, grab the golden ring (again, with whatever time you have available to you), and hang on for the ride.
And if you DO choose to write into the dark, you automatically save a boatload of time because you don't have to spend hours and hours outlining, revising, checking with critique groups and beta readers, rewriting, and all that nonsense.
All that's required is that you sit down with your favorite writing implement, write The or A or An or Before or After or During and see where it takes you.
Trust yourself, trust your characters, and they will lead you all the way through to the end of the story. I promise.
Then submit or publish what you've written and do it again. Or don't. I mean, you know, it's your life. But it really is a blast.
The Writing
Given one more good day and if the characters don't throw me anymore curve balls, the novel should wrap tomorrow.
Tomorrow, a long post on "rapid release" and "artisan author."
Of Interest
Word Smarts Subscribe. It's free. And maybe invaluable. How did I not know about this before?
Why Is Everyone Suddenly on Substack? Thanks to Nan for this link.
Exploring the Linguistic Roots of the Southern Drawl
39 Years Today Congrats to Dean & Kris
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 820
Writing of Blackwell Ops 43: Sam Granger | The Quiz Master
Day 1…… 2242 words. To date…… 2242
Day 2…… 3315 words. To date…… 5557
Day 3…… 3192 words. To date…… 8749
Day 4…… 3439 words. To date…… 12188
Day 5…… 3017 words. To date…… 15205
Day 6…… 4041 words. To date…… 19246
Day 7…… 2706 words. To date…… 21952
Day 8…… 3302 words. To date…… 25254
Day 9…… 2335 words. To date…… 27589
Day 10…. 3531 words. To date…… 31120
Fiction for May………………………... 17005
Fiction for 2025………………………. 395418
Nonfiction for May………………........ 3080
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 104170
2025 consumable words…………….. 493078
Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 4251
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 9
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 113
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
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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If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Congratulations on your achievement. I also came late into the writing world, starting to write fiction at the age of 57 - less than 10 years ago. There is a lot a to learn, and only yesterday did I complete my first draft of a short story that I hope to get published - I am more into long stories. Maybe some day I can rise to your level of writing.
I would think that your posting about your short stories would be encouraging for others to believe they could do it too. I personally just do not wish to write short at this time as I am focused on writing novels. If I am able to write more it will be on a novel unless something changes. Otherwise I would definitely jump in.