Catching Up
June 11, 2024 by Harvey
In today’s Journal
* Catching Up
* Most Days
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Catching Up
The Day Before Yesterday and Yesterday
Well, one, as I reported yesterday the novel wrapped the day before yesterday at a little over 40,000 words and I shipped it off to my excellent first reader.
Of course, he read it in only a few sittings, and his notes were attached to an email in my in-box yesterday morning. The man completely spoils me. (grin) Thanks, Russ.
Then I took the day off from the fun of writing fiction.
I didn’t want to (did I mention writing fiction is fun?) but there are Russ’ notes to apply and a cover to design and a promo doc to create and When the Owl Calls to publish. And of course, TNDJ to format and publish.
The way my days scheduled, that’s all before sunrise. After that, there are man-things I need to tend to around the place.
First, in the cool of the morning, I’ll want to finish cleaning out and rearranging our storage area right next door to the Hovel.
We call it “the middle bay.” It’s a 20-foot by 20-foot concrete pad with a thick adobe wall on the north and south sides. The east wall is normal, thinner stuff, and the west is mostly open. Hence, “bay.”
It’s where we keep things we’ve accumulated over the years and continued to pack around with us when we still moved but can’t quite bring ourselves to sell and the children haven’t yet claimed.
If there’s time left in the day, I’ll either start a new upcoming nonfiction project or I’ll write fiction.
Update: Since I got up late yesterday (almost 4) I was only able to get TNDJ out about the time the sun came up. I and my wife finished with the manual labor in the middle bay by around 10 a.m..
Then I finally designed a cover and promo doc and published When the Owl Calls to Amazon, D2D, and Payhip. You can see the cover and read the description at StoneThread Publishing.
Most Days
I write (or at least start writing) the next edition of TNDJ before I start writing on whatever fiction has lured me in.
See? Told you I’m a writer. When I’m not writing fiction, I’m writing the next TNDJ post or working on the next nonfiction book.
I’m not bragging. Thing is, life’s full of little trade-offs. On the one hand, I’m retired from the work-a-day, outside-job world so I can write full-time. On the other hand, I’m that old. (grin)
Sometimes when I’m not writing fiction I also have to attend to some of the man-stuff I mentioned in the segment above.
(And no, ladies, I don’t mean by “man stuff” that you can’t also clean out storage sheds just as effectively as a man can. Only that I do that so my wife doesn’t have to deal with decades of rat excrement and breathe the dust thereof. It’s what friends do for each other, yes?)
By the way, as I hinted at in the previous segment, the next nonfiction book I’ll tackle is an in-depth dive on Creating Realistic Characters.
The key word in the title is “creating.” The book will not include construction techniques like character sketches, etc. It will only give you a realistic look at what goes into a character and why. It will help you recognize certain traits, personalityh quirks, etc. as the character reveals them to you.
Of course, that will be strictly a conscious-mind learning tool, and it will be accompanied by my usual advice to forget everything in it while you’re actually writing fiction.
Write into the dark without worrying about what’s coming next is the only way to authentically report your characters’ story. What you learn from your nonfiction reading and active learning will seep into your subconscious and come out as you write with your creative subconscious.
Anyway, I think the older version of CRC is still available wherever ebooks are sold, but the new one (I hope to publish it later this month or in July) will be more in-depth. It will also be available everywhere, including through StoneThread Publishing (via Payhip) at a discount.
But the point of this segment is that when I’m not writing fiction, I’m doing one or more of the “chores” listed above: TNDJ, a nonfiction work, or physical labor.
In this way, I get my “work” over-with and done, then reward myself with the joy of applying in my characters’ stories what I teach in TNDJ and my other nonfiction.
In other words, I take care of my 2nd or 3rd priority issues before rewarding myself with relaxing into my 1st priority: writing fiction.
This is also how I keep the writing a fun escape.
Thanks for letting me get caught up over the back fence. Tomorrow I’ll be back with more of that next-level stuff I’ve been posting recently.
Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
How to Start a Publishing Company Also see the free nonfiction books on this topic at StoneThread Publishing (When you reach the page, scroll down).
Get Covers Need great covers at a good price?
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 780
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for June…………………….….… 20660
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 361257
Fiction since October 1………………… 664314
Nonfiction for June……………………… 10520
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 194150
2024 consumable words……………… 555407
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 8
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 90
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 239
Short story collections…………………… 29
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies, and they will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Please see StoneThreadPublishing.com for all your fiction and nonfiction needs. Buy Direct!