Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live
September 17, 2024 by Harvey
In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live
* Tomorrow, MFA 1
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Punctuation saves lives: ‘Let’s eat Grandma’ is a very different story from ‘Let’s eat, Grandma.” from a favorite old meme
Harvey’s Notes to Earth Is Live
Yesterday I posted the first issue of Harvey’s Notes to Earth, a brand-new newsletter. It went out to everyone who took advantage of my free-book giveaway.
In that issue, I talked a little about the genesis of Blackwell Ops and that world.
But of course, I write across several genres, so there will be other book giveaways as well.
Each issue of Harvey’s Notes to Earth will contain notes about my fictional characters, worlds, and settings. (So it will be good fodder for writers too.)
To sign up for Harvey’s Notes to Earth AND score a free copy of Blackwell Ops 1: Jack Tilden—the novel that launched my bestselling psychological-suspense action-adventure thriller series—click https://dl.bookfunnel.com/pl7a4vjso9.
To see the first issue, click here.
Tomorrow, MFA 1
Tomorrow I’ll be back with the first post in a series of three titled “MFA.” The subtitle will read “MFA: Valuable or Harmful?”
All three posts are based on and derived from a lengtly email my friend and fellow professional writer Michaele Lockhart sent me a week or two ago.
I went back and forth, considering how best to present the information. For example, maybe a formal interview format would be better. Or maybe a back-and-forth discussion or an informal Q&A.
Finally, I decided to present it as it was written: an email to me from a fellow writer and writing instructor who feels the same frustrations I feel as we attempt in our own ways to pass along what we know.
Those posts might sound a little negative, but they aren’t.
They might even sound a little disparaging of how other writers write, or how they choose to learn to write. Again, they aren’t.
Disparaging anyone is not our intent. As you will see in my brief “Editor’s Note” intro tomorrow, by all means and in every case, You Do You.
We’re only trying to save you some lost time, lost money, a long, unnecessary road, and disappointment. But when the curtain falls, how anyone else chooses to write (or learns to write) doesn’t affect my own bottom line in the slightest.
We can only lay our own experience out there for you. Whether you pick it up and run with it is your choice.
The Writing
I did zero fiction writing yesterday. I was all set to begin a new novel or write another short story to get my average up.
Both are easy enough for me to do, and either is a great deal of fun. But I was in a nonfiction frame of mind.
During the first four hours of the day, I
edited and posted TNDJ,
wrote and posted the first issue of Harvey’s Notes to Earth,
wrote and posted a final note to my Writing in Public substack, then deleted that publication
made the corrections from my first reader to the novel I just finished
uploaded that to D2D and Amazon (to release on Sep 28 and to my StoneThread Publishing payhip account (available now), then
created a new page for the book at StoneThreadPublishing.com
So when the dust cleared on that, instead of starting a new fiction I edited and prepped the next three posts for TNDJ.
Then I decided a shorter 9 hour workday was enough and took the rest of the day off. ‘Cause every now and then I just gotta be a slacker. (grin)
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
What to do when you have too many creative ideas For the record, I disagree with much of what’s in the article, but as I wrote above, you do you.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 640
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for September…………………….. 44272
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 660420
Fiction since October 1…………………… 828060
Nonfiction for September………………… 16510
Nonfiction for 2024……………………….. 291350
2024 consumable words…………………. 816353
Average Fiction WPD (September)……… 2767
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 13
2024 Novellas to Date……………………. 0
2024 Short Stories to Date………………. 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 95
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………. 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………. 246
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer, but please try this at home. You can do it. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies. They will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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