The First Issue

June 1, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* A New Story
* This is the first issue
* Kindlepreneur
* Great Questions
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“Nothing will stop you so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.” John Cleese

“You can’t be spontaneous ‘within reason’.” Alan Watts

“Challenge yourself; it’s the only path which leads to growth.” Morgan Freeman

A New Short Story

“Deadline” went live yesterday on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many readers liked this story. I’ve also received several comments on it. Please note that I’m fine. I wrote that story early during my personal Bradbury Challenge (so 2014) to write a story a week for a year. Great fun.

This is the first issue

of The New Daily Journal. Beginning today, free subscribers will receive the Journal only occasionally. The old archives are still available at the site. The archives for The New Daily Journal will be available only here on Substack, at least for now.

A few admin notes—

1. As I wrote yesterday, Congratulations on your investment in yourself as a writer and in your commitment to learn the craft. I’ll do my best not to let you down.

2. The format of the Journal will remain essentially the same. However, I will include the Of Interest section only when there’s something to report.

3. If there are new features you would like to see, please leave a comment or email me.

4. I’m working through a few issues with the Journal website (not this Substack edition). Until I resolve those issues, the Journal will not be available on the website (hestanbrough.com).

5. I brought a few free subscribers over for an extra month. But please, if you’re

• a free subscriber and

• are NOT family or a close writing colleague,

subscribe now for only $3/month or $36/year to continue receiving the Journal after June 30.

On July 1, the rate will increase to $5 per month or $60 per year (Stripe’s minimum).

Any questions, please email me.

Kindlepreneur

Like the Journal, the Kindlepreneur website is an invaluable resource, but for marketing.

If you are not yet a subscriber to Kindlepreneur, I recommend it. To subscribe (free) to a weekly email newsletter, visit Kindlepreneur, scroll to near the bottom of the page, and look for Join the Community.

As a bonus for subscribing, you’ll receive access to eight different ebooks or resources. And yes, each of them downloads as a free PDF.

Here are a few of the categories of blog posts on Kindlepreneur. I recommend saving this list so you can check back often:

• Cover Design

• Book Editing

• Book Formatting

• Book Marketing

• Book Writing

Great Questions

from Peggy K in a comment.

“Will the site/Journal remain live?”

Yes, once I work out a few glitches. Even after I work out those glitches, those who are not paid subscribers won’t be able to read the post in any venue (except occasionally) without first signing up for a paid subscription. To continue displaying it free at the Journal website would not be fair to those who subscribed or to me as the writer of paid content.

“Sometimes I’ll leave in a phrase like ‘he looked at each one of them in turn’ to convey a specific depth or meaning within the context of that particular scene. Can it be rephrased, even then?”

In my opinion, anything goes “to convey a specific depth or meaning within the context.”

That said, if it were in my work, I would still strive to reword or rephrase anything that will cause the reader to do math (e.g., each one in turn) because it interrupts the reading.

One way around it is to expand the scene slightly. In place of “he looked at each one of them in turn” you might try

He looked at Martin. “Said something.”
His gaze shifted to Mary. “Said something.”
He looked from James to Susan and back. “Said something.”
Etc.

Figuring out your particular way around this problem is yet one more learning/realization experience. The good news is that once it’s settled you’ll never have to figure it out again.

Two notes—

• Your first obligation is to the character(s), to record their story faithfully.

• Your second obligation is to the reader, to convey the story as clearly, specifically, and without interruption as you can.

Maybe this is why the characters need a writer in the first place. Aren’t you glad they chose you? (grin)

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

How to Sell Books Direct to Readers: The Complete Guide Well worth a read or re-read.

She’s Doing It Again Great idea except for the $300. You can do your own challenge, yes? (If you want to get credits for classes, this is still a good deal.)

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 750

Writing of When the Owl Calls (novel)

Day 1…… 1884 words. To date…… 1884
Day 2…… 3699 words. To date…… 5583
Day 3…… 2086 words. To date…… 7669
Day 4…… 3167 words. To date…… 10836
Day 5…… 4011 words. To date…… 14847
Day 6…… 1724 words. To date…… 16571
Day 7…… 1633 words. To date…… 18204
Day 8…… 1378 words. To date…… 19582

Fiction for May…………………….….… 36812
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 340597
Fiction since October 1………………… 643654
Nonfiction for June……………………… 750
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 184380
2024 consumable words……………… 524977

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.