Two Surprises
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A (Surprise) New Short Story
* I Was Surprised Too
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." Scout Finch, protagonist in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Exactly how I feel about writing
A (Surprise) New Short Story
Surprise! "Something in the Way She Moves" went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack.
Consider it a bonus.
Somehow I hit the 1 instead of the 2 and scheduled that story for February 18 instead of February 28. On Friday, the regularly scheduled story will post. And I added a brand new story for February 28, so it will post one week from this coming Friday, as they usually do.
Anyway, go check it out. It's free, and it's a good story. If you enjoy it, please click Like. That helps with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone Else.
I Was Surprised Too
I hadn't planned to post anything today. Then that PITA of a short story out of time (see above) popped up in my inbox yesterday and I felt an explanation was necessary, so I wrote that.
Since I had to post that explanation, I figured I might as well complain a little to round out today's post.
Just as some of you (and I) were surprised to see that short story pop up yesterday, this morning I was surprised again too.
I'm despairing a little. It's been what, a month since I finished my previous novel?
So I looked at my Annual Production Spreadsheet this morning. That's where the surprise came in.
It hasn't been a month. It's been only five days.
But I'm not exaggerating when I say it feels like it's been a month. Ugh.
I honestly don't know how any fiction writer can willingly, intentionally "take a break for a week or two" from writing after they finish a novel.
I mean, if they have something important to do, like a vacation or fishing or anything else specific that requires their time, that's one thing.
But to just take "time off" from doing something as wonderful as writing fiction for no reason? I don't get it.
Have they willingly or maybe even eagerly succumbed to the myth that they need to "refill the well?"
Do those writers NOT know that tomorrow is only a shadow? It isn't even a promise.
Tomorrow is only something we hope for, and that hope comes with attachments:
We not only hope (and expect) tomorrow will come at all. We also hope when it shows up, it comes with clarity and with a lack of fiction-stopping problems.
We hope it comes with less or no distracting physical or mental or emotional pain.
We hope it comes with no unusual or new demands on our time, especially tragedies.
And most of all we hope it comes with ideas and words.
When I'm writing fiction I don't worry about the past or about tomorrow. In fact, time in my world no longer matters at all. It doesn't slow down or speed up, at least that I've noticed. It simply ceases to exist.
When I'm writing, I'm completely consumed with a second or a minute or a quarter-hour or hour or a day in my characters' world.
Recording only a few seconds or a few minutes in their world might take ten or fifteen minutes in mine. Or an hour. Or half a day. And recording a day or a week or a month in their world might take only minutes in mine.
Still, here I am: five days without having written a word of fiction. What the hell? Have the words and my characters' worlds abandoned me?
Fortunately this morning, as I cast about for a story idea, I also remembered a lesson I thought I'd learned long ago:
It's all but impossible to catch a particular raindrop with a tightly closed umbrella. Better to open it wide and catch as many as I can, then sort through them.
So maybe if I stop focusing so hard, I'll finally be able to see all the things that are flashing past unnoticed. Duh.
Of Interest
Always a Battle On Monday A little about his challenge and more on his offer of coaching.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 720
Writing of
Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXXX
Fiction for February………………….. 37682
Fiction for 2025………………………. 159047
Nonfiction for February…………….... 14630
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 46610
2025 consumable words…………….. 199137
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2217
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3245
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 7
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 277
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.
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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It was a surprise to see a story yesterday. Didn't get a chance to read it until this morning. Good one.
I'm late commenting on your thoughts about Chapters without a description. To me, Chapter X tells me that I can take a breath and get ready for a different focus. It's kind of like a pause between a cliffhanger and a hook if that makes sense.
It's a trap to believe there is always time tomorrow to write. If I don't write now, I won't write tomorrow either. I'm telling this with not writing every day; but when I have the chance, I don't feel like procrastinating writing anymore.