March 24, 2024 by Harvey
In today’s Journal
* Two Reminders
* Reading Your Own Work
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Two Reminders
One, Bradbury Challenge information—for those who are in the Bradbury Challenge to write at least one short story every week, story information is required before the Journal goes live tomorrow morning (Monday).
Two, tune-in at my YouTube channel this afternoon at 1 p.m. Arizona time to see whether it works this time. You know, if you want to.
Reading Your Own Work
I very seldom read my own work. For one thing, knowing I committed typos drives me nuts. For another, there’s always a little part of me that wants to tweak something. And I never want to move backward. I want almost desperately to keep moving forward. But mostly I don’t read my own work because I don’t have time. Too many new stories to tell, new characters to meet, new worlds to explore. That we only get one body and one lifetime sucks.
Then again, I very seldom remember what a story’s even about once I get it out of my head and off my desk and publish it. In the case of short stories and novels that are not part of a series, I can’t even tell you what the story’s generally about. So when I do read something I wrote longer than say a month ago, it’s practically brand new to me.
But the enthusiastic response from readers to Friday’s free story, “An Untapped Field of Endeavor,” piqued my curiosity, so I read it yesterday.
Sure enough, I didn’t remember what it was about. I only mention it today because there were a couple of references in it that I thought were kind’a cool. In one, I promoted another writer. In another, I promoted one of my own characters from other stories.
The more important was Steven Wedel, a real fiction writer from Oklahoma. Steve is a real person and a great writer. And as one of the characters in my short story said, I borrowed a line (with his permission) from him years ago. It was in one of his short stories:
“I wouldn’t give the guy the time of day if my middle finger was a watch.”
Witty and succinct, that line. Needs no further explanation. I strongly recommend you look up Steven Wedel and read some of his work. If I remember right, I even used some of his opening lines in Writing Great Beginnings and in Writing Better Fiction.
By the way, Writing Great Beginnings and seven more craft or publishing books are now absolutely free in PDF at StoneThread Publishing. Click the link, then scroll down to find the free books. Click on any cover and the PDF edition of the book will automatically download to your computer.
The other reference in “An Untapped Field of Endeavor” that surprised me was a mention (again, by a character) of Charlie Task. That reference also told me approximately when I wrote the short story. It was long before the Blackwell Ops series when I first wrote and published Confessions of a Professional Psychopath back in 2015 or so. (grin) Great memories.
That’s the novel that begins with probably the best opening line I’ve ever written:
Of the three wingback chairs in my library, only one is upholstered in human skin. There’s a reason for that.
Of Interest
Don’t Let The Old Man In This is one of the more important articles you’ll ever read.
Strength Training and Kindle Vella News
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 580
Writing of TJ Blackwell: The Origin Story
Day 1…… 6139 words. To date…… 6139
Day 2…… 1781 words. To date…… 7920
Day 3…… 2692 words. To date…… 10612
Day 4…… 3383 words. To date…… 13995
Day 5…… 2575 words. To date…… 16570
Fiction for March…………………….…. 49336
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 213928
Fiction since October 1………………… 516984
Nonfiction for March…………………… 23600
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 122790
2024 consumable words……………… 336718
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 5
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 87
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 239
Short story collections………………… 31
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 will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
If you find this Journal of value, please take a moment to punch the Share button at the bottom of this post. Or you can make a one-time or monthly donation via debit or credit card or PayPal. Donate Here.
I hear you loud and crystal UH. I can't stand hearing my own audio versions. It drives me nuts...Once it's written and published I just want to move on :)