Challenge,  On Writing,  publishing

Story Seventeen

April 18, 2017 /

DAY SEVENTEEN…

By the time I got through everything today and the workshop assignments tonight, it was 3 a.m. I really got to start earlier.

So off I went to my half-title sheets. I grabbed a half tile “A Thief…” and then almost instantly saw another half title. “of Regrets.”

I put that in the title spot “A Thief of Regrets” and instantly put “A Bryant Street Story” under it because it sounded like a Bryant Street kind of title.

But after the first line I changed the subtitle to “A Marble Grant Story” and got going.

3:35 a.m. I took a break at 900 words.

4:10 I took another break at 2,000 words.  The story was flying along. I had no idea where it was going, but it was getting there quickly.

5 a.m. another break at 3,200 words. Still no clue where this was going.

Finished it at 6 a.m. at 4,600 words.

I really need to start earlier because I was hoping tonight to get another chapter of the Magic Bakery done. Nope, story came first.

Here at the Covers and Stories for the April challenge. 

STORIES FROM APRIL
Story #1… April 1… Not Easy to Kill the Light Next Door… 1,700 words 
Story #2… April 2… A Reason to Play a Hunch… 3,200 words 
Story #3… April 3… A Deal at the End of Time… 3,000 words
Story #4… April 4… A Nice Place for Murder… 3,400 words
Story #5… April 5… The Five Roads Tavern and Eatery …3,200 words
Story #6… April 6… The Last Short Putt of a Fearful Man …2,200 words
Story #7… April 7… The Wait …1,200 words
Story #8… April 8… Through the For Sale Sign …2,500 words
Story #9… April 9… Blind Date …4,100 words
Story #10… April 10… Keep Hoping for a New Tomorrow …1,700 words
Story #11… April 11… That Old Tingling …3,200 words
Story #12… April 12… The Last Man …2,500 words
Story #13… April 13… Smile …2,700 words
Story #14… April 14… Always a Way …4,000 words
Story #15… April 15… A No-Win Hand …1,800 words
Story #16… April 16… Habit …2,000 words
Story #17… April 17… A Thief of Regrets …4,600 words

(Plus six novel starts so far…)

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May ONLINE Workshops 

All May online workshops are available and have openings.

ALSO, the workshop schedule through August is now posted. You can sign up ahead for any workshop you want through August.

So for information on how to sign up, go to…

www.wmgpublishingworkshops.com

Any questions at all, feel free to write me. And if you are confused as to which workshop to take first, we have a full curriculum posted on its own page.

Class #41… May 2nd … Author Voice
Class #42…  May 2nd … Business
Class #43…  May 2nd … Endings
Class #44…  May 2nd … Writing Fiction Sales Copy
Class #45…  May 2nd … Writing and Selling Short Stories
Class #46…  May 3rd … Depth in Writing
Class #47… May 3rd … Advanced Character and Dialog
Class #48… May 3rd … Cliffhangers
Class #49… May 3rd … How To Edit Your Own Work (new)
Class #50… May 3rd … Plotting with Depth

HOW TO EDIT YOUR OWN WORK IS AVAILABLE STARTING IN MAY

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Tracking Running… April 17th, 2017
3 miles. No running.
Weight 194. (Goal 170)
Month to date distance: 59 miles
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Tracking Word Counts… April 17th, 2017
Totals For Year 4, Month 9, Day 17 (Year started August)
Writing in Public blog streak… Day 1,306

— Daily Fiction: 4,600 original words. Fiction month-to-date: 42,100 words  
— Nonfiction: 00 new words. Nonfiction month-to-date total: 1,000 words 
— Blog Posts: 300 new words. Blog month-to-date word count: 10,900 words
— E-mail: 36 e-mails. Approx. 2,900 original words.  E-mails month-to date: 471 e-mails. Approx. 29,300 words
— Short Fiction Goal: 120 stories (July 1st to June 30th). Stories to date: 25 stories.
— Novel Goal: 12 Novels. Novels finished to date: 5 novels.

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6 Comments

  • J. D. Brink

    April 18, 2017 at 6:41 am

    There are two things I like about this post:
    1. The idea that you didn’t know where the story was going, but that didn’t matter. All you had to do was keep writing until it got there.
    2. The philosophy of “I wanted to get to X tonight, but darn it, didn’t have time because writing new stories comes first.”
    Good stuff.

  • Prasenjeet Kumar

    April 18, 2017 at 10:27 pm

    Hi Dean. Just an off the topic question. I just came across a book on craft called The First Five pages by Noah Lukeman. Not sure whether you’ve heard of it. Now, Noah has been a literary agent and an editor (I checked his bio and he seems to have written only one novel and rest of it is all non-fiction). In his book, he says he has seen thousands of manuscripts and knows the common mistakes writers make in the first few pages. It sounded interesting. But I just want to ask: whether the advice will be good for indie writers especially when it is coming from a literary agent or not?

    • dwsmith

      April 18, 2017 at 11:23 pm

      Why not? Take everything you read in any book, including my writing books, with a grain of salt. Only look for what hits the “that feels right” bell for you. I buy books all the time since they are the cheapest form of education and even if I only get one or two insights or details out of the book, it was worth my money.

      But remember where an agent will be coming from. Extreme salt shaker, but worth the book cost to get a couple insights that sound right to you and how you write.