Wordcountability: Tuesday the 24th of September, 2024.

Today, I had the joy of arriving at a scene I have been itching to work on. I am neither a planner nor a pantser, but something in between. Each story has a flow and beats which must be achieved, but I often allow it to meander if needed. Trying to constrain that flow, for me, simply strangles the narrative. (NOTE: everyone is different in this, some people plan meticulously, others just let the story dictate the path.)

To arrive at one of the few points I knew needed to be included* in this character arc is always an exciting moment, one full of responsibility and promise, hope that the rest of the story has reached that point in a satisfactory manner, and a quiet thrill that you have made it so far.

Today, we met a character previously only hidden behind the thoughts of our principal hero, TKARCH, her thoughts referring to him several times and his name appearing in one conversation. He is crucial to What Comes Next, and a glimpse of the why appears in the conversation I am due to write tomorrow…

*A long time ago, I read about the ‘Lester Dent Master Fiction Plot/Lester Dent Formula’ and realised that a lot of my fiction followed a version of this method. I like that. It’s worth doing a search for more on this, as the basic idea is a sound one (and I always like knowing the ‘rules’, then they can be broken as I see fit).

How much Dent was paid per novel, for his run of Doc Savage pulp fiction magazine tales/novels (completing 160 or more in 16 years), is also interesting—originally, in 1932, he received $500 per novel which would later rise to $750. In today’s money, that run of stories would be worth somewhere between 1.85 and 2.75 million dollars. How many fiction writers make anywhere near that in 2024? It works out to between $115625 and $171875 per annum. Roughly. And that is just for those particular tales.