Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all, friends. I appreciate each and every one of you for watching my videos, buying my books, and reading these posts. I hope you enjoy the holiday.
For reading, I finished John Grisham’s newest book The Boys from Biloxi. Honestly, I didn’t care for it, but the writing was great. I picked up a few techniques from that book that I will apply to my writing soon. Grisham took some risks with this book that didn’t ultimately pay off, but I admire him for doing it.
There were three big things he tried:
- He told a story that wasn’t about “one” character; it was about two families across three generations. He definitely went against the advice that a story should be about “one” character.
- The story reads more like a documentary than a thriller. The publisher calls it a thriller, but trust me, there ain’t nothing thriller about it. The pacing is extremely slow, as are even the action scenes.
- He kills off a main character that was the most likable. I think that backfired as it hobbled the rest of the story.
But hey, it’s a masterclass to see one of the best authors in the world attempt these dangerous feats. I learned a lot.
For data analysis and marketing, no work in these categories. It’s Christmas…
For production, I made some progress today but am still on a slower path because I have some books I’m trying to push out. I’m almost done with Indie Author Confidential Vol. 11 which will go to my editor either tomorrow or Monday.
I also worked on a slide deck I’m doing for a speaking engagement next month. I should be done with that tomorrow.
I also made some progress on the short story I’m working on.
So I’m a bit scattered at the moment but that’s just temporary pain as I rebalance some priorities.
Anyway, have a great holiday.
YTD Word Count: 271,350
Plan: 1,252,000
Words Left to Write 980,650
Words Over/-Under Plan: -55,900
Days Ahead/-Behind: -20.33
Projected Annual Word Count: 832,292
Projected Decade Word Count: 8,322,920
Deadline: 12/31/2023
Days to Go Until 12/31/23: 372
Word Count Average: 2,280
