• Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing

    Dean Challenges… Two of them…

    Both a Full and a Half Challenge… Last night I mentioned I was thinking about doing a challenge for anyone who wanted to try to match or beat the number of consumable words I wrote from April 1st 2023 until December 31st, 2023. Nine months. I said what I hoped to hit, but of course that is just the plan and we all know how plans go. (grin) But I also suggested that I would set up a challenge for anyone who wanted to try to match me. A challenge similar to the other challenges already there. And a couple people thought they could keep up or beat me, which…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  Writing in Public

    A Fun Challenge…

    This Is Only An Idea… Many of you know I got basically an eye infection in my only good eye back in late October that pretty much made me blind for a time and vision challenged for months now. Docs said it would take six months to get better and it has been getting better. Still not back yet, but I am getting back reading. I will be catching up on workshop stories I have let go (thanks for understanding) and even more fun I will be reading Kris’s new Diving novel that has been sitting on my table for three weeks. Damn that is exciting. But even more exciting…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Quick Update Tonight…

    Got a Lot Done Today… Worked all day on workshops, and doing a lot of recording. Also worked on covers and downloaded 14 pieces of art for short story covers. I can tell you that took some time. Another 15 or so to go and I will be almost caught up. The art is the hardest part, so figured I would just do all the ones I was behind on all at once. Then the covers will take me ten minutes each  to finish and I can get more raw stories to Patreon. www.patreon.com/DeanWesleySmith I hit my challenge tonight even with a very late 12:30 am start. A really twisted…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Six Days… Six New Stories

    Got Past the First Bump… Had a stupidly crazy week of things that needed to be done now. Including recording three Pop-Up classes that did not get done and putting together five collections (that also didn’t get done yet.) Those will happen shortly. But we do have a new Kickstarter coming next week if we get approved. I built it and it’s a great one. And all the time I was writing short stories. Six in six days. But today I was tired, wanted to just go watch television, and had not gotten much of a start earlier on the story (meaning 400 words) So 11:30 pm I wanted to…

  • Challenge,  Fun Stuff,  On Writing

    A New Challenge

    Working On It… Kris spent time with me today as I worked over a possible new challenge for next year. Not going to start anything from my birthday to my birthday again. The new challenge I am thinking about is going to take some build-up, so it will start on January 1st, 2022. And sorry, not yet going to say what the writing challenge is going to be because nothing is set. But I can say that to do this challenge, I need to lose about 20 pounds and be in shape for some distance running starting in January. Yes, losing the weight and being in shape again will make…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Day Three…

    Book One… The move is still the focus. Way too much, but we are gaining on it slowly each day. But another week before most of it is in place. How it Went… Once again I didn’t get to the writing computer until almost 10 pm, just way too late when I spend all day moving boxes and working on the move. And today I hung white boards in my office. Impressive looking, but wow was that a lot of work. Kris had to help me because of things like ladders. And took an almost two hour nap, something I tend to not do. (15 minutes is my nap length.)…

  • Challenge,  On Writing

    Writing Four Novels in a Month…

    Again… This challenge is nothing new for me, but since I did this challenge the first time, I have felt that I have slowly lost control of my time in general and writing time in particular. And I can’t think of a better way to snap back into controlling my time and my sense of time than a writing challenge. Not challenging anyone else or suggesting any of you even try this. Just doing this for myself. My challenge is to write four novels in July. Pretty simple. I write 40,000 word novels, so about 160,000 words of fiction. (Pulp Speed 4, but with also doing these blogs to form…