In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* 2022 Archive
* New Comment Policy
* Rationale for Comment Policy
* Correction
* Like Any Story
* Of Interest
2022 Archive
The Journal Archive is now available for download free on the Archives page. To download any of the archives or any of the free books listed there, visit https://hestanbrough.com/the-daily-journal-archives/ and click on the archive(s) and or free book(s) of your choice.
I almost forgot to post this again today. I don’t know whether this write-first post-later thing is gonna work out. We’ll see.
New Comment Policy
Until now, I’ve let pretty much all comments through, then taken the time to respond. I will still do that for most comments, but not for those that endorse or propagate the myths of writing. You can find that crap pretty much everywhere. There’s no reason for me to allow it on my website.
Posting those comments here in the first place is a waste of the commenter’s time. And allowing those comments through and responding to them is a waste of my time. See my new Comment Policy page.
Rationale for Comment Policy
I’m not sure why people who are mired in the writing myths seek out my silly little minuscule, unimportant website to disagree with me or with the likes of Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein or Dean Wesley Smith or Kristine Kathryn Rusch or Stephen King or Lee Child or Jack Higgins or James Lee Burke or anyone else who has written TONS more fiction than they have.
All of the writers I listed above and many more, including me and many of the writers who read my Journal, have been mired in the myths ourselves.
I once spent over 3 years outlining a novel. Hey, but whatever works for me is fine, right? Can anyone say with a straight face that “worked” for me? And no, I still haven’t written that novel.
But now some of us have found a crisp, clean new way to write, and we aren’t going back. Most of us are smart enough to keep it to ourselves. Unfortunately, I am not. I like to share what I have tested and know to be possible in an attempt to ease others’ transition to a fun, enjoyable way to write fiction.
Nor do I owe the general writimg public a “balanced” presentation of myths vs. non-myths. They can learn the myths in any of the MILLIONS of websites, classrooms, “boards,” Facebook groups, etc. ad nauseam where those mired in the myths commiserate. Yet they can learn what I teach pretty much nowhere but here on this one little website.
What I DO owe the general writing public is the best writing advice I can give them. So in this one tiny bit of the internet universe, I will continue to teach what I practice in my everyday life:
- Heinlein’s Rules,
- Ray Bradbury’s many wise dictums on writing,
- that writers should believe-in and trust themselves,
- that writers should report the story as it unfolds,
- that only the creative mind can create, and
- that the conscious mind can only build or construct. It cannot create.
Of course, I might reconsider my position if Anyone Anywhere Ever would utter even one original thought that proves the conscious mind is effective at creating fiction. But that will never happen because they can’t, and they can’t because it isn’t.
Correction
In yesterday’s post under the “Santa Fe Subseries” segment, I wrote “A story is only a mental image….” Of course, that should have read “An idea is only a mental image….” Thanks to my first reader, Russ, for catching that glitch.
Like Any Story
Like any authentinc story in any life, a fiction unfolds as it happens, as the characters live it. Because of that, it can only be reported It can not planned or foreseen. How can anyone possibly know what will happen next or think ahead in a story that’s unfolding as it happens?
Of course, you have free will. You certainly can force it and control everything, but it will no longer be the characters’ authentic story. It will be a conscious-mind construct, something you built block by well-thought-out block.
You can force the characters to say what you want them to say, but you can’t force them to mean it.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “A new physics-defying theory describes the effects of faster-than-light travel” at https://interestingengineering.com/science/faster-than-light-travel.
See “2023” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/2023-2/.
See “A treasure trove of Hollywood intellectual property is heading for the public domain” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/a-treasure-trove-of-hollywood-intellectual-property-is-heading-for-the-public-domain/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 750 words
Writing of Santa Fe: A New Office (novel, WCG8, Santa Fe 3)
Day 1…… 2815 words. Total words to date…… 2815
Day 2…… 2034 words. Total words to date…… 4849
Day 3…… 2650 words. Total words to date…… 7499
Day 4…… 2209 words. Total words to date…… 9708
Day 5…… 4214 words. Total words to date…… 13922
Day 6…… 2299 words. Total words to date…… 16221
Day 7…… 2136 words. Total words to date……18357
Total fiction words for January……… 8649
Total fiction words for 2023………… 8649
Total nonfiction words for January… 1980
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 1980
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 10629
Calendar Year 2023 Novels to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2023 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 71
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. Because It Makes Sense to do so, I report the story as it unfolds and trust the characters to tell the story that they, not I, are living. This greatly increases my productivity and provides the fastest possible ascension along the learning curve of Craft because I get a great deal more practice at actually writing. It will do the same for you if only you trust it.