In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Conversation Part 2
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“Everything you look at can become a fairy tale and you can get a story from everything you touch.” Hans Christian Andersen
Conversation Part 2
Technique matters. Opinion doesn’t.
In fact, listening too closely to anyone’s personal opinion of your work can actually be harmful. More on this later in this post.
As a long-time fiction writer with a pretty big body of work over several genres, I can confidently advise you on the reader-magnet techniques of storytelling: hooks, levels of necessary description, the five senses, realistic vs. stilted dialogue, cliffhangers, punctuation, pacing, and more.
I can also teach you why it’s important to include those, and I can tell you almost at a glance which techniques are included in your story and which are missing or lacking.
I do that by offering story-opening critiques at $15 each. (Click here for details.)
The good news is that you shouldn’t need more than one opening critique. More than one, even in different genres, really isn’t necessary.
Once you’ve learned or been made aware of a technique and are committed to practicing it, you can apply it to any short story, novella, or novel. And because the opening draws the reader deeper into the story, it really is the most important part of the story. (The ending is the other important part.)
I’m also still open to taking on more mentoring students. The cost for that is only $30 per month (start and stop anytime you like). A mentorship includes critiques, partial copyedits, questions answered via email, etc. Whatever you need.
Now let’s talk about opinion.
My, your, or anyone else’s personal opinion of whether your story is “good” or “not good” shouldn’t matter to you in the slightest. Opinion has no bearing on the value of your story or whether you should publish it.
Here’s some free advice: Whatever your (or anyone else’s) readerly opinion of your work, publish it anyway. No ifs, ands, or buts.
Again, technique is different. The reader-magnet techniques I listed above are good to know because they apply to short or long fiction across the genres.
But every individual reader—and that includes the writer, the editor, the publisher, and every member of the several billion potential readers in the readership at large—decides whether each story is “good” or “not good.”
And every reader decides that according to his or her own life experiences and baggage, what he or she simply likes or doesn’t like, and even his or her mood at the time.
“Old Suits”
This is a story I wrote into the dark not long after I started my writing journey.
As I finished writing it, I thought the story sucked canal water from all 50 states. (I still do.) Fortunately, I remembered that my opinion is no more valid than anyone else’s, so I slapped a cover on it, published it anyway, and forgot about it.
But a few weeks later, I got an email from a woman in Spain or Portugal (I forget which) saying she absolutely loved the story. She even compared it favorably with Hemingway’s short fiction.
Of course, I thanked her and quickly told her where she could find more of my fiction.
But I didn’t really CARE that she liked it, understand? If I take to heart readers’ “bad” opinions or reviews, it might annoy me or upset me. I might even decide (critical mind) that my work sucks so why bother?
Maybe more importantly, if I listen to even “good” opinions or reviews, my critical mind will take over and I’ll start to worry about whether I can write that well next time. That will morph into fear and freeze me so solid that I might not be able to write at all.
But that reader’s email DID do one really good thing: It proved to me, finally, that writers really are the worst judges of their own work, and that’s true whether we love or hate something we’ve written.
Your opinion regarding any story is valid only for you. It isn’t valid for anyone else. All that truly matters is what each individual reader thinks of the story.
In case you’re wondering about the quality (or lack thereof) of the story, here it is in a free PDF download, as listed on my author website under Free Downloads: “Old Suits”, a short story by Harvey Stanbrough writing as Nick Porter.
So there you go. Judge for yourself.
Now, to backtrack to yesterday’s post
and tie all of this together, the writer and mentoring student who emailed me has earned an MFA, plus she’s been with me through TNDJ for quite awhile.
So as I told my young writer friend,
You really need to start believing in yourself. Just knock off all the doubts and worrying. You’re a very talented writer.
I believe in you, so why not go the extra step and start believing in yourself?
None of the writing-related stuff you’re worried about really matters. If you write and keep writing you’ll keep learning and your craft will continue to improve. You need to just write, publish, and then write some more.
Not trusting in yourself and your own abilities—not believing you can do something as simple as writing a good short story—is severely holding you back.
I advise you to step out of your own one percent and think about all those lonely readers out there who are just waiting to read and be entertained by your work.
They can’t do that unless you write the stories and put them out there.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Stop Playing the Tambourine With Your Knee Read this. It’s fun and informative, and there’s even a “No BS AI” course you might be interested in.
19 Book Publishing Companies You Can Submit to Without an Agent
A Debut Author’s Strategy for a Breakout Featured Deal
Slowjamastan: The new ‘nation’ hiding in the US Strictly for fun. I’m considering applying to become the Minister of Fiction and Generally Putting the Truth in Its Proper Perspective.
Here’s the hilarious (and free) Citizenship Application