In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A Bit More from Michael Connelly
* A Great Tongue-in-Cheek Comment
* Poetry?
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“In writing, maybe the key thing is momentum, and a lot of details create speed bumps. … Instead of five details you pick the one that says something about the situation [and the] character.” Michael Connelly, crime writer (see Of Interest)
A Bit More from Michael Connelly
- “The more you do something the better you get at it, so I’m definitely an always-be-writing type of guy.” His professor in college said, “If you’re gonna be a writer you’ve got to write every day even if it’s only for 15 minutes.”
- One of the best pieces of writing advice he read was from Kurt Vonnegut (24:20 in the video) “Make sure on every page every character wants something even if it’s only a glass of water.”
- He reads Chapter 13 of Little Sister by Raymond Chandler before he starts a new novel, and says the chapter is a “great example of how the ‘telling details’ can reveal character.”
- “It’s a fun thing to build conflict between two people in dialogue without them talking about their conflict. I love doing conversations that on the surface are about this but they’re really about that.”
A Great Tongue-in-Cheek Comment
A writer left a great comment on yesterday’s post. I suspected it was tongue-in-cheek because I’ve read his work and I know him to be a very good storyteller. Anyway, in leaving that comment he handed me today’s post on a silver platter. (Thanks, Peter A.)
Here’s his comment:
“Cripes, Harvey. I have enough trouble making up the lies I write, never mind worrying about whether my lies are ‘authentic’ or not. I guess I better quit writing fiction and start writing ‘real’ life. Let me see now… Got up. Had breakfast. Drank a coffee. Went to the bathroom. Had lunch. Took a bit of a nap. Ate dinner. Went to bed. Repeat. Oh, wait. I cycled and discovered I missed a bathroom break.”
And my response:
Amazing that this comment comes just before I posted the above Quote of the Day from Michael Connelly.
IMHO, you’re (sarcastically, I suspect) confusing writing and presentation. So for those who might think your comment was serious….
- Yes, of course write real life, but it’s the POV (and other characters’) real life as their story unfolds.
- Write whatever the POV character gives you. That’s the writing part. And remember, the POV character will only ‘notice’ and give you what he feels is important. If he gives you a bathroom break, write it. If he doesn’t, don’t add it on your own.
- During cycling, add or expand any details “that say something about the situation and/or the character” and keeps the momentum of the story. That’s the presentation.
- And sure, take out any details that don’t say something about the situation or the character and keep the momentum going. But I recommend not making that call until the story’s completely finished because you can’t know in the moment what might be important later on. Even the character can’t know in advance what will happen as the story unfolds.
In response to further clarifying comments from Peter, I wrote the following and thought it might be of interest to some of you:
- I personally don’t think it’s possible to be “too” authentic. The story’s either an accurate representation of what happened and the characters’ reactions or it isn’t.
- I only try to get writers to believe in themselves and their characters enough to write what the characters give them vs. thinking their way through it (construction) as they go along.
(From what I’ve seen, Peter himself doesn’t need that particular lesson.)
- For those who believe their characters are actually part of them or who can’t separate themselves from the characters because the characters are in their creative subconscious (not real entities separate of the writer, as I believe) a better way to say the same thing might be “Write what you see, hear, taste, etc. as the character or maybe when you’re being the character.“
Shrug. I dunno. I only know different students need to hear things in different ways before the information clicks for them.
- As for “[all the advice] gets to be a bit much,” I couldn’t agree more. That’s why I always say take what you need and ignore what you don’t from ANY writer or writing instructor, including me.
- I personally recommend writers don’t consciously think about what they read or studied or what they learned from anybody, including me, as they’re writing.
- I’ve also said whatever works for you is fine—it’s your writing practice, not mine, so do whatever you want—but I do recommend you define “works.”
And of course, I always recommend WITD because literally anyone can do. You only have to
- stop thinking that what you’re writing is “important” (it’s only entertainment),
- stop being afraid of what other people will think of what you’ve written (after all, what’re the repercussions?),
- trust that you’ve absorbed all you need to know over the years, and
- bring yourself to trust the POV character.
If you can do that, you can enjoy the complete freedom of writing into the dark.
Note: All of this is presented with a series of shrugs, folks. I can only tell you what I know to be true. What you do with it and how (or whether) you write is strictly up to you.
Poetry?
Some scammer sent me an email yesterday saying they wanted to help promote my book, The Complete Poetry of Harvey Stanbrough.
I didn’t remember having compiled that. Then I thought maybe someone else had so I searched for it online. As I suspected, it doesn’t exist.
While I was down that rabbit hole I came across a page about me and my poetry. If you’d like to see a good short sampling of my poetry, click The HyperTexts.
Of Interest
Michael Connelly Interview (Video, a little over an hour. Great character and dialogue stuff throughout, beginning at 20:49.)
Do You Outline, or Do You Write into the Dark? (Thanks, Glynn Y! This is another post I came across before I dug my way out of that rabbit hole I mentioned.)