In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Report
* Writing or Processing?
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“I’m Looking for People Who Can’t Write Good, like Stephen King’s On Writing, is a must-have for authors serious about their profession.” Duke Southard, author of the award winning Fallacy of Closure, Tainted Justice, and the Detective Parker Havenot series (See Of Interest)
The Bradbury Challenge Report
Participating in any challenge is a great way to have fun and grow as a writer.
The requirement is to write at least one short story per week, then let me know the title, word count, and genre per the format below. During the past week, the following writers wrote these new stories:
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Star Battle” 3075 syfy
- Christopher Ridge “Window Seat” 1722 horror
- Dave Taylor “Then and Now” 3,068 Science Fiction
- Glynn Young “At the Farmers Market” 1947 General
Congratulations to all of these writers.
Writing or Processing?
a guest post by Dan Baldwin
I have met too many aspiring writers so consumed with “getting it right” before ever putting charcoal to shovel handle, pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard that they never “get to it.”
There are two types of people in the writing world: those who process and those who write. I fear one young man I know is doomed to remain an aspiring writer for a long time for one basic reason: He’s not writing. He is processing, and by that I mean he is doing everything he can to become a proficient writer except… writing.
Before writing his great American novel, he thinks he must “master the craft.” (No one ever masters the craft because regardless of how good he gets, he can always get better.) My friend bought the Chicago Manual of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, Stephen King’s On Writing, Story by Robert McKee, I’m Looking for People Who Can’t Write Good by Yoors Trooly, and who knows how many other books.
Between flipping pages and ordering more books, he took a creative writing course at one of the community colleges. I checked in on his progress to learn that, having finished the course, he had ordered a few DVDs and CDs on the subject. While the mouse roves over the pad and his eyes scan the screen, his fingers never touch the keyboard connected to a blank page.
Over-writing is another example of processing.
I have read several articles over the years by writers who brag about the number of rewrites they do before sending a work out into the world. One guy, from New York, boasted he never sent any work out until he rewrote it 20 times. Every work! Twenty times. Astounding.
I am stunned that someone makes precisely the same errors in everything he writes. I have to wonder if draft number 20 is better, really, than draft number seven. How much better is draft 20 than draft 19? Rewriting ad infinitum is not writing. It’s processing.
The writer consumed with processing is acting on a false premise. Processing isn’t making it better. In fact, as I’ve often said, each draft takes a work further from the writer’s heart and soul. Too many drafts water down the impact the writer sought in his first draft.
Writers write, finish the damn thing, publish and move on to the next work. They follow Heinlein’s rules. “You must publish what you write.” He didn’t say process what you write. He didn’t say improve what you write. He didn’t say fiddle with what you write.
Aspiring writers (wannabes) never leave the processing plant and enter the showroom of published author. They have a number of reasons for failing to finish, but chief among them is a misguided delight in process.
And process isn’t and can never be progress.
Of Interest
I’m Looking for People Who Can’t Write Good
The Final Tipping Point (Parker Havenot)
The Fallacy of Closure: And Other…