In today’s Journal
* A Short Post Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
A Short Post Today
and I guess it’s a little negative. Well, not negative so much as indifferent.
First, if you’re interested at all, see “Where Gender-Neutral Pronouns Come From” at https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2021/06/gender-neutral-pronouns-arent-new/619092/.
I was going to write a bit about this, but then I realized I don’t really care. People have a right to call themselves whatever they want. How someone else “identifies” doesn’t affect my bottom line or my time off, so what do I care?
By and large, aside from a few family members and close friends who basically force themselves to appear momentarily impressed, people really don’t care how others identify or what personal pronouns they prefer. And even those friends and family members will generally roll their eyes the moment the self-absorbed person’s back is turned after proclaiming his or her plea for attention. But again, that’s their life to put up with, not mine.
Really, I don’t see what the fuss is all about. We don’t have this problem where I come from. We have long used an all-inclusive, non-gender specific singular pronoun: ya’ll. And we also have an all-inclusive, non-gender specific plural pronoun: all’a ya’ll. So there. Problem solved.
Still, in our never-ending attempt to be “inclusive” of every character type, you can always insert a character or two like this for various reasons. Comic relief being one and pity being the other that immediately spring to mind.
Then we move on to the seemingly never-ending choice all writers have: to succumb to unreasoning fear in the pursuit of “perfection” or set it aside and just enjoy the process of storytelling. There’s a lesson here. The lesson is, perfection is in the eye of the reader. What works for one won’t work for another. Which is why I write into the dark. I allow the characters to tell their story. They live or die of their own accord.
For this one, take a look at “Troubleshooting Plot Issues” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/06/troubleshooting-plot-issues.html.
The fear in the post is palpable. It drips so heavily off the author I was a little surprised my screen didn’t get damp or fog up.
This is a momentary glimpse into what would be, for me, Writer’s Hell. If I had to go through anything remotely resembling the process outlined by the author of this post, I wouldn’t write at all.
Even with all my recent whining about the tribulations of “rewriting” Book 3 of the Wes Crowley series, all I really did was add several chapters (around 22,000 words), and the characters themselves gave me those. There was no real work involved.
GAWD I’m glad I just let the characters tell the story that they, not I, are living.
Now I’m gonna go do exactly that while wishing all’a ya’ll a great day.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Bruce Lee on Self-Actualization and the Crucial Difference Between Pride and Self-Esteem” at https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/12/18/bruce-lee-artist-of-life-self-esteem/. I thought this one bore repeating.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 460 words
Writing of WCGN: Assignment: Brownsville (novel)
Day 1…… 2890 words. Total words to date…… 2890
Day 2…… 3178 words. Total words to date…… 6068
Total fiction words for June……… 15651
Total fiction words for the year………… 470140
Total nonfiction words for June… 3980
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 110210
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 580350
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 9
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 62
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.