In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A Story About a Trunk Novelist Turned Editor
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Like an exciting roller coaster ride, the need to know what’s coming next in a story creates anxiety and a certain amount of fear. Or, you know, exhiliration. Exactly the same thing. I guess it all depends on how you look at it.” Harvey Stanbrough
A Story About a Trunk Novelist Turned Editor
Once upon a time in a comment on an article titled “Read, Write, Suffer” (certainly not my article but one to which I posted a link in Of Interest awhile back), a writer wrote this:
“As someone who’s been writing all his life but still doesn’t feel as if he’s got a submittable manuscript, all this rings true to me.
“Just yesterday, after I went back over my latest draft and concluded that it has fatal second-act problems, I set it aside, picked up a good novel, read for hours, found in it the inspiration for a workaround on my novel, wrote for a few more hours, and went to bed with head churning and gut burning. I’m suffering plenty.
“But I’m searching for a higher gear today to keep me going and not treat the misfired execution of what I know to be a good idea to become Trunk Novel #47. What comes next?”
I couldn’t help but respond:
Your comment tugged at me. And I felt almost invited to respond by your “What comes next?”
“Trunk novel 47? If that means you’ve written 46 novels and not submitted or published any of them, please consider this for a moment (oh, and remember that if you “buy in,” I gain nothing):
“Even if you felt those novels were not worthy of publication, yours is only one opinion.
“Some readers (maybe 10%) would have loved those novels, another 10% would have hated them, and fully 80% would have enjoyed reading them.
“The point is, as long as the novels remain in your trunk, you’re robbing all those would-be readers of a chance to decide for themselves. As Nina Kiriki Hoffman once said, ‘Dare to be bad.’
“As a writer, your job is to write, so write. I recommend trusting your characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living. But however you choose to do it, write. Then run a spell check, take a deep breath, and publish.
“Then the readers can do their job, which is to decide (for themselves) what they like or don’t like. And feel free to visit the archives on my website. I hope they will help.”
Then I visited the writer’s website and saw that, although he ostensibly has written 46 “trunk novels” and has published only one fiction story in one anthology, he has the chutzpah to edit for other fiction writers, including “developmental editing.”
Is it just me, or is that head shakingly ridiculous?
The end.
Be careful out there, folks.
Whether you’re looking for the next nonfiction book that will teach you how to write or looking for an editor to help with “developing” your manuscript (I advise strongly against this), do a llittle due diligence and make sure the guy or gal at least has a clue what s/he’s talking about.
Or, if you have faith that a guy who doesn’t believe in his own work enough to actually publish it can help you “develop” your manuscript, go for it.
Just sayin’.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
50 Euphemism Examples + Why You Should Use Them For some reason, some items on the list repeat.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 600
Writing of Blackwell Ops 24: Buck Jackson Returns (tentative title)
Day 1…… 3724 words. To date…… 3724
Day 2…… 3706 words. To date…… 7430
Day 3…… 2110 words. To date…… 9540
Day 4…… 3243 words. To date…… 12783
Day 5…… 1606 words. To date…… 14389
Day 6…… 1306 words. To date…… 15695
Day 7…… 3063 words. To date…… 18758
Fiction for April…………………….….… 55019
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 280811
Fiction since October 1………………… 583867
Nonfiction for April……………………… 19690
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 148410
2024 consumable words……………… 429221
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 7
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 89
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 239
Short story collections…………………… 29
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies, and they will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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I would just add here, that all of this attempts to “fix second act”, “make main idea clear” are misleading. Because it always goes on the surface, not at the depth.
Yes. And even if he wrote the original draft into the dark, making those changes will take the story in a direction it was never intended to go. The critical voice is strong in that guy.
>>>edit for other fiction writers, including “developmental editing”
Sorry, but Oh.My.God.
Don’t be sorry. That’s exactly how I felt. 🙂
I keep coming back to read this silliness – and believe me, I have words besides “silliness” to describe it. However, I won’t go into them, but you no doubt know them well.
>>> What comes next?
Obviously trunk novel #48. I mean, really, if that’s the objective, the scribe is winning!
Yup. About all we can do is let it go and be glad it isn’t us. 🙂
How can they help other writers ‘fix’ their work when they can’t even publish one book and only have one single published credit to their name?
The nerve of this person is right. Developmental editing? I’ve heard this so many times but what does it even mean? Besides the ‘editor’ telling you how they would write the story and why you should insert their changes? That’s all it is to me and I steer clear of them at all costs.
Like Dean said once on a blog post, his work his work, good or bad. I feel the same. My work is my work and I take pride in what I do, I don’t need anyone else sticking their nose in and telling me how they would do it. They can go and write their own stories if that’s the case.
Yep. Developmental editing is a ridiculous concept. A confident writer would say How dare you even offer to change what happened in MY head or how MY characters reacted to it? Not to mention charging me for your incompetent advice? The saying about glass houses comes to mind, or about tidying up your own flat before offering to clean another’s.
It’s even worse than I realized: I checked this guy’s blog and the reason he didn’t publish his 47 trunk novels is because he’s saving his “Debut Author Card.” In a blog post back in 2022, he says he’s working on a crime novel that’s finally “worthy” of that card because it has Big Ideas About Today’s World or something like that. And we all know what happens when you make your writing “important.”
Just madness.
I know. Crazy, isn’t it? I can only assume writing fiction must be sheer hell for the poor guy.
Just think: He could have had at least 47 novels published and out to readers. He might have been a bestseller by now, or at least had a sizeable following and making a good or great living from his writing. But he will never know.