Being the Recorder, Being the Presenter

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In Today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Being the Recorder, Being the Presenter
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“Thanks for extending the Opening Line Challenge to your subscribers, Harvey. I can’t wait to see what you—and they—come up with. I’m hoping it will lead to a number of new entries in my “Great Opening Lines” website. Dr. Mardy Grothe

Being the Recorder, Being the Presenter

I encourage anyone reading this to ask any question or questions re writing or publishing. If I feel your question and my response might benefit other writers, chances are good I’ll use it as a topic in TNDJ.

In a recent email, a writer wrote this:

Question 1. I’m working on a YA contemporary story. Contemporary implies, well, the present, 2025. But I wasn’t writing this with COVID in mind. Is it necessary to mention something like that, since it would have so obviously affected a teenager (remote learning etc.)?

Could I just not mention it, if it’s not a huge part of the story? I’m all about realism, and I want to be historically accurate with this story. But I genuinely do not know how I would write about a kid going through COVID or its effects on him/her. Thoughts on this?

This question is about being your characters’ recorder, so with “I’m all about realism,” you’ve answered your own question.

But let’s look at “Could I just not mention it, if it’s not a huge part of the story?”

First, also note this is sound advice for writing any genre.

If you’re WITD, you’re just writing what happens and how the characters react, right? So you can’t know whether it’s a “huge” part of the story, or part of the story at all. Just write what happens and the characters’ reactions and don’t worry about it.

I suspect how the characters’ experiences with covid affected them is part of the story, not that you’ll necessarily notice consciously, but so what? Again, just write what happens and the characters’ reactions and don’t worry about it. (grin)

We’re all (and characters are all) a continuously recalculating sum of our experiences. So relax and just write the story.

To leave no room for “um but,” If the covid period or some major or lesser aspect(s) of it affected the POV character in a way that s/he lets others see, the result(s) of that impact will appear in the character’s actions or in what s/he says or how s/he says it, etc. And it’s the same with any other major or minor experiences she’s had, from stubbing her toe on a table leg an hour ago to losing a family member.

So again, don’t reach into the story (author intrusion) with your own projections. Just write the story. Like all other real people, various characters wear their emotions and the results of their life experiences on their sleeve to a greater or lesser degree.

Question 2. I have always, always written my stories in order (or the order the character wants them told—the order the final draft ends up as). Is there any problem, WITD-wise, with writing out of order?

E.g., with this YA story, I know there are some places that aren’t finished, that I need to cycle over. But the character was just pushing me to write other scenes that take place in the future, so I did. And it’s going great. But I still have to go back and cycle through much earlier scenes, which bugs me. Not that much. But a little bit.

This question is about being both your characters’ recorder AND about being the presenter of your characters’ story, so….

First, “Is there any problem, WITD-wise, with writing out of order?” Of course not. Fuggidaboudit and just write the story.

BUT “I know there are some places that aren’t finished, that I need to cycle over.”

I’ve never seen a clearer example of the critical mind shoving in and the creative mind fighting back in a single statement. 🙂

“I know there are some places that aren’t finished” is pure critical mind. It’s your conscious, critical (“I know”) mind trying to introduce doubt, that maybe you really do know more about the story than the folks do who are actually living it.

And then “there are some places I need to cycle over” is your creative subconscious fighting back.

As It Always Is with regard to writing or any other act of creation, the conscious, critical mind is Wrong.

It’s only presenting stumbling block to safeguard you against potential embarrassment in case someone doesn’t like what you’ve written. (Safeguarding you is one of the two primary functions of the conscious, critical mind.) And as it always is with regard to writing or any other act of creation, the creative subconscious is Right.

Go with what your characters give you and get it on the page. In this case, after the fever of writing has subsided or slowed to normal again, you might want to cycle through from the very beginning (as always, being careful not to “think” or “critique” but just read) and let the characters add what’s necessary to smooth out and enhance the whole thing.

And as a bonus for me, the writer offered this: “… butt in chair, no distractions, I knocked out 6500 words in a few hours. And I feel so good. … it is a great feeling, you know? I feel so calm and satisfied after I write. And also I want to keep going, even if my eyes are bleeding from staring at the screen.”

With that passage, the writer described every good day of writing I’ve ever had. And through the few hours of television I’m looking forward to going to sleep (and hating that I have to waste all that time) so I can get up and get back to the story.

Keep writing. Keep going. This writer is on the verge of permanently breaking through the wall her conscious, critical mind keeps erecting.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 1000

Writing of

Day 1…… XXXX words. To date…… XXXX

Fiction for July..………………………. 2590
Fiction for 2025………………………. 523397
Nonfiction for July…………………….. 7530
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 159160
2025 consumable words…………….. 674943

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29

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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.