In Today’s Journal
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Heinlein’s Rules series, 5
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
The Bradbury Challenge
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Erin Donoho “A Different Perspective” 2000 psychological realism
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Trigger” 3751 Alternative
- Christopher Ridge “Room 12” 1320 noir
- Dave Taylor “The Old Man’s Cemetery Visit” 2,461 paranormal mystery
This is Dave’s 52nd consecutive week with at least one short story. 🙂
Congratulations to these writers.
Heinlein’s Rules series, 5
Q: With regard to Heinlein’s Rule 5, “Leave it on the market,” do you ever have to fight the urge to revise or pull a book off the market, etc.?
HS: No. I seldom ever had the urge to even go back and read what I wrote before. Not because the stories aren’t good, but because I’ve already been there. I already know how it turns out, so for me it’s boring.
I’d rather follow a new set of characters around as they live their story and see how that one turns out. Or in the case of a saga, I’d rather follow the same characters around as they live a new part of their story and see how that part of the story turns out.
I might pull a published book down for a brief time to swap out a cover or improve the sales copy, but then it goes right back up.
Q: And the biggie: What would an author need to give up or change (ideas, habits, mindsets, etc.) to fully adopt Heinlein’s Rules?
HS: Fear. Nothing else. Just fear. And in every case, it’s unreasoning fear.
For HR1, give up the fear-driven need to control everything from an authorial ivory tower. Come down from the tower, take off your authorial robes, and get comfy. Slip on sneakers, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt or whatever. Then roll off the parapet into the trenches of the story and race through the story with your characters.
For HR1 and 2, trust the characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living. That’s key. When you get stuck, Just Write the Next Sentence. It really is that simple.
One caveat on this one: Often, if a story “slows” or “bogs down,” especially toward the end of a scene, you can often find the reason by scrolling up a few sentences or paragraphs. But again, don’t consciously “look for” where things end. Just read. The characters will tell you where the scene ended or where you took a wrong turn.
Often you’ll find you’ve written past the end of a scene or, sometimes, even the end of the story or novel. This has happened to me on more than one occasion. It all boils down to trusting the characters.
For HR3, let go of three things, all fear-based:
1. Let go of the notion that the story is important. It isn’t. It’s only a few minutes’ or hours’ entertainment for eventual readers. Some will like it and some won’t. It’s no more important than that.
2. For goodness’ sake, literally let go of the ridiculous notion that someone else can tell your characters’ story better than you can. I don’t even allow my own critical, conscious mind to intrude on my stories. Much less would I allow anyone else and their conscious, critical mind to intrude.
3. Let go of the fear that your work won’t be perfect. What’s perfect for one reader is far from perfect for another. So instead, shrug and rest easy in the knowledge that the story won’t be perfect.
A few points:
A. If you strive to make a story perfect, you will try to write like your favorite novelist writes. But you aren’t that novelist. You’re you.
B. In the beginning, that favorite novelist wasn’t that novelist either. There was a time when Stephen King or Rita Mae Brown or Ernest Hemingway didn’t even know the alphabet yet.
C. You enjoy that novelist’s work because of his or her unique, original voice.
D. And others will enjoy your work because of YOUR unique, original voice if you leave it alone (if you don’t revise, rewrite, and critique your original voice off it because of your fear of being “imperfect.”)
4. For HR4, let go of the fear of judgement. Buy into the 80/20 rule: Some few readers will love what you’ve written. Some few others will hate it. But the majority will enjoy it and the fact that you’ve written it in your own unique, original voice.
As J. A. Konrath famously wrote in “Six Things Writers Need To Stop Worrying About,” “Someone else’s opinion of you and your work is none of your business.”
He’s absolutely right. Your job is to write the stories and put them out there. It is the reader’s job, not yours, to decide what s/he enjoys, what’s “good” or “not good,” etc.
Q: Any final words, tips, or resources you can share with authors who might be considering Heinlein’s Rules?
Harvey: First, I recommend they subscribe to The New Daily Journal. It’s only $5 per month or $60 per year, OR it’s free. And it’s pretty much the only blog today where writers can learn about writing with Heinlein’s Rules and Writing Into the Dark.
A lot of big-name writers follow Heinlein’s Rules and write into the dark, but very few talk about them, and nobody else talks about them regularly.
Second, there are dozens, maybe even hundreds, of resources on my author site at harveystanbrough.com. Hover over or click the tabs labeled Writer Downloads and Other Writer Resources.
Third, I would be remiss not to mention all the lectures and online classes available at WMG Publishing’s Teachable page (Dean Wesley Smith). You can find that at wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/. But they all cost anywhere from $50 to $300 or more.
And finally, look for Dean Wesley Smith’s books on Heinlein’s Rules and Writing Into the Dark. I especially recommend How to Write Fiction Sales Copy in paperback. All of those are available in both ebook and paper at Amazon and from other outlets.
*
Okay, that’s it for the faux interview on Heinlein’s Rules. I hope it helped in some way.
Tomorrow I’ll address a core issue about following Heinlein’s Rules, including a question I’ve heard a thousand times and that I once asked myself.
Talk with you again then.
Of Interest
Get Your Free Book Marketing Guide for Self-Published Authors Put your email addy in the pop-up.
Vin Zandri Interviews Bestselling Author Charles Salzberg (At about 15 minutes, Vin disappears. (Been there, done that.) He returns about 3 minutes later.
Stop Thinking Like a Writer… I also recommend DWS’ Think Like a Publisher and both of his Killing the Sacred Cows books.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1110
Writing of Blackwell Ops 46: Sam Granger | Hell Comes Home
Day 1…… 1814 words. To date…… 1814
Day 2…… 2645 words. To date…… 4459
Day 3…… 1507 words. To date…… 5966
Day 4…… 1664 words. To date…… 7630
Day 5…… 1283 words. To date…… 8913
Day 6…… 3126 words. To date…… 12039
Day 7…… 3454 words. To date…… 15493
Day 8…… 3973 words. To date…… 19466
Day 9…… 2837 words. To date…… 22303
Day 10…. 3565 words. To date…… 25868
Day 11…. 1641 words. To date…… 27509
Day 12…. 2624 words. To date…… 30133
Day 13…. 2082 words. To date…… 32215
Fiction for June………………………. 56251
Fiction for 2025………………………. 519703
Nonfiction for June……………………. 25480
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 151630
2025 consumable words…………….. 664823
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 12
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 30
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 116
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 300
Short story collections……………………. 29
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