In Today’s Journal
* My Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Personal to Anonymous JE
* When Do You Stop Writing?
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
My Quote of the Day
“Breathe, relax, and let go of responsibility for the characters’ story. They, not you, are living it. You are only the Recorder. That’s why I call writing into the dark a Zen-like non-process. The more you let go, the more you receive.” Harvey
The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
- Balázs Jámbor “The punishment of innocence” 2500 General Fiction
- Vanessa V. Kilmer “Simply Living” 3214 Dystopian
- Alexander Nakul Punks against Universe 5,312 Sci-Fi, Humor
- Christopher Ridge “Crack and Crevice” spicy crime 2895
- Harvey Stanbrough “Hey, Militia This” 2497 Thriller
- Dave Taylor “The Road Home” 3,035 paranormal.
Congratulations to all of these writers!
Personal to Anonymous JE
A few days ago I received an alert on my name from TalkWalker. Their social media alert tool is free. I recommend it.
Of course, I clicked the link to see who mentioned me and why.
Turns out, a young woman (JE) mentioned me in her blog post on her WordPress.com site. In her post, she related how she was drowning in despair, much of it over her writing.
She even reported “burnout,” despite the fact she also reported she hadn’t written any fiction since January, and only something over 7,000 words for that entire month. And 6000+ words of that were in a single short story.
Understand, my intention is not to belittle her at all. I’m pulling for her. But in that post, her fear was literally palpable, her stress levels over the top.
So here’s my personal message to JE:
You aren’t burnt out. How can you be burnt out on writing fiction if you aren’t writing fiction?
You’re only paralyzed with fear that your fiction isn’t good enough. That is a result of your conscious, critical mind. You’ve made the stories ‘important’.
They aren’t. They don’t matter in the slightest except as the eventual reader decides they matter.
Critical mind has slowed you to a crawl, and if you don’t let go and kick that false fear to the curb, it will consume you.
Trust me. I’ve been there. If you want, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. I can help, but only if you reach out.
In the alternative (or in addition to emailing me), visit the Journal website and click On Writing Fiction in the menu.
Four Final Thoughts—
One, skip back to the beginning of this post and read My Quote of the Day. Read it a few times. Let it sink in.
Two, skip to the end of this post and read the disclaimer.
Three, once you’ve released that fear, writing fiction will be fun. It will be an escape from fear and worry, not the source of it.
Four, if you’re unable to let go of that unreasoning, baseless fear, seriously, I suggest you let go of the writing and find something fun to do instead. Your characters and their stories will always be waiting in the wings when you’re ready.
When Do You Stop Writing?
I received an excellent question from writer JS.
“When do you decide that the ending you’ve reached is the right time to stop? Especially when the extreme climax happens closer to the middle of the story?
“I’ve gotten to what sounds like a logical end to a love story, but I’m feeling like it’s not a happily ever after ending, but more of a real life, this is where we’re at now moment.
“The characters have an understanding of each other, and there isn’t anything left that they want to say, but as the author, I am feeling like I’m going to miss them if I don’t keep writing for them.”
Here’s my response, expanded and with elaboration:
Great question, JS. That actually happened to me a lot when I wrote the Wes Crowley saga. In fact, it happens to me a lot in other stories that become sagas too, whether short stories, novellas, or novels.
You didn’t say whether your story is a short story, novella, or novel. However, in this case that doesn’t matter.
The only difference is this: The short story is about One Event. The novella or novel is about several interconnected events.
It sounds to me like you already know the right time to stop.
In your opening sentence above (“the ending you’ve reached”) the characters are whispering “you’ve reached the ending.” And you’re listening at least enough to ask me your questions.
Trust your characters to tell the story (or part of the story) they want to tell. So when the characters have led you through to the end and the story wraps, let it wrap.
Then, since you’re gonna miss the characters after it’s over, sit down and write what happens next.
What Happens Next
- might continue the same story in the same work (short story, novella, novel), OR
- will begin the next story in a series of the overall story of those characters’ lives (a saga), OR
- will be the next chapter of a novella or novel you didn’t realize you were writing, OR
- will begin the next story, novella, or novel, again, in a saga.
The key is this: When the story slows or bogs down or sags or however you want to say it, if it wraps, let it wrap. If it doesn’t wrap, Just Write the Next Sentence.
You trust the characters, so let them tell it.
I promise, it works.
Now, you know the drill. Go lie in the yard. (grin) (Inside joke between me and my son, JS.)
Of Interest
Dystopian Literature Some great articles. Browse and grow rich.
Meet Ray Bradbury Short video. Just a little inspiration
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 970
Writing of Blackwell Ops 38: Paul Stone
Day 1…… 4071 words. To date…… 4071
Day 2…… 2711 words. To date…… 6782
Day 3…… 3434 words. To date…… 10216
Day 4…… 4185 words. To date…… 14401
Day 5…… 4149 words. To date…… 18550
Day 6…… 4104 words. To date…… 22654
Day 7…… 2010 words. To date…… 24664
Day 8…… 1413 words. To date…… 26077
Day 9…… 4091 words. To date…… 30168
Fiction for March…………………….. 5504
Fiction for 2025………………………. 191355
Nonfiction for March………………. 2510
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 56440
2025 consumable words…………….. 241265
Average Fiction WPD (March)…….. 2752
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 279
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.