In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Laugh of the Day
* Expansion of a Novel
* Cycling Isn’t Only to Check Your Work
* If I Haven’t Mentioned It
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“The original is unfaithful to the translation.” Jorge Luis Borges
Put another way, don’t translate what happens in your characters’ world. Write the authentic story.
“Writing Into The Dark scares many writers, and I believe 99 times out of 100 those are the writers who haven’t tried it. … It’s natural to fear the dark at first [but] there is mystery and magic in the dark.” Dan Baldwin
Laugh of the Day
“Instead of saying ‘Have a nice day,’ I think I’ll start saying ‘Have the day you deserve.’ You know, let karma sort that [stuff] out.” from a meme a friend sent me.
Expansion of a Novel
I always try to teach from my own experience.
You know over the past five calendar days I’ve been writing something tentatively titled Julia Stilson. On three of those days, I wrote. There was one “off” day when I didn’t write at all, and yesterday I cycled back over the last several chapters of the novel.
I mentioned when I started that I wasn’t sure whether this writing would be a
- short story,
- novelette or novella, or
- a whole new novel. I even thought it might be
- Buck Jackson wanting to tell me more.
Turns out, the prize was behind Door Number 4.
Yesterday, the story dropped off a cliff. It was finished. And it is an expansion of the novel I thought I finished a few days ago: Blackwell Ops 24: Buck Jackson Returns.
So I shifted what I’d just written to BO-24, then cycled through Chapters 26 through 31 (the last “old” chapter plus all the new stuff), ran a spell check, and shipped it off to my first reader.
He got it back to me in record time (Thanks, Russ!), and I uploaded the new document to Amazon, D2D, and Payhip. Done and dusted.
And also very cool. Through 90 novels, 9 novellas, and over 230 short stories, that has literally never happened to me before. (grin)
I’m glad it happened now so I can put it behind me. And I hope it never happens again. It was a little unnerving. But it was still fun writing the new “ending” and all the stuff that led up to it.
I even got to meet a new almost-main character, Julia’s mischievous, disarming grandmother, Sylvia. Meeting a new strong-willed character is always a joy.
As I wrote above, I always try to teach from my own experience. The lesson here?
If you keep the faith and an open mind, and if you trust yourself and your characters, they WILL lead you to the end.
In Numbers below, you’ll see the figures. The negative 1714 words from yesterday are words I removed that were trying to make it a new novel.
I also wrote part of a new short story based solely on Julia Stilson. That was just under 900 words of that 1714. (grin)
Cycling Isn’t Only to Check Your Work
Or more accurately, to let the characters see how you’ve rendered their story and allow them to add what you might have missed as you raced through the story with them.
Cycling also compels you to keep writing. In that way, cycling is to writing what hooks are to cliffhangers.
The reader reads a cliffhanger at the end of a subscene or scene or chapter. Then he encounters a hook at the beginning of the next subscene or scene or chapter and keeps reading.
The cliffhanger-hook combination compels the reader to keep reading.
You write what you write in a session or a day. Then you cycle back over what you wrote. That pulls you into the story again and compels you to continue writing the next session. Even if the next session is the following day.
The writing-cycling combination compels you to keep writing.
More on this, albeit in a slightly different direction, tomorrow. (grin)
If I Haven’t Mentioned It
Any donation to either the Journal OR to the short stories of the week covers you for both places.
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Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
The Numbers
The Journal………………………………820
Expansion of Blackwell Ops 24: Buck Jackson Returns
Brought forward……………………… 41732
Day 15…. 3523 words. To date…… 45255
Day 16…. 3201 words. To date…… 48456
Day 17…. 3010 words. To date…… 51466
Day 18… -1714 words. To date…… 49752 (done)
Fiction for May…………………….….… 9734
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 313519
Fiction since October 1………………… 616577
Nonfiction for May……………………… 6890
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 161230
2024 consumable words……………… 474749
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 8
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 90
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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Seems you had a similar issue with cycling on Buck Jackson 1 on April 13th when you fully cycled through that novel.
As I said before in the Journal then:
“This further convinces me that cycling is the go to technique for satisfying Heinlein rule 2 (You must finish what you write).”
Interesting.
Yes, similar, but different and with a different motivation. I cycled through BO-23 mostly because I enjoyed writing it so much I wanted to re-read it. 🙂
That’s the best. I too enjoy rereading for fun.
I had imagined that, maybe, Buck was hard-headed.
That, of course, is facetious. I know that you trust him.
But seriously, I applied some thought to the following.
Manikas’ Supermassive Amendments to Heinlien’s Rules:
1- (You must) write into the dark. Trust yourself. Surprise everyone.
2- Cycle back through as you proceed (to finish the story).
3- Do not edit. (You got the characters’ authentic story right the first time).
4- Put it on the market. (Package and publish to readers, do a promo, then move forward).
I believe if one truly follows stories, you will magically go as far as a writer can.
Nah, Buck’s forthcoming. He just gets confused. 🙂 I like your amended rules.