In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Late Last Night
* Elements of Your Stories
* Finished the Novel
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“It’s your reaction to your failures that make your success.” Adam Levine to a contestant on The Voice back in 2018 (per Dean’s post yesterday)
Late Last Night
I added a new page to HarveyStanbrough.com, then copied it over to the Journal website at HEStanbrough.com. You can find it on either site by clicking the tab labeled If You Really Want to Write Fiction.
Elements of Your Stories
Yesterday I mentioned what I call the elements of my stories. Those are dialogue, action scenes, and psychological suspense or intrigue.
I thought the duality of that last one needed a little explanation.
In my mind, Psychological Suspense is the larger and maybe stronger of the two. Psychological Intrigue has a lighter touch and maybe less impact.
Psychological Suspense is a genre in its own right, though it can also be an element in other genres. My novel Jonah Peach is primarily psychological suspense, but also Crime and Thriller.
Psychological Intrigue (like Romance) is interlaced through every novel in the Wes Crowley saga, and it’s a major factor, but the genre is Period Western, meaning a western set during a particular historical time.
One or the other, psychological suspense or intrigue, runs through pretty much everything I write. I love it.
But yesterday’s post also started me wondering, and I should have asked in that post, what about in your own writing?
Realizing those three elements are pervasive in my writing helped raise my awareness as a fictionist.
So what elements are pervasive in yours?
I’ve known a few writers who tell stories only in past-tense (or present-tense, ugh) narrative. By that I mean with no or very little dialogue.
I’ve also seen beginning writers try to write a story with only dialogue. No narrative description at all. Years ago, I tried it. I think I’m safe in saying that doing so is impossible. Or at least that writing an interesting story—one that truly pulls the reader in—is impossible.
Sit back sometime and self-assess one or more of your own short stories, novellas or novels. I think doing so will help.
A Tip—If you regularly omit description that passes through your mind as you’re writing, the story will be “thin.” Take your time. Enjoy the process. After all, the characters chose to share their story with you, nobody else. That alone should make you feel pretty special.
Finished the Novel
What wonderful fun! I finished the novel and did so with the first 4000+ word day I’ve had for 2 years. Woohoo!
But it gets better. I also finished it yesterday, on Writing Day 15. It’s also the first time that’s happened in two years. My next personal goal is to reduce that to calendar days. I intend to do that will my next novel, though I might not start that one until after my upcoming little vacay in the boonies with my buddy.
When I reopened this novel from a much earlier start that I wrote last year, I brought forward 4087 words. As it turned out, none of those words survived the cut. I tossed out the whole beginning and started over. During the course of the writing I also cut 1341 more words.
But when I started writing it again, about two chapters in I added a subtitle: A Romantic Thriller. Personally I’d never heard of a romantic thriller, and I’ve definitely never written one before now. But it felt right to add that subtitle. I didn’t understand why until the very end.
It’s incredible, folks. Once again I’ve verified for at least myself that it’s the characters’ story, not mine, and they definitely know what they’re talking about. If you only trust them, they will lead you through to the end.
But soon you’ll be able to see it for yourself if you want. After I run a spell check and send this off to my first reader, I plan to sign in to Kindle Vella. If Vella feels like a good fit, I’ll start sharing the story a chapter at a time. Each chapter is a little over 1000 words.
If I remember right, you get to read the first three chapters on Vella free before you have to start paying for tokens. So you can read at least part of this novel absolutely free if you want. If I can add a link to the story in Vella, I’ll let you know here in the Journal.
If I decide not to go through Vella with this one, I’ll let you know that too.
The Bradbury Challenge
For anyone who doesn’t know yet, I expanded this challenge to writers of longer fiction as well. Short story writers have to write at least one short story per week, then submit their story title and word count (genre if you want) to be before the Journal goes live on Monday.
Longer-form writers report by the same deadline, but with the title of their novella or novel and their word count for the week. Having a place to report can help motivate you. It’s one of the main reasons I started this Journal back in 2014.
And participating in the challenge can jumpstart your writing like you wouldn’t believe. Of course, you can conduct your own challenge without reporting numbers to me or anyone else. You can also drop out, join, or rejoin the challenge at any time.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported their progress:
Short Fiction
- George Kordonis “The Book About You” 3450 words, Supernatural Horror
- Alexander Nakul “A Secret Watcher of the Blue Room” 1555 words
- Chynna Pace “Message in a Sugar Bowl” 6129 words Fantasy
- Christopher Ridge “The Survey” 2500 words Suspense
- K.C. Riggs “The Magic Loom” 1156 words Magic Realism
- Philip Michael Smith “An Exciting Opportunity” 1248 words Literary
- Frank Theodat “Quota” 3500 words Dystopian SF
Novellas and Novels
Alexander Nakul “Horses of Mayhem” 4270 words Historical Fantasy
Congratulations to all of them.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “X-Files: Resurrection” at https://vincentzandri.substack[dot]com/p/x-files-resurrection. Well worth the $5 it costs to buy-in as a paid subscriber. This post also gives me a marketing idea. (grin)
See “Why Don’t Wild Animals Get Lost?” at https://www.suecoletta.com/why-dont-wild-animals-get-lost/.
See “Harlan Ellison At San Diego Comic Con” at https://www.youtube[dot]com/watch?v=BRXt6t3D9JE.
See “Harlan Ellison’s Watching 32” at https://www.youtube[dot]com/watch?v=-6z5Nr5Hrvk.
See “Harlan Ellison Goes to Hollywood” at https://www.youtube[dot]com/watch?app=desktop&v=zJa77gKrzv4.
See “Business Musings: Reading And Writing” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/business-musings-reading-and-writing/.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 1090
Writing of Blackwell Ops 9: Cameron Stance
Brought forward………………………… 4087
Day 1…… 1595 words. To date…… 5682
Day 2…… 2101 words. To date…… 7783
Day 3…… 2573 words. To date…… 10356
Day 4…… 1588 words. To date…… 11944
Day 5…… 2135 words. To date…… 14079
Day 6…… 2019 words. To date…… 16098
Day 7…… 3067 words. To date…… 19165
Day 8…… 1562 words. To date…… 20727
Day 9…… 2616 words. To date…… 23343
Day 10…. 2696 words. To date…… 26039
Day 11…. 3200 words. To date…… 29239
Day 12…. 2007 words. To date…… 31246
Day 13…. 2838 words. To date…… 34084
Day 14…. 3111 words. To date…… 37195
Day 15…. 4398 words. To date…… 41593 (done)
Fiction for September…………………… 10347
Fiction since August 1………………… 56896
Fiction for 2023………………………… 162656
Nonfiction for September……………… 4460
Nonfiction for the year……………… 178930
Annual consumable words………… 343586
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 3
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 74
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)… 232
Short story collections…………………… 31
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 will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.