In Today’s Journal
* Faux Interview, Part 3
* Of Interest
Faux Interview, Part 3
- What if revision is sometimes the problem rather than the solution?
Any conscious-mind revision, including rewriting, is ALWAYS a problem because every instance at least risks taking you further from the character’s authentic story.
And it almost always does.
- But at what point does revision stop improving a story and begin removing the instinctive qualities that made the original draft work?
See my previous response.
Also, that’s why I “cycle”—a kind of revision that’s a function of the creative subconscious—instead of revising, which is a function of the conscious, critical mind.
- How do you know when a manuscript needs another pass and when the writer simply needs the courage to let it go?
A manuscript needs another CYCLING pass with the creative subconscious until it feels right.
For me, it feels right when I believe the reader will be engaged so thoroughly with the reality of the story that he’ll feels as if he’s actually in the story with the characters.
The writer always needs the courage to let the manuscript go. There’s an old saying that a story is never finished, only abandoned. I suspect that’s probably true.
- Your commitment to Heinlein’s Rules gives us another fascinating direction. You describe following the rules as extremely difficult but argue that doing so can lead to success as a fiction writer.
Actually, Heinlein himself described following his rules as extremely difficult. He said that’s why there are so many aspirants and so few professional writers.
In his original essay in Of Worlds Beyond (Fantasy Press, 1947) he also wrote “But if you follow them … you will find some editor somewhere, sometime, so unwary or so desperate for copy as to buy the worst old dog you, or I, or anybody else can throw at him.”
Of course in today’s new golden age of self-publishing, you simply publish the thing so it can find its audience. Some readers will love it, some will hate it, and most will at least enjoy it.
- What happens when writing becomes a business discipline rather than simply a creative pursuit?
For me, writing never becomes a business discipline. I’m not a business-minded person, and for me that’s fine.
I’m initially “paid” by being the first person ever to be made aware of and entertained by my characters’ stories. Later I’m paid monetarily with my royalties and by knowing other readers out there are enjoying my stories and novels.
- Heinlein’s Rules aren’t merely about inspiration. They involve finishing what you start, submitting work, continuing to write, and refusing to spend endless time polishing a single manuscript. That changes the writer’s relationship with rejection and failure. Instead of treating one book [I think he meant one rejection] as a verdict on their ability, the writer keeps producing. Does that change the psychology of being an author?
Okay, first, Heinlein’s Rules aren’t at all about inspiration.
Second, the person who rejected your work is only one reader. The guy in the next cubicle over might’ve loved it.
But to your question. Consistently writing doesn’t really change the psychology of being an author, it IS the psychology of being an author. Writers write. If you claim to be—or these days, “identify as”—a writer but you seldom or never write, you aren’t a writer.
Maybe you’re a researcher or a conference-goer or a writers’ group attendee or a person who performs a lot of writing-related tasks (outlining, etc. come to mind), but if you don’t put new words on the page, you aren’t a writer.
- Do you think writers become more confident because they succeed, or do they become confident because they learn to keep writing regardless of whether the last story succeeded?
Definitely the latter. In fact, success—as it pertains to sales or good reviews—will often kill a writing career because when the glow wears off the writer is overcome with fear that he won’t be able to replicate his success.
To overcome that fear, turn it upside down. How will you feel if you DON’T write another story or novel?
- Your website also makes a distinction between writing fiction and becoming a professional fiction writer.
Whether a writer is a hobbyist or a professional is simply a decision each writer makes for himself. The hobbyist writes for his family and friends or to mark “write a novel” off his bucket list.
For the professional writer it’s like any other profession. Writing is just what he does day after day after day.
- When does someone stop being an aspiring writer and start behaving like a professional writer? Is it when they publish? When they make money? When they finish manuscripts consistently? When they treat writing time as non-negotiable? Or is it simply a change in mindset?
To me the difference between an aspirant and a writer is only a mindset and a matter of priorities. The professional cop gets up and puts on the uniform every day. The professional plumber gets up every day and fixes pipes and whatever else. The professional writer gets up and writes every day. It’s simply what we do.
- When does an author’s experience become something worth teaching?
I’ve always had a desire to help cut others’ learning curves in any field of endeavor I knew well. In a kind of Saul-to-Paul conversion, I started actively teaching how to actually write fiction (vs. engaging in all those delay tactics like outlining, etc.) when I realized how freeing it was to write into the dark.
- Writing is highly individual. What works for one writer may be completely wrong for another.
I agree, but I would also ask the writer to define “works.” Writing into the dark definitely works (enables the writer) if the writer wants to write stories and novels that are authentic.
If authenticity doesn’t matter to the writer and he only wants to construct stories and novels, he can follow the myths. For that matter, he can even use artificial intelligence.
- Yet some principles seem transferable:
- Discipline
- Story sense
- Character development
- Scene construction
- Finishing
- Publishing
- Marketing
Yes, the principles and skills in numbers 2 through 6 are transferable, but the willingness to practice them is not. That’s up to the individual writer.
If the writer has the stubborn discipline to practice them, numbers 2 through 6 are transferable (meaning teachable and learnable). But either way I can’t agree that marketing is a transferable skill.
- How do you decide which lessons from your own career are universal enough to teach and which are simply the things that happen to work for you? Your recent launch of Chopped Livah is particularly interesting in that respect.
I tend to share my own journey and trust readers to cherry-pick what they want.
That said, what works for me will work for anyone who trusts what he already knows and has absorbed subliminally into his creative subconscious (for example, the alphabet or how to form sentences or what punctuation to put at the end of a sentence or story structure).
Of Interest
Living at the Corner of FEAR and FINE I honestly hope none of you are stuck with any of this stuff. I also noted the author says “Fear is natural.” Yes, it is, when there are real consequences, but unreasoning fear (no consequences) is just silly. Kick it to the curb.