In Today’s Journal
* My Quotes of the Day
* Fiction Mimics Real Life: Part 1
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
My Quotes of the Day
“In fiction, character voice is what matters, and that doesn’t always mean dialogue. It means description. It means pulling the reader into the story.” Harvey
“Writing fiction should be fun. It should be an escape for you—though often an unnerving escape—just as your story will be an escape for your eventual readers.” Harvey
Fiction Mimics Real Life: Part 1
First, please read Fiction Mimics Real Life: Introduction.
Description, or What Pulls Readers into the Story
I know a few writers who write almost nonstop physical action, and some of them are very successful.
But to keep the action moving, many of those authors remove what they see as “excess” description, just as they believe that description is removed in some scenes in Star Trek: Discovery. Only it wasn’t removed.
When you watch a video, nonstop action is fine. But it’s fine because
- you’re physically seeing the setting as the events of the story unfold, and
- you’re physically seeing the facial expressions and hearing the inflections and emotions (and the dramatic background noises) as the characters speak.
All of that was written in the screenplay, but you don’t get to see the written words. You only see the results of the written words.
We who tell stories in words (vs. onscreen) don’t have that luxury,
if you want to call it a luxury. I don’t.
I actually enjoy writing the descriptions (character and setting) almost as much as I enjoy writing rapid-fire dialogue.
In any story written for print (short stories, novellas, novels), omitting that description—omitting anything the POV character sees, hears, smells, tastes, or feels (physically or emotionally)—is a mistake.
Re the setting, if we want the reader to see, hear, smell, taste, or feel (physically or emotionally) anything—in other words, if we want the reader to experience the story—we have to put those things on the page.
That’s why it’s so difficult to get it ‘just right’ for the maximum number of readers. And that’s why they call it a ‘craft’ instead of a trade.
Same thing with the characters’ voices.
When I wrote the stuff above, I almost said we who write short stories and novels don’t have visuals on our side.
But we do. The difference is, we have to put those visuals into the mind of the reader ourselves via our descriptions.
So here, another old adage applies:
- When you write a noun, you put a picture in the reader’s mind.
- When you write a verb, that picture moves.
All of that is within your control. All of that is your responsibility.
Don’t take it lightly. Take your time to record everything the POV character notices via his (not your) physical or emotional senses.
And understand, the reader has no choice in the matter. He will see, hear, smell, taste and feel (physically and emotionally) only what you tell him to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel.
Comments and emails are welcome. Tomorrow I’ll be back with Fiction Mimics Real Life: Part 2. Don’t miss it.
Of Interest
From Book to Screenplay: How to Adapt a Book… This is a 90-minute webinar from Writer’s Digest University. It looks like it might be worth the $70 if you want to adapt your own book or extend your skills to adapting books for others. But don’t delay. It goes live today (Feb 27) at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 580
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
Fiction for February………………….. 64476
Fiction for 2025………………………. 185831
Nonfiction for February………………. 21380
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 53360
2025 consumable words…………….. 232681
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2480
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3260
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 8
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 278
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.