In Today’s Journal
* Focusing Down
* About Lawrence Block
* On Personas and Pseudonyms
* Genre Envy, Part 2
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
This is a long post, but all of it’s tied together.
Focusing Down
I’ve talked at some length before about the value of focusing down with your description.
Focusing down on some details is an excellent way to pull the readers more deeply into the story. It’s a way to put the reader in the story with the characters.
Chapter 3 of Nightfall, almost the whole chapter, is an excellent example of what I mean when I say “focus down.” You can read it here.
If you continue reading into Chapter 4, you’ll find that the focus continues, but more loosely. That’s because the POV character has reached another character and they begin a tense conversation.
About Lawrence Block
Another writer and I were talking about Lawrence Block’s nonfiction books on writing recently. I own four of his books, but I’ve peeked into them only sporadically. I haven’t read them cover to cover yet, but I still recommend them:
- Telling Lies For Fun And Profit
- Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel
- Write for Your Life, and
- Spider, Spin Me a Web | A Handbook for Fiction Writers.
As I told that writer, I recommend not only Lawrence Block’s nonfiction books, but also Dean Wesley Smith’s and my own for learning how to write fiction. I don’t actively recommend any others. (Well, I recommend Stephen King’s nonfiction, though there isn’t a lot of it.)
Part of the reason I haven’t read Block’s nonfiction books cover to cover yet is that I’m already having so much fun writing fiction (WITD). In other words, I already know and practice a lot of what Block writes about in his nonfiction.
There’s a reason for that.
When I first learned from Dean that Heinlein’s Rules and WITD exist, I took a deep breath and really tried it for myself.
Admittedly I tried WITD skeptically (like many of you), fully expecting it not to work.
But to my never-ending amazement, it DID work and I haven’t looked back. Probably 90%+ of everything else I’ve learned about craft, I learned from putting new words on the page.
So I recommend Block’s, Dean’s, and my nonfiction books primarily for those who haven’t yet learned to believe in themselves. Belief in yourself is the best lesson you can take away from them.
My hope is that reading those nonfiction books will jumpstart other writers (you?) on a fun, wonderful career.
Of course, I also recommend the fiction of those writers as illustrations (proof) that they practice what they preach and for study to learn the craft more quickly.
On Personas and Pseudonyms
Back in the day, I wrote under five different personas and several pen names.
Donning a particular persona (each a different part of my personality) imbued me with the right attitude and voice to write in a particular genre.
For example, I wrote magic realism as Gervasio Arrancado. I wrote mainstream fiction as Nicolas Z “Nick” Porter. And I wrote some of the crazier stuff as Eric Stringer.
Each persona even has his (or her, in one case) own fun brief bio. You can read those here.
The pen names, on the other hand, were all just me. Using them was a throwback to the days when only traditional publication was available.
In those days, a prolific writer needed more than one name to avoid his name being repeated in the same magazine more than once per issue.
So using a series of pen names increased the likelihood a writer would find a publisher’s check in his mailbox.
But the more personas and pen names you used, the more you diluted your own chance at discoverability.
Fortunately, publishing has undergone radical change over the past fifteen years or so. That is a good thing.
Today more than ever before, it’s possible to become your own genre.
Genre Envy, Part 2
I wanna be a genre, so I’ve decided I am a genre. Or maybe I’m an umbrella genre.
I currently write novels and novellas in
- Action-Adventure (Nick Spalding series, novellas, and one-off novels)
Horror (two novels) - Magic Realism (one novel)
- Mystery, Crime, Pulp Detective and PI (Stern Talbot series, other novels)
- Science Fiction and Science Fantasy (Journey Home saga and other novels)
- Thriller (Blackwell Ops)
- Westerns, Period and Modern (Wes Crowley saga and others)
I’ve written short stories in all of those too. And these days, I write everything under my own name. Hence, Harvey Stanbrough is an umbrella genre.
As I wrote above, fortunately things have changed in publishing.
With the advent of indie publishing, we can write what we want when we want and license our work directly to readers.
So with very few exceptions, I just write as myself and under my own name. (Going back to that bit about personas, I see myself as part Nick Porter and part Gervasio Arrancado. And of course there’s some Eric Stringer thrown in there too.)
Why does being my own genre matter?
Because today more than ever before, I’m looking for devoted readers. I want to expand my readership, the members of which simply like the way I tell stories. For them, my name IS the genre.
I want readers (and writers who want to learn more about the craft) who look for my name before they look at the title of the book. Or even the other genre.
I’ve found it’s generally true that if an avid reader devours any of my stories or novels in any genre and looks forward to the next one, he’ll also devour my stories and novels in other genres.
As I and thousands of others do, for example, with Stephen King. As thousands of others do with Nora Roberts. As thousands of others do with other writers.
It has nothing to do with being a big name. Knowing your craft and then deciding you are your own genre is how you become a big name.
It has everything to do with Story and how the story is told. That’s why these days I write everything under my own name. Sheer genre envy.
Story trumps everything else.
But how the story is told (your ‘style’) is an integral part of Story. Hence, a reader who enjoys a Harvey Stanbrough action-adventures will also enjoy a Harvey Stanbrough thriller or science fiction or mystery or pulp crime or western or magic realism.
Readers only need to take a small leap to get over their genre stumbling block. And in every case it’s beneficial to do so for both readers and writers.
And to complete the circle, writers who are younger in the fiction-writing craft and read my fiction (or King’s or Dean’s) will find that the craft techniques we use in one genre also slip perfectly into other genres.
I hope you’ll join me in both becoming part of my readership—an avid follower of the Harvey Stanbrough genre—and if you’re a writer, in developing your own.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Last Day of Thriller Kickstarter I mention this because it offers a great craft workshop.
Cracking the Code: The Facebook Pixel Every Author Needs If you run Facebook or Instagram ads, check this out.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1200
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360
Day 3…… 3323 words. To date…… 7683
Day 4…… 1656 words. To date…… 9339
Day 5…… 1413 words. To date…… 10752
Day 6…… 3135 words. To date…… 13887
Day 7…… 3338 words. To date…… 17225
Day 8…… 1228 words. To date…… 18453
Fiction for September……………… 7701
Fiction for 2025………………………. 541850
Nonfiction for September.………… 8870
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 195120
2025 consumable words…………….. 729356
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29