In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Humility? Nah
* One Other Note
* Of Interest
Quote of the Day
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.”
Humility? Nah
Yesterday or the day before I mentioned that A Most Unusual Day is “the best novel I’ve ever written.”
A reader emailed to ask
“Why do you think it is the best of so many? Of so many kinds? Just curious?”
I thought my response might touch a chord with some of you:
“Honestly? Because it’s the most recent one I wrote. My skills improve with each one, even after my 6-month hiatus.
“This one’s also a different genre, sort of. It’s set in the Blackwell Ops world, but it’s much more a boy-meets-girl and coming-of-age story. [So I used more of what I know of the craft and, in my opinion, used it to better effect.]”
Then I sent a post script:
“Of course, whether this novel is the ‘best’ or whether it’s any good at all is up to the individual reader. But based solely on what I personally know of the craft, it’s the best I’ve written in my opinion.”
Free Advice
As the Aussies say, “I’ll tell you this for free”:
Folks, always believe in yourself, your characters, and your current skills, and always keep learning and practicing and improving. And always, ALWAYS stand up and defend your work.
Like most writers, I sometimes slip into self-deprecation mode, but unlike many I never, ever disrespect or belittle my fiction. Because really, the stories aren’t mine.
They belong to the characters who live them. I’m only reporting to the best of my ability, and honored that they trust me enough to invite me in to witness the events and their reactions.
One Other Note
If you follow Heinlein’s Rules, you know his Rule 4 is “Put it on the market” (submit or publish it).
Submit or publish it. No matter what you personally think of it.
Some of you will remember me saying a long time ago that I wrote a short story (“Old Suits”) that I thought was a real dog. Not for any particular reason. I just thought it was not a good story.
Per Heinlein’s Rule 4, I published it anyway and moved on to write something else.
A few months later, I got an email out of the blue from a reader who lived in France and whom I’d never met.
She said she loved the story and just wanted to let me know. She even said it reminded her of Hemingway’s writing.
Naturally, for a little while I was over the moon. Then I remembered I’d thought the story was horrible.
That’s when it really came home to me that every opinion of your story, even your opinion, is only ONE opinion. And only the reader’s opinion counts.
Here’s how that long-ago event relates to today’s post:
- Given that every writer has an opinion about everything s/he writes, whether good, bad, or indifferent, and
- Given that, even if you don’t like your own story, once it’s finished, you should publish it and let the reader make up his own mind, then
- Why didn’t I publish the original version of BO-54?
Great question.
I didn’t recast those final chapters because I thought the story (or even those chapters) was ‘bad.’ I recast them because I noticed I’d committed a mechanical flaw (a flaw in craft):
With a few chapters left to finish the story, the POV character’s character arc stopped cold. Rather than continuing to expand, the story followed that failure of the character arc to expand and effectively fell off a cliff.
So the primary reason for the recast was to correct that mechanical flaw. Then the rest of the story unfolded from there.
If the story had continued naturally in the same way the “old” version unfolded after I caught and corrected that mechanical flaw, I would have left it alone. Fortunately it didn’t.
So again it all boils down to the role of the conscious, critical mind vs. the role of the creative subconscious.
I (and we all) learned all the mechanics—the craft of writing—with our conscious, critical mind. But we write (apply what we’ve learned of the craft) with our creative subconscious.
And when you write with your creative subconscious, everybody’s happy.
Because you’ve conveyed an authentic story, the characters and the reader are happy, and you’re at least satisfied the story is true even if you don’t personally like it.
Of Interest
The Best Plot Twists Surprise the Author First All I can say is “Well, Duh.”