In Today’s Journal
* A New Short Story
* Bradbury Reminder
* I Get Comments
* The Numbers
A New Short Story
“Lars Manhattan and the Toast of the Town” went live yesterday at 10 a.m. on my Stanbrough Writes Substack. Go check it out.
If you enjoy this quirky story, please click Like. That helps with my Substack algorithms. Then tell Everyone else. (grin)
Bradbury Reminder
Today is Saturday. Just a reminder to get your Bradbury Challenge story info in to me before the Journal goes live on Monday.
Remember, if you finish a story earlier in the week, you can send the info to me early too. It never hurts to avoid pushing the deadline.
I Get Comments
This will be a long post, but I didn’t want to separate it into two issues. I also added it to the Journal website. For a PDF copy, click this link, then click the last link on that page.
A couple of days ago, a writer left this comment:
“No, speed does not kill [an allusion to Vin Zandri’s post in Of Interest that day]. But not every successful writer works in this way. It’s good for some, but others work at a different pace. Fredric Brown’s wife said her husband was known to just walk away from anything he was working on to think it over for awhile. He would only return to his work after he had been struck by a particular bit of inspiration.”
The commenter is correct. Not every successful fiction writer works in this way.
His example was also excellent. But then, history is replete with any examples you want to find to support any point you want to make.
I’ve heard pretty much everything in defense of the ‘traditional’ writing process, usually accompanied by an example.
During one of my live seminars on Punctuation for Fiction Writers, a student even defended not using quotation marks to indicate dialogue.
Her example? “Cormac McCarthy doesn’t use quotation marks.” And since Cormac “doesn’t use them,” she reasoned my suggestion that the writer should use quotation marks to indicate dialogue must be bunk.
I pointed out that Cormac omitted quotation marks in only one novel and that she was ignoring literally billions of published stories and novels in which the writers DID set off dialogue with quotation marks, but that fell on deaf ears.
In the end, I could only smile, shrug, and say, “That’s fine. Do whatever you want.”
Many fiction writers—
Even most fiction writers that you hear about and pretty much ALL novice fiction writers—succumb to and propagate the constant inundation from every direction of how writers ‘must’ write if they want to be successful:
They must outline (or otherwise plan the story in advance), write a ‘bad first draft,’ revise it, seek critical input, rewrite it, and polish it (whatever ‘polish’ is).
Of course, at even most writer blogs that actively promote the myths, from time to time the blog owner will demur with that famous bit of patronizing wisdom, “But whatever works for you is fine.”
I’ll give you advance warning: Don’t suggest in a comment on those blogs that you recommend writing into the dark.
If you do, you will find yourself at the bottom of a sometimes angry dogpile, whereby they prove what they actually meant to say was “Whatever works for you is fine as long as you follow the myths.”
And the inundation that fiction writers ‘must’ write that way is complete. It comes at us not only from some famous writers, but from writer groups and most writing blogs, as well as MFA programs, critique groups, writer boards, etc.
But the myths have also soaked into the fabric of society. They come at us from movies and television shows. In those, writing fiction is always depicted as a dramatic, terribly draining ‘struggle against the blank page’.
But yes, as the commenter implied, many successful writers do not write into the dark.
But many do and just don’t talk about it. And many, many more write into the dark, but they tell the public they don’t. After all, readers have been inundated with the myths of writing too. So readers, like many novice writers, tend to equate ‘quality’ with ‘expended time.’
Two notes:
- One, owing to that inundation of false information, most people who want to become fiction writers believe following the myths is the only way to write.
- Two, owing to human nature, writers also develop fears, chiefly ‘What if I fail?’ And naturally, to be sure they won’t ‘fail,’ they cling to the safety nets afforded by the myths.
But from the comment above, I inferred that the commenter takes exception to the constant tone of TNDJ: my suggestion that there is a better way.
So let me just say…
Please don’t think I care how anyone else writes fiction. I really don’t.
Despite the constant tone of TNDJ, however you choose to write is perfectly fine with me. Your process doesn’t affect my own writing or my production or my month-by-month royalties, so what do I care how you or anyone else writes (or wrote)?
You certainly don’t need my permission to cling to the safety nets of the myths. And I understand that learning to break away from those myths and ‘do your own thing,’ as we used to say, is difficult.
My only goal with TNDJ is to show you there is a different way and that it that flies in the face of the myths and results in writing being fun instead of a mentally draining ‘process’ that you have to trudge through.
I have never and will never say that writing into the dark is the only way to write. I only advocate that you try it so you can see for yourself.
But I also know most writers are so inundated with the myth that ‘writing is hard work’ they won’t even TRY writing into the dark. And frankly, that amazes me.
After all, if they try WITD and prove to themselves it works, they will have found a whole new wonderful world.
And if they try it and find out it doesn’t work, they can always go back to outlining and all that, constructing stories instead of creating them.
But the only way to know for sure is to try it for yourself.
So understand, I’m not even saying you should believe me. I’m only saying you should prove it for yourself one way or the other.
That said, I think I’m safe in saying most writers will never even try it. The prospect is just too frightening. I’ve literally seen sweat beads break out on a student’s forehead when I talked about writing without planning everything out.
That student, in one of my live seminars on WITD, actually said out loud, “I can’t do this!” Then she gathered her books and walked out of the class. I was sorry to see her go, but I felt even worse for her that she was so trapped in the myths.
The non-process of writing into the dark
was just as difficult for me when I first tried it as it is (or will be) for you when (or if) you try it.
As I’ve written here many times, I’ve written off and on during most of my life, and for most of that time I too followed the myths. And like the overwhelming majority of writers who follow the myths, I was anything but successful.
Yet I didn’t discover or try writing into the dark until early 2014 at the age of 61.
And when I tried it, I did so in order to prove to myself it wouldn’t work. Then I could set that silly notion aside and return to the safety of planning, intentionally writing a rough draft, revising, seeking critical input, etc.
But to prove decisively that it wouldn’t work, I had to overcome the myths too. I had to set my fears aside and really try it.
Because I gave it a real try instead of not trying at all or stacking the deck against myself, I learned that it does work. I’ve been a solid, unshakeable convert ever since.
And that is why TNDJ is, and will remain, one of only two places that I know of online where you can hear the truth about writing into the dark.
As for the myths, as I alluded to above, you can find them literally everywhere except here or in Dean Wesley Smith’s blog.
So if that’s what you’re looking for—only more regurgitated information regarding the myths or how to follow them—you will have to look elsewhere.
As I write in the disclaimer at the bottom of every issue of TNDJ,
“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.”
I stand by that, including the final sentence. I believe in you even when you aren’t ready yet to believe in yourself.
The sole reason TNDJ even still exists is to present the possibility of WITD to writers who haven’t experienced it.
Otherwise I’m only preaching to the choir and attempting to anchor myself to Reason in the face of an overwhelming tsunami of misinformation.
And so far, I’m just stubborn enough to continue clinging to my rock. If I can pull even one more writer from the flood, I will consider all I’ve written on the topic to be worth it.
If you want to see what you’re up against with your conscious, critical mind, read about Quiet the Critical Voice and Write Fiction. Thus far, in that venue, that book has well over 300 views and only 6 purchases. Go figure.
I’ll even put my money where my mouth is. If you’re ready to set aside the myths, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com and I’ll send you a copy of Quiet the Critical Voice free.
And if you want a ‘how-to’ book on writing fiction that doesn’t simply repeat the same tired, regurgitated information you get from practically all the others, read about Writing Better Fiction.
That’s all I can really tell you. I’m only tossing you a rope, albeit one with a golden ring attached. Whether you grab it is up to you.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1750
Writing of Blackwell Ops 36: Temple’s Dream
Day 1…… 2476 words. To date…… 2476
Day 2…… 1484 words. To date…… 3960
Day 3…… 2837 words. To date…… 6797
Fiction for January…………………… 93990
Fiction for 2025………………………. 93990
Nonfiction for January……………….. 25440
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 25440
2025 consumable words…………….. 119430
Average Fiction WPD (January)…….. 3916
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 2
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 106
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 274
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.