In Today’s Journal
* Of Special Interest
* Emerging from My Hiatus
* Of Interest
Of Special Interest
Awhile back my friend Gary V referred me to a writer named Paul Bishop. In addition to being a novelist in his own right, Mr. Bishop offers “Incredibly written pieces about Western writers, movies, and publishing then and now. His current post is about Ben Haas and is worth reading.”
Gary’s right. It was worth reading, so I thought I’d pass it along.
Emerging from My Hiatus
Even as I’ve gone about various non-writing tasks and chores over the past six months(!), in a small fold in the back of my mind I’ve been half-awaiting and half-expecting a new series or saga character to leap out at me with “Hey, where the hell you been, man? I wanna get my story out there!”
But barring the occasional lightning strike, that just isn’t how it happens. Or at least it isn’t for me. Besides, how you gonna meet new people if you don’t go walkabout?
So I’ve decided enough is too much. I’ve set July 1 (today) as the date to emerge from my self-imposed hiatus.
To facilitate that, I’ve come up with maybe the easiest challenge I’ve ever attempted.
I’ve often lamented in this blog that I sometimes wish I could start over again. This is another example of Be Careful What You Wish For. Because in a very real way, starting over is exactly what I’m doing.
My serious fiction writing journey started with me setting a daily goal of writing 3000 words a day, every day. And for the first several months, all of that went into short stories.
If I finished a short story and it was shy of that daily goal of 3000 words, I’d start another story. I was just that bullheaded about attempting to reach my daily goal.
But as I wrote those stories, from time to time a character would latch onto me and offer to tell me a longer story. Sometimes that became a novel or even several novels in a saga or series.
That’s what happened with “Adobe Walls,” a story featuring Wes Crowley, and off I went into my first novel. And of course, that novel became a trilogy, and now it’s a 22-volume, over one-million words saga.
My currently 53-volume Blackwell Ops series started with the old, scrawny, and non-lethal looking Thomas Jefferson (TJ) Blackwell when he popped into my head fully formed one day.
TJ handed me his logline—”We offer Real Time Solutions for Real World Problems”—then went back to prepping an ad for the classified-ads section of a men’s magazine:
Do you crave excitement?
Do you have special abilities?
Want to put them to use?
Give us a call.
Blackwell Ops
[toll-free number]
The Stern Talbot mystery series started similarly, when that PI’s name popped into my head.
And my mobster stories all started when a Brooklyn wiseguy named Joseph “Joey Bones” Salerno, again fully formed, popped into my head with a disjointed line of dialogue while I was driving along Interstate 10 one day:
“What? I didn’ tell you? Maybe that’s ’cause it’s none’a y’f—in’ business.”
I burst out laughing and almost had to pull to the shoulder, but I didn’t. I could hardly wait to get back to the Hovel and write that character.
Other times, although I set out to write a short story, the story just kept unfolding and became a novella or novel. That was the case with what became Jonah Peach and several other novels.
Each time that happened, I just went with the flow. I miss the fun and excitement of all that, so today I’m gonna start going with the flow again.
The Challenge: Openings
Well, except this time I’m not specifically setting out to write short stories. Or novels, for that matter. This time around, I intend to write 3000 words per day of publishable fiction, but I don’t care either way where the words go. I’m just writing openings.
If an opening takes off, I’ll run with it. If it doesn’t, I’ll write another opening.
I’m fortunate. Because I trust the characters and write into the dark, almost every opening I write runs to a story of one length or another. I don’t question anything (critical mind). I just write and enjoy the process.
So I’ll write openings while bearing in mind my daily word count goal. I can reach that in two to three hours, so it isn’t like it’s difficult. And even just writing openings is so much fun I don’t notice the time passing.
I also have zero preconceived expectations.
As I wrote above, if the opening runs, I’ll go with it. If it wraps as a short story, that’s fine. I’ll probably publish it to my Stanbrough Writes substack. And if the story wraps at less than my daily goal of 3000 words, I’ll write another opening and see what happens.
Because as I’ve said often, what matters is that I write, not specifically what I write.
I’ll also go with the opening if it doesn’t wrap as a short story but keeps going. This whole emergence thing is like a breath of fresh air.
The Beauty of This Challenge
To sum up the beauty of this challenge, if an opening doesn’t run at all, who cares?
Since I wrote the words, I’ll record them on my spreadsheet, but then I’ll just pitch out that opening and write another one. And another. And another. The only ‘rule’ is that I won’t stop until I reach or exceed my daily goal.
Wanna Come Along?
If anyone’s interested in joining me in this Writing Openings Challenge, let me know. Maybe I can come up with a way to publicize our results.
The idea is to
- set a daily word count goal (1000, 1500, 2000 or whatever you’re comfortable with) and then
- write openings until one of them takes off. Then just keep writing on that one. I think you’ll be amazed at how much fun you’ll have, and your leap in productivity.
If I may wax didactic for a moment, if you’re opening takes off At All that’ll eat up 300 to 500 words minimum of your daily goal. How do I know that?
Because when you write the opening,
- you’ll include all five of the POV character’s physical senses (so the reader can actually experience the story),
- not to mention the POV character’s opinion of the setting and whatever else. Oh,
- and be sure to describe the character and the setting (again, in order to invite the reader to step into the story).
After all, inviting the reader into the story is the whole purpose of an opening.
But at the same time there’s no pressure at all.
You aren’t setting out to write a short story or a novella or a novel. You’re just writing openings.
You might view this as a way to open various doors in your creative subconscious. You know, to see which characters might be interested in coming out to play.
Should be a ton of fun!
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Turn the Tables on AI Scams Something good and not myth-laden from a KillZoneBlog author.
Crowdfunding for Authors Podcast from Bookfunnel. Not vetted, but those guys generally know what they’re talking about.