In today’s Journal
* The Novel Continues
* An Enjoyable Visit
* My Comment on The Creative Penn
* Of Interest
The Novel Continues
Seemingly interminably. Still, it’s only been 16 days. (grin)
I figure it’ll wrap today. I still can’t see the ending (yay) but I feel as if I’ve entered the ending and was writing it yesterday. I also feel like this novel might wrap suddenly, unexpectedly, and that’s the best kind. No boredom. (grin)
I mentioned a while back the Dean Wesley Smith adage that every novel writes differently and that this one has been no exception. As I came to the Hovel this morning and glanced over my reverse outline, I realized this novel also has at least two complete short stories inside it.
Of course, I won’t count those as separate words because they aren’t, but I will publish them as individual short stories, if for no other reason than to build buzz for the novel, the Wes Crowley Gap series, and the Wes Crowley saga overall. Very cool.
I might even bundle these two or three new ones with some older Wes Crowley short stories in a ten-story collection.
And thinking like that, my friends, is about the extent of my marketing knowledge. Otherwise I only vaguely know you should probably read a couple of books others recommend (at least one about making money with Amazon), you should build an email list of interested readers, etc. None of which I have done or am likely to do.
An Enjoyable Visit
This weekend I’ve also gotten to visit with my youngest son and even help (purely as a roustabout) as he installed a radio signal repeater (I think I have that right). Ham radio enthusiasts will know what I’m talking about, even though I seriously don’t have a clue.
My son first started (excitedly) pointing out “radio towers” when he was a toddler. Now he’s an accomplishedtechnician and administrator with a major internet and cable provider and a licensed Ham radio operator.
My Comment on The Creative Penn Website
Yesterday in “Of Interest” I linked to “Outlining/Plotting vs Discovery Writing/Pantsing” at https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2022/09/30/outlining-plotting-discovery-writing-pantsing/, but I also announced I’d left a comment.
I was a little dismayed this morning to see that my comment had not been approved, so I thought I’d pass it along to you here. Nothing you haven’t seen before, but maybe said in a slightly different way:
“I speak as a writer who once spent three years outlining a novel that still has never been written. I’ve labored hard in the mines of the traditional camp, and I’m now running free and playing in the WITD camp. Since April 15, 2014 I’ve written well over 200 short stories. Since October 19, 2014, I’ve written 68 novels and 8 novellas. I would never go back.
“There are several ‘traditional’ methods for writing fiction, and all are some version of plan, write, revise, invite criticism, rewrite, edit, polish. They all have one thing in common: steps you must take (things you must do) if you’re to create a fictional story.
“Writing into the dark has no steps. Rather, it encourages letting go of steps. In a nutshell, WITD is the ability to trust your characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living.
“When you write into the dark, you don’t have to ‘do’ anything but write. Just Write. That’s it.
“Don’t think about writing. Don’t revise or rewrite. Don’t allow even your own critical mind to overwrite your creative subconscious, and DON’T seek or allow other critical voices to intervene.
“Until it is published, your characters’ story is nobody else’s business. And once it IS published, each individual reader, not you, will decide whether it’s any good. If you revised, rewrote, edited or ‘polished’ your characters’ unique and original voices, chances are more readers will find it predictable and fewer readers will enjoy it.
“Frankly, I don’t trust people who feel they have to exert control over the characters and every aspect of a story. (grin) I suspect they secretly long to exert the same control over their relatives and neighbors as those folks go about living their story too.”
Why wasn’t my comment approved for publication? Shrug. I dunno. Maybe it’s that last paragraph, about me not trusting folks who probably wish I’d burst into flame. (grin) But it isn’t my website, so….
Apparently I’m feeling a little mouthy today. In addition to the comment above, I left a comment on the Kill Zone blog this morning too, in response to what I saw as an unbelievably stone-age post. Purely my opinion, of course. If you’re the sort who enjoys brie on crackers and sipping wine at launch parties, that’s your thing and it’s perfectly fine with me. (grin)
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “When Is It Smart to Submit Your Work to a University Press? (You’d Be Surprised!)” at https://www.janefriedman.com/submit-your-work-to-a-university-press/.
See “5 Ways to Use Community Marketing for Your Book” at https://www.janefriedman.com/spread-the-love-5-ways-to-use-community-marketing-for-your-book/.
See “Read, Write, Suffer” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/10/read-write-suffer.html. Seriously? I literally groaned out loud when I read this. I left a comment. No doubt I’ll be convicted by proxy of witchcraft and relegated to the stocks in the village square. (grin)
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 830 words
Writing of Carmen Morales (novel, tentative title)
Day 10… 3375 words. Total words to date…… 31839
Day 11… 3350 words. Total words to date…… 35189
Day 12… 3640 words. Total words to date…… 38829
Day 13… 3673 words. Total words to date…… 42502
Day 14… 3604 words. Total words to date…… 46106
Day 15… 4568 words. Total words to date…… 50674
Day 16… 2149 words. Total words to date…… 52823
Total fiction words for October……… 2149
Total fiction words for the year………… 122531
Total nonfiction words for October… 1630
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 154850
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 277381
Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 67
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this Journal, I discuss various aspects of the writing craft. I advocate trusting the characters to tell the story that they, not the writer, are living. This is by far the easiest, most liberating, and most fun way to tell a story.
On the killzone link….I can’t believe anyone who believes writing is suffering can stay in the game long. And the whole ‘suffering for one’s art’ is just…..whew. I personally do see writing as art and writers as artists but to make it seem like such a herculean feat when all we literally do is sit down at a computer and (if we’re writing fiction) make things up!
Its not hard. Its certainly not as hard as brain surgery as I’ve heard one ‘literary’ writer compare it to.
I could go on, but I’ll keep it short as I don’t want to clog up your comments (grin). Writing is fun, making up stories is a blast. If people need to make it out to be as important as being a doctor or as hard as digging ditches than by all means they can knock themselves out. Meanwhile I’ll be at my desk enjoying myself.
I know. My sentiments exactly. What bothers me is that such a prominent writer actually promotes that writing is hard, that you must suffer, etc. But all to increase his nonfiction book sales, I’m sure. I just find the whole thing very distasteful.