In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Short Stories from Novels
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Robert Frost
Short Stories from Novels
Seems a little topsy-turvy doesn’t it? Everyone talks about writing a short story and then that story turning into a novel. Perfectly acceptable.
As almost everyone here knows, a simple 6,000 word short story titled “Adobe Walls” gave birth to the character Wes Crowley, who later told me his complete life story over the course of 22 novels and a couple of million words.
In fact, from the moment I started writing my very first novel (and the first novel in the Wes Crowley series) I was pretty sure finishing his saga would be my life’s work. My personal magnum opus.
Boy was I wrong. There were SO many more stories to tell. And there still are.
To some readers, the Crowley series will be my magnum opus. To others, it will be the Journey Home SF series or the Blackwell Ops crime-thriller series.
Anyway, it dawned on me yesterday as I returned to writing the current novel that I had written a short story without realizing it. The prologue and the first three chapters of Tarea-Garcia formed a completed short story of just under 5000 words. It’s also the origin story of the Tarea-Garcia team. Kind’a cool.
Writing it did not add extra words to my word count because it’s also the first almost-5000 words of the novel. But it’s one more publication with my name on it, so one more piece of IP.
And if the characters have more stories to tell when the first novel is finished, it will also be the origin story for a series.
I gleaned several short stories — shorter stories within the story — as I wrote the Wes Crowley series too. Most of the time for those, I had to touch them a little so they would wrap as short stories. A few probably read exactly as they read inside the novel.
But this one, which I’ll probably title something hokey like “Origins: Tarea-Garcia” absolutely wrapped. I could have stopped writing about this particular team and moved on to something else.
Since I don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens and I write it down, the current novel could potentially move back into the Blackwell Ops world and become Blackwell Ops 16: Tarea-Garcia.
After all, these two characters made their bones working for TJ Blackwell . He’s still out there and no doubt still trying to bring these two back into the fold. Or have one or both of them assassinated. Or even do it himself, or try. So anything is possible. I just never know.
But then, that is the sheer joy and exhiliration of writing into the dark. No matter what genre you write, for the writer who practices WITD writing is an absolute thrill ride from the opening sentence to the end.
Oh, and to a few of you out there, if you’ve made a start at writing a novel into the dark and “failed” (the only way you can fail as a writer is by not writing), give it another shot. If you keep coming back at it, you will succeed either with the current novel or another one.
If you’re adamant about finishing the current one, simply read through it from the beginning, allowing yourself to touch it as you go, then keep writing when you hit the white space.
So I’m just sayin’, I recommend you keep one thin slice of your creative subconscious aware of the possibility of a short story unfolding as you write your novel.
There are few feelings better than writing a novel and realizing you’ve created two or more extra pieces of licensable intellectual property without even having to do the “work.”
The Writing
Fell far short of my daily word count goal yesterday. But my average is still up there, and that’s what matters. Back on the hoss as soon as I file this edition of the Journal.
How is your own writing going? I hope you’re challenging yourself, and I hope you’re having a ball doing it.
There is no better challenge than learning to trust yourself and your characters and WITD. Because that one will benefit you for years to come.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
PG Goes on a Poetry Binge If you enjoy poetry, you’re in for a brief treat of two or three posts.
Sprint to the New Year With Kris! A writing challenge with Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Must sign-up by December 18. She even reports her numbers to you every day. (Sounds familiar, eh? If she would make her numbers public day by day I’d follow along.)
To Be Clear On A Couple of Things
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 790
Writing of Tarea-Garcia 1
Day 1…… 4968 words. To date…… 4968
Day 2…… 3677 words. To date…… 8645
Fiction for December…………………… 57696
Fiction for 2023…………………………. 458530
Fiction since August 1………………… 343985
Nonfiction for December……………… 11200
Nonfiction for the year……………… 266780
Annual consumable words………… 721803
2023 Novels to Date……………………… 10
2023 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2023 Short Stories to Date……………… 8
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………… 81
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)…… 236
Short story collections…………………… 31
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Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.