In Today’s Journal
▪ Short Journal entry today
▪ On cycling and first reading and how they’re similar
▪ The daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers
Not a lot going on today. Got the gate moved and a new upright post in place on the latch side yesterday afternoon. Now I need to rebuild the gate itself. Probably this weekend.
***
I was talking with a guy the other day (maybe in comments) about cycling. I don’t recall the whole conversation, but the take-away point was, cycling is all about Story. It isn’t about individual words or sentences. It isn’t about how many times you used a particular word or phrase. That’s all conscious mind stuff. It isn’t even about punctuation unless you just happen to notice something’s missing as you’re reading.
Cycling is only about Story. It’s only about what you inadvertently omitted while you were trying to keep up with your characters.
It dawned on me this morning, that’s what a first reader should be doing too. Just reading. Focusing on the story.
I received feedback this morning from a “testing” first reader who spent several paragraphs arguing about a timeline in the already published book she read for me.
Then she spent another paragraph or two arguing about an “inconsistency,” in which I had described a secondary character in maybe medium detail (because she’s someone the POV character noticed) yet nothing happened to the secondary character. So darn it, I guess that description was wasted. (grin)
And there was some other stuff, all going to her personal taste as a reader.
One, the timeline was right and the reader simply didn’t recognize it.
Two, describing a secondary character and then letting that character remain alive is not an inconsistency. Now, if the POV character put three rounds above her left eyebrow, and in the next chapter during the retelling he said he put three rounds above her RIGHT eyebrow, THAT would be an inconsistency.
And Three (and most importantly), the reader’s job is to read for pleasure, not go conscious-mind hunting for things to nitpick. Sigh. Literally anyone can do that to any literary work.
Of course, this particular case is no biggie. I’m glad she chose to give it a shot. Not everybody (especially writers, and more especially beginning writers) can be a good first reader.
First you have to learn to read Just Read for Pleasure. It’s difficult to let go of all the stuff you know, or think you know, about writing. But that’s required in part two. After you learn to read for pleasure, you have to steel yourself NOT to try to teach the writer for whom you are reading how to write. (That’s the same thing as telling someone in a peer critique group how you would have done it.)
Especially if the writer for whom you are reading is making money with his novels and you’ve written a few but haven’t published any yet. Just sayin’.
***
I should have written a lot more today, but while cycling I caught a glitch and had to fix it. Anyway, I’ll take it.
Talk with you again tomorrow.
Of Interest
See “Some Ideas I Think Might Be Ripe” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/some-ideas-i-think-might-be-ripe/.
See “Ever Have One Of Those Days?” at https://terryodell.com/ever-have-one-of-those-days/.
See “About Those Robots” at https://fromearthtothestars.com/2019/02/07/about-those-robots/. Difficult to read (long paragraphs) but interesting if you can get through it.
See “J.D. Salinger’s Family to Publish Trove of Secret Works” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/j-d-salingers-family-to-publish-trove-of-secret-works/. My first thought was, “Wow, even JD Salinger had trouble with Heinlein’s Rule 4.” (grin)
For a free webinar on “What Makes the Perfect Romance?” (video) click https://blog.reedsy.com/live/what-makes-the-perfect-romance/. I haven’t listened to or watched this yet, so I can’t vouch for value.
Fiction Words: 3415
Nonfiction Words: 560 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 3975
Writing of Blackwell Ops 3: Marie Arceneaux (novel)
Day 1…… 1699 words. Total words to date…… 1699
Day 2…… 3766 words. Total words to date…… 5465
Day 3…… 4601 words. Total words to date…… 10066
Day 4…… 3535 words. Total words to date…… 13601
Day 5…… 3415 words. Total words to date…… 17016
Total fiction words for the month……… 20138
Total fiction words for the year………… 103541
Total nonfiction words for the month… 7340
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 32750
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 136291
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date………………………… 2
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date…………………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date……… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 39
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31