In today’s Journal
▪Topic: The Secret to Success…
▪ The daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers
Probably another short edition of the Journal today. UPDATE: Nope. Long Journal entry, short writing day. (grin)
Topic: The Secret to Success as a Writer (If You Define “Success” as Yearning to Get Back to the Story)
Okay, that’s a crappy title. It’s too long and maybe too restrictive and it has nothing to do with money. At least directly. Bradbury and countless other luminaries have said if you write what you love, the money will come. I assume the corollary is “And if it doesn’t, so what?”
So the secret to success, with “success” defined either way — yearning to get back to the writing or monetary reward — is loving your current WIP.
Coincidentally, I’m loving the current novel, loving the story as it unfolds. I love everything about it.
Well, except maybe the brief excursions to the internet for the limited verisimilitude I’m able to provide because of the brief research I conduct there.
And I do mean brief. Generally, I plead Fiction to mitigate taking literary license with facts. But if my character decides to fly off to complete an assignment in a nation that’s has a predominantly desert landscape, I can’t allow her to enter a tropical jungle setting to bring justice to the antagonist, now can I?
So I ask GoogleEarth to show me where my protagonist and I are going. And I like using character names that are authentic to a region or country, so I regularly key in “Mozambique first names” or “popular pre-World War II French first names” etc.
I’m loving this WIP so much that I actually look forward to sleeping (which I ususally loathe) so I can wake up and get back to it. This is exactly the same feeling I experienced as a child on the eve of my birthday or Christmas.
I’ve experienced this sensation before, but I can’t break out specific numbers for you. For example, of the 40 novels I’ve written (including the WIP), I can’t say specifically in how many of them I had this sensation. I can only barely remember the storylines from most of the books I’ve written.
But I remember the POV characters and some of the secondary characters. Some of them exhibited such a strong persona that they later appeared as the POV character in a book of their own.
And I remember I loved writing those spin-offs and the stories that were the catalyst for them. And that caused me to realize (finally) that the character and how I feel about the character was the common thread that ran through all the books I loved writing.
Not to bang the drum too loudly (or too often), but I realized this is yet another direct and unexpected benefit of the challenge I’m currently undertaking.
Simply put, the more stories you write, the greater the chance you’ll happen on that perfect combination of Character and Story that makes you want to remain at the keyboard 24/7.
I was telling someone only yesterday that this book makes me wish I could write 18 hours per day. Then I said, “Why can’t they all be like that?”
Which led me to realize… They Can. And that, I believe, is the secret to success.
If you start with a character you love, meaning one who has the right persona (both privately and as presented to the world), how can you NOT want to be around him or her 24/7? How can you NOT love living vicariously through that character? How can you NOT love writing about how that character deals with whatever situation arises as the story develops?
So my new theorem is that loving what you write begins with picking a character you love. If you choose the right character and allow him/her to tell the story, you will love the story.
And of course, the 10/80/10 rule applies. If you love the story, about 10% of your readers will love it too. Another 80% will like it enough to buy your next offering. And then the other 10% will either not like it enough to buy the next one or will wish evil to befall you because you’re obviously a spawn of Satan (or whatever).
Don’t be afraid to allow your character to surprise you. Loving the character is like loving your offspring or that favorite nephew or neice. You will love him/her even when s/he does things you don’t love or things that make you uneasy.
Sometimes, I believe, you will love the character more for doing things that make you uneasy, if for no other reason than because you would not do those same things yourself.
What have been your experiences with characters you love? Is it easier to write those stories or not?
***
Rolled out at 2:30, looking forward to get back to the story. Then I had that epiphany about characters and wrote the topic above. Go figure.
Got some cycling and a couple of sessions done early, and then we went to the store. I thought we might get back a little sooner, so I left this open. But no more writing today.
Talk with you again tomorrow.
Of Interest
Wow. See the comments on “Some Ideas I Think Might Be Ripe” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/some-ideas-i-think-might-be-ripe/#comments.
See “Fighting Off the Fog” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/02/fighting-off-the-fog.html.
See “Special Weekend Edition – Friday’s Heroes: Remembering the Fallen” at https://www.leelofland.com/special-weekend-edition-fridays-heroes-remembering-the-fallen/.
See “2020 Las Vegas Workshops Announced!” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/2020-las-vegas-workshops-announced/.
See “I’ve always been socially aware…” at https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/i-ve-always-been-socially-aware-because-of-where-i-come-from-1.3776208.
Fiction Words: 1845
Nonfiction Words: 930 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2775
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
Day 6…… 1845 words. Total words to date…… 18861
Total fiction words for the month……… 21983
Total fiction words for the year………… 105386
Total nonfiction words for the month… 8270
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 33680
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 139066
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