In today’s Journal
* Nobody noticed
* Deposit Photo
* Started The Journey Home: Part 2
* Topic: On Specificity and the Critical Mind vs. the Creative Mind
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
I forgot to add the cover for The Ark to yesterday’s post. Oops. On the other hand, apparently nobody noticed so no big deal. Anyway, you can see the cover and read a description at https://stonethreadpublishing.com/the-ark/. I think it’s a great cover, one of my better ones. (Later I’ll be revising the description sales copy, but for now it will do.)
Deposit Photo is currently running a series of “cyber Monday” flash sales. If you’re interested in great cover art at a discount, visit https://depositphotos.com/home.html.
Yet again, I’m a lucky guy. Yesterday, within minutes of sitting down at my writing ‘puter and glancing over the reverse outline from The Journey Home: Part 1, a new epigraph and an opening scene occurred to me and I wrote them down, around 300 words total. Then I went up to the house for breakfast.
I made a breakfast burrito and brought it and a glass of water back to the Hovel with me, played a couple games of Spider as I ate (I had only one free hand), then wrote this. Then I moved over to the writing ‘puter again to see what the day would hold.
A good first day on the new novel. I can hardly wait to get back to it today.
Topic: On Specificity and the Critical Mind vs. the Creative Mind
Awhile back, a friend wrote to me, “I often find I double up on preposition[s] and can usually (almost always) get rid of one of them.”
Then s/he offered a few examples:
* “I went out to the car” instead of I went to the car.
* I looked up into her eyes.
* I tucked myself up under the staircase.
I thought I’d talk a little about those examples this morning. Prepositional phrases always go to specificity. Most often, they enable the reader to see something he might not otherwise have seen.
If the character is inside a structure and “the car” is parked outside that structure, then “I went out to the car” is fine. If both the character and the structure is outside, “I went to the car” would be better.
Similarly, if the POV character is significantly shorter (or taller) than the woman in the scene, then “I looked up (or down) into her eyes” would be appropriate. If their eyes are on roughly the same level, then omitting “up” (or “down”) would probably be better.
The third one is a little more difficult. Unless the POV character physically moved “up” (onto a box, etc.) after he was under the stairs, the sentence is probably just as descriptive without “up”.
I believe this writer writes into the dark. If so, s/he simply transfers to the page what the POV character sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels as s/he moves through the setting with the POV character.
So deciding which example above to use becomes easier. Basically, you just write what you see. Or better put, what you see comes out through your fingertips automatically.
The real problem my friend and I uncovered was that s/he was “looking for” prepositions and prepositional phrases (hence, engaging the conscious mind) during cycling.
Don’t do that. Don’t ask your conscious mind to double-check what your creative subconscious has put on the page.
If you write into the dark, when you cycle you should remain in the creative subconscious and “just read” for pleasure. If something pops out at you (usually a wrong word or misspelling, but maybe a missing part of the setting description, etc.) correct it. But if it pops out at you in the first place, that’s your creative subconscious catching something, not your conscious, critical mind actively looking for something to catch.
If you do NOT write into the dark, hey, whatever works for you is fine. But be careful out there and ask yourself what matters and what doesn’t.
My friend sent me another example: “I found ‘she nodded in the direction of the recorder.'”
To which I responded,
“Is ‘she nodded in the direction of the recorder’ something that might trip-up the reader? If I allowed my conscious, critical ‘fix-it’ mind to intrude, I might rewrite that line to ‘she gestured with her chin toward the recorder.’ But really, what significant difference would it make in what the reader sees in his or her mind?”
Maybe food for thought. And thanks to my friend for the topic.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “How To Explode Your Email List” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/11/how-to-explode-your-email-list.html. I suspect these are invaluable tips. Don’t be Harvey; grow your email list.
See “DIY Book Covers Have Come a Long Way…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/diy-book-covers-have-come-a-long-way-how-to-create-professional-quality-covers-with-design-apps/. Note: If you want to design your own covers, that’s wonderful. But study covers that sell in your genre and mimic them (style, art, fonts, etc.).
See “Finding Stories” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/finding-stories/. Gems.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 830 words
Writing of The Journey Home: Part 2 (novel)
Day 1…… 4955 words. Total words to date…… 4955
Total fiction words for November……… 84185
Total fiction words for the year………… 447463
Total nonfiction words for November… 19370
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 185210
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 632675
Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 13
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 52
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 214
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31