In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Dean Wesley Smith
* John Gilstrap
* Confidence Matters
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“In this line of work, every moment we live and every person we interact with is a moment of research. More times than not, I find that the really good stuff comes less from studying books than it does from passive listening and watching. It doesn’t take work so much as it takes paying attention.” John Gilstrap
“Want to write about quilting? Go where quilters go and then shut up and listen.” John Gilstrap
Dean Wesley Smith is writing about writing again, after a fashion. He’s challenging himself to write five books—four novels and a how-to nonfiction—during the month of July. His post yesterday and his post today will form the prologue of the nonfiction book. Succeeding posts during July will form the chapters of the nonfiction book.
I won’t repeat here what he reports there, but I will link to each of his posts in “Of Interest” from now through the end of July. Should be quite an experience for him, and it might be a great learning experience for the rest of us.
I think I can say with few reservations that most of what I’ve learned about writing fiction, I learned by picking up the gems Dean inadvertently dropped in his blog posts in year back.
When he teaches through his workshops, etc. he’s good. That begins mostly in the second week of the workshop after he’s delivered the basics of what’s going to happen. He drops a few gems or imparts some valuable knowledge during that first week too, sometimes, but not nearly as many or as much. Then beginning in the second week, usually, he gets into the meat.
But his blog posts on writing are different. Maybe because the reader is more involved. If you’re hungry to learn about fiction writing (as I was), you lean into the blog posts and really anticipate what he’ll say next and how he’ll say it. Sometimes an earth-shattering bit of wisdom will be contained in a short phrase. You pick ’em up as you find ’em, stash ’em in your gem pouch and try to keep up.
Even at my current skill level, I anticipate learning something more, something new or something I haven’t thought about before, from Dean’s writings about his self-imposed challenge. I hope you’ll come along for the ride too. I can almost guarantee you won’t be disappointed. The guy really doesn’t know what a good instructor he is.
If you missed yesterday’s Journal post and would like to start at the beginning, read his “Writing Four Novels in a Month” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/writing-four-novels-in-a-month/. Today’s post is in “Of Interest” below.
John Gilstrap over at KillZone has also hit one out of the park today with “Research Hacks Redux.” Again, it’s in “Of Interest” today.
This is a very important post, especially for those of you who get too deep into research (“too deep” being defined as so deep that it takes time away from writing the novel).
Confidence Matters
Finally, I was struck by “Act Like A Professional,” also in “Of Interest” today. One line in PG’s response stood out, a line ostensibly delivered from a traditional publisher’s representative to a writer at a writers’ conference: “We don’t need you but you need us.”
At a conference back in the ’90s, I actually heard exactly those words uttered and in exactly that context. Me being who I am, I stepped over to the writer’s defense.
I looked at the one who had uttered that stupid line, an acquisitions editor for a major publishing house. I said, “Excuse me, I couldn’t help but overhear. May I ask a question?”
He smiled smugly. “Sure.”
I said, “Do you know what we writers would be doing if there were no publishing houses at all? We would be writing.”
The smile disappeared. “Oh, but—”
I said, “And if there were no writers, what would YOU be doing?” I grinned. “Want fries with that?”
He excused himself and headed toward the bar, whereupon I told the young writer to never forget the writer is the one who has the power.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Really bloody excellent omens…” at https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2021/06/really-bloody-excellent-omens.html.
See “Day Two Prolog…” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/day-two-prolog/.
See “Research Hacks Redux” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/06/research-hacks-redux.html.
See “Anaphora, Epistrophe, and Symploce” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/anaphora-epistrophe-and-symploce/. It’s good to understand linguistic devices even if you’ll never use the labels again. This is a deep dive. Enjoy.
See “Act Like A Professional” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/act-like-a-professional/. See PG’s take.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 770 words
Writing of WCGN2: The Comancheros (novel)
Day 1…… 1216 words. Total words to date…… 1216
Day 2…… 1913 words. Total words to date…… 3129
Day 3…… 3103 words. Total words to date…… 6232
Day 4…… 2490 words. Total words to date…… 8722
Day 5…… 4179 words. Total words to date…… 12901
Day 6…… 3492 words. Total words to date…… 16393
Day 7…… 4419 words. Total words to date…… 20812
Day 8…… 2245 words. Total words to date…… 23057
Total fiction words for June……… 71551
Total fiction words for the year………… 526040
Total nonfiction words for June… 19560
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 125790
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 651830
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 10
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 63
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.