The Journal: On Setting, Pseudonym, and Reparations

In today’s Journal

* Writing Setting
* Using Pseudonyms
* On Reparations
* Of Interest

Writing Setting

I received a question about writing setting: In describing the setting, how much is too much and how much is too little?

First, you, the writer, describe nothing. You have a point of view (POV) character. He or she will describe the setting, albeit through your fingers.

1, Anything the POV character sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels, physically or emotionally, should make it onto the page. Nothing the POV character sees, hears, smells, tastes or feels, physically or emotionally, is too much.

2. Anything the writer adds of his or her own volition — anything that is filtered through the writer’s senses instead of the POV character’s senses — is too much.

3. This is always true.

For more, see Writing the Character-Driven Story. You can also key “writing setting” into the search box in the sidebar at the Journal website or on my author website.

Using Pseudonyms

I was also asked what I think about using pseudonyms.

My answer? Unless you have a very good reason for a pen name (e.g., you’re a pastor or a priest who also writes erotica), I recommend against using a pen name. Why? Because who wants to build “discoverability” for more than one name?

At one time, I chose to write different genres under different names. I wrote under four personas, meaning false-author personalities complete with photos and bios.

I shared my mainstream, Hemingway-like fiction between my own name and the persona Nicholas Z “Nick” Porter. I wrote odd, strange stuff as Eric Stringer, magic realism as Gervasio Arrancado, and erotica as M J François. I also wrote short stories under a few pseudonyms, made-up names like Ray Sevareid and Rufus Stamper and Gryll Stenson. You know, maybe.

But eventually, I rebranded almost everything I wrote under my own name, an effort that meant redoing covers, the manuscript title pages, etc. and then re-uploading everything. Since then, I’ve written primarily under my own name. Because again, why build “discoverability” for more than one name?

Speaking of discoverability, get a clue and do a little promotion. Build an email list. Don’t buy into the bullshit, as I did and as I’ve often repeated here (I apologize), that the best promotion is to write the next book. Take it from me, it isn’t.

I’ve written 66 novels, 8 novellas, around 250 short stories, almost 20 nonfiction books on writing, around a thousand poems, and countless articles, blog posts and essays, and pretty much nobody knows my name or my work.

On Reparations

I also wrote a fairly long piece about reparations, but I decided it wasn’t about writing so I deleted it. You can see the gist of my take (a few short paragraphs) in the comments on “Can We Repair the Past?” Just so you know, my comment was more in response to the other comments than to the post itself.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “22 Influential Women You Probably Didn’t Learn About in School” at https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/influential-women-you-should-know.

See “Now For Something completely different” at https://www.robertjsadler.com/post/now-for-something-completely-different. If you’re a film buff, you’ll enjoy this.

See “Setting Description Mistakes that Weaken a Story” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/setting-description-mistakes-that-weaken-a-story/.

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.