Hey Folks,
No post yesterday. No anything else writerly either as I spent the day with my wife, celebrating 34 years together and wondering how she’s put up with me that long.
Probably I won’t write today either, fiction I mean. I’ll start fresh on Monday, and that will give me a week to gear up to my new work ethic (fun ethic) and the coming challenge.
Today that challenge got a little more difficult too. Another copyedit came in, and a few days ago another writer told me to expect his manuscript for copyedit also.
I look forward to both copyedits, but I also plan to still make my daily word count goal on my own fiction. (grin)
This week will afford me time to work out a good balance between copyediting and writing. Then on July 1st I can go into the challenge more prepared than I might have otherwise been.
James Scott Bell’s post, featured in today’s “Of Interest” section, keyed the following brief topic:
Topic: On Research
It’s easy enough to follow the old advice to write what you know. But for most of us, especially those of us with relatively few years and/or little experience in our belt, that’s also limiting.
As James Scott Bell points out (via Toni Morrison), it’s also perfectly all right to write what you WANT to know. I will add, it’s also all right to write who you want to be. Or at least who you want to be for the duration of the story. (grin)
I’ve known writers who will read two or three (or more) books about Verona, Italy because a story or novel they want to write is based in that location.
I’m personally not that kind of researcher. For me, that’s too much.
My own “heaviest” research is about any events or locations with which I’m not already intimately familiar. But that’s only to provide layers of authenticity.
If I’m writing a novel and if the entire thing is set in Verona, I might download and skim (as necessary) a travelogue about the city. I might also download and refer to a street map.
If I focus down to an event in a specific neighborhood, I want to be sure to get the street names right. If a scene is happening in a particular building, I want to know what other buildings or types of businesses are adjacent and across the street.
I’ve found that maybe 10% of Given Story is about one or more events in one or more locations. The rest of the story is about the characters’ reactions to those events.
But the characters themselves, their actions and reactions, and what happens as a result are all from the imagination.
The event is only the catalyst for the story. The location is only the overall setting. The story itself is how the characters act and react.
***
See you soon.
Of Interest
See “Write What You Want To Know” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/06/write-what-you-want-to-know.html.
My friend Robert Sadler (http://robertjsadler.com/) sent a link to a LOT of interviews Lee Child has done about his Reacher series. See https://www.leechild.com/author-interviews.php. Even if you aren’t a fan of thrillers, you can learn a ton from this master storyteller.
Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 550 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 550
Writing of ()
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for the month……… 17859
Total fiction words for the year………… 224823
Total nonfiction words for the month… 12660
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 76170
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 300723
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 5
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 31
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 5
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193