The Journal, Tuesday, December 11

Hey Folks,

Again, nothing much to report. I do want to welcome any new subscribers.

The novel still seems to be approaching the end game, but I thought the same thing around 10,000 words back. (grin) The characters continue to throw twists and turns, none of which I can foresee. It’s entertaining as all get-out, but still a little annoying when the ending seems to move two steps farther away for every step I take.

There’s a lot of cycling with this one too. Whenever the characters toss in a new twist, it seems to require foreshadowing in one place or another. So I cycle back in the moment and let my characters tweak what they told me earlier.

I spent the whole first session cycling back through and eventually got two good sessions of writing done today.

Just a reminder…

Many believe “cycling” and “editing” and “revising” are all the same thing called by different names.

They aren’t.

When I cycle back through part of the story — either to a specific place to add a bit of foreshadowing or at the beginning of the first session of the day, reading over what I wrote the day before — I’m in my subconscious, creative mind.

If you believe you’re cycling and you hear a critical or negative thought during that process, you aren’t cycling. You’re editing. And chances are, you’re editing some of the originality out of your writing. The conscious mind can only be critical. When you hear a critical or negative voice, walk away from the keyboard for awhile.

Basically, when I “cycle,” my fingers rest on the keyboard in case my characters want to add something as I read. If they do, I let them. But there’s nothing critical or negative about it

“Editing” and “revising” are similar to each other, in that both are done from the conscious, critical mind. In both of those you worry about things. You fret over words and sentences instead of simply letting your characters tell their story.

Some would say, “But what’s wrong with editing the story AFTER I let the characters write it?”

When you tell a story to a friend, if another friend comes in and says, “No, it went like this,” do you enjoy that? Or is the second friend being an intrusive jerk?

The story belongs to the characters. They’re the ones who are living it, so let them tell it. And after they’ve told it, leave it alone. Publish it (or submit it), go back to the keyboard and wait for a new set of characters to tell you another story. (grin)

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “A Bunch of Workshops Moving to Classic” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/a-bunch-of-workshops-moving-to-classic/.

Via Linda Adams, see Margie Lawson’s “Deep Editing, Rhetorical Devices and More” at https://www.margielawson.com/product/deep-editing-rhetorical-devices-and-more/. It’s only $22 and per Linda, valuable. Because it might apply to cycling (creative voice) and pacing and because I’m strong in avoiding the myths, I’ll try this one.

See “Interview with cozy author Leslie Budewitz” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/12/interview-with-cozy-author-leslie-budewitz.html.

See “A Brief History of Spy Fiction” at https://crimereads.com/a-brief-history-of-spy-fiction/.

Fiction Words: 2029
Nonfiction Words: 520 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 2529

Writing of Dread (novel, tentative title)

Day 19… 1789 words. Total words to date…… 49021
Day 20… 1030 words. Total words to date…… 50051
Day 21… 1385 words. Total words to date…… 51436
Day 22… 2029 words. Total words to date…… 53465

Total fiction words for the month……… 19928
Total fiction words for the year………… 478611
Total nonfiction words for the month… 5860
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 177546
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 655907

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 9
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 3
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 35
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………… 193
Short story collections…………………………………………………… 31

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