The Journal, Tuesday, May 15

Hey Folks,

Tom Wolfe once said, “I do novels a bit backward. I look for a situation, a milieu first, and then I wait to see who walks into it.” May he rest in peace.

Be sure to see today’s “Of Interest.” A lot of good stuff there.

Another copyedit came in, and from a writer for whom I’ve copyedited before. It’s great fun watching a writer improve at storytelling. I’m looking forward to the story. So I’ll be doing that for awhile in addition to finishing the novel/story collection.

Topic: An Update on Process

Writing my own current WIP has been an interesting process, mostly good and fun, some a little unnerving.

For about half of it, I was switching back and forth between the running narrative (ongoing story) of the novel and the short stories.

Then somewhere along the line I realized I was “unstuck in time.” In other words, I didn’t have to write it all in the same sequence the reader would read it.

I’ve written straight novels that way before, shuffling scenes and chapters around. But this is different because there’s one through-story punctuated or interspersed with other, mostly unrelated stories.

So in that way it’s a whole new thing for me.

I wrote a similar collection before in which I copied Hemingway’s formula. I started with a vignette, then went to a story, then a vignette, etc. There were 10 short stories, and when the reader read the vignettes as a single unit, those comprised another short story.

This is similar except that the short stories are an integral (but separate) part of the overall novel. And the genres of the short stories are all over the map. One storyteller chatting with another storyteller. So as I said, interesting but a little unnerving.

At the moment, I have one short story and two “intermissions” (novel segments) left to write.

So today is an admin day. I’ll spend the morning uploading those manuscripts I prepped a few days ago to Smashwords. Then I’ll (finally) create an author page on Draft2Digital. And this afternoon I’ll work on the copyedit for another writer.

That will get my own admin stuff out of my head, and tomorrow I’ll work toward finishing my WIP.

See you soon. ​

Of Interest

See the comments (and the post if you didn’t read it yesterday) at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/dangers-of-not-trusting-the-creative-voice/#comments.

Also see the comments (and post “Cycling and the Art of One Clean Draft”) at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/cycling-and-the-art-of-one-clean-draft/#comments. I especially like the house-flipper analogy at or near the end by commenter Janine.

See “Who Needs a Stinkin’ Search Warrant? The CDC’s Unique Police Powers” at https://www.leelofland.com/who-needs-a-stinkin-search-warrant-the-cdcs-unique-police-powers/.

See “Interesting Comments and Other Business” (mostly for the announcement of a fading writing bundle if you haven’t gotten it yet) at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/interesting-comments-and-other-business/.

See “…A Cozy Mystery Author’s Giving Away a Free Writer’s Police Academy Registration” at https://www.leelofland.com/linda-lovely-why-a-cozy-mystery-authors-giving-away-a-free-writers-police-academy-registration/.

Fiction Words: XXXX
Nonfiction Words: 490 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 490

Writing of A Storyteller (novel and short story collection)
Brought forward…………………………………………………………………… 44837
Day 16… 3117 words. Total words to date…… 47954
Day 17… 2680 words. Total words to date…… 50634
Day 18… 1278 words. Total words to date…… 51912
Day 19… 1687 words. Total words to date…… 53599
Day 20… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX

Total fiction words for the month……… 28614
Total fiction words for the year………… 189900
Total nonfiction words for the month… 5490
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 54960
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 244590

Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 3
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 30
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 5
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……………………………… 182