In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Waxing Philosophical
* One more comment
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” Ernest Hemingway
“When asked [by a journalist] about drinking while working, Hemingway once responded, ‘Jesus Christ! Have you ever heard of anyone who drank while he worked? You’re thinking of Faulkner. He does sometimes—and I can tell right in the middle of a page when he’s had his first one.'” Nicholas Mancall-Bitel at Thrillist
Forgive me for waxing a little philosophical, but I still haven’t quite let go of that personal epiphany I shared in yesterday’s Journal entry. It was so calming, so relaxing, so anti-burnout:
My output as a writer isn’t unusual because I show up and write every day. My output is only unusual (by comparison) because so many others who profess to be writers don’t.
Others would have me believe my own prodigious, prolific output as a writer is unusual, but that would mean it’s unusual that I show up and write every day, and that’s just wrong.
Doesn’t a cop put on the uniform every day? Doesn’t the wood craftsman or mechanic pick up his tools and go to work every day? Is a plumber who tends to plumbing problems every day unusual? No. All of those are considered ‘usual.’
My output is only unusual only by comparison with others, and that’s only because so many others who profess to be writers don’t show up every day.
But then it follows that I’m not responsible for what those others do or don’t do. I’m responsbible only for what I do or don’t do (hence the first Hemingway quote above) and what I share with others in an effort to pay it forward.
In that effort to share, I can only drop the seeds and hope someone else will recognize their worth and pick them up. But again, I am not responsible for, or the beneficiary of, any windfalls resulting from them bothering to pick up the seeds.
In other words, in my personal life, I’m responsible only for bettering my own previous best, not anyone else’s.
And to those of you who are at least trying to write into the dark, a frightening process to say the least, I wish you much success and much trepidation and exhiliration as you race off into the dark after your characters. As you have already guessed, it’s their story, not yours, and there will be a surprise at almost every turn.
One more comment on the Kill Zone blog post about WITD: A commenter wrote that in rewriting, you “cull out the parts that will please the reader,” etc.
Just a thought: You as the writer don’t know what will please a reader. You only know the parts that please YOU as a reader. Stop being a control freak. Not your job. Just write and let the readers decide for themselves what pleases them.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Cells Form Into ‘Xenobots’ on Their Own” at https://www.quantamagazine.org/cells-form-into-xenobots-on-their-own-20210331/. Story ideas?
See “Master Business Class Officially Online” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/master-business-class-officially-online/. Huh. I thought when you got the vaccine, you were given a card to prove it. And I thought when you got the vaccine, you were then immune to the disease. Seems to me a simple matter of checking cards at the door.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 580 words
Writing of Terra 2 (novel)
Day 1…… 3535 words. Total words to date…… 3535
Day 2…… 4660 words. Total words to date…… 8195
Total fiction words for April……… 8195
Total fiction words for the year………… 295272
Total nonfiction words for April… 1950
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 69350
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 365622
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 6
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 60
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.