The Journal: William Faulkner

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* William Faulkner
* Of Interest

Quotes of the Day

“Once these people come to life … they take off and so the writer is going at a dead run behind them trying to put down what they say and do in time…. They have taken charge of the story. They tell it from then on in.” William Faulkner

“These people I invent and after that I just run along and put down what they say and do.” William Faulkner

“They are still in motion in my mind. I can laugh at things they’re doing that I haven’t got around to writing yet.” William Faulkner

William Faulkner

In case anyone didn’t see Bill Sinclair’s comment on yesterday’s post, the Quotes of the Day above are a few of the things William Faulkner said about his characters and writing during a speech at the University of Virginia.

Naturally, I was glad to read these quotes, especially the third one. I knew it couldn’t be only me (grin). And even with 66 novels behind my belt, I enjoy validation as much as the next guy.

Faulkner allows the characters to tell the story that they, not he, are living. That should sound familiar. However, I won’t be annoyed or feel slighted if you balked before but buy-in now that Faulkner said it. (grin)

And it gets better. You can hear a recording of just under 32 minutes or read a transcript at https://faulkner.lib.virginia.edu/display/wfaudio18_2.html. (Note: Not all of the recording or transcript is strictly about writing, and please remember it was recorded in 1957.)

And better. Visit Southeast Missouri State University’s Center for Faulkner Studies at https://semo.edu/faulkner-studies/resources.html. Near the top of the page they list links to several more resources. And if you scroll down just a little you’ll find a section titled “The Quotable Faulkner,” in which he holds forth on Authors, Art/Artists, Dreams, Character and much more.

Enjoy the exploration. And thanks again to Bill Sinclair for starting us down this path.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Only 12 Hours Left” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/only-12-hours-left/.

The (return of the) Numbers (grin)
The Journal…………………………………… 350 words

Writing of Blackwell Ops 8 (tentative title, novel)

Day 1…… 2371 words. Total words to date…… 2371

Total fiction words for May……… 2371
Total fiction words for the year………… 8164
Total nonfiction words for May… 16330
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 75980
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 84144

Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 66
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.