In Today’s Journal
* Will WITD Work For…?
* Guest Posts Welcome
* I’m Having Fun Again Too
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Will WITD Work For…?
A new subscriber to TNDJ (Thanks, Matt M!) is also reading through Writing Better Fiction. He wondered whether that non-technique of writing into the dark would also work for nonfiction.
The answer is Yes. Mostly. Depends on what sort of nonfiction you’re writing.
If you’re writing service repair or owner’s manuals or other tech manuals, no, WITD probably doesn’t apply. The subject matter is too technical. It has to be too precise.
But for anything else, the answer is a resounding Yes.
Memoir is actually more akin to fiction than nonfiction because you’re conveying a remembrance of things past according to your memory and your point of view.
If you’ve ever brought up a memory to other members of your family, whether cousins, siblings, or even parents, as often as not you’ll find they remember the same event differently than you remember it.
Chances are pretty good if five members of a family write a memoir about the same event, they’ll end up with five different versions of the same story. And that’s perfectly fine.
Note that this is roughly the equivalent of a critique group member telling you how they would have written a scene in the fiction you let them see. And it’s almost as annoying. Tsk tsk.
And yes, the analogy holds. In fiction, you’re also conveying a memory, but one that either hasn’t happened yet (for some of you who ‘make stuff up’) or that is happening as you write it.
Likewise if you’re writing creative nonfiction—usually an essay, but it can also be a collection of essays or a book-length topic—WITD and cycling applies. Most often the best personal essays come rolling off the top of the writer’s head.
If you know your topic well enough (or believe you do) WITD works even for instructional essays.
I write pretty much every TNDJ post into the dark, and when I was teaching sessions in writers’ conferences and in private seminars, I typically wrote all the handouts using the same non-technique I use when I write fiction.
Before you ask, I also have it on good authority that WITD and cycling also work for writing stage plays and for television and movie scripts. But then, why wouldn’t it? After all, you’re only telling a story.
And in every case, a story is nothing more than your or your characters’ opinions.
Above all, writing should be fun. You know, unless you’re writing those tech manuals I talked about in the third paragraph. But I have a feeling some folks even find writing those fun.
So have fun with your writing, especially if you’re writing a short story or a novel or a memoir or personal essay, and don’t worry about it. Ain’t nothin’ but a thang.
Guest Posts Welcome
I haven’t mentioned this for awhile, so I thought I’d toss it out there again.
If there’s a writing or publishing topic you know well, consider sharing that knowledge with others by writing a guest post for TNDJ.
Note: I will not entertain posts that encourage the fear-based myths of fiction writing: outlining/plotting, rewriting X number of times, etc. etc. ad nauseam.
Why? Because writers can find that stuff literally anywhere else on the internet, at conferences, in critique and writing groups, etc. But anything else is welcome.
You don’t have to write about writing into the dark either. You can write about what works for you in your genre, your typical day as a writer, where you get ideas, what you recommend for publishing (and why), and any number of other topics.
If you’re in doubt about whether your topic would make a good guest post for TNDJ, I welcome queries at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. Any editing I do on your post will be necessary and light.
Also, I’d be happy to link to your website, Amazon or Facebook (etc.) page, to books you want to promote, and so on. (Please provide the URLs. I can turn them into links.)
I’m Having Fun Again Too
Yep. Yesterday, I cycled through my current novel yet again. But this time when I got to the white space, I kept writing.
Wow did that feel good!
And no creaking joints or rust anywhere in my mind. Woohoo!
Personal to Russ: Get ready, my friend. This’n’ll be comin’g your way in a week or so. With any luck I can still make my annual goal of 22 novels on this calendar year. Weeshull see.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Contrasting Mindsets – US Navy SEALs and Osama bin Laden A fascinating post.
Vin Zandri, Troy Lambert, and filmmaker Michael Evans talk about feature length movies created by AI Not quite an hour, just in case you’re interested in this sort of thing.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 810
Writing of Blackwell Ops 47: Sam Granger | Special Duty
Day 1…… 3250 words. To date…… 3250
Day 2…… 1110 words. To date…… 4360
Day 3…… 3323 words. To date…… 7683
Day 4…… 1656 words. To date…… 9339
Day 5…… 1413 words. To date…… 10752
Day 6…… 3135 words. To date…… 13887
Fiction for September……………… XXXX
Fiction for 2025………………………. 534149
Nonfiction for September.………… 4900
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 191150
2025 consumable words…………….. 717685
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 13
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 31
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 117
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 301
Short story collections……………………. 29