In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* WITD and Heinlein’s Rules Reminder
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“A word after a word after a word is power.” Margaret Atwood
WITD and Heinlein’s Rules Reminder
Anyone who knows me knows I’m an avid proponent of Writing into the Dark. That basically means
- Trusting Yourself and what you’ve learned over the years (even if you aren’t aware you learned it) and
- Trusting your characters as their story unfolds.
In other words, writing fiction can and should be fun. All you have to do is sit down, put your fingers on the keyboard, and watch as the story unfolds.
Then you write whatever happens in the story (events) and how the characters react to those events in their dialogue and in their actions.
That’s it. Nothing else. You don’t even have to think. In fact, Bradbury once said thought was the enemy of creativity. And he was right.
Again, you only have to watch and write as the story unfolds. Writing into the Dark is easy peasy because you don’t have to “make stuff up.” As a bonus, it’s also exhilarating because you don’t know what’s coming next.
WITD is exactly like watching a great film you’ve never seen before. Or
watching a high-stakes breaking-news drama unfold on a television news source. Or watching any kind of story unfold that you’ve never seen before.
What could be better than sitting safely in a chair and living vicariously as your characters take all the risks?
To fully release yourself from responsibility from whether a story’s “good”—and that isn’t your judgement to make anyway—just remember it isn’t “your” story. (In your story, you’re sitting at a keyboard with your fingers on the keys.)
The story unfolding on the page is your characters’ story. After all, they, not you, are actually living it. All you have to do is write down what happens.
And if you just now thought “Then the work begins,” um, no, it doesn’t.
Stay true to your characters’ authentic story. Write what happens (as it happens), then write the characters’ reaction to what happens. That’s it. Then submit or publish the thing, forget about it, and move on to the next story.
Which brings us to Heinlein’s Rules.
Writing into the Dark is the truest expression of Heinlein’s Rules.
But Heinlein’s Rules are also the best possible guidelines for keeping you true to your characters’ story and not allowing yourself to second guess your character or the story.
After all, how can you second-guess what actually happened to your characters or their reaction as their story unfolds?
So as Robert A. Heinlein put it, if you want to be a fiction writer,
- You must write.
- You must finish what you write.
- You must not rewrite.
- You must put it on the market.
- You must keep it on the market.
Heinlein’s Business Habits for Writers (Heinlein’s Rules) first appeared in a collection of essays titled Of Worlds Beyond in 1947. The rules still stand the test of time.
Click Here for a free annotated copy of Heinlein’s Rules.
You might also check out What Heinlein’s Rules Mean to Me. Also free.
Finally, especially if you’re new around here, visit Free Downloads.
Writing into the Dark and Heinlein’s Rules really do work, folks. But not if you’re too afraid to try.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Changing My Challenge! I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but each writer has to do what s/he is comfortable with. I think I’ll see how long I can keep my own novel-publishing streak going. Much more on this tomorrow.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 610
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 610
Writing of Blackwell Ops 51: Sam Granger | The Road Back
Day 1…… 2807 words. To date………… 2807
Day 2…… 2489 words. To date………… 5296
Day 3…… 3111 words. To date………… 8407
Day 4…… 2430 words. To date………… 10837
Day 5…… 3274 words. To date………… 14111
Day 6…… 4034 words. To date………… 18145
Day 7…… 2686 words. To date………… 20831
Day 8…… 2813 words. To date………… 23644
Day 9…… 3794 words. To date………… 27438
Day 10…. 2765 words. To date………… 30203
Day 11…. 3504 words. To date………… 33707
Day 12…. 1054 words. To date………… 34761 (done)
Fiction for November……………………… 51822
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 713863
Nonfiction for November.………………… 15140
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 254610
2025 consumable words………………… 960904
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 17
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 121
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29