Backmatter, Chapter Heads, and More
In Today's Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* On Reader Taste
* A New Consideration for Backmatter
* A Comment on Chapter Heads
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
"Keep going. If you keep writing, you’ll outpace the rejection." Nanu Ekua Brew-Hammond, author of My Parents' Marriage (Amistad Books)
"Read the best writing you can lay your hands on. Experiment with workshops, writing groups, and teachers. But most of all, let yourself fall headlong into the fictional dream of your characters. Sit in the backseat and notice where they take you. Don’t worry if they are terrible drivers, if they get lost, or total the car. Read David Wagoner’s poem, 'Lost.' Lost is where you want to be. Don’t help your characters find their way to safety. Instead, watch them do and say things you would never have dreamed. You’ll know you’ve breathed life into them when they start disobeying you. Buckle your seatbelt and be amazed by where they will take you." Tess Callahan, author of Dawnland (Little A)
For more, see Of Interest
On Reader Taste
Two readers commented on yesterday's bonus story. One commented in the app and the other commented via email.
One wrote, "Good one! I didn't expect that ending!"
The other wrote, "Well, golly. This story leaves a bad taste. Did Eric [Stringer, one of my personas] write it, maybe?"
I no longer use personas to write my stories. Or maybe I still put on the persona, slip into its skin, but I no longer identify the persona as the writer.
But maybe that one was Eric Stringer. Then again, who can say? Not me. I ain't no rat.
A New Consideration for Backmatter
Peggy K, a TNDJ reader and writer, had a great idea:
"Do you think it's worthwhile to add a sentence to the back matter of our publications to the extent that "Neither the author nor the publisher has given consent for this work to be scanned by ‘generative AI’ or large language learning modules or similar?"
Yes, I do. Great idea. From this point forward the disclaimers at the end of the backmatter in my own fictional works will read like this:
Disclaimers
This is a work of fiction, strictly a product of the author’s (my) imagination. It is the result of a partnership between me and the character(s) I accessed with my creative subconscious as I raced through the story with them, trying to keep up. Any opinions expressed by the character(s) are their own. I am only their recorder.
Any perceived resemblance-to, similarity-to, slights-of, or offenses-to any persons living or dead, and-or any events, groups, places, organizations, and so on are products of the reader’s imagination. Probably. In my world, intent still carries considerably more weight than perception.
In no part is this story the block-by-block, purloined construction of any sort of generative AI or even the artificial construct of any conscious, critical, human mind, including my own. What you read here is what actually happened there.
Finally, neither the author nor the publisher consents for any person, entity, or organization to use this work to train any form of generative AI, large language learning modules, or any similar technology that exists now or will exist in the future.
Feel free to adapt these disclaimers for your own use or use them verbatim.
A Comment on Chapter Heads
K.C. wrote, "To me, Chapter X tells me that I can take a breath and get ready for a different focus. It's kind of like a pause between a cliffhanger and a hook if that makes sense."
Of course, that makes perfect sense.
It's good that K.C. defended her method. We should always defend our work and our way.
It's also good to consider adjustments and then make them, or not.
Here's my response:
I agree, but for me a chapter head should serve a larger purpose. (For example, can you imagine any nonfiction book with chapters titled only Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.?)
Even in a novel with zero formal chapter heads, I still separate in-chapter sections with a single centered asterisk. Then I separate untitled chapters with three centered asterisks. With white space, of course, so the break between cliffhanger and hook is still there. So the 'chapter head' only reads "***" instead of "Chapter X."
Privately, I think my goal is to goad myself into adding a title to all my chapter heads so they're more than just Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. The chapter head is a natural place to give the reader a hint (or misdirect him) re what the chapter contains.
Again, this is only something to consider, then use or dismiss as you wish, as I will also do. At the moment, I'm in one camp, but it's a short walk to the other.
The Writing
As I always do when I've finished a work and taken a "break," I cast about for ideas.
When that doesn't work, I break out my well-worn copy of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway, the Finca Vigia Edition, kick back, and start reading.
I did that yesterday, then wrote the short story you'll see in Numbers below. That story put my Annual Average Words Per Day barely back above water. Whew!
Of Interest
One Piece of Advice From 27... Grain of salt.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 880
Writing of "Twelve Stories in a Bus Station"
Day 1…… 4140 words. To date…… 4140 done
Fiction for February………………….. 41822
Fiction for 2025………………………. 163177
Nonfiction for February…………….... 15510
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 47490
2025 consumable words…………….. 204157
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2201
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3263
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 7
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 277
Short story collections……………………. 29
Disclaimer: Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
Your comment about asterisks yesterday coincided with thoughts I'd been having about them. I'm still figuring out how to "chapter" a novel I'm in final edits on. There are chapters where the POV changes between the main characters. I don't want to break the chapter up but want to indicate the change. I was thinking of 1 asterisk for passage of time and 2 asterisks for POV change. I'm thinking readers will be able to pick up on that...