Bradbury, and Don't Be a Snot
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Please Don't Be a Snot
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"Here's a challenge for you. In a future short story, write a killer opening line that includes the words 'credo' or 'creed'." Dr. Mardy Grothe, in a comment.
You all know how much I love a challenge, so I thought I'd toss this out to you too. Enjoy!
To get in the right mood and feed your creative subconscious, maybe read over Dr. Mardy's Quotes of the Week from yesterday. Then run with whatever character(s) and thoughts occur.
Then, if the mood strikes you, jump into next week's Bradbury Challenge report with the story. (grin)
The Bradbury Challenge
The whole point of the Challenge is to have fun and grow as a writer. There is no cost. The only requirement is to write at least one short story per week. Feel free to jump in at any time.
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
Erin Donoho "The Disappearance," 1400 words, psychological suspense
Vanessa V. Kilmer "A Failed Experiment" 3257 Romance
Christopher Ridge "Confession booth" 1718 noir
Dave Taylor "Tomorrow’s Test Run” 2,494 Science Fiction
Congratulations to these writers.
Please Don't Be a Snot
Recently in a comment a writer reported that a critiquer told her the "the lines [in her story] resemble poetry too much."
Really? (Maniacal Grin) Okay, I have questions:
How is that constructive or positive?
How do those lines "resemble poetry?" 'Cause they're composed of words, or what?
What's the acceptable cutoff? To what degree are the lines in a story allowed to "resemble poetry" before they resemble it "too much?"
I can only surmise the critiquer doesn't like poetry. Or doesn't like poetic language (whatever that is) in fiction. Or doesn't believe it's all right, beyond a certain limit, to include "lines" (vs. "sentences") in fiction.
Or maybe I'm a moron and I, not the critic, am overstepping my bounds here, my mouth writing a check my inadequate butt can't cash. Shrug. I dunno. Maybe the critic is a multi-national, award-winning, bestselling author of both fiction and poetry and s/he is speaking from a position of authority.
Good thing breathing is an automatic reflex, eh? For me, I mean. (wink)
Well, that was fun. (yawn, stretch)
But the sad fact is, every now and then a certain snobby bias enters into our craft.
You know, like when a plodding plotter says, "Oh, I could write into the dark if I wanted to, but I only want to put out Quality work," implying, heavily, that authentic stories written into the dark are not, somehow, quality. (I'll get back to this later.)
Or when a writer of magic realism or some other "literary" works says, "Oh, I'm no simple genre hack. I write Literary stories."
Or "I'm a [name your style] poet. I would Never ("lower myself to" is implied) write an essay or a short story or, tsk, novel."
When I've just endured the equivalent of having my fingernails jerked out with pliers and I'm not in the mood to put up with that goofiness, my reaction to all of the above is a quiet growl and this:
"Sir (or Madam), if you touch your bottom lip to your top lip you'll find that you've shut the hell up. That is a good mode for you. Besides, not speaking for a while will give you more time to parade around with one forearm draped across your forehead as you fathom—silently, please—how very precious you are and all the wonders of martyrdom. But please, continue... at your own risk, of course."
If I'm in an otherwise good mood and don't want that mood spoiled, I just smile, shrug, and say, "Sure, okay," and go on about my day.
Avoiding that stupid nonsense is exactly why I keep everything down to facts:
Fact 1: Writing is not an exact science, but math is. So here's some math:
Fact 2: If you spend your writing hours following Heinlein's Rules 1-3, you'll get more practice putting new words on the page. As a consequence, you'll both finish more work and learn more about the craft.
Fact 3: If you also follow rule 4—and if you have good, genre-indicative covers and clean sales copy—as a side benefit your chances at discoverability will grow and your audience will increase.
Fact 4: If you also write into the dark, trusting yourself and your characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living, you'll also write more authentic stories. Why? Because the stories will come straight from the characters, through you, to the readers. No pre-planned outline, no external control via critics or developmental editors or book doctors, and oh-dear-god NO author intrusion.
Back for a moment to the plodders' favorite argument re "quality": I suspect the artist who's painted hundreds of paintings while his contemporaries go over and over and over the same painting for months or years is the more accomplished painter.
Likewise, the fiction writer who puts upward of half-a-million new words on the page per annum while the plodder and her support staff of critiquers and editors "churn out" two 60,000 word novels is probably the more accomplished writer. Just sayin'.
Of Interest
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 880
Writing of "Joey Bones and the Blond"
Day 1…… 2306 words. To date…… 2306
Day 2…… 0284 words. To date…… 3590 (done)
Fiction for July..………………………. 2590
Fiction for 2025………………………. 523397
Nonfiction for July………………........ 6530
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 158160
2025 consumable words…………….. 673943
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
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.
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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Yay, the challenge sounds fun. And I am still not writing short stories... but apparently I have a character who begs to differ. Story begun! At least I will get more words in this week than last. Already got em! 🤣
Sounds like a great reason not to bother with critiques. Like Harvey says some will like your writing, some won't. Hopefully lots of people will. Those are the readers we are writing for.