Bradbury, and Learning How to Write Fiction
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Learning How to Write Fiction
* This Just In
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, 'No, I went to films.'" Quentin Tarantino
I think this quote is a repeat, but it fits today's topic too well to be ignored.
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:
Balázs Jámbor "Not My Mail" 2109 Romance
Vanessa V. Kilmer "Pressure Points" 3009 Speculative
Dave Taylor "Diego’s Awakening” 4,359 Sci Fi, Conspiracy theory
Congratulations to all of these writers.
Learning How to Write Fiction
All stories, no matter the length, consist of dialogue and narrative description.
And of course, narrative description, every word of which should come through the POV character and is filtered through his or her physical and emotional senses, includes description of characters and setting, both distant and close-up, so the reader can see, hear, taste, smell, and feel them both physically and emotionally.
I am pretty much a master in writing dialogue, but I'm also still learning and still experiencing epiphanies-of or realizations-about the ever-deeper nuances of dialogue.
On the other hand, although I'm really good at writing description of characters and setting, I haven't achieved mastery yet. In my own case, I'm still searching for balance. And still learning.
But when I say "balance" I'm not talking about percentages.
For example, a Stage 1 or Stage 2 writer still believes how much dialogue or description s/he writes can be boiled down to a blanket percentage. It can't, and it shouldn't be.
No matter how many times you hear that a story of any length should be XX-percent dialogue and XX-percent description, that simply isn't true. Everything depends on the story itself.
When I say I'm still searching for balance, I mean that sometimes, erring on the side of caution, I still leave in (during cycling) a little more description than might be necessary.
And as was plainly evidenced by my omissions in BO-43, which I talked about in yesterday's issue of TNDJ, other times I don't put in enough description.
But back to the bull cookies so many early stage writers take on board: It also isn't true that "there isn't room to write a lot of description in a short story."
You have all the room you want. The only difference between the short story and the novella or novel is that the short story is about One event. That's the only difference.
Dean Wesley Smith is fond of saying if you're a Stage 1 or 2 or early Stage 3 writer and you read the work of a Stage 4 writer, chances are good you won't even be able to tell what he's doing: to what level he's manipulating you (as a reader) and how he's doing that.
I believe that's true.
I also know for a fact that writing more, putting more new words on the page, is the ONLY way to grow steadily as a writer.
Studying the works of more advanced writers alone certainly won't help you grow. Neither will taking courses or seminars, and shelling out the megabucks to attend some MFA "writer school" will only hurt you. They're too steeped in the myths.
Likewise, getting critical input from critique groups and beta readers and then rewriting a work to death definitely won't help you learn new skills. You'll be marching in place at best and moving steadily backward at worst.
But reading the work of a Stage 4 writer for pleasure (first) and then studying specific parts of that work (later) will help because your creative subconscious will learn things from it that you won't even consciously notice at the time.
Then, when you're ready as a writer, when you've put enough new words on the page, those advanced techniques will begin to peek through from your creative subconscious as necessary. You'll recognize them as epiphanies or revelations.
That's exactly why, as an early Stage 4 writer, I keep reading and re-reading Hemingway and King.
This Just In
When I wrote Take Your Time when cycling, I should have added "to be sure you include everything the POV character sees, hears, tastes, etc. in the scene, and in the sequence it happened.
Of Interest
“Mom” Is a Universal Word Around the World Happy belated Mother's Day to any mommies out there. I personally do not have a mother. I was found under a rock next to a roly-poly.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 750
Writing of Blackwell Ops 44: Sam Granger | Following the Ghost Trail
Day 1…… 3613 words. To date…… 3613
Day 2…… 2893 words. To date…… 6506
Day 3…… 1824 words. To date…… 8330
Day 4…… 3025 words. To date…… 11355
Fiction for May………………………... 38359
Fiction for 2025………………………. 416772
Nonfiction for May………………........ 9490
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 110580
2025 consumable words…………….. 520842
Average Fiction WPD (May)……...... 3487
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 10
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 114
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
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.
Not sure I have heard of the 4 stages of writers before. But I used to read King a lot!