Bradbury, and Prelude to MFA Posts

September 16, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Re the September Challenges
* Oops
* I Get Emails
* The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting
* Prelude to Posts on MFAs
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” BB King

Re the September Challenges

Folks, the reporting date is Monday every week, but that doesn’t mean you have to count only what you wrote through Sunday.

You CAN report before midnight on Monday instead, right? That gives you all day Monday to add to your total.

Oops

Well, I screwed up. “No Better Day” will not be a novel. Maybe it will spin-off a novel in the future like “Adobe Walls” spun off the Wes Crowley saga.

“No Better Day” wrapped yesterday as an expanded short story, but it’s finished. Today I’ll start a new novel. Or maybe write another short story. I need to get my average up again.

The Bradbury Challenge Writers Reporting

To take part, the only requirement is to write at least one short story per week.

Then, if you want to share your success, submit the story title, word count, and genre to me each week for publication in the Journal on Monday. (Yes, you can also write a longer story and submit your progress each week.)

The whole point is to have fun and grow as a writer. You can join or rejoin the challenge at any time.

There’s no cost. You can even do it on your own, without reporting numbers to me or anyone else.

During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:

• Vanessa V. Kilmer “Fable TV” 2586 Fantasy

• Adam Kozak “The Department of Civilian Reclamation” 1891 Science Fiction

• Harvey Stanbrough “Lars Manhattan and the Toast of the Town” 2458 Weird Fantasy

• Dave Taylor “The Gracious Host” 2,421 Horror

I Get Emails

Yesterday I shared a post that was basically all about me. I ended with “I hope you’ll learn from my mistake.”

One writer wanted to know why I share so many personal tidbits about my own writing.

Frankly, I’m just doing in TNDJ what I wish others had done for me in other blogs and classes and seminars: I wish they’d shown me they were human, that they screw up and make mistakes and learn like all humans (even writers) have to do.

It’s easy enough for any instructor to present straightforward information as if he was born knowing it and didn’t have to learn it himself in the first place.

With TNDJ I try to draw the curtain aside and let you see where I erred or went wrong so that maybe you can avoid making those same mistakes.

If you’re paying attention and if you’re dedicated to learning the craft (practicing putting new words on the page), my hope is that my little bit of transparency will help cut your learning curve as a fiction writer.

If it does, hey, so much the better.

Prelude to Posts on MFAs

Okay, not on MFA holders themselves. Hey, at least they’re trying, and they were confident enough in themselves to invest (heavily) in their own future.

So congrats to them on that score. Being self-confident is no small feat for many would-be fiction writers. That said,

A Digression—

The fact is, beginning and would-be fiction writers are hungry creatures. Most often they are so voracious for knowledge that they are eager to spend money to obtain that knowledge.

So they rush ahead, checkbook or credit card in hand. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that if they view the money spent as an investment in their future. We’ve all done it.

And again, congratulations on believing in yourself and chasing your dreams.

Yet many of those writers are in such a hurry that they fail miserably in the one function by which they will learn and benefit the most: Actual practice at putting new words on the page.

It is as if they believe (unconsciously) they will absorb the knowledge by osmosis by the simple act of buying it.

Hence the proliferation of how-to books on writing fiction, most of which are fodder for mushrooms.

Oops, A Second Digression—

Unfortunately, most of those how-to books contain faux knowledge. Most of them are unhelpful at best and harmful at worst.

Many of those books are even written by people who do not write fiction themselves.

Many more are written by successful fiction writers whose primary goal is to convey to the would-be fiction writers only what they want to hear. Well, plus what all the other nonfiction books in the would-be writer’s library have already conveyed:

• the myth of how “hard” it is to write fiction and

• the myth that fiction writing is some kind of elevated “calling,” followed by

• a set of concrete, allegedly fool-proof (and absolutely pie-in-the-sky false) steps to follow to obtain the title Fiction Writer. (Hear the angelic chorus?)

Then people like me and my friend Michaele Lockhart come along and try to convince them that writing fiction can be an enjoyable endeavor, a fun escape from the daily grind instead of a labor-intensive, difficult “labor of love” or some such nonsense.

We teach that by letting go of the need to control their characters, they can know the sheer ecstacy of writing authentic fiction.

We teach that the “secret” is only to follow their characters through the story and write what the characters say and do in reaction to whatever happens, whatever unfolds, in those characters’ lives.

That’s where the old saying applies: “It is much easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.”

• Notice that those who fool writers do only to profit from myth-propagaing how-to books.

• Notice that we who only want to free writers do so for little or no personal gain.

If you want to learn to differentiate between those who are honestly trying to help you and those who couldn’t care less, as the old saying goes, Follow the Money.

And maybe keep that in mind as you read the forthcoming posts on what to expect if you’re looking to obtain an MFA in creative writing.

If you already have an MFA, no disrespect or harm is intended. If it helped you, good. If you can attribute your success directly to having obtained it, so much the better. I’m happy for you. For most writers, it doesn’t work.

If your MFA didn’t help you or if you can’t attribute your success as a fiction writer to it, I recommend you file that experience in your That Was Yesterday file and hang on for the ride at TNDJ.

Okay, end of digression. (grin)

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

The Oldest Languages in the World

The Best Software to Plot or Outline Your Book Yeah, I know. But just in case some of you are still stuck there. (sigh)

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 1160

Writing of “No Better Day” Expansion
Brought forward……………………… 2587

Day 1…… 1143 words. To date…… 3730
Day 2…… 1041 words. To date…… 4771 (done)

Fiction for September…………………….. 44272
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 660420
Fiction since October 1…………………… 828060
Nonfiction for September………………… 15870
Nonfiction for 2024……………………….. 290710
2024 consumable words…………………. 815713

Average Fiction WPD (September)……… 2951

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 13
2024 Novellas to Date……………………. 0
2024 Short Stories to Date………………. 9
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 95
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………. 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………. 246
Short story collections……………………. 29

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer, but please try this at home. You can do it. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies. They will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.

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