Bradbury, and Yet Another Lesson, Part 2
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* The Bradbury Challenge
* Yet Another Lesson, Part 2, from BO-40: John Staple
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"There is nothing like being pleased with your own efforts—and this is the best stage—before it is published and begins to be misunderstood." Flannery O’Connor
The Bradbury Challenge
During the past week, in addition to whatever other fiction they’re writing, the following writers reported these new stories:
Balázs Jámbor "Good luck and bad luck" 2200 General Fiction
Vanessa V. Kilmer "Pull My Finger" 3022 Farce
Alexander Nakul "Tabloid" 11542 Humor
Alexander Nakul "Theatre S.F.W." 7303 Humor
Christopher Ridge "Attack of Cosmic Tentacles" 2257 Sci-Fi horror
Harvey Stanbrough "One Hot Late Afternoon in a Jungle" 1977
Dave Taylor "Faces in the Forest” 3586 Paranormal/Horror
Dave Taylor "The Red Feather” 3956 Sci-Fi
Yet Another Lesson from BO-40: John Staple, Part 2
So the following will make sense to you, please read Part 1 at either
Here's My (Expanded) Response
GREAT questions.
On Different Perceptions of Characters Among Writers
I think this is one of the differences between how I and Dean perceive or maybe recognize those dead-ends. Neither way is 'wrong.' Our understanding and our approach are just different.
I can't speak for Dean's understanding or approach (obviously), but I actually see my characters as real, living people who are in some alternate plane of existence (vs. 'living' in my mind).
They aren't even really "my" characters so much as they're just characters. Just as the folks who live across the street or next door aren't "my" neighbors as much as they're just neighbors.
I feel fortunate that, for whatever reason, the characters don't mind me pulling aside a curtain or opening a door, dropping into their lives, and writing bits of those lives as stories as they're living them.
Just FYI in that regard, like other real people, some characters (like John Staple, as it turns out, and a few others) are a little reluctant in that regard. Others (like Soleada Garcia or Charlie Task or Jack Temple or Paul Stone) are much more open and 'talkative.'
Wes Crowley was the king of being forthcoming with his story, as evidenced by his conveying to me roughly 60 years of his life in 22 novels and numerous short stories.
On Your Question About Dead-Ends
In my own practice (how and what I perceive or recognize characters/stories vs. how Dean perceives or recognizes characters/stories ), I can 'feel' the difference between my authorial intrusion and what the characters are actually doing and saying.
In my mind, the creative voice is quiet to the point it's almost silent, as if maybe I'm channeling the POV character, and sometimes even the other characters.
On the other hand, the voice of the critical mind is always loud, clear, and always negative. When it speaks up, I sometimes experience a light wave of physical nausea.
In other words, I am more or less acutely aware of the difference between the voices of my conscious, critical mind and those of my creative subconscious.
I should add that I feel very fortunate in that regard. That sense has deepened and the difference between the voices has become more pronounced over time as I've learned to trust my characters and my creative subconscious even more.
So for me, when I first perceive that a "thread" has slowed dramatically and started to slog along (I liken it to trudging through ankle-deep muck that progresses to calf-deep and knee-deep if I keep going), I stop writing.
Usually at that point I'm only ankle deep. Then,
I scroll back to where that thread started. I know I was on track up to that point because the story was flowing freely, so
I delete everything (everything) from that point forward. Period. (If what I delete appeals to me, like maybe it's a different story, I might save it in another file to glance at it later; if not, I just delete it.)
This is part of both trusting and learning to trust further my creative subconscious.
Then I get up and take a break, usually only a few minutes away from the desk and the laptop and the story.
When I come back, I read through (cycle through in the creative subconscious as a reader) the previous chapter or scene up to the point where I stopped and walked away. Then
I'm back in the story and I start writing again.
Note: In my case, this is where the conscious mind is the strongest, wanting me to 'think' of what to write next, etc. But I ignore it and/or push it down and write anyway.
SOMETIMES when that happens (I'm grateful it doesn't happen very often) and no more words come from the characters, I know I've reached the end of that novel. So in that rare case, the story both slogged down AND I'd written past the end.
Now, Here's the Lesson
That's what actually happened with BO-40, the novel I just finished.
My creative subconscious (so my characters) know going-in that Blackwell Ops novels usually come in at 35,000 to 40,000 words or thereabouts.
For that reason, I was used to Blackwell Ops novels coming in at that general length. So I was certain BO-40 couldn't be finished at just over 26,000 words. But it was.
So again I cycled back (this time over the whole novel), and when I reached the white space again, the characters gave me the final scene and the novel wrapped. Just like that.
Note that I (the writer) could have added another assignment or two or three (as I've mentioned before, a kind of 'formula' for the assignments has revealed itself) to extend the length of the novel, but the POV character didn't want to tell me about anymore assignments, and he didn't, so I didn't force the issue.
In retrospect, the POV character even fired a kind of warning shot to let me know I was nearing the end of his cooperation.
A "hit" scene (the culmination of an assignment) usually spans a chapter or maybe two, so anywhere from 1200 to 3000 words or so. But the final hit scene John Staple conveyed in BO-40 was terse and short at only 185 words. That's quite a difference.
It was almost like John was standing there with his arms crossed and a frown on his face: "Okay, you can have this one, but no more."
Which brings up two more (more or less minor) points:
Every novel writes differently, and
Every story chooses its own length. When it wraps, it wraps.
I was just pleased it wrapped above 25,000 words so I could call it a novel. (grin) I'd rather have 7 novels on the year than 6 novels and a novella. (My writer's pride getting in the way.)
I should also note here, for any of you who eventually read Blackwell Ops 40, my favorite chapters of that entire novel were Chapters 1 and 2, primarily because of the characters' voices in those chapters. Given the option, I'd write like that 24/7/365.
Of Interest
Mark Flannery O'Connor's 100th birthday by reading her best letters
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1180
Writing of "One Hot Late Afternoon in a Jungle"
Day 1…… 1977 words. To date…… 1977 done
Writing of Blackwell Ops 41: León Garras
Day 1…… 1847 words. To date…… 1847
Fiction for March…………………….. 77709
Fiction for 2025………………………. 263540
Nonfiction for March……………........ 27600
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 80350
2025 consumable words…………….. 337380
Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 2590
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 7
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 111
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 281
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.
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
When I write and I've gone the wrong direction my characters will actually sit down and the setting goes white (like a white board). The first time this happened I freaked out because I went to bed thinking the scene I wrote was a great one (everyone seemed happy because it was a romantic scene), but when I opened up the WIP the next day the characters were sitting talking amongst themselves waiting for me to figure out what went wrong.
Turned out my characters were motivated by a strong sense of honor and would never have stopped for anything romantic while members of their group were in peril. Ooops. Took a bit to figure it out. But I learned a good lesson.
HTH.
Super helpful. Thanks for sharing here :)