On Believing In Yourself
In Today's Journal
* On Believing In Yourself
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
On Believing In Yourself
I'm always going on about believing in yourself and saying things like "It really is that easy."
It IS that easy, but that isn't to say you can blink your eyes and suddenly be there. Those of you who can make that leap of faith have probably already done so.
You probably only need a little believe-in-yourself booster now and then to keep having fun.
But for some, believing in yourself and your abilities is less a quick-blink destination and more a never-ending journey of realization, learning, and determination.
If you're having trouble beginning or continuing that journey, I recommend you maybe think about the easy stuff first.
Like when you're printing or writing a note (grocery list, whatever), do you have to stop and consciously remember to add a dot over a lowercase I? Or to put a crossbar over an uppercase T? Or, in a note, to put a period or question mark at the end of a sentence?
Of course not.
Do you even have to consciously think of how to spell common words that you use every day?
Nope.
Or how very few characters are actually in the English alphabet? Or how to arrange them to create specific words (nouns and verbs) that respectively convey images and actions?
Huh-uh.
Because you learned all of those things with your conscious mind years ago, maybe decades ago, and through repetition they seeped into your creative subconscious. So now you use them without thinking about it.
If you're older than say 5 (five), over the course of your life you've already learned sentence structure, paragraph structure, and scene and story structure. Yep, before you even knew there was an alphabet.
And you didn't learn most of that in a formal class in school.
You learned most of it by reading and watching (and listening to) the news and TV sitcoms and dramas and movies and hearing other people (your parents et al) talk.
But the point is, you learned it. You've seemingly known it forever.
You absorbed it with your conscious, critical mind (and probably automatically 'fixed' some of it as it came in). And over time, without you even realizing it was doing so, all of that knowledge seeped into your creative subconscious.
But what about fiction specifically?
Well, first, all of the above is also part of How to Write Fiction. But I take your point.
You've also known seemingly forever that a story has a "beginning, middle, and end," right? And you've seen and heard (seemingly forever) that in fiction there are things like
openings and
dialogue and
narrative and
description and
rising physical action and
rising emotional tension and
climaxes and
'rest' periods and
white space and
MORE rising tension and
BIGGER climaxes and, eventually,
a wrapping up or denouement.
You know ALL of that stuff. And you've known all of it seemingly forever. Because once you learn it, it takes root in your creative subconscious. Even Dr. Evil and his cat can't take it away.
If you've dabbled in dabbling in fiction at all, you've probably also read non-fiction treatises (taken classes or listened to lectures, etc.) on various types of story structure:
one-act,
three-act,
five-act, and even
seven-act.
And some of you have heard of and maybe explored Lester Dent's 'Master Plot Formula.'
And you know instinctively that, as Bradbury said, "Plot is only the footprints the characters leave as they run through the story."
But maybe you haven't quite made the leap of faith yet from knowing that to trusting it. From learning it to trusting that you know it. To Believing in Yourself.
You've read (for pleasure) and then studied the greats like
(Ernest) Hemingway
(Stephen) King
(Lawrence) Block
(Elmore) Leonard
and numerous others.
And sure, some of you have read and studied the works of great poets like (Howard) Nemerov, (WB) Yeats and (John) Keats and (William) Shakespeare and (Siegfried) Sassoon and (Anthony) Hecht and the Brownings (Robert and Elizabeth Barrett), and (Emily) Dickinson, and many many many more.
In fact, you probably haven't thought of this, but you—yeah, YOU—could literally turn ANY poem by ANY of those accomplished folks into a short story or a novel.
And you've absorbed ALL of that directly into your creative subconscious.
Not to mention everything you've learned and absorbed by experiencing—which is to say, seeing and smelling and hearing and tasting and touching and feeling (physically and emotionally)—other people, places, and events.
In short, you have everything you need to become an excellent fiction writer. (I like the term fictionist, but I think it's never caught on.)
So Only Two Things Are Missing
Your own belief and acknowledgement (confidence) that you've absorbed all of that and a great deal more, and
Practice (Putting New Words on the Page).
So that's all you really have to work on if you want to step up and whip me or anyone else all over the literary ring.
The thing is, I'm not your opponent or competition. I'm your enabler.
Hell, I'll even tie your gloves on for you and smear Vaseline on your forehead and around your eyes and on your cheeks before I climb into the ring with you. And then I'll cheer you on.
But don't get me wrong. I'm not saying you'll be a success (however you define the term) tomorrow or the next day.
I'm only saying you owe it to yourself to try.
Ready?
Good. Skip back up to "So Only Two Things Are Missing." Read that again. After that, follow these steps:
One, set your jaw, look into the mirror and give yourself an affirmation or two (or whatever).
Two, right now (not after you make a cuppa or feed the cat or put the laundry in or whatever else), go to your chosen writing tool (laptop, desktop, legal pad or steno book and pen or pencil), sit down and write "The" or "At first" or "In the beginning" or "Once upon a time" or whatever.
Three, write whatever comes and keep doing that until the characters lead you through to The End of the story.
It really is that easy.
Of Interest
Some Keys to Achieving Confidence in Your Writing If the post above doesn't help, maybe this will. Different people need to hear things in different ways. (I have not vetted this.)
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 800
Writing of Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple
Day 1…… 3397 words. To date…… 3397
Fiction for March…………………….. 51169
Fiction for 2025………………………. 237000
Nonfiction for March……………........ 17020
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 70950
2025 consumable words…………….. 301440
Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 3010
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 6
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 110
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.
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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.
Great post! Like you said, once you get out of your own way, it really is that easy ;)