On Using Formulas in Fiction

August 16, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* Early Update on Challenges
* On Using Formulas in Fiction
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“The key to great writing is to find your own voice and speak directly to the human heart without frills—that is true eloquence.” Dan Baldwin

“Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.” Dorothy Parker

Early Update on Challenges

To the best of my reckoning, I have 37 paid subscribers to the Journal. If you’re reading this, you have either a paid subscription, a comped subscription, or a free subscription.

And yes, if you’re a long-time donor, you are a paid subscriber.

Yet thus far

• Only four writers have taken me up on the 1000 words per day writing challenge for the month of September.

• Only one has taken me up on the 2250 words per day writing challenge. (This writer has a day job and is married with a toddler son at home.)

Hello? [taps mic] Is this thing on?

If you’re curious or missed the post, you can check it out here.

On Using Formulas in Fiction

Back on July 30, 2024, I wrote a post titled “WITD and Story Length, Part 1.” if you missed it, you can find it here.

In that post, I wrote “when I’m writing yet another novel in any Series, the novels all tend to be the same general length. It’s part of the unconscious structure—an unconscious formula.”

I wrote a follow-up post, “WITD and Story Length, Part 2.” You can view that one here.

One writer emailed recently to ask my thoughts on “using a formula in fiction, like your Blackwell Ops books, Richard Stark’s Parker books, John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee books, etc.”

I thought I should share my considerably enhanced reply here to clear up any misunderstandings:

Intentionally using a formula in the strictest sense is very similar to using an outline. I do not recommend it. Ever.

In Blackwell Ops, I never consciously thought about any kind of formula. I realized about 24 or 25 books into the series they all unfolded in a particular way.

Each book is basically a series of short stories, and each short story has the same general structure. That’s what I meant when I said a “formula” occurred to me.

Even now, writing the 27th novel in the series, I never consciously think “Ooh, I need to insert something here about his daily life” before I move on to his meeting with the contact or to the actual hit.

For me, recognizing the “formula” was more of a realization of the general, overall structure of the books.

But really that structure is only a logical flow that occurs in each short story within the book:

• The operative receives the assignment

• The operative’s prep and whatever else

• The operative’s trip to the target location (sometimes a contact interaction intervenes and sometimes it does not), and

• The hit and the egress (if the egress itself is interesting)

So when I say I have a “formula” for those books, I mean if the book feels shorter than I would like it to be, I can always wait for (or ask) TJ Blackwell to send the operative another assignment. Then the rest has to happen after that. So that’s another 5,000 words plus.

All of that said, though, I would never endorse something like a “master plot formula” or anything like that.

If you would like to study a “plot formula” or a 3-act, 5-act, or 7-act structure, that’s perfectly fine.

But don’t consciously think about any of that, even momentarily, while you’re writing. Just write what the characters give you.

All you have to do is trust the story and your characters.

Take a deep breath and write off into the dark, without knowing or caring what will happen next. Write what happens in the story as it happens and write the characters’ reactions in word or deed. Nothing more and nothing less.

If you “think” (conscious mind) something should be added or removed, my best advice is Just Don’t.

So I suppose the difference is the writer’s intent. I never use or advocate the use of a formula or doing anything else intentionally (consciously) in writing fiction.

I hope this helps.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Marketing Magic with Melissa Storm

What’s the Word for When You Can’t Remember a Word? Pretty informative.

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 710

Writing of Blackwell Ops 27: Sam Gentry

Day 1…… 3004 words. To date…… 3004
Day 2…… 2111 words. To date…… 5115
Day 3…… 1726 words. To date…… 6841
Day 4…… 2092 words. To date…… 8933
Day 5…… 1306 words. To date…… 10239
Day 6…… 2523 words. To date…… 12762
Day 7…… 3018 words. To date…… 15780
Day 8…… 1443 words. To date…… 17223
Day 9…… 3024 words. To date…… 20247
Day 10…. 2275 words. To date…… 22522
Day 11…. 1566 words. To date…… 24088

Fiction for August…………………….….… 24088
Fiction for 2024………………………….… 516576
Fiction since October 1………………… 756138
Nonfiction for August……………………… 14230
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 261240
2024 consumable words………………… 714321

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 11
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 93
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 241
Short story collections…………………… 29

Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies, and 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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