Speaking of Lawrence Block

August 6, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Speaking of Lawrence Block
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“You never really know exactly what’s going to happen next in any truly engaging piece of fiction. Because good writing is never a matter of assembling a boxful of component parts according to a sheet of directions, and that holds true even when you’re the one who handcrafted the parts and wrote the directions.” Lawrence Block in “Chapter 1: Organic Writing” of Spider, Spin Me a Web

Speaking of Lawrence Block

You can find more quotable bits on pretty much every page of Spider, Spin Me a Web and on pretty much every page of Block’s other books on writing.

It isn’t often that I recommend nonfiction books other than my own. King’s On Writing comes to mind, but I’m betting most of you have that one, or have read it.

If you don’t have On Writing, I recommend it. But in all honesty, I don’t recommend it above my own. It’s a different animal, a kind of laundry list of musings.

On the other hand, I recommend any of Lawrence Block’s nonfction writing books above my own. Hence this short post.

Unlike King’s On Writing, Block’s books are not merely musings about writing. They come off, as he intended, as a collection of “letters to friends” in the writing profession.

Somehow, Lawrence Block’s nonfiction books are less well-known than On Writing. And they’re less well-known than any number of how-to fiction writing books by any number of people who are just trying to make a buck.

Some of them, I’m certain, actually write fiction into the dark or organically, yet teach the myths in their nonficton books. To make that buck, they simply parrot what they believe young-in-the-craft writers want to hear.

There are even several who simply regurgitate the rules and have no real idea at all what they’re talking about. Primarily, in many cases, because they don’t write fiction themselves. They only teach others how to write fiction. As if that makes any sense at all.

So I wanted to take a little time to recommend four of Lawrence Block’s nonfiction books, in the following order (the order he wrote them):

• Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel (Lawrence Block, 2016) (This is updated from Writing the Novel from Plot to Print, Writer’s Digest Books, 1978)

• Telling Lies for Fun & Profit (Arbor House, 1981, Morrow/Harper, 1994)

• Write for Your Life (subtitled The Home Seminar for Writers, self-published, 1985)

• Spider, Spin Me a Web (Harper, 1996)

Buy them. Read them. In fact, devour them, and then occasionally read them again. As your skills grow, you’ll find something new and different every time.

As you read them, you will learn—or at least begin the learning process—through something akin to sheer osmosis.

You will relearn some of the things I’ve taught you over the years, and I’m sure you will learn some things I’ve yet to address.

For one thing, Block takes a much less stringent, much more relaxed, middle-of-the-road approach to the myths than I do. His advice is calm, and calmly delivered.

I try my best to get you to grab the end of a rope so I can help pull you from the muck. Block cajoles you out of it.

As you read his nonfiction books, you will feel as if you’re sitting at the next table over in a restaurant, eavesdropping as Block chats about writing with friends. Or maybe even as if you’re sitting at the table with him.

For example, he can (and does) move seemingly effortlessly between those who outline and those who write into the dark. But in doing so, he always comes back, seamlessly, to

“Writing, you might say, is an organic process. It grows as it goes. Each page is a product of everything that has come before it….”

Of course, if you’re a fiction writer, you then have to advance the learning process through practice.

And practice means putting new words on the page after having let Block’s wisdom seep into your creative subconscious so your characters can get hold of it.

I’m sure Block himself would agree with me that putting new words on the page is the far more effective and valuable way to actually learn your craft.

To a degree, as I said above, you can learn by osmosis.

Not only from Block’s or my nonfiction books on writing or this blog, but from every TV show or film you’ve ever watched, every short story or novel you’ve ever read, and every conference or workshop you’ve ever attended.

Still, everything always goes back to Heinlein’s Rule 1: If you want to be a writer, you must write.

You can find the books I listed above on Amazon and at all the other major vendors. But I don’t think Block himself would mind if you buy them from a used book shop or a library book sale or online from ebay.

These books are pure gold.

Talk with you again soon.

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 840

Writing of Blackwell Ops 27: Sam Gentry

Day 1…… 3004 words. To date…… 3004
Day 2…… 2111 words. To date…… 5115

Fiction for August…………………….….… 5115
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 478630
Fiction since October 1………………… 735054
Nonfiction for August……………………… 6400
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 253410
2024 consumable words………………… 687518

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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