Storytelling at Depth 7: Notes on Process

July 11, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* Storytelling at Depth 7: Notes on Process
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Note: I decided to share this one with everybody. Most of my subscribers are already good with it.

Storytelling at Depth 7: Notes on Process

This will be only a refresher or reminder for many of you.

So you know where I’m coming from, I’m an adherent of Heinlien’s Rules:

• I write.

• I finish what I write.

• I don’t rewrite in any case.

• I publish what I write.

• I leave the work up so readers can buy it.

But neither do I worry about it. I move on to the next story.

I’m also a practitioner of writing off into the dark. I’m not the almighty writer on high, controlling what happens in the story or what my characters say and do in response:

• I don’t outline or “plot” or erect “signposts,” and

• I don’t do character sketches or any other planning. After all, I’m not a clairvoyant. How can I know what happened before it happens?

Like all living human beings, the characters simply are who they are. What happens in the story happens, the characters react, and I record all of it.

I used to be that control guy.

Then I learned how entertaining it was to roll off the parapet into the trenches and run through the story WITH the characters rather than pushing them.

As many will tell you, I haven’t shut up about it since. The technique is far too valuable to actually Being a writer.

Now I see myself as an observer/recorder. As I’m down in the story, running through it with my characters, I simultaneously sit down, put my fingers on the keyboard, and write whatever happens and whatever my characters say and do in response. It’s their story, not mine.

My characters always come up with things I never would have thought of. Always.

In one of the books in the Wes Crowley series, one of the Rangers in Wes’ troop was a reformed bank robber. Neither the other characters nor I had any clue until he mentioned it to another Ranger as he lay dying.

I stopped writing, sat back in the chair, and said, “Wow.”

That sort of thing is a normal occurrence in every short story and novel I write. It’s great fun, letting others be who they are and learning about them as you go.

As in “real” life, sometimes characters grow closer and sometimes they grow apart. I just report what happens.

The Conscious Mind and the Creative Subconscious Mind

have different roles:

The conscious, critical mind enables us to learn and protects us. That is its value.It is what keeps us from walking into heavy traffic or leaning our hand on a hot stove.

But in writing, it tries to protect us from the embarrassment it is certain we’ll feel if we actually finish and publish something we’re writing. So in writing, the conscious mind’s role is to stop you from writing.

This is why I strictly adhere to Heinlein’s Rules. Doing so enables me to more easily quiet the critical voice.)

By the way, I wrote a book on the topic awhile back. It’s called Quiet the Critical Voice and Write Fiction. It’s available everywhere for $9.99, but it’s only $8 at the link.

The creative subconscious mind just wants to have fun. It enables us to accept things as they are and to risk. In fact, it doesn’t recognize “risk.” It enables us to authenitically create.

Think about it. Your subconscious mind was making up stories before you even knew how to read or write.

That’s before you were taught to NOT trust yourself and your creative subconscious. You were taught to use your critical mind, to construct, revise, seek critical input, rewrite, edit, polish, etc.

So again, the big thing is to trust your own creative subconscious (your characters) to tell the story that they, not you, are living. You’re only an observer of your characters’ stories.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? And it is. It’s only a matter of trusting yourself and what you already know (though often you aren’t aware that you know it).

People like me (and most professional, long-term fiction writers) access and trust the subconscious when we sit down to write.

As I said before, we don’t outline. We don’t plan or plot. We just write. We put our fingers on the keyboard and type whatever comes.

If you’re a writer, this is the best discipline you can have. It’s also the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Can you use these techniques if you outline?

Of course.

Will your story be authentic and true to the characters’ story?

Sorry, no way.

Cycling

When I’m writing, I automatically write everything that’s going on around me as I run through the story with the characters.

The characters hand me all of that. I see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the setting and the unfolding story through the POV character’s physical and emotional senses. But I don’t think consciously about it.

Plus, my writing is sometimes spare or sparse, probably a throwback to my poetry days. Often, as the characters are racing through the story, it’s all I can do to keep up.

But although I’m running through the story with them, I’m not part of the story. I’m sitting quietly at my desk. My opinions of setting, etc. have no bearing. I’m only observing. And typing.

So each day, when I sit down to begin the day’s writing, I read back over whatever I wrote the day before. Often, depending on the story, each time I begin a new writing session I read back over what I wrote in the previous session.

I read as a reader and strictly for enjoyment, lost in the story in my creative subconscious. The difference between me and other readers is that these are my characters. They’re in my head.

So as I read, I position my fingers on the keyboard. And as I read, my creative subconscious (the characters) add whatever I missed when I was writing it. So I’m what Stephen King calls a “putter-inner.”

I add sensory detail filtered through the POV character’s physical senses and opinions. But again, I’m reading strictly for enjoyment.

• I’m not reading critically (conscious mind).

• I’m not looking at sentence structure, etc.

• I’m not thinking “Maybe that character needs a moustache.”

• I don’t allow thoughts like, “Oh, maybe this should happen here.”

Any time you hear anything critical or negative from your inner voice, that’s your conscious mind trying to grind your writing to a halt. Guard against that. Zealously.

As I read, if something needs to be added, the appropriate character adds it.

• Maybe it’s uncomfortably warm in the room (the setting) and I missed that earlier.

• Maybe the lighting is dim. (In one story, my characters kept talking quietly, in muted tones. When I cycled back, I realized how spooky the place was, partly because of the dim lighting.) My characters (and the reader) are seeing things, but those things look different in dim light than in brighter light.

• Maybe an emergency vehicle went by outside and I failed to put the sound of the siren into the scene although it was there all along.

Whatever the “extra” may be, it’s always up to the characters (not the observer/recorder/writer) to point it out.

All of that is in your role as observer/recorder.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in your role as Writer, your only job goes to presentation. You present the story to readers as faithfully, clearly, and concisely as your current skill level will allow.

Then you go write the next story. Because you’re a fiction writer.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

Branding… An Example

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 1280

Writing of Blackwell Ops 26: Tailor Moses

Day 1…… 2069 words. To date…… 2069
Day 2…… 3438 words. To date…… 5507
Day 3…… 1464 words. To date…… 6971
Day 4…… 2089 words. To date…… 9060

Fiction for July…………………….….… 16268
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 422122
Fiction since October 1………………… 708911
Nonfiction for July……………………… 13860
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 224740
2024 consumable words………………… 630594

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 10
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 92
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 241
Short story collections…………………… 29

Disclaimer: Harvey Stanbrough is a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog he teaches 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. Harvey will never teach the myths on this blog.

Visit StoneThreadPublishing.com for all your fiction and nonfiction needs. Buy Direct!