The Algonquin Round Table

In Today's Journal

* Steam-Powered Typewriters?
* My Quote of the Day
* Revisiting the Algonquin Round Table
* The Writing
* The Numbers

Steam-Powered Typewriters?

Yesterday, I assured you these existed. They did not (and do not). Sigh.

It was an honest mistake. When I was writing that post, I swear I saw an article that referenced a steam-powered typewriter. I might've gotten confused about a behemoth typewriter that was invented at about the same time as the first steam engine.

Still, I wish I'd copied the link now and included it. Couldn't find it again today.

My Quote of the Day

Writing "gems"—like beauty and whether a story is "good" or "bad"—is in the mind of the beholder.

Recently, writer KC Riggs commented that she'd found a "gem" in yesterday's post:

"Full of gems, and arrows to shoot at critical voice when it worms its way in. I love what you said about ideas, especially what and who make an idea great, and to whom."

Thanks, KC. It's nice to know I'm on the right track now and then. And look what you've caused.

Today I'm going to start listing My Quote of the Day. Despite the name it will appear only sporadically.

Some will see these quotes as gems, and others won't. And that's fine. If these little quips help even one writer while feeding my own writer's ego (grin), that's enough.

To start the ball rolling, here's the quote KC enjoyed:

"Either that or [the gurus] are schmoozing you, saying you actually have 'great' ideas. You don't. I don't. Nobody does. They're only ideas. The characters and the writing render them 'great' in the perception of some readers'."

Revisiting the Algonquin Round Table

The imagination works in mysterious ways.

Recently, I thought someone disagreed with something I said about writing. I didn't say anything, preferring to smile, nod, and let it pass.

But a thought leapt unbidden into my mind, and I laughed out loud.

Then I quickly went to a Quotes file I've been compiling for years and recorded it there. Finally, strictly for a laugh, I sent it in an email to my friend Dr. Mardy Grothe.

I was surprised and flattered when he emailed me back to say he'd included it in the "Agreement" section of his Dr. Mardy's Dictionary of Metaphorical Quotations (DMDMQ).

But the thought also served as propellant for my imagination to transport me to the famous Algonquin Round Table in the Rose Room of the Algonquin Hotel in New York, ca. 1920.

The famous, infamous, and inimitable Dorothy Parker and a few others were still seated, including Margalo Gillmore. All the plates from the luncheon were mostly empty and pushed back. Drinks were in their hands as they slyly exchanged quiet barbs.

I suspect Margalo Gillmore is the actress who had once paused at a door and gestured, indicating Dorothy Parker should enter first.

Of course as Dorothy took a step, Margalo said, "Age before beauty, after all."

To which, before her foot touched down, Dorothy replied, "Pearls before swine, dear."

But I digress.

Standing near the table, writer Robert Benchley and critic Alexander Woollcott were engaged in a similar quip exchange.

Benchley said, "Alex, I assure you, the freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps."

Woollcott raised his glass and smiled amicably. "My dear Benchley, certainly you can lay the first two eventualities to rest. Everyone knows a man of your inimitable talents is fortunate to be paid at all."

Okay, Woollcott never actually said that, but if he had, Benchley would have laughed.

Robert Benchley often downplayed his own talent and wit. For example, sometime later he was known to remark, "It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous."

(For more possible attributions for that quote, see this page. But also note that more than one writer might have said it in different ways without having heard it before.)

Had I been fortunate enough to sit with that esteemed group (unfortunately I was minus 32 years old at the time), I have no doubt I'd have done my best to say something with which someone would flatly and vehemently disagreed so I could level my own quip at them:

"You don't have to agree with me, but if you do it will certainly lend credence to your argument."

Possibly that's the quote that will make me famous around the time I finally realize I have no talent for writing. (grin)

If you haven't yet treated yourself to reading some of the incredible writing by Robert Benchley and Dorothy Parker and some of the others from that graceful literary period, I advise you to do so.

The Writing

It's taken me a little longer than usual to connect with the characters in the current novel. They finally started hitting their stride and talking with me more readily yesterday.

Part of that, I think, is that I really loved the characters from the novel before last (Temple's Way). There was a great tragedy in that one, and it was a tragedy I'm still aching over a little.

Of course, when you write what happens in the authentic story, you have to take the 'bad' with the good. Though I have to admit, I wouldn't want to meet the reader who enjoyed the tragedy and all that happened as a result of it.

A similar tragedy happened in one of the later Wes Crowley saga novels too, and that one still bugs me a little.

I really liked the characters from the previous novel too (Solomon Payne) and kind'a sort'a hoped I'd be writing more about them right now. But that isn't what happened.

Talk with you again soon.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 960

Writing of Blackwell Ops 35: Seldem Dunn

Day 1…… 3796 words. To date…… 3796
Day 2…… 3389 words. To date…… 7185
Day 3…… 4085 words. To date…… 11270

Fiction for January…………………… 60163
Fiction for 2025………………………. 60163
Nonfiction for January……………….. 16500
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 16500
2025 consumable words…………….. 76663

Average Fiction WPD (January)……. 4011

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 1
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 105
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 274
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.