This Is Next-Level Stuff

June 5, 2024 by Harvey

In today’s Journal

* This Is Next-Level Stuff
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Admin Note

I decided after the fact to share yesterday’s post with everyone on the old list as well as this one. I hope to entice other free subscribers to invest in themselves with a paid subscription.

As a result, that post is no longer password protected. If necessary, you can now refer back to that post on the Journal website.

This Is Next-Level Stuff

Just yesterday I announced “Writers Ask,” a new semi-regular feature of TNDJ.

What follows falls into that category, but it’s far too important to wait, or to water it down with other comments or questions and responses, so I decided to make it a stand-alone post.

The comment that follows is from a writer who’s on the verge of a whole new level of writing. She’s already a Stage Two or Three writer (only she knows for sure). But either way, she’s about to make the leap to Stage Four.

If the following comment and my much-expanded reply makes sense to you, and especially if it excites you, you’re probably on that same cliff edge yourself. Again, only you can know for sure.

If you’re ready, take the leap of faith and enjoy the flight:

The Comment

Taking my time and focusing down are big ones for me. I tend to speed through the story (when I’m actually writing) and I think I’ll come back later and add the details [emphasis added].

Sometimes that works, but I think it’s better to learn to slow down and get as much as possible from the characters the first time [emphasis added].

I think part of the reason I do that is that my brain (critical mind) comes up with multiple scenarios and can crowd out the characters’ voices, so I try to hurry along with the characters trying to stay ahead of it.

Your last few posts have captured for me the essence of WITD–making sure you’re telling the characters’ story AND telling that story to the best of your ability.

If you can stay in that space, then cycling really is done in creative mind.

My Response

Yep, as long as you stay in creative mind, it all works. The trick is trusting yourself and remaining in creative mind.

1. “It’s better to learn to slow down and get as much as possible from the characters the first time.”

Definitely.

2. “I think I’ll come back later and add the details.”

Okay, there’s the doubt seeping in from the critical mind. The lesson begins here.

Instead of “thinking” you’ll come back later and add details, relax and simply let it happen. Trust your creative voice.

Each time you come back—whether an hour or a few hours or a day or a few days later—cycle through (read over) what you wrote before and allow your characters to add details.

(As an aside, Hemingway cycled over the entire story or novel from the first word each time he started a new day’s work. For various reasons, I do not recommend doing that.)

BUT—

It also helps to “test” now and then whether you can “edit” in creative mind.

By “edit,” I mean changing a word or sentence or sequence here and there to make the characters’ story read more smoothly for the reader—while NOT allowing yourself to intrude on the characters’ story. That’s key.

Even Dean Wesley Smith said one time, “If you’re fortunate enough to be able” [read “to have learned”] “to edit in creative mind you’re ahead of the game.”

He stopped short of trying to teach that skill. It isn’t offered in any of his lectures or workshops.

But you CAN learn it.

As long as you’re in creative mind, anything you do is still part of cycling, only more “in-depth.” You’ll know when you’re ready. And until you know you’re ready, you aren’t.

If you keep writing, keep putting new words on the page in new stories and/or novels, you will be ready. It will come.

Check the example in yesterday’s post again. (If you need to, read it at the Journal website.)

All of that example was the characters’ story as they presented it to me. But I fine-tuned it on the fly (in creative mind) to smooth out the presentation to the reader.

For just one tiny example, look at the sentence “A chill trembled through her.”

That sentence started as “An inner chill ran through her,”

which became “A chill ran through her,”

which became “A chill trembled through her.”

All in a matter of seconds.

The use of the word “trembled” makes a major difference. “Trembled” is a more specific, sensory-evoking word, whereas “ran” is vague and bland. “Ran” is low-hanging fruit. But note that all this conscious-mind thought is after the fact. I’m only thinking it through here so I can explain it to you.

The passage presents exactly what happened according to the character, but I (the writer) also present it in a particular way to the reader so the reader can experience the sensation more specifically and less vaguely.

So working in creative mind is a joint venture of the character(s) and the writer. When you’re ready.

I understand why DWS doesn’t teach this, and I don’t blame him.

I don’t actively teach it either as a separate class or seminar because too many early writers are too prone to slipping back into the myths. I don’t want to risk being the guy who shoves them away from WITD.

Some of those early writers would even claim (erroneously) that this process is conscious-mind editing. It isn’t.

The probem is that those writers are simply not quite yet far enough along to recognize the difference.

But if they keep learning and keep practicing (putting new words on the page), they will be. Again, that’s key.

I COULD actively teach this to anyone IF they’ve cleared out most of the myths. Thing is, I’d have to charge a fee for the extra time it would take me to do that. It’s far too nuanced to be easy to teach. In smoothing out the reading experience for the reader, there are practically endless possibilities.

For just one example, in place of “A chill trembled through her,” I could also have written “She shuddered.” (I won’t do that because in the context I believe the former is more exact in conveying the feeling to the reader.)

But I also won’t actively teach this because the situation is a paradox: If the writer would readily understand what I could teach them on the topic, they would also be on the verge of realizing it themselves without paying me for the instruction. And learning is always better than being taught.

Writers who have cleared out most of the myths and learned to trust their characters and their own creative subconscious, only need to be made aware of this.

And that’s what I’m doing right now, at no charge above the price of your subscription to TJDJ.

Once you do realize this is a possibility, you only have to learn to trust it, as you did with the basic concepts in WITD.

Everything in writing authentic fiction goes back to trusting yourself and your subconscious, creative mind. Do that, and your characters will richly reward you.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

10 Explorers Who Vanished Without a Trace There you go. A minimum of 10 story ideas handed to you on a platter. Pick one (or more) and write it.

Kris’s Birthday and New Focus Bundle

The Numbers

The Journal……………………………… 1250

Writing of When the Owl Calls (novel)

Day 10…. 2038 words. To date…… 23952
Day 11…. 1960 words. To date…… 25912
Day 12…. 2157 words. To date…… 28069

Fiction for June…………………….….… 8487
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 349084
Fiction since October 1………………… 652141
Nonfiction for June……………………… 4970
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 188600
2024 consumable words……………… 537684

2024 Novels to Date……………………… 8
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 90
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 239
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.