Writer Resources, and on The Rule of Three
In Today's Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Writer Resources
* A Workaround for the Rule of Threes
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
"Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence." Tennessee Williams
Writer Resources
Other than TNDJ, here are some writer resources for you. Most of them are free.
These include everything from a course on using Microsoft Word to essays on copyright to practical how-to writing-craft advice to dictionaries and converters and more. And not all of them are from me. I recommend you browse.
There are short stories from the likes of Stephen King and Frederic van Rensselaer Dey, essays from Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, and JA Konrath, free books, and much more.
Note: I don't check every link on these pages every day, so if you encounter a broken link, please drop me a quick email at harveystanbrough@gmail.com to let me know which link is broken. Thanks.
At the Journal website, click
At StoneThread Publishing, click
Writing Books and scroll down for freebies.
At HarveyStanbrough.com, click
Note: It's easy to go down several rabbit holes on the Other Writer Resources page. Many of the links open a new page with other links. You might want to settle in with your favorite cuppa for this one.
For example, click Conversion Tools and a page will open that has maybe two dozen links to different tools. And that's a short page.
Then, since you're already exploring, click
Finally, I recommend you copy/paste and save this post for future use. I add new links often.
A Workaround for The Rule of Threes
This is very much down in the weeds.
Most everyone's heard of the rule of threes as it pertains to writing fiction. In the broadest terms, it goes like this:
If you list more than three items (usually verbs, adjectives, or prepositional phrases) in a sentence, the reader will most often forget the third item.
The implication is that you shouldn't do that. But this can come in handy for intentional misdirection.
For example, in a mystery it's important that the writer play fairly so the reader won't feel cheated.
So maybe the third item in the list of more than three is a clue to solving a crime or mystery. You played fair by listing it at all as the third item in a series of four or more. But because the reader will more than likely skip over the third item or forget it, you also haven't divulged too much and made the mystery too easy to solve.
However, when you're describing a character's actions, you (probably) don't intend any deception. It's simply necessary to list more than three verbs in a sentence (for example) to indicate what actually happened.
When that's the case, here's an example of one workaround—a way to add a little variety and 'shake up' the rule of threes:
First, for context, here's the full passage. In this mini-scene, the POV character has ordered two iced teas from room service. As always, the numbers indicate the first-line indent of a paragraph:
She patted the couch next to her. “Tell me more about you, Paul. Where is you’ home in America?”
I only looked at her. “Oh. I don’t really like to talk about that. If you don’t mind.”
“I do not min’. Perhaps later.” She slid forward on the cushion and started to push up from the couch.
I put up one hand. “Oh, but you don’t have to leave. The tea will—”
“I am not leaving.” She started toward me. “You do not min’?”
Mind what? But there was a look in her eyes. Like I was a target. “I—No, I don’t mind.”
She finished her approach, rose onto her tiptoes, put her arms around my neck, and kissed me.
In the last paragraph, I listed four verbs: finished, rose, put, and kissed.
During cycling, to overcome the rule of threes and be sure the reader 'saw' her put her arms around Paul's neck, I replaced the comma after "tiptoes" with "and":
She finished her approach, rose onto her tiptoes and put her arms around my neck, and kissed me.
That slight change left the first verb "finished" and the last verb "kissed." But it also changed the second verb from "rose" to "rose and put," which is fine since that was a single ongoing action anyway.
This is another nuance. An ongoing action might include more than one verb. Sometimes, as in the case above, combining those into a single compound verb enables you to achieve your goal in presentation.
The deletion of that comma and the insertion of "and" forces the reader to read "rose and put" as a single compound verb, though one couched or nested inside another compound verb.
Remember, the reader can't read through a comma. The comma forces a short pause. So by removing that comma I effectively 'sped' the reader through "rose and put," making it a single compound verb.
Granted, there are a few readers out there (usually scholarly types) who will notice the change and wonder whether I should have left the comma in the sentence.
But those are the unfortunate folks who can't simply lose themselves in the story and enjoy it. Or else they're among the very few who go into the work looking for something to complain about. I feel for them.
In case you're wondering, that's a simple sentence. All of the verbs are actions of a single subject, "She."
And if you're one of those oddest of ducks (like me), a person who used to enjoy diagramming sentences, yes, this will stand up to diagramming.
I recommend you experiment with this in your own work. But bear in mind all of this is in service to Story and to cycling, not any particular 'rules' of grammar or syntax.
You'll have to think (conscious, critical mind) about the above as you're considering and learning it, but in application during cycling, remain in the creative subconscious.
Once you have this seemingly minor technique you'll have it forever.
Of Interest
Is BookBub About to Change Author Websites Forever? I strongly recommend you check this out. If I wasn't already shoulder-deep, I'd go this way myself.
INK & GRIT: Harvey Stanbrough Surprise! Here's that guest post I wrote a few days ago, and some old pics of yours truly.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1080
Writing of Blackwell Ops 38: Paul Stone
Day 1…… 4071 words. To date…… 4071
Day 2…… 2711 words. To date…… 6782
Day 3…… 3434 words. To date…… 10216
Day 4…… 4185 words. To date…… 14401
Fiction for February………………….. 56233
Fiction for 2025………………………. 177578
Nonfiction for February…………….... 20240
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 52220
2025 consumable words…………….. 223288
Average Fiction WPD (February)…….. 2343
Average Fiction WPD (Annual)……..… 3228
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 4
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 8
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 108
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 278
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.
If you are able, please support TNDJ with a paid subscription. Thank you!
I was just recommending your sites to my writer's group. Maybe you will get a few more.