Writing and Storytelling in All Guises

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In Today's Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Writing and Storytelling in All Guises
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” – Ernest Hemingway

Writing and Storytelling in All Guises

Writing and storytelling come in all guises. Everything depends on nuance.

Chances are, if you have a sense of the nuances of language—a sense of the rhythms and of what goes where, when, and why—you can write in either mode (Prose or Verse) and in any genre: novella or novel, short story, lyrics, or poetry.

You can write creative nonfiction: essays and articles. You can write anything the basis of which is your opinion. And it's all intertwined and interconnected in your mind.

I believe this is what so many people call "the muse" or "inspiration." You have only to believe in yourself and decide to release it.

The only real mechanics to it are

• your knowledge of the conventions of the language itself,

• how to use the various marks of punctuation intentionally to direct the reading (or singing) of your work, and

• reader (or listener) expectations.

Here's an example of it all being intertwined:

Yesterday, I cycled back over the novel to cement in my subconscious (again) the POV character's voice.

Something in that cycling session—maybe a word or line of dialogue or narrative, maybe a gesture, maybe a look on a character's face—caused me to remember a song I like.

I hadn't heard the song in a while, so when I took a break, I brought up a YouTube video of the song and listened to it.

In the right sidebar were some queued-up vids of a television series I enjoy watching (Death in Paradise), and one of those had several videos of scenes clipped together with different music (songs) in the background.

I took a little time off and watched and listened to that. And one of the choruses of one of the songs made me think of a loved one who died almost two years ago.

And a lyric—one line of eight syllables in six words—popped into my head as a poignant question.

So I opened Notepad and, with the music of the chorus of that song still playing in my mind, I wrote that line.

Which of course led to more lines, and to some adjustment of the lines, bearing in mind listeners' expectations and the syllabic/rhythmic requirements of lyrics set to that particular tune.

Maybe fifteen minutes later I'd written a song: 158 simple words in 4 stanzas of four lines each plus a repeated last line.

The weird thing is, I haven't written a song (or even the lyrics for a song) for publication or otherwise since the 1980s or 1990s.

The beautiful thing is, the song is universal. I wrote it for a particular loved one, but it would suit any loved one about whom anyone felt the same way.

Grief, like the human experience, is both an odd duck and a universal one.

Unfortunately, I never learned or strongly enough wanted to learn to write musical notation. So I say I've written a song (vs. lyrics) only because the accompanying music is in my head.

Soon enough I'll probably break out one of my guitars and 'find' the music on it to match what's in my mind.

If there's a lesson here for writers, it's this:

The muse or inspiration DOES strike. I believe it strikes us all, or at least that it strikes writers (so everyone who's reading this).

But only YOU can give it the opportunity to play out. To do that, sit at your laptop and write something every chance you get, whether that's every day or every other day or on weekends.

Let it flow, and as it flows, remain open to what else may come. Don't 'think' about it (don't chase it or try to set a trap for it), just be open to it.

Then get over yourself. Realize it isn't yours. For whatever reason your characters or your lost loved one or your 'muse' has given you an all-access pass.

Then manipulate those keys or that pen or pencil until your fingers are numb.

Of Interest

Time of Great Forgetting

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 730

Writing of "A Song for a Lost Loved One"

Day 1…… 158 words. To date…… 158 done

Writing of Blackwell Ops 41: León Garras

Day 1…… 1847 words. To date…… 1847
Day 2…… 3410 words. To date…… 5257
Day 3…… 3452 words. To date…… 8682

Fiction for April…………………….. 3610
Fiction for 2025………………………. 270560
Nonfiction for April……………........ 1770
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 83300
2025 consumable words…………….. 347350

Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 3610
Annual Fiction WPD Average……... 2909

2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 7
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..... 111
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 281
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.

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• On Writing Fiction

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Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.