Writing Into the Dark (redux, redux)
In Today's Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Writing Into the Dark (redux, redux)
* On Taking Days Off to "Rest"
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
"I have had a short story titled, “The day after ‘and they lived happily ever after’” noodling in my brain for a few years. Maybe today is the day I WITD with it." Manisha, in a comment
"The scale of the prize is vast: intellectual property accounts for some 90 percent of recent U.S. economic growth." Alexander Hartley in the article linked in Of Interest
Writing Into the Dark (redux, redux)
For a while I was going back and forth with whether to post this. Then Manisha sent a comment (see Quotes of the Day above) and I figured I was on the right track.
I know this is yet another revisitation of the topic, but a new angle occurred to me so I thought I’d share. Maybe it’ll help the concept make better sense to those of you who think you might like to try it but aren’t sure yet.
First, a disclaimer—I don’t care how you write. Seriously.
Don't get me wrong. I would love to know that you're attempting to follow Heinlein’s Rules and that you're Writing Off Into the Dark. But whether you choose to trust yourself (your subconscious) to that degree has to be up to you.
Will I keep harping on this?
Yes, probably, because WITD is freeing.
Do you have to listen?
Huh-uh. Nope. Completely up to you.
If the following stuff gets a little confusing for you, you can follow along more easily by clicking here and looking at the covers.
Back in the day (July 2015),
after I'd written the original Wes Crowley trilogy (now books 14, 15, and 16) I was traumatized by writing a transition novel (now novel 13, Wes Crowley, Texas Ranger) in my Wes Crowley saga.
Right after I'd finished South to Mexico, I wrote three prequels to the original trilogy (now books 1, 2, and 13).
That third prequel was the transition novel. So it had to "connect" two previously written novels (now number 2, Comanche Fire, and number 14, Leaving Amarillo).
Of necessity, I felt, I had to go back and forth, pinching story possibilities ever tighter and narrower to make sure everything matched. Ugh.
As I wrote that transition novel, I was struck by how very horrible it is to be forced by circumstances to write like that. Yet that is exactly how many people write every day.
The sad fact is, none of those writers will ever be prolific. And the majority of them will not be long-term professional writers either. They'll give up in frustration and find something more fun to do.
Why? Because writing fiction isn’t fun for them. It isn’t enjoyable. It’s drudgery. It's work. It's something from which they occasionally have to take a vacation.
But for me, that’s what writing was like for that third prequel. It was almost sheer drudgery, with an unhealthy dose of personal horror mixed in.
I was horrified that I might get a detail wrong somewhere, and that caused me to have to invoke my conscious, critical mind on more than one occasion. Notice that was all fear-based, like all the other myths. I even wrote above that I was "horrified."
I was, and the residue of that fear is still clinging to the edges of my mind.
But after I finally finished that third prequel, I turned that fear around. I was far more horrified at how I would feel if I allowed myself to get bogged down in that kind of situation again rather than Just Writing the Story.
So I plowed ahead with sheer joy and wrote the novels that are now books 17 through 21 of the overall saga (among writing other novels in other genres).
Then, still writing freely and into the dark, I went back and wrote what are now books 3 through 7 of the saga to fill in a 16-year gap in the story. Then, finally, I wrote what is now book 22, the final book in the overall series, aptly titled The Final Chapter.
Today the fear I experienced way back then still serves as a solemn warning.
Even when I was mired in the fear that I might get something "wrong," the intelligent part of me said, “So what?”
But the English teacher slash critic part of me said, “If you don’t read it over and write at least three or four more drafts, you WILL miss something and it will make you look like an idiot.”
That finally did it. I didn't read the story again. I'd probably already read the whole thing at least three times while cycling back and/or checking on one fact or another to make sure they match up.
So I finally wised up and said I’d never write that sort of book again, and I meant it. It is precisely for situations like this that the use of words like “never” are reserved. Never. There, I said it again again.
And that brought me back to fresh air and to writing book 17 of the saga. And it brought me back to why I love and advocate for Writing Off Into the Dark.
Writing Off Into the Dark is like Life.
In life, when we take a step, that one step opens up a range of possible futures.
A step in a different direction would have opened a different range of possible futures.
So we take that step in whatever direction, and then we choose the next step, then the next step, then the next.
That’s what we do in life, and we do most of it without thinking. It’s the ultimate in freedom.
Writing Off Into the Dark is exactly the same thing.
You sit down at the keyboard, you place your fingers on the keys, a thought crosses your mind and you write it.
Then you write the next sentence (whatever comes).
Then you write the next sentence.
Then you write the next sentence.
You cannot write more freely than that.
And you cannot write the characters' authentic story—the story they're actually living—better than that. You can’t.
Of course, if you take the time to consider each word consciously, you can even make your manuscript sound exactly like it came from Ray Bradbury.
In fact, you can edit and polish and rewrite your manuscript until it sounds EXACTLY like—everything else in the publisher’s slush pile.
Just like thousands or even tens of thousands of others are doing right now. But for all that effort, your manuscript will be WORSE—by which I mean farther from the characters' original, authentic story—not better.
Do you know why Ray Bradbury’s stories SOUND like Ray Bradbury?
Because he actually was Ray Bradbury and he trusted his creative subconscious.
He sat down, put his fingers on the keys, and wrote whatever came. He said so himself.
And the thing is, you can’t channel Bradbury’s subconscious. But you CAN channel your own. You can be who you are and allow your characters to be who they are.
You can showcase your own unique voice, but you can’t THINK your way to it. You can only get there by letting go.
On Taking Days Off to "Rest"
This goes back to those who write by design. Those who believe they are conveying THEIR story instead of the characters' story.
Those of us who write into the dark neither need to rest nor want to rest. We want, eagerly, to write the next story.
A writer from Writem recently told me in a comment that he usually takes at least a few weeks off to relax after finishing a novel.
That's difficult for me to even comprehend.
If you feel a need to decompress after finishing a story or novel, chances are you could be having a lot more fun with your writing.
If I tried to take more than one day "off" (usually to let post-partum feelings pass and decide what to write next) it would drive me out of my already nutcase mind.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
The battle over copyright in the age of ChatGPT
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 1360
Writing of The Waller Files (a Stern Talbot PI mystery)
Day 1…… 2094 words. To date…… 2094
Day 2…… 4654 words. To date…… 6748
Day 3…… 3594 words. To date…… 10342
Day 4…… 3087 words. To date…… 13429
Day 5…… 3163 words. To date…… 16592
Fiction for December………………… 54925
Fiction for 2024………………………. 801025
Nonfiction for December…………….. 16280
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 378850
2024 consumable words…………….. 1,179,875
Average Fiction WPD (December)…. 3923
2024 Novels to Date…………………….. 18
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 32
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..… 102
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 269
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!
>>> In life, when we take a step, that one step opens up a range of possible futures.
In the dark of night, fifty years ago today, I took a step off a KLM flight and put a foot down on Nairobi's tarmac. Life as I knew it was gone. It would never be the same. But before that...
En route, an announcement about an unscheduled stop in Entebbe was made by the captain. The young woman from a certain country sitting beside me was panicking. Really panicking. I offered to trade passports. I told her we were husband and wife, That where she went, I would go, too. I was good with that. She appeared convinced.
No sooner had we agreed on that, the "bug spray guy" entered the cabin, wearing a tan trench coat. The woman was bouncing in her seat. "Bug spray guy" walked back and forth through the passenger cabin with two spray bombs containing some unknown substance and disappeared into the night.
The woman was convinced she was about to be hauled off the aircraft. A cargo door bumped and opened. A forklift approached. Cargo scraped and the aircraft jolted. The forklift backed away with its load. The cargo door closed. Engines spooled up, and we taxied back to the strip.
All this happened in front of the old, blacked-out terminal building in Entebbe. The only time lights appeared was when the jet taxied to the end of the strip for takeoff. Runway lights blinked three times and we were airborne, finally bound for NBO.
After landing, that woman was still so fearful, she rushed down the stairs and through the NBO terminal building. I had to chase her down to trade passports.