Writing Is Just Writing
November 19, 2024 by Harvey
In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* Writing Is Just Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“I have to admit I’m having a blast writing The Sailor [a novel]. I haven’t the faintest idea where it is going but it’s sure fun going along for the ride while I get to record it.” Dave Taylor, a fiction writer who gets it
Writing Is Just Writing
Glue, staple, or otherwise attach this to the inside of your eyelids: Writing Is Just Writing.
Funny, I didn’t plan to post an issue of TNDJ today.
Then a writer and subscriber and friend I respect and admire (Thanks, Harold G.) emailed me: “I sure wish someone would write [an article] on writing non-fiction using this approach [WITD].”
As I responded to my friend,
“You are correct. WITD is valid for writing nonfiction as well as fiction. All of my TNDJ entries (and emails) and nonfiction books on writing are written into the dark. I also cycle over them to determine whether I want to add something I might have left out. So really it’s all the same thing.
“The only difference, really, is the character or characters. In fiction I’m viewing and hearing and conveying the characters’ story, and in TNDJ I’m conveying my own story. So I am the character.”
I’ve always kept the focus of TNDJ mostly on writing fiction. But to respond in greater depth to that comment, I’ll make an exception. Sort of.
The truth is, writing is just writing. And writing into the dark is actually the natural, default process for everyone, and for all good, authentic writing. That’s why I keep track of my “consumable words” (fiction and nonfiction) in The Numbers below.
Another way to say “write into the dark” is “Just Write.”
Just Write is what most of us do when we express our thoughts in emails or letters or when we’re a friend what happened to us during our vacation or during a trip to the store.
As I mentioned in my response to Harold, Just Write is what I do every day in writing not only fiction, but also emails and TNDJ and even my nonfiction books on writing.
It’s only when we attach a certain (and unnecessary) “importance” to a fictional story (or to anything else) that we begin to doubt ourselves and allow the critical mind in to intervene to “correct” anything.
How many of you would write down what happened to you during your vacation (a memoir), and then run it past a critique group? Wouldn’t that feel just a tad unnatural?
Yet what happened to you during your vacation is a story told from a character’s (your) point of view. So it’s exactly like fiction, although It’s presumably nonfiction.
Likewise a memoir or an email or a chat with friends is nonfiction. Isn’t it?
I write everything into the dark. I also do my best to teach others that is the natural, default process.
But I’m teaching people who don’t really need to be taught.
They (you) already know. You only need to realize and trust that you already know. You only need to get out of your own way.
Even Dean Wesley Smith has said numerous times (I’m paraphrasing here), “Writing good fiction is no different than writing a spontaneous email.” He’s right. It’s no different.
You only need to trust in your own abilities, that you can actually write something as earthshakingly important (yes, I’m being facetious) as (gasp!) a whole Sentence (and a paragraph and a story) without THINKING it to death.
Without outlining, without conscious-mind revision and rewriting, and without anyone else’s intrusive input. How can anyone else POSSIBLY know more about what’s in YOUR mind than you do?
So just as you can write an email or a letter or convey a memoir without anyone else’s input, you can also write YOUR Characters’ story without anyone else’s input.
The only input that is valid is the input of the character(s) who actually experienced the story.
In an email or letter or memoir or nonfiction book, the character is you.
In fiction, the characters are… well, the characters. YOUR characters.
So good writing is Just Writing, whether fiction or nonfiction. The only real difference is which character(s) lived what you’re writing: you or the fictional characters in your mind.
If your characters allow you in to witness their story and you convey it accurately, that’s authentic fiction.
If you convey your own story accurately—the one you're living, and the one in which you are the character—that's authentic nonfiction.
The UNNATURAL process, the one you must force yourself to do—because someone else, usually in an effort to separate you from your money, told you it’s the “right” way to do things—is outlining, revising, seeking critical input, rewriting, blah blah blah.
I literally don’t understand why so many writers don’t ‘get’ this.
If you’re a writer,
THAT you write is important, but
WHAT you write is not important in the slightest.
If you think any story, fictional or otherwise, is important enough that you have to fret over it, outline it, get critical input from others, rewrite it, and all that nonsense, I’m sorry, but you need to get over yourself.
That’s the truth.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
New Blog Structure Hallelujah. I sure hope Dean sticks with this.
3-step guide to the peak year-end shopping season Goes to marketing, Your Honor.
The Power of Reader Magnets A rare, useful post that does not tout the myths. Much.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 920
Writing of Blackwell Ops 31: Jack Temple
Day 1…… 1620 words. To date……. 1620
Day 2…… 5016 words. To date……. 6636
Day 3…… 3466 words. To date……. 10102
Day 4…… 1235 words. To date……. 11337
Day 5…… 3188 words. To date……. 14525
Fiction for November………………… 48223
Fiction for 2024……………………….. 885355
Nonfiction for November…………….. 18050
Nonfiction for 2024…………………… 352470
2024 consumable words…………….. 1,061,864
Average Fiction WPD (November)…… 2679
2024 Novels to Date…………………….. 16
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 1
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 18
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………..… 98
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 255
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.
Writing into the dark is sometimes inappropriate because in some forms of non fiction, there is a pattern that readers expect.
Some forms of writing are highly structured. Things like obituaries, scientific papers, college term papers, speeches, or instructions for almost any device you purchase today all have to be carefully thought out.
Those mellifluous words flowing from the mouths of politicians, talk show guests and tent revivalists almost always began life as crafted-by-the-critical-mind, writing.
In print journalism, specifically newspapers, the default pattern is the inverted pyramid. The most important facts come first followed by the rest of the facts in descending order of importance. If a reader doesn’t learn what the story is about in the first sentence or two, s/he might skip reading the story.
The simple way to describe the inverted pyramid is “getting to the point.” It is a very important writing technique that has been around forever, longer than journalism.
Getting to the point is something you can practice using your conscious critical mind until it becomes second nature. Then it will work whenever you write into the dark. You’ll be a second-level nonfiction writer.
It is an interesting approach. I think it depends on what kind of non-fiction one writes. Yes, if we know the inns and outs of the topic, it can be written WITD, but what if we don't? What if we want to write non-fiction to learn something? I think we shouldn't get discouraged: from school we already know ton of things, and for example we know where to start study a topic. But there is a little landmine. Non-fiction also can be a wide area...