Yet Another Lesson...

In Today's Journal

* Yet Another Lesson from Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Yet Another Lesson from Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple

In recent posts I've included at least two excerpts from Blackwell Ops 40: John Staple, the short novel I just finished. I provided those as learning opportunities.

The thing is, often I don't think to pass along 'lessons' others might find of value because they're practices that, at this point, I more or less take for granted. By that I mean I no longer think of them consciously, or I assume the audience is already aware of them.

I can't say I take them for granted because I've been at this writing-fiction thing for a long time. I've been writing novels and novellas for only a little over 8 years, and short stories (purposefully) for almost 9 years.

But I take these techniques or practices for granted because I've written a LOT of fiction in that time. My current averages are just under 14 novels, 1.25 novellas, and just over 31 short stories per year.

But as you've seen when you've attended in-person lectures or courses, often more information is forthcoming when attendees ask questions. (That's why I encourage you to ask questions.)

So here's one more 'lesson' for some of you. I probably wouldn't have thought to pass this along if it weren't for an excellent question I received in an email from Ed C, a TNJD subscriber.

I might as well say it publicly: I have a sneaking suspicion (and a hope, actually) that someday Ed C will take over where I left off with TNDJ when the time comes for me to lay it down.

(No pressure, Ed. grin)

I respect and admire Ed for his discipline and for his willingness to ask questions. I think he and I have also developed a certain level of trust:

• He obviously trusts me and my intentions enough to ask questions in the first place, and

• I trust that he knows I'll answer as thorougly as possible, and that he'll take what he needs from my response and leave the rest (as it should be).

So here's Ed's most recent question.

I'm presenting it separately of my response to give you the opportunity to ponder the question yourself before you see my response.

Because it was in an email and not originally intended for public consumption, I have edited it, albeit very lightly, for presentation.

My response will follow tomorrow. In that, you'll get the final lesson Blackwell Ops 40 has to offer.

"DWS in his book and lectures likens writing into the dark as exploring a cave with a flashlight. Which I think is a fine analogy. It’s sort of where the whole name of the technique comes from.

"He also says that many times he’ll get to a dead end and backtrack and figure out where he went off in the wrong direction.

"He talks about this with endings, particularly writing past the endings of chapters or even the whole book.

"But he also talks about sometimes just writing down along a plot thread that leads to a dead end. In that case he’ll just cycle back, find where he went astray, and hit delete and start fresh from that point.

"I can see how its easy enough to write past an ending a bit, and then delete the extra in a cycle. But I’m struggling with the idea of running down an incorrect/dead end plot thread [in the first place].

"Now what I wanted to ask you about is this:

"If [writing into the dark] is simply following the characters along in their story and recording it, where do you draw the line between

• allowing these “dead ends” to happen (since that’s what happened as you recorded it to your best ability), and

• stepping back and realizing that you have possibly intruded on the story and weren't faithful to recording what was happening, thus influencing it to go in a direction....

"Wouldn’t even having that thought be an intrusion itself?

"As you can see I’ve gotten my myself wrapped up in circular logic thinking about this. [So]

• How do you approach these “dead ends”?

• Do they not exist as you see it in your writing philosophy?

• Do you ever find your story just grinding to a dead-end halt, and cycle back a few paragraphs, pages, chapters and hit delete and see where it leads if you listen more closely to the characters?

Okay, those are the questions. I hope you'll look them over and consider them. They're great questions. No telling how much you can learn if you ponder them and answer them for yourself.

Of Interest

Finding the Lost Generation on a Stroll through Paris

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………… 790

Writing of

Fiction for March…………………….. 73885
Fiction for 2025………………………. 259716
Nonfiction for March……………........ 26420
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 89360
2025 consumable words…………….. 333556

Average Fiction WPD (March)……... 2463

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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If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:

• On Writing Fiction

• Gifts

• Writing Resources

• Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.

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