April 23, 2024 by Harvey
In today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* A Story About a Trunk Novelist Turned Editor
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Like an exciting roller coaster ride, the need to know what’s coming next in a story creates anxiety and a certain amount of fear. Or, you know, exhiliration. Exactly the same thing. I guess it all depends on how you look at it.” Harvey Stanbrough
A Story About a Trunk Novelist Turned Editor
Once upon a time in a comment on an article titled “Read, Write, Suffer” (certainly not my article but one to which I posted a link in Of Interest awhile back), a writer wrote this:
“As someone who’s been writing all his life but still doesn’t feel as if he’s got a submittable manuscript, all this rings true to me.
“Just yesterday, after I went back over my latest draft and concluded that it has fatal second-act problems, I set it aside, picked up a good novel, read for hours, found in it the inspiration for a workaround on my novel, wrote for a few more hours, and went to bed with head churning and gut burning. I’m suffering plenty.
“But I’m searching for a higher gear today to keep me going and not treat the misfired execution of what I know to be a good idea to become Trunk Novel #47. What comes next?”
I couldn’t help but respond:
Your comment tugged at me. And I felt almost invited to respond by your “What comes next?”
“Trunk novel 47? If that means you’ve written 46 novels and not submitted or published any of them, please consider this for a moment (oh, and remember that if you “buy in,” I gain nothing):
“Even if you felt those novels were not worthy of publication, yours is only one opinion.
“Some readers (maybe 10%) would have loved those novels, another 10% would have hated them, and fully 80% would have enjoyed reading them.
“The point is, as long as the novels remain in your trunk, you’re robbing all those would-be readers of a chance to decide for themselves. As Nina Kiriki Hoffman once said, ‘Dare to be bad.’
“As a writer, your job is to write, so write. I recommend trusting your characters to tell the story that they, not you, are living. But however you choose to do it, write. Then run a spell check, take a deep breath, and publish.
“Then the readers can do their job, which is to decide (for themselves) what they like or don’t like. And feel free to visit the archives on my website. I hope they will help.”
Then I visited the writer’s website and saw that, although he ostensibly has written 46 “trunk novels” and has published only one fiction story in one anthology, he has the chutzpah to edit for other fiction writers, including “developmental editing.”
Is it just me, or is that head shakingly ridiculous?
The end.
Be careful out there, folks.
Whether you’re looking for the next nonfiction book that will teach you how to write or looking for an editor to help with “developing” your manuscript (I advise strongly against this), do a llittle due diligence and make sure the guy or gal at least has a clue what s/he’s talking about.
Or, if you have faith that a guy who doesn’t believe in his own work enough to actually publish it can help you “develop” your manuscript, go for it.
Just sayin’.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
50 Euphemism Examples + Why You Should Use Them For some reason, some items on the list repeat.
The Numbers
The Journal……………………………… 600
Writing of Blackwell Ops 24: Buck Jackson Returns (tentative title)
Day 1…… 3724 words. To date…… 3724
Day 2…… 3706 words. To date…… 7430
Day 3…… 2110 words. To date…… 9540
Day 4…… 3243 words. To date…… 12783
Day 5…… 1606 words. To date…… 14389
Day 6…… 1306 words. To date…… 15695
Day 7…… 3063 words. To date…… 18758
Fiction for April…………………….….… 55019
Fiction for 2024…………………………. 280811
Fiction since October 1………………… 583867
Nonfiction for April……………………… 19690
Nonfiction for 2024……………………… 148410
2024 consumable words……………… 429221
2024 Novels to Date……………………… 7
2024 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2024 Short Stories to Date……………… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)……………… 89
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 9
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 239
Short story collections…………………… 29
Disclaimer: I am a prolific professional fiction writer. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Unreasoning fear and the myths of writing are lies, and they will slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
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I used to read other peoples stories and give feedback for a very short time, but stopped because it made my critical voice stronger and I'm not sure my opinions were that useful.
There are two short stories which still stand out to me. One was hilarious, I laughed out loud several times. Another was a clever fantasy/fairy tale and had a theme of living happy in an illusion, because the truth hurt so much. It also had the perfect ending, I wanted to read another story with the author's voice and characters. The author said they had wrote it quickly for a challenge and hoped it was good.
I don't think either author realized how good those stories already were. I would've paid for either in a heartbeat, but it was a critique site, not a store. I hope they submitted and self published the stories, but I fear not.