Editing and Reading Observations

From Dean Wesley Smith:

Our job as editors is to try to figure out which stories the readers of our publications will like. But if you are putting your stories up indie and not many are selling, you might want to pay attention to some of these points I am making from an editor perspective.

I find it fascinating how many writers have no understanding of the advanced levels of craft in fiction writing. They often think that major bestsellers who sell hundreds of thousands of copies of every book are just marketed better, or lucky, when actually those writers have learned the craft of grabbing and holding readers.

But it is easier for new writers to blame marketing as the reason others sell so well than it is to realize maybe they need to become better storytellers.

So back to my reading observations as I look for stories to buy for Pulphouse from the stories sent in by Pulphouse Kickstarter backers.

Yesterday I mentioned two major reasons I stop reading a story. Lack of Depth and bad Pacing. Those two are the major two, but now how about the next two major reasons I stop reading and send a story back to the writer?

Walking to the Story… This is common because writers see it on television so much. For example, almost every series of Star Trek, almost every episode, starts with characters doing something below decks. Then they head for the bridge, often called, and when they get to the bridge the story starts. They basically turbo-lifted to the story.

This does not work in fiction. And I know I must be missing some cool stuff when I quit and send the story back, but every reader of my magazine would miss it as well.

Fake Details… A fake detail is a detail the writer puts in that has no image with it. A writer’s job is to completely control the reader and what they are seeing and feeling at any given moment, yet fake details rely on the reader to bring an image from their lives.

I use the word “barn” to illustrate this point. When I say the word “barn” I am thinking of a single-story building, built into the side of a hill, with grass on the roof. That fit your image of barn? More than likely not. So your image would conflict with mine and you the reader would get confused and leave the story.

I am always stunned how many writers in the depth workshop assignment on this topic put the word “horse” in front of barn. Not a clue why.

Link to the rest at Dean Wesley Smith

Keep The Fun… Nothing Is Important In Writing Fiction…

From Dean Wesley Smith:

he moment you make something “important” you let in critical voice and since it is important, the critical voice will shut you down.  That’s why so many of you can’t finish a story or a novel. It becomes important about halfway through, you become afraid to show it when you are done because it might be bad, and you stop.

Critical Voice wins. (Critical voice only has one goal and that is to stop you.)

But I have gotten a number of questions on how to focus on a challenge and not make what you are writing important?

Well simply put, don’t make it important. (Yeah, that helps…)

It is a matter of focus, actually.

When you are thinking of the final product, the book, getting done, all that, your focus is PRODUCT FOCUSED and that is where making something important comes from.

When you are actually in the story, your focus should be on the PROCESS of writing, of keeping it clean, making sure your characters work, your story flows, and the other billion things your creative voice does automatically.

Never think about the final product, just the process of writing and keeping the writing fun.

Writing should be all positive. That is creative voice. When you hear a negative thought, kill it because that is critical voice trying to stop you. If you think something sucks in a story, leave it in the story, your creative voice put it there for a reason, trust it.

You do that enough times and your critical voice knows it can’t get in that way anymore and stops trying and you end up finishing everything you write.

A challenge for some people brings up PRODUCT FOCUS. It takes the focus from having fun telling a story and puts it on how many words did I write, have I written, and in comes critical voice.

So give yourself permission to not care about the number of words, just the story, and promise yourself you will add them all up at the end of the day or the end of the week when you are tired and not one moment before.

Link to the rest at Dean Wesley Smith

Learning In Writing Not Like Other Skills…

From Dean Wesley Smith:

This came from a fun conversation with other writers today at lunch.

When you learn something in fiction writing, you can’t just take that learning and apply it like learning how to fix a pipe or do something in Photoshop. I wish sometimes it worked that way, but alas it does not.

So when you learn something from a writing book, or another writer’s work, or a workshop like we teach, you must do your best to understand it while learning it, then go back to writing and forget what you learned.

That’s right, forget it.

When you learn something about a craft area of writing, your creative voice already knows how to do it because it has been reading and absorbing story for your entire life. But your critical voice suddenly understands that skill, so the critical voice gives the creative voice permission to use it.

That is how fiction writing is learned.

But the hard part is getting the critical voice out of the way. It wants to use that new skill and that will freeze you down faster than anything.

So assure the critical voice that in the coming writing, at some point, when that new skill is appropriate to use, it will be used, and get the critical voice to forget it. You will notice you are using the skill stories or books later, often when some reader points it out.

Link to the rest at Dean Wesley Smith