This week I rant about the Best American Short Story Collection…and more

06:00 Read literary fiction if you like it

07:29 Read in your chosen genre

10:38 Using Your Knowledge In Your Writing – How I Wrote A Story

10:38 Using Your Knowledge In Your Writing – How I Wrote A Story

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Coaching with Julie

Writing Coaching with Julie

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Transcript
20241018Podcast

 Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Julie from StoryADay here with the podcast. This week I’m thinking about how we read and how we write and how the two are intermingled. I went on a bit of a rant with the StoryADay Superstars this week because the next edition of The Best American Short Stories of the year is just about to come out.

It’s going to be in my inbox on Tuesday. Physical inbox that is. And this is the 2023 edition. The 2024 edition is coming out, which will be full of literary fiction’s best stories as judged by last year, Min Jin Lee. This year it’s going to be Lauren Groff choosing the stories and I have a bit of a love hate relationship with this collection and I’m going to tell you why in a minute. But I’ll be reading it. One of the things that really struck me this week is that we do need to read short stories if we’re going to write them.

And not everybody likes to read short stories, but here’s where my rant about this particular collection comes in. This is my collection. collection I like to rant about. You may have other collections, anthologies, stories that you’ve been told you ought to love that you would like to rant about. The rant I have about this collection is that this is one particular type of short story.

This is a collection of literary fiction. These are the kinds of stories that people write when they take an MFA. program, a master of fine arts and creative writing. The people who write them for the most part are in that same world. They teach at universities, they study literature, they love to pick apart other people’s stories.

It’s art. It’s not commercial fiction. Some of it is enjoyable, but it’s not written the same way that a Marvel blockbuster is written, to entertain the masses. The problem I have with that, not anything to do with the art, the quality of the stories, anyone’s right to write that way, I have no problem with any of that.

The problem I have is that this collection is the most prominent collection of short stories that you will find in a bookstore, if it has any collections of short stories at all. And, many of you may have had the experience I had when I first moved to this country and picked up this collection of short stories probably in 1998, I think that’s the earliest one I have, is 1998, and I picked up that collection and I read it and I didn’t really like very many of the stories.

Because they weren’t written for me. to entertain the way that short stories I grew up reading from a collection more like this, the annual world’s best SF, which were really, science fiction, which were pulp, which were written to entertain. There were magazines of short romance fiction that came out weekly, My Weekly and things like that, which came out in Britain, which I had read short fiction that was commercial and written to entertain.

And these Artistic, beautiful, literary pieces in here written by people considering the nature of humanity and Oftentimes miserable about things that didn’t seem that important to me. Didn’t entertain me and I thought, as you may have thought, Maybe I just don’t like short stories anymore. Maybe I just don’t like short stories.

And the problem I have with this being one of the very few exemplars of short fiction in the world, in bookstores, in mass production, is that a lot of people pick this up thinking, oh, I should read short stories. I’ve been told I should write short stories because they help me master my craft, or I should read short stories because that’s what we read at school, and that’s what I was told was good, good for my brain, good for my soul, good for being part of the literary conversation.

And they pick up this one collection that’s available, and if it’s not to their taste, it’s very easy to rule out the whole form. That would be like listening to one rap song, and it not being particularly to your taste, and then ruling out the whole of hip hop. Listening to one Bach fugue. And saying, I don’t like classical music, when you’ve got Sibelius, and Debussy, and Tchaikovsky, and Madrigals, and all kinds of other instrumental music to choose from.

This collection is the one that everyone reaches for, especially when they get serious about writing. And I will read it. And I’ll read through them all. And I will find four. stories out of the 20 in there that I either feel something about, or that I admire, or that I want to pick apart and figure out how they did that, or that I say, oh I need to read more by that author.

I love short stories and that’s the most I ever find in this collection. There’s maybe one or two authors who I’ll then go and say, They might seek out their other short fiction, I might give them a shot as a novelist. Quite often it doesn’t always work out when short story writers make the transition to novel writing.

It doesn’t always go well, because they like writing short stories but there’s not the same market for short stories. It’s hard to make a living as a fiction writer as it is, and short fiction is even harder to make a living at. So most people transition to writing novels whether they want to or not. So I’ll go and I’ll find some authors from this collection who I like and I might follow them but I might not because I might not actually like the kind of stuff they’re doing if they’re in this very literary tradition which I admire but can sometimes leave me a little cold.

And usually with writers I find that I love the language but I’m also interested in their message and if somebody has a very bleak or bitter or down outlook, I’m less likely to want to read their stuff than if they’ve got a bit of a wink and a nudge and a optimism about humanity. Nothing about the quality of the writing in here.

A lot of literary fiction tends to be a little bleak, trauma informed. And it’s not always what I’m looking for. My point to you is that, if you want to write, Or if you just enjoy reading short stories, do not think that this is the gold standard. The best American short stories or, if you’re somewhere else and there’s a British short stories edition, there’s the Penn Faulkner awards, there’s all of these things that serve to support short story writers because they’re not writing commercial fiction and they can’t really be supported except by literary organizations and awards.

And yes, we should absolutely be supporting art for art’s sake. No argument from me there. But if you’re picking up those collections and reading them and thinking, Ugh, this isn’t for me. That doesn’t mean that you’re not meant to be a writer. It doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with you. It doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate good writing.

You just may have got to the point in your life where you’re like, I don’t want to read this stuff anymore. I don’t want to read things that I don’t enjoy. Except occasionally I might want to read something to help me understand what the state of the art is.

That’s the next point I want to make. The state of the art in your industry is something that you do need to know. So if you’re writing science fiction and fantasy, get whatever the updated equivalent of this book is. This is the

1989 version of the annual World’s Best SF. And this is a collection of the kinds of stories that were winning Nebulas and Hugos back in 1989. There are updated versions of these, there are digital collections of everything that’s been nominated for prizes in the science fiction and fantasy world. I imagine that there’s similar stuff for everyone. Romance. I’m not sure how much short romance there is out there. I imagine that there’s I know that there’s stuff for mysteries and thrillers. And there’s probably stuff for spy novels. There’s probably something coming for romanticy. There’s certainly anthologies of all of these things.

And we do need to be reading in our Genre, because there are genre expectations which your readers are looking for. If I write a science fiction and fantasy story and make it heavily introspective and concentrating only on beautiful language and don’t include a lot of science fiction or spaceships or futuristic anything.

I’m going to be disappointing the science fiction writers. They may appreciate the beautiful language, but they’ve come for the science in my science fiction. And so there are norms and tropes in every industry, every area of the industry, every genre. And if you want to write short fiction, A, it’s good to know how short fiction differs from novels, which we all read.

And you only really figure that out by reading lots of it. But you don’t have to read stuff that’s not the norm in the genre or mood that you want to be writing in. Where do you find this stuff? You find it in lists of prize winners. If you’re in science fiction and fantasy, there’s things like the Nebulas and the Hugos, which always put out long lists, as well as the short list, as well as the winners.

There are anthologies both the monthly type and the ones that collect the best of a particular. Something with a particular theme, or something with particular types of writers, something wrapped around a particular mood. You can find those kinds of things. There are podcasts, which are, audio periodicals.

Things like Escape Pod, and they have Pseudopod, and various other things in that family, which deal with different types of genres. There are collections like this massive book behind me here, which is the big book of science fiction. There’s the art of the short story. There’s a Halloween one here.

There’s the Oxford book about the American short story. There are all kinds of collections of stories that you can pick up. And you don’t have to love them all. But you do have to familiarise yourself with the norms both because you want to know what readers are expecting and because having that kind of knowledge in your head when you sit down to write makes it so much easier.

I sat down to write a story this week, and I knew I wanted my opening scene to be A bunch of space colonists who’d gone down in a shuttle to a planet. Something had gone wrong, they were stranded, and now they have to get out of this situation. And I knew that I had read a story, once upon a time, that was quite like this.

Similar scenario it’s not A groundbreaking scenario, if we go out to colonize the universe or planets, or if we travel anywhere, at some point somebody’s going to get stuck. There’s going to be a crash, there’s going to be an obstacle. If I’m writing a story, there has to be an obstacle, otherwise it’s not a story, it’s just me writing about people on a planet, or on a journey.

But if there’s no obstacles to their goals, then it’s not, there’s nothing for the story to do. So I pulled down the Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Anne and Jeff Van Dammere because I knew that in there I had read a story and I happened to remember in this case that it was Surface Tension by James Blish, which is going to go in, my story is going to go in a completely different direction from where that story goes, which is a great story and you should read it, by the way, if you like science fiction.

Fascinating story. But I was curious. What does a really good story that has stayed with me for years, living somewhere in the back of my brain, how does a story like that open? What needs to go into an opening of Colony Ship Crashing on a Planet in order to hook me as a reader? So I went back and I read the opening page of Surface Tension by James Blish and I was surprised by how quickly I had all the information I needed to know.

It was a very spare opening with lots of conversation, the characters were set up in very brief interactions among the characters. I had the sense of the setting, I had the sense of the stakes in very few lines. And I don’t know about you, but I tend to overwrite a little. Because I’m a discovery writer and I’m writing to find out who are these people and what does it look like and blah, blah, blah.

And looking at that story, I was thinking, okay, so if I want to write like James Blish, I’m going to write this very spare. I don’t think I’m going to do that, but. Even folding in my preferences for, the level of description I want to do and all that kind of stuff and stake setting, I looked at that and I was like, okay, so in these first few lines, I need to establish all this stuff and it’s okay to leave out these things until later, because, this story that has been stuck in my head for years didn’t tell me Very much about the rest of the crew.

It didn’t tell me very much about the setting. It didn’t set up how they were going to tackle this problem. I was completely surprised on about, halfway down page two, when their solution for the problem was nothing like I thought it was going to be.

Even though I’d read the story I’d forgotten what their solution was going to be. None of that needed to be in the opening paragraphs and I was still hooked because I was sufficiently interested in the characters and their circumstances. So that reassured me as I set out to write my story that I could leave some stuff out.

There were certain things I wanted to include. But everything didn’t have to go into the open, which in turn allowed me to make progress on my story. And it’s going to go in a completely different direction, and it’s going to be nothing like the story that I used as a touchstone, as a reference. But I know I’m on the right track if I open my story in such a way that people know some of the same things that I knew reading Surface Tension by James Blish.

And this is why I encourage you to read widely in the form that you’re writing. If you’re writing romance novels that are in a series that are regency where there are seven sisters and they all need to get married, make sure you’ve read a lot of those, right? Read a lot of those. And you don’t have to be afraid that you’re going to be copying because there are certain.

norms that you need to use and your way of expressing that your preferences, your values, your life lessons are going to be going into those stories. So I just don’t even worry about people saying, Oh, I’ve read something like this before. Yeah, you have, but you haven’t read this before. And people who like particular types of stories and genres, they’re going to be annoyed at you if you’re lazy.

If you write a time travel story and you don’t even acknowledge that there’s a problem with time travel in that if you go back in time and you kill your own grandfather, you don’t exist. You’ve gotta acknowledge those things or write around them or, make it clear that’s not what this kind of story is about.

Don’t just be oblivious of all of the norms in your field. But you do get to use the same kinds of setups because we are humans and we go through life and we are born, we grow, we make friends, we fall out with people, we fall in love, we have children, we get jobs, we die. And amongst all of that there are some common experiences.

So you’re never going to write original. And it can be handy to have stories in your head that serve as touchstones for you. Like when I pulled down that story and looked at how does he open a story about a ship crashing and the survivors have to do something about it. You know I could pull that one down, I could pull down, there’s a C.

S. Lewis story I’m thinking of that has a similar kind of thing. Obviously Ray Bradbury’s got his Martian Chronicles, which is not so much about people crashing, but it is about people isolated on a planet. There’s the Martian, I’m on a Mars kick apparently because I’m thinking about Ken Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy and, the challenges of being in an extremely alien environment.

Those are all things that I could pull off the shelf and look at and think, how am I going to handle this thing, that thing? So reading widely is not optional, because we learn from reading, we get inspired by reading. But it’s also really handy to just have that mental library. It’s not You need to remember every story you ever wrote and I happened to remember the name of this story and think I want to write a story today.

I wanted to start this way. I remember this story and I remember who wrote it and which book it was in, right? And so I went and found it. You don’t even need that. You need to just know that there, you need to be familiar enough with these types of stories that you can either look them up or you can pull them from your mental memory bank and go okay, how does this work?

I am going to encourage you to read widely in whatever area you want to write. And if you don’t like this collection, the Best American Short Stories of whichever year, if you generally find that buying and reading this is a waste of your time because you don’t like these stories, There is nothing wrong with that, you do not need to read them, unless you want to get published in Ploughshares, or Zyzeva, or the Sewanee Review, or one of these publications that they pull from.

Then you need to read this, and you need to figure out what these authors are doing that gets them published in those publications. If these do nothing for you and leave you cold, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’ve got different tastes. You can read them. I read them largely because the writing itself generally provokes a reaction in me.

Sometimes it’s good and I go, oh, how did they do that? And sometimes it makes me go, oh my goodness, I can’t believe somebody thought this was good. Either way, I tend to have a strong reaction and that’s a good thing. Any collection that you read, you’re not going to like everything in it. And you’re going to wonder why the editors selected this story or that story.

If you are in a good place, your reaction is likely to spur you to write something because you’re going to go if that could get published, then I’m going to write something better.

Speaking of which, I’m reading stories from this week’s Story of a Critique Week, and I am. enjoying a lot of very good writing. There’s some stuff that people are asking questions like, I don’t know if this works, and this is really first draft y, and I’m not sure, and there’s some stuff that I’m reading and going, Dang, this is good, this is close to ready.

I’m not quite sure what to say about this. But every meeting that we have, and we had one this morning, people discuss the stories, and the author invariably says, I don’t know what to That’s really helpful. Thanks for pointing out that part that wasn’t quite working. I knew it wasn’t, but I wasn’t sure.

And then everybody smiles and goes, yeah, you thought you were going to get away with that. You’re not, you have to clarify that part. And sometimes people say I knew something wasn’t working, but I wasn’t sure what, and Two or three people in the critique group have been able to say, You lost me here, or I was confused about this, or that seemed to come out of the blue.

And then the writer goes, Ah, got it, I understand. So showing your work to other people is really helpful. And next time I run a critique group, week here at Story A Day, which if you’re listening to this in real time will be February. I generally do them in February, June and October. I encourage you to look out for that, just to get fresh eyes on your writing.

Because if you do want to get published in one of these collections or anywhere, having people who will read your work and do the critical questioning of it that you are too close to it to do is very helpful. I, in the interest of reading a lot, I tend to go through phases where I read a lot and phases where I write a lot.

And then when I’m writing I tend to be pulling and like just getting inspiration from stories I’ve read previously. I have noticed that January tends to be a time when I settle down with a bunch of short story collections and read a bunch. And I’m doing it now as well, largely because This short story collection comes out now and a lot of the prize winners for next year are being publicised.

Things that probably will win prizes next year are being published or hyped or submitted to things so it’s quite easy to find long lists of short stories at this time of year. So I’m going to be doing a lot more reading. So I’m going to be reviving my reading room section at the Story A Day blog. I don’t love reading stories.

I’m thinking I have to write a report on this, so I only post stories that I’ve read that I really liked and have something that I think I can share with you as writers that is useful. So if you come over to the blog and look out for the reading room section you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I’m going to be doing that again. I’m really currently trying to resist the idea of starting a book club around short stories and short story anthologies. I really want to do it but I’m trying to figure out how to fit that in. Because I do a lot of stuff around here already. But I do think it’s so important that we read and discuss what we’re reading and what’s going on.

talking, speaking to us. We do it in the superstars group within that critique week and if you apply and join us just for critique week you’ll get that. I do think there’s a need for us to do it even more. So I’m currently resisting the idea of starting a book club but that usually means that I’m figuring out a way to get over my objections.

So watch out for that and if you’re interested, in that kind of thing, like maybe once a month turning up and talking about a bunch of short stories that we’ve read that month. Send me an email julietstoryaday. org and let me know you’d be interested. It won’t be free because I need to eat but it might be something that’s useful for us to do because as you’ve just heard me talking for 26 minutes it’s really important to read short stories if you want to write them.

And if you don’t think you like short stories, I bet there are short stories out there that you do oh, I meant to go off on a rant about not reading just classic stories or studying classic stories because they’re not what’s getting published now, but that’s essentially what I want to say. Don’t just read classic stories because they’re free and because everybody talks about them.

Yes, they’re part of the tradition, but they’re not what’s getting published now, and I don’t think they would get published now because tastes change. So if I run a book club, it won’t be on classic stories in general. It’ll be on what’s publishing now. That’s what I have for you this week. This podcast has been a little, the timing has been a little sporadic in terms of how many episodes I’m releasing at the moment.

That’s a function of summertime. Summertime has ended, so I’ve also got some interviews lined up. for the next few months. So there’s a new sort of season of this podcast coming and I think you’re going to be hearing from more guests because I don’t want you just hearing from me.

I have lots to say but I’ve said a lot of it. There are 300 episodes of this thing. I’ve said a lot of it. I’m learning more stuff all the time but I think it’s interesting to get guests in here to talk to you as well. So keep an eye out for that. Share the podcast if you’re enjoying it and most of all, Keep writing.

How to write realistic, fascinating character reactions…and what that can teach you about BEING a writer…

LINKS: One-Story Challenge: https://storyaday.org/one-story-signup

Watch on YouTube

Other Help for Improving Your Writing Life

Download the Short Story Framework:

Short Story Framework

Take the 3-Day Challenge

Join The 3 Day Challenge

Sign up for the StoryAWeek Newsletter

StoryAWeek Sign Up

Take the I, WRITER Course

https://stada.me/iwriternow

Join the Superstars Group

https://storyaday.org/superstars

Coaching with Julie

Writing Coaching with Julie

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Transcript

1
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Good morning, good
evening, good afternoon.

2
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Julie here from Story a Day and I am
here this week to talk to you about

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some other things that I’ve been
discovering working through the One

4
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Story September Challenge with the
current group of people going through it.

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Last week we were talking about how
characters react to various stimuli and

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so I was sharing the the things I’ve
learned in my study of the psychology

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of the human being, the human creature.

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And one of the things that’s
really striking is that we are

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not as evolved as we think we are.

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So if you’ve been struggling, if
you’re interested in how to write

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better characters, I’m going to
talk a little bit about that today.

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And I’m also going to talk about
how we can use that knowledge.

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to help ourselves to escape from
the prison of imposter syndrome or

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procrastination or lack of motivation or
starting things and not finishing them.

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All of these complaints that I hear
from people every time I put out

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a survey that asks you what’s, uh,
what you’re struggling with right

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now or any time basically I talk to
writers or, uh, be a writer myself.

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So First, let’s talk about
characters, because it’s easier to

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talk about other people, especially
non existent people, than it is to

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examine our deep, dark, inner selves.

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Here’s how humans operate.

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When something happens,
we react instinctively.

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We react chemically, actually.

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We react chemically.

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Our body floods itself with whatever
chemicals in our, our history of human

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existence has taught us is important.

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This is what we’re talking about when
we say we have the fight or flight

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response or how, you know, your
body thinks it’s going to, if you’re

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stressed, it’s like in olden days when
you used to think you were going to

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get eaten by a saber toothed tiger.

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Uh, actually humans are a lot
older than saber toothed tigers.

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And so you’ve heard those things
too, so many times that they

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just kind of wash over you now.

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But I want you to think about the
fact that we react instinctively.

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And our bodies flood us, flood us with
the chemicals that it thinks we’re

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going to need before any rational
thought has time to form in our brains.

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That’s how your characters react.

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And because we are writing something
that is potentially quite intimate

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with our characters, we can hop into
their heads, we can hop into their

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bodies at any point, and we should be
sharing that stuff with the reader.

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The reader doesn’t really want to know
just what’s happening on the external.

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They want to know what’s
happening inside the character.

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We all consume a lot of television
and movies, I’m going to assume.

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That, in the hands of a really good actor
and a really good director, sometimes

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you get some of that inner journey.

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You see a range of emotions
flicker over the protagonist’s face

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before they do the right thing.

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What’s happening, and what’s happened
with that actor and director is probably

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lots and lots of conversations about
exactly how the character wants to react

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and what they’re doing to suppress that
initial desire, and whether they’re

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going to give in to that initial desire.

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And the fact is, that’s what’s
happening in every person all

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the time when something happens.

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We have this instinctive
reaction, and then we have the

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conditioned response response.

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And the Conditioned Response, the first
response that we consciously have,

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even subconsciously, is the Conditioned
Response from when you were a kid, and

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what the people who raised you, and the
people around you, who mattered to you,

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taught you, was an acceptable solution to
a situation, or reaction to a situation.

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So, if you grew up in
a house that was very

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ebullient, whether that’s for good or
ill, if people, if your character comes

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from, say, an Italian American family,
where everybody argues and shouts and

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then it all blows over in a few minutes,
as I am led to believe, then that’s going

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to be how they think it’s okay to react.

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And that’s going to be the first
reaction they reach for beyond

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the fight or flight reaction.

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Um, the, the urge to punch
someone is fairly deeply buried.

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When somebody crosses you, the urge to
like, if they come at you physically,

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00:05:12,890 –> 00:05:19,319
the urge to come back at them physically
is fairly deeply in us instinctually.

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Your childhood will have taught you
whether or not it’s acceptable to

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let that instinct go or whether you
need to, like, sit on your hands.

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Beyond that, as you, as your character
lives through life and goes outside

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the world of their family, their, their
childhood environment, they’re going

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to be in other environments where they
will learn other ways of being, and

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they will learn other societal norms.

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When you go to school, it’s very much not
okay to punch someone when you’re in the

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classroom, even though in certain eras
and certain places it might still have

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been fine to scrap on the playground.

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So you have to learn, as a human
being, to suppress instincts in layers.

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As you become, say, this character
who we’ve talked about comes

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from a very voluble, very, very
volatile family, where it might have

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been okay to punch your brother.

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00:06:17,044 –> 00:06:20,005
And then they go to school and discover
it’s okay to punch them, but only on the,

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on the playground when nobody’s looking,
certainly not in front of a teacher,

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and certainly not in the classroom.

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Then they grow up and
they become a lawyer.

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for people who may still do the punching.

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But the lawyer themselves has to
have these layers of civility and

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refinement, which they, they drape
over everything that they learned.

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And so if you’re writing this character,
they’re probably not punching anyone

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anymore, except in very extreme
circumstances in very dark alleys.

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Which means that in a situation of
high stress when someone comes at

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your lawyer verbally they are going to
react with that primal urge to punch.

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00:07:05,439 –> 00:07:10,239
The little kid in them is
going to want to punch.

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00:07:11,479 –> 00:07:17,290
The kid who went through school and
who’s learned to suppress that urge

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00:07:17,330 –> 00:07:20,370
until nobody’s looking might kick in.

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00:07:21,055 –> 00:07:27,225
And then the kid who went through law
school and learned to suppress all

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of that and come at them verbally is
going to kick in, maybe, on their best

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day, in the best of circumstances.

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So that’s a lot of emotion.

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Those are a lot of stages
that your character is going

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to go through in an instant.

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That’s how the human mind
brain nervous system works.

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If you’re not showing us any of
that, how are we supposed to know

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what your character’s going through?

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00:07:56,715 –> 00:08:04,074
If they just quirk an eyebrow or smirk,
what does that tell us about what’s

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actually happening inside your character?

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You’ve got, uh, you’ve got like a
five minute slow mo sequence that you

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could be running through You’ve got
all the off ramps on that journey.

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Your character can go all the way
to the right civilised response and

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come back with a witty rejoinder.

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Or they can take an earlier off ramp
and they can snarl or they can lash

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out or they can, you know, have some
physical reaction that shows them

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wanting to go at the other person and
repressing it because, you know, school.

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Or you can let them.

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Rip and you can let them have their
primitive reaction not even the one

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in the family where somebody would
have stepped in and said Okay kids,

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00:08:52,580 –> 00:08:53,849
let’s you know, let’s break it up.

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Now.

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You could let them go even further
You have all of those things to

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go through emotionally inside your
character Before you even start

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00:09:01,789 –> 00:09:05,090
thinking about how to show that on the
outside and how far they’re gonna go.

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00:09:05,520 –> 00:09:10,564
So We go from a very primitive response
to a conditioned response that can be

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hard to get over to the civilized response
that we have layered on as adults that

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makes the, the, the actions that we
think are civilized and acceptable.

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Part of the journey throughout a story
for your character, part of the internal

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00:09:29,025 –> 00:09:33,914
journey of any character, is probably
going to always be a balance between

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what society will accept as civilized and
what your character really wants to do.

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00:09:43,334 –> 00:09:49,234
It’s probably a journey between, journey
about, or a balancing act about them

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00:09:51,365 –> 00:09:57,975
overcoming their instincts and deciding
how far to go towards what society

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wants and what feels good in the moment.

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And then, of course, you get to
explore things like the conditioning

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that your character has laid over
themselves, both by their family and

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their school and their environment.

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00:10:12,899 –> 00:10:17,039
All of these things, all of these, these,
all of this conditioning that has happened

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00:10:17,090 –> 00:10:22,469
to them, along with the things that they
have decided to take on in order to fit

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00:10:22,469 –> 00:10:25,850
into the world they’re in, some of that
stuff may need to be stripped away.

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00:10:26,450 –> 00:10:30,630
You think about a romantic partner
who’s experiencing coercive control.

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They have learned all these layers of
conditioning that have kept them safe and

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00:10:34,870 –> 00:10:36,700
some of that stuff they shouldn’t have.

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00:10:37,330 –> 00:10:39,219
And they’re going to have
to strip that stuff away.

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And it’s always going to be a fight
between the instinct, the conditioning,

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00:10:45,740 –> 00:10:52,010
the intellectual decision about
what’s acceptable, and then perhaps

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00:10:52,010 –> 00:10:54,120
a further intellectual decision.

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00:10:54,525 –> 00:10:59,965
decision about what’s acceptable now,
in this moment, for me, unlearning

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00:10:59,965 –> 00:11:01,225
the stuff that I learned before.

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00:11:01,945 –> 00:11:06,424
Humans are complicated and it
happens in the fraction of a second.

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What can you put into your writing to show
us what your character is going through?

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00:11:12,985 –> 00:11:15,305
Not all the time, just some of the time.

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00:11:16,205 –> 00:11:18,445
When are the good moments
to show that stuff?

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00:11:18,475 –> 00:11:23,145
Is your character always going to react
in the civilized, acceptable manner?

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00:11:23,820 –> 00:11:26,050
Is that always the right
thing for them to do?

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00:11:26,380 –> 00:11:31,110
How are they going to feel if they let
go and they get a bit more primitive?

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00:11:31,690 –> 00:11:35,440
How are they going to feel if they stay
civilized when they shouldn’t have?

155
00:11:43,470 –> 00:11:45,710
Which brings me to you, the writer.

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As you go through your writing
process, you too are human.

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You too are dealing with
all of these reactions.

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to your writing.

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00:11:59,975 –> 00:12:03,055
It seems ridiculous, but it’s
not an intellectual thing.

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00:12:05,305 –> 00:12:09,615
When you’re writing and things get
hard, this is what you go through.

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You go through an instinctive reaction,
you go through your conditioned reaction,

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00:12:13,975 –> 00:12:18,605
and then maybe, if you’re paying
attention, you get to the intellectual

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00:12:18,735 –> 00:12:22,615
reaction where you say, I know this
feels a little uncomfortable at the

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00:12:22,615 –> 00:12:26,275
moment, but I’m going to be, I’m going
to be cool about it, and I’m going

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00:12:26,275 –> 00:12:29,265
to look at my work dispassionately,
and I’m going to decide where it’s

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working and where it’s not working.

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Now, on the journey from the ugh, this,
this feels hard, to no, I’m going to

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be dispassionate and, and sensible,
and I’m going to work on this like

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00:12:40,834 –> 00:12:42,934
a scientist and tweak my writing.

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On the journey, from one to the
other, you’re going down a path

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that I can’t possibly know.

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Because I don’t know whose
voices are in your head.

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I don’t know what you were
conditioned to believe was acceptable.

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00:12:55,505 –> 00:12:58,235
I don’t know what you’ve
been through in your life.

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But I do know that that
stuff is all in there.

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00:13:01,995 –> 00:13:04,665
And when people say to me I’m suffering
from imposter syndrome, even though

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I know they are beautiful writers.

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When people tell me they can’t finish
things, even though I’m dying to know

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00:13:10,585 –> 00:13:12,104
what happens at the end of their story.

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00:13:12,860 –> 00:13:17,480
I know there’s something going on in that
middle area, in that you were conditioned

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00:13:17,480 –> 00:13:19,240
to believe certain things area.

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00:13:19,620 –> 00:13:22,249
Maybe you were conditioned to believe
that you shouldn’t take this much

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00:13:22,250 –> 00:13:24,940
time away from your family to write.

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00:13:26,740 –> 00:13:27,340
Maybe.

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00:13:28,130 –> 00:13:29,090
Is that acceptable?

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00:13:29,370 –> 00:13:31,500
Is that appropriate for
this moment in your life?

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00:13:32,400 –> 00:13:36,250
Is that lesson that you learned when
you had a tiny baby who really did need

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00:13:36,250 –> 00:13:40,270
you to be there every second of the day
appropriate now that your children are

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00:13:40,270 –> 00:13:45,250
adults or now that your parents are gone
or now that, uh, you know, there’s other

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00:13:45,250 –> 00:13:48,329
younger people in your community who can
do some of the things you used to do?

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00:14:04,509 –> 00:14:08,140
Does the fact that you’re a good
girl and you never swear mean

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00:14:08,150 –> 00:14:09,570
that your characters can’t curse?

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00:14:15,710 –> 00:14:17,780
And if it makes you uncomfortable,
how are you going to deal with that?

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00:14:21,015 –> 00:14:24,844
If you were the smart kid at school
and everything came easily to you and

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00:14:24,844 –> 00:14:30,754
you were able to dodge the classes
that were hard I’m not saying that I

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00:14:30,754 –> 00:14:35,555
got out of gym by saying I had singing
lessons, but I’m not not saying that

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00:14:38,305 –> 00:14:41,205
If you were able to dodge the
difficult things early in life

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00:14:41,215 –> 00:14:45,995
Or you just a lot of stuff came
easily to you when things get hard.

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00:14:46,045 –> 00:14:51,390
Do you have You the conditioning that
says hard things are to be avoided.

200
00:14:52,160 –> 00:14:56,640
Or do you have the ability to push
through that and get your intellect

201
00:14:56,640 –> 00:15:00,840
involved and say, Yeah, I’m not
very good at this, but that’s okay.

202
00:15:00,930 –> 00:15:04,659
I can, it doesn’t mean
I’m not good at living.

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00:15:05,130 –> 00:15:06,379
It doesn’t mean I’m worthless.

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00:15:06,669 –> 00:15:10,289
It means I didn’t write this correctly
and I don’t quite know what’s wrong

205
00:15:10,289 –> 00:15:13,960
with it and I might have to ask for
help and that might be uncomfortable.

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00:15:15,205 –> 00:15:20,225
We have to work through our instinctive
reactions, just like our characters do.

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00:15:20,675 –> 00:15:23,884
We have to work through our
conditioned responses and ask

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00:15:23,885 –> 00:15:25,225
whether those are still appropriate.

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00:15:26,614 –> 00:15:32,755
And then we have to look at our
intellectual rationalising of our actions

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00:15:33,665 –> 00:15:36,365
and ask if that’s actually appropriate.

211
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Is it appropriate to say, oh
well, I’m not very good at writing

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00:15:40,625 –> 00:15:42,755
novels, therefore I should just not.

213
00:15:43,580 –> 00:15:48,990
Or, is it acceptable to say, Oh well, I’m
not very good at writing novels, I need to

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00:15:48,990 –> 00:15:53,030
figure out why, and what’s tripping me up.

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00:15:53,030 –> 00:15:57,950
Because this is quite a complex thing, and
I bet I’m not not good at writing novels,

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00:15:58,200 –> 00:16:03,690
I bet I don’t have a strong sense of
what’s actually supposed to be happening.

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in the scenes in the middle after the
inciting incident and before the climax.

218
00:16:10,645 –> 00:16:13,324
And maybe I need to go and study
some story structure from someone

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00:16:13,324 –> 00:16:17,714
who really gets this and speaks about
it in a way that I can relate to.

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I know, writing’s fun, right?

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00:16:23,214 –> 00:16:24,355
Writing’s a thing you enjoy.

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00:16:24,405 –> 00:16:26,295
It’s supposed to be fun,
it’s supposed to be easy.

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00:16:26,415 –> 00:16:27,285
Uh uh.

224
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It’s not supposed to be easy.

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If it was easy, it
wouldn’t be interesting.

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You may have to.

227
00:16:35,680 –> 00:16:42,860
do some work on, on the
bit between your reaction

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00:16:45,189 –> 00:16:50,030
and the intellectual response you actually
want and the outcome that matters to you.

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And this all happened because I
promised to share with a bunch of

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people what I had learned in my
writing practice and study about the

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difference between show and tell.

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That writing advice that says
You should show, not tell.

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A.

234
00:17:16,050 –> 00:17:16,800
Not always true.

235
00:17:16,849 –> 00:17:17,319
And B.

236
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Wow, is there a lot to explore in there.

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So we’ve spent this month in the One Story
Challenge, exploring Show, Don’t Tell.

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And in the meantime,

239
00:17:31,179 –> 00:17:37,099
I got to delve into human psychology
and human physiology in order to

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allow all of us to write a book.

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Better characters who react more
realistically and who have depth.

242
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Even in short stories you can do
this stuff so easily, not easily,

243
00:17:48,429 –> 00:17:53,179
you can do this stuff so quickly
and with so few words that you can

244
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do this in a short story if you
know what you’re trying to achieve.

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So I delved into human psychology,
physiology, and expectations.

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I ended up delving into personal
development, all because I wanted to write

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and help some other people write stories
that were more satisfying to other people.

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00:18:17,290 –> 00:18:21,690
There’s nothing wrong with wanting
to please people, especially if

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you can use it to keep learning.

250
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This life, I think, is a lifelong learning
project, and writing is demanding.

251
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Because it demands that we look
at what, the human condition.

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So simply looking at a technique
like Show Don’t Tell has allowed

253
00:18:48,154 –> 00:18:50,245
me to go so deep this month.

254
00:18:53,244 –> 00:18:59,044
And it’s allowed me to develop,
not just my craft, but as a writer.

255
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with a writing practice.

256
00:19:01,844 –> 00:19:07,004
It’s allowed me to examine why I sometimes
resist writing, even though I love it.

257
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It’s allowed me to examine whether or not
the polite society rules I was raised with

258
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are serving me, whether I need to be quite
that polite, or whether it would be better

259
00:19:23,645 –> 00:19:27,155
for me as a human being in this one life

260
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to react differently to some things.

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It’s allowed me to examine whose
voices are in my head and whether

262
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they’re worth listening to.

263
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It’s allowed me to build confidence.

264
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And I think it’s doing the same for
the people in the One Story Challenge.

265
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Never think that your
writing is a waste of time.

266
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Your writing is a personal development
project that trickles out into the world.

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That filters out into the world
around you, to all the people

268
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that you come in contact with.

269
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Working on a skill, or a craft
piece, or a story, or a technique,

270
00:20:32,834 –> 00:20:34,034
is never a waste of time.

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It will teach you so much about people,
about your writing, and about yourself.

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So, I commend you for being a
writer, And for doing the hard

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work, as well as the easy work.

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And if you’re not always finding
it easy or having it fun,

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finding it easy or having it feel like
fun, I heard an athlete talking about

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this recently and they said that their
coach had told them it’s the rule of

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thirds, a third of the time it’s going
to feel easy and joyous and You’re in

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the flow and it’s going to feel great.

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A third of the time, it’s
going to feel like work.

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And a third of the time, no matter
what you do, it’s going to feel

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like you’re failing because you just
can’t get, you can’t perform at your

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best level, you can’t, you can’t
go faster in art, you can’t meet

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the times that you wanted to meet.

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You’re just, you just
can’t do it on those days.

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But as long as that’s a third, and
a third of the time, you’re loving

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it, and the middle third is work.

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That’s about right.

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And I found that very encouraging.

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Worthwhile things aren’t always easy.

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We can look at ways of making them more
easy, we don’t need to make them harder.

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But there are going to be days where it’s
just not happening, it’s just not coming.

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But those days are not wasted.

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Those days are building strength,
building persistence, building grit,

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building patience.

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And for a writer, they’re probably
you absorbing experiences, noodling

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things in the back of your mind
where you’re not thinking about

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them, watching the world, watching
people, seeing how they really work.

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You don’t need to be turning out
2, 000 words a day to be a writer.

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So I encourage you to think about
deepening your character’s reactions

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Letting the reader pause and go through
that process with them occasionally.

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And I also encourage you to pause and
examine your own reactions when you come

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up against something that’s a little hard.

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In part, so you can replicate it on the
page, but in part, so that you can get

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to the intellectual analysis part of it
and figure out if there’s anything you

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need to change and What that might be.

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And there’s no rush, because
this is a lifetime project.

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That’s what I have for you this week.

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If you’d like to join the One Story
Challenge, you can join it at any time by

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coming to StoryADay.org/one-story-signup
keep writing.

This week’s StoryADay podcast is about loving your writing and sharing the love! Yes, there is stuff about marketing your writing in here, but don’t let that put you off.

CHAPTERS

00:00 StADa321 – Being You

01:09 The One-Story Challenge: Show, Don’t Tell Edition

08:07 Marketing

LINKS:

The One-Story Challenge – Show Don’t Tell Edition:

Elizabeth Wheatley’s Instagram:   / elisabethwheatley  

Elizabeth Wheatley’s Books:

Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/r16neqjFs1s

Other Help for Improving Your Writing Life

Download the Short Story Framework:

Short Story Framework

Take the 3-Day Challenge

Join The 3 Day Challenge

Sign up for the StoryAWeek Newsletter

StoryAWeek Sign Up

Take the I, WRITER Course

https://stada.me/iwriternow

Join the Superstars Group

https://storyaday.org/superstars

Coaching with Julie

Writing Coaching with Julie

---

Transcript

StADa321 – Being You

[00:00:00] Good morning. Good evening. Good afternoon, Julie, from StoryADay here. And I have a couple of things I want to talk to you about this week. Both of which are topics of conversation in the story of the community. And the first one. Is to do with getting the writing done and the craft of doing the writing.

[00:00:21] And I’m going to talk to you about that and the second things a little bit about marketing your work, because there are so many people in this community who’ve been writing for awhile. Now, storyADay May has generated a lot of content. And it’s been running for 15 years and people who started writing before it even started.

[00:00:40] And who’ve been consistently coming back and writing every year. They have generated a lot of material. They’ve learned a lot. They’ve got some great stuff and a lot of them are at the stage of getting their work out into the world. A lot of people who are getting their work out into the world are drawn to this community because of how seriously we take the writing,

[00:00:58] and I suspect the, how seriously we don’t take ourselves, it’s probably a bit of a draw as well. So when talk about both of those things today, but I’m not going to go too long, so let’s get to it.

[00:01:09] First of all. As I record this, it is September and I want to make a plea. If you haven’t jumped into the one story challenge yet this month. It is not too late. We spent the first week drafting a new story for people to play with.

[00:01:27] You could bring a story you’ve already got, and you could review the materials I provided in week one in no time at all. Generate a new story. If you need to, or bring something that you’ve already been working on. This week, we’re getting into the Show, don’t tell lessons of the challenge. So my promise with this one story challenge was that we would take the whole month to work on a single story. You could start from scratch and write the story.

[00:01:54] Then we would delve into this one particular craft technique that gets talked about all the time and drives people crazy. It’s really effective. It’s really powerful, but it’s become one of those. Things that people see and things that people beat you over the head with in critique groups, if you’re not showing you’re telling and what does that even mean?

[00:02:17] So that’s what we’re talking about in the one story challenge. We’re going from the first week where we’ve been drafting stories to. This week where we’re looking at what. Is really meant. By show don’t tell so on Sunday, I’m going to release that lesson. And if you haven’t jumped into the challenge yet, this is perfect timing.

[00:02:38] Jump into the challenge. It is currently priced at $30 for the month and it will never be this price. Again, I tell you that because I’ll be able to get a ton of work into it, and I’m really proud of it. And as I go through this I’m trying to make sure that the information is clear and doled out in a way that is bite size, fun size. And that you get to go through it. While also having a life. While also having obligations and maybe you’ve got kids going back to school.

[00:03:07] Maybe you’ve got parents who need driven to medical appointments. Maybe you’ve got birthday parties coming up, whatever. It is that you have going on in your life. I’ve developed this challenge, which is very unlike story a day may, which is very like, hit the ground running and writes already everyday. This is a kinder, gentler challenge.

[00:03:24] This week we’re going into what really is. Show don’t tell anyway. And we’re doing exercises that will let you take parts of your story and try out different. Versions of show don’t tell because there’s lots of ways that you can apply that advice. Within a story. And there are places where you shouldn’t apply that advice.

[00:03:49] So we’re talking about that this, the first part of that this week, w we’ll try things out, And the opening or in a scene in the middle, I’m not giving away any spoilers, but that’s what we’re going to be working on this week. Every day. There’ll be an exercise that we’ll let you tweak and play with this technique and see. What it can do for your story and what you like about it and what you dislike about it.

[00:04:09] And just be able to talk about it, defend your work in critique groups in a more confident manner. Because it does get overused next week, we will look at more holistically at the whole story. Not next week. The third week of September. We’ll look more holistically at the whole story. And we will look at ways to see. What proportion of showing and telling you should be doing.

[00:04:34] And we are looking at this from a short story perspective. So although these skills. Can. Amplify and be used in a novel quite often, I find that in writing classes, techniques, when they are talked about from a novelist point of view, Don’t miniaturize. So we’re starting. From the point of view of a short story writer and saying, yeah, but how could I do this in a short story? And so that’s really what we’re going to be looking at the third week of September. And everything that we learn in practice can of course be expanded.

[00:05:10] And I think that’s a little easier than trying to shrink things down and take novel techniques. And. And make them work for short fiction. So that’s what’s going on in the one story challenge.

[00:05:30] And the fourth week. Is going to be, when I focus on helping people get the story really finished, but also on one other thing that everyone needs to do, if they’re going to.

[00:05:45] Do this for the long haul. If you are going to make consistent progress, there is a way to, there’s a thing you need to do. At the end of projects. Which will make it more likely that you’re going to keep working without feeling burned out and stay excited about the project that you just finished, actually finished projects.

[00:06:08] All of that can suck. So we’re going to talk about that in week four of the one story challenge as well. So if that sounds good, come over to story. A date.org forward slash one story challenge. Nope, that’s not right. One story, sign up. I’ll put the link in the notes. There’s hyphens in between those words. I will put that into the show notes so that you can come over and join us because you probably have a story already that you can use.

[00:06:34] You can jump in and use these techniques on. So if you weren’t with us for week one, It doesn’t matter, you can review that material, but bring a story that you’ve already started. When I first run a workshop. Like this that’s exactly what I encouraged people to do was to bring a story that was already. In progress.

[00:06:52] So nothing lost. If you haven’t joined us for week one, you’ll still have access to those materials, but you will get the show. Don’t tell lesson this week, then next week you’ll get the. The making a scene. Version of the next step of that. And then the week four will be all about putting the story to bed. And staying enthusiastic about it.

[00:07:13] So hopefully I’ve intrigued you, but not giving away too much because I want you to join us. I don’t want you to just think about it, don’t just think, oh, I’ll learn that later. Because take talk, Time’s moving on. Life keeps passing us by. And if you start today, you’re going to be so much better in two years than if you start in two years.

[00:07:31] So you’re not.

[00:07:35] You’re not standing still.

[00:07:40] I hate to say this. But if you’re not writing. You’re getting rusty. So I put together these challenges to stop you from suffering the feet that I suffered after years of not writing. Creatively. And discovering that it was so hard to get going again. So I put together all these challenges to give you little ways to get back to your rating. Because it makes you happy.

[00:08:02] It makes you more who you are. So anyway, enough about that, you’ve heard me say that stuff before.

[00:08:07] Marketing

[00:08:07] Let’s talk, marketing everyone’s favorite topic. One of the things that’s come up in the StoryADay Superstars group. Is the idea of doing author newsletters. So we’ve been talking a lot about that. And I’ve been talking a lot to a group of entrepreneur, friends of mine about how to. write. Stories in newsletters and emails and marketing materials, that don’t necessarily involve you exposing your entire personal life. Now. We as writers. Have such a leg up on, on people who are just like, I want to be in business and sell a thing. But they understand they need to do marketing.

[00:08:51] They understand they need an email list. They understand that they need to be posting on social media, engaging their followers and having an avatar and all of that stuff. They understand it, but they don’t necessarily have the writing background to make it work. So it’s a harder lesson for me to teach them.

[00:09:08] But if I tell you. That you can write a short story. About. You know your interaction with the barista today. Or about a D something that happened in history or something that you researched for your novel, you get it, you understand, you could put together like a paragraph about that stuff. You could make it compelling.

[00:09:30] You know how to do that. You just need, I think remaindered as everyone does that when people talk about marketing and putting yourself out there, It doesn’t have to be all of you. It has to be the things that you notice. The things that come out of your brain, the things that matter to you. In your fiction writing

[00:09:54] your values come through. Your preoccupations come through. Your passions come through. If you think that, there’s the life is a zero sum game, that comes through in all of the choices that your characters make, all of the outcomes of your novels. If you think that by giving you receive then, and that you expand the pie by giving away tasters, then that comes through in your stories, every choice your characters make your protagonist, probably not your antagonist, but your protagonist is going to make those kinds of choices.

[00:10:33] It’s. It’s really hard to hide your values from your fiction. When we talk about being authentic in your marketing it’s not that you have to share pictures of your family or talk about where you went on vacation or talk about your politics or your religion or any of those things, but by sharing things that you’re interested in things that make you laugh, things that make you, go, huh? You will draw people to you who like the stuff that comes out of your brain?

[00:11:07] And I have a very specific reason I’m talking about this this week because it happened to me this week. I’ve been following a writer on Instagram called Elizabeth Wheatley, for a while. And I’ve been following her largely because she does a very silly thing. She has a character. That she has created called Book Goblin. Who she talks to.

[00:11:32] It’s one of those Instagram things where, the same person is playing both characters, but she talks to Book Goblin, Book Goblin is very obsessive about books. And so she’s used Book Goblin to talk about. Controversies that have come up in her zone, which is a fantasy, I think like romance/fantasy and there’s various. Overlapping genres there. But she’s used conversations with Book Goblin to , talk about control of receipts that have popped up.

[00:11:57] She’s used it to talk about her upcoming releases. She’s used it to talk about why you can’t find her books on Amazon or at least not when they’re first released. So anyway, I follow her largely because I saw a Book Goblin sketch and I thought it was funny. And then I started to like all of the stuff that she was posting. And. Eventually, when she announced a new book, I thought, you know what? I have had so much entertainment from her,

[00:12:26] I think that the brain that created a Book Goblin, probably has some other characters in it that I might enjoy. So even though fantasy is not my first love, and that is definitely what she’s writing. I thought, you know what. I’ll give it a try. So the new book coming out, I thought, you know what, I’ll go back to the first book in the series. I will read I’ll by it.

[00:12:48] I’ll read it. And as aforementioned, she doesn’t Promote her books through Amazon, barnes and noble and things like that. She sells them directly from our website, which I can respect. Okay. So I went over to the website. The first book in the series is $7, which is more than you would charge if you were slavishly. following the advice of all the indie author. experts out there who tell you, the first book in the series should be free or it should be 99 cents.

[00:13:14] And then you should put everything on Kindle unlimited so that people can get it. And. There’s so much advice out there and she’s not following any of that. She’s doing her own thing. And so I was like, oh, cool. That’s interesting. What, $7 for a book, but I might not like, but I’ve already been following her for awhile and consumed $7 worth of, value from what she’s given me.

[00:13:36] So I’ll buy the book. And I’ll I probably won’t like it, but I’ll buy the first book and we’ll see.

[00:13:43] I like the book. My instinct that the person who showed up.

[00:13:49] bravely, boldly and authentically on Instagram and created this book, Goblin Character, my instinct that this person probably had other characters in their brain that I would enjoy hanging out with was absolutely spot on. Now, understand. I am not saying, that you need to start recording videos that you need to have a character that you need to do sketches any of that stuff you absolutely do

[00:14:17] not. What I am seeing. Is that if you can find a way to show us a little bit of your author self. That part of you that is. Uniquely you, The part of you that goes down rabbit holes. Researching the weaving methods of Flanders textile merchants staff in the 14 00s. And spends three days reading about warp and weft and dye stuffs. You can share some of that stuff with us.

[00:14:57] You are not going to appeal to everybody. You are going to appeal to people who are out there. Looking for someone who is that type of quirky they don’t even have to be interested in weaving, but they’re looking, people are scrolling through social media and they’re looking for something that makes them feel a connection.

[00:15:19] And if you show that level of authenticity, show your weird, show your obsessions. Don’t tell us about your kids and your holidays and what you had for lunch unless that is your obsession and you don’t mind sharing those things. But if you collect vintage high heels show us those. It doesn’t really matter if it’s connected to what you’re writing, because if I like your brain. I’m probably going to like your stories.

[00:15:50] So that’s my message today. Is that Authenticity willl draw the right people to you, and it will repel the wrong people away from you. And anyway, I really have to go now because I have to find out what’s going on with Amira and Daindreth, and I need to read my book. Book. BOOK!

[00:16:19] Keep writing.