Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
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Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
writing into the dark takes a belief system in story. It takes a trust that your creative voice knows what it is doing.
Dean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
So back to the question on how to start a story. Take a reader quickly down into depth.
Dean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
Everything you have written, all those golden words, suddenly look like crap. The middle boring part of the book is ahead, or if you are writing into the dark, the fear of not knowing what is next rears up and becomes a monster. And then the critical voice hits you with the thought, “This book is so bad, so much work to finish, what’s the point?”
Dean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
When writing into the dark, the story will often come in parts, and sometimes the parts aren’t in a real order. That’s part of the fun. And later on in this book I’ll explain how to deal with all that. Sometimes, like a reader, you experience the writing process from word one to the last word. But sometimes, like a cave explorer, you have to see
... See moreDean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
And many of the books those same English professors study were written completely into the dark.
Dean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
When I find the one spot where I could have gone another direction, I cut off the extra words and go off in the new direction. I’ll know I’m going in the right direction because suddenly the story is flowing again faster than I can type.
Dean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
but they have zero, or less than zero, idea how to create a story from nothing.
Dean Wesley Smith • Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline (WMG Writer's Guides)
Your creative voice will put all the stuff that needs to be there in the book, and make you look really, really smart to English classes later. And as I discovered, you won’t even know you put that stuff in there for those deconstructionists to find.