Smith, D.W. (2015) Writing into the Dark

Numbers are kindle location

Introduction

• 24: writing into the dark = writing without an outline. Aka writing by the seat of your pants, pantsing
• 24: most short stories writers do automatically but freeze when it comes to novels
• 43: "art is never done purposely"
• 49: great art comes from creative side of brain
  • when we play
• 55: why write into the dark? Because it imitates reading process
• 74: "if you have no idea where the book is going, the reader won't either"
• 80: outline as you go

Chapter 1 - Some background

• 93: writing into the dark gets bad press
• 129: no magical process to writing a book. Regular people wrote them.
• 135: focus on 10 pages a day. 30 days later you have an 80k novel

Chapter 2 - The critical voice problem

• 150: "the only purpose of the critical voice in creative writing is to stop you"
  • critical voice is fear, trying to protect you by paralysis
• 168: there is no danger in writing
• 168: fearless writers contain the critical voice and write what they love
• 188: "when you are writing new words, you are never wasting your time"
  • it's all practice
• 195: "the biggest waste of time in writing is rewriting"
• 201: Heinlein's business rules
  • Smith, D. W. (2016) Heinlein's Business Rules

Chapter 3 - The Joy of Uncertainty

• 227: certainty in reading = boredom
• 252: write the next sentence
• 272: if you just can't write the next word/sentence, sleep on it

Chapter 4 - What Do You Need to Get Started?

• 303: you need a love of story
• 315: clear the preconceptions of critical voice
• 334: sometimes you will write extra going down the wrong path
  • remember time spent writing new words is never wasted
• 346: you are not going to rewrite the book
• 359: why do you, the creative writer, not beleive you can write a book from the creative side of your brain?

Chapter 5 - How to Get Started

• 372: write scenes. Trust the process
• 374: "you must have a character in a setting"
  • brainstorm a few and write the first page as an exercise?
• 405: "Depth is caused by having a character be firmly in a setting with opinions and all five senses and emotions about the setting."
• 424: character - setting. Climb in head. Don't type one word not from the character's opinion, senses or emotion.

Chapter 6 - Some Process Hints

• 432: beleive in your own work
  • this might be the hardest thing to do
• 437: uncertainty is part of the process. Don't focus on it
• 450: don't be afraid to write extra and explore
• 450: jump plot to where you think it needs to be and keep writing
• 456: two reasons for bogging down
  1. Written past end of chapter/scene
  2. Gone down wrong branch of plot
• 456: if you bog down near end of book, you wrote past the ending
• 469: one third point is deadly - critical voice strong
• 488: get past one third point by writing next sentence

Chapter 7 - unstuck in time

• 504: you don't have to write a book from front to back
• 524: fix everything as you go - no second drafts
• 530: Writing a note to fix later pulls you out of creative voice
  • I disagree with this somewhat. Writing [Character] to name layer helps keep me in flow
• 537: write ahead, write in pieces, constantly loop
  • Writing iteratively
• 569: the next sentence you write $\ne$ next sentence reader will read
• 575: "creative minds do not tend to work in a straight line"

Chapter 8 - The Hint of Cycling

• 590: modern computers both a blessing and a curse
• 609: every 500-700 words go back to word one: make tweaks, fix mistakes
• 622: cycling helps keep momentum
• 641: takes less time to get story right first time than fix later

Chapter 9 - Helpful Hint #2

• 658: outline as you go
• 664: after every chapter write a brief summary
• 664: suggest using pen and paper to delineate from creative writing
• 670: note characters clothes and line they change clothes
• 670: if multiple scenes per chapter, write notes for every scene
• 683: why? Because we can't hold a whole novel in our heads
• 696: makes structure of novel clear
• 715: stop doing outline when you see the end of the book coming

Chapter 10 - Helpful Hint #3

• 729: when near ending, keep writing until you bog down
• 729: cycle back and find ending line
• 735: Writing to a word count is all critical voice
  • it's helpful to know whether you're writing a short story, a novella or a novel though
• 742: entertain yourself
  • enjoy the uncertainty
  • write the book you want to read
  • never write for anyone but yourself.