12 posts tagged “writing”

My short story THE BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION is now available to read on Crimson Highway webzine. 

                 ~ Clickity! ~

It's an odd little story, and very different to anything else I've written.  There's a small part of me that wishes something else had been my first published story, something far more typical of what I write, but then the rest of me says, Hell, you gotta start somewhere, and far better to be picky about where you end up.  So.  I shall be working on where I end up. 

In the meantime, check out my first ever published story.  It's interesting, I think.

In the 'books' section of the Times today, there was an article on how to write chick-lit.  Much to my surprise there was some decent advice in there - concerning dialogue, description, etc - but they also had tips from "stars of the genre", one of which made me want to kill someone.

"The worst thing you can do is to concentrate on plot at the expense of the characters.  As long as the characters live and breathe, not an awful lot need happen.  Don't get too complex."
~ Freya North

The first sentence I could have accepted.  A story needs good characters.  But the rest....

Admittedly, this is partly personal preference.  I like to read stories that are packed up to the eyeballs with complex plot, as well as a cast of interesting characters.  I know some people much prefer character-fiction, where plot is very much on the sidelines.  (I personally can't think of anything more boring.  Oh, wait..... Nope, more boring even than prizegiving-day speeches back at school.)

I hope wannabe-writers don't take this woman's "advice" seriously.  Not everyone likes plot-less stories, and telling writers to write them without saying it's not the way everyone wants books is rather stupid.

But then again, nothing really happens in chick-lit, does it?  The woman buys some shoes, angsts a bit about the guy she wants but can't get and about her expanding waistline, and then buys some more shoes.  Give me guns and explosions any day. 

Quite an odd thing happened this year.  From being someone who actually read very little fantasy or scifi, and preferred weird non-specfic stuff like Donna Tartt's books (which are a lot of awesome, and are the best non-specfic books I've read this year), I went to someone devouring fantasy and scifi - and some of it weird, new, non-mainstream stuff.  It happened with my summer holiday, where I finally decided I would read China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, Frank Herbert's Dune, as well as a random book called The Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson.  They were all fantastic.  And I haven't looked back.

Some of the books I've read haven't been fantastic.  They've been mindblowingly awesome in more ways than I can count.  They are:

4th Place:  The Carpet Makers, by Andreas Eschbach
On a low-tech world, the main industry is the manufacture of carpets of human hair.  Each takes so long to make that it is a lifetime's job for the group of men, who weave the carpet from their wives' hair and provide money from the sale for each's one son to survive while weaving his own carpet.  But the ships that take the carpets offworld have stopped arriving.  In a weave of plot threads with no main character, the reason for the carpet-making tradition and the fall of the vast interstellar empire are superbly told.  One of the more imaginative scifi books I've read.

3rd Place:  The Etched City, by K.J. Bishop
In the city of Ashamoil, gunslinger Gwynn - currently in the employ of the Horn Fan slave-trading cartel - finds himself drawn to a woman called Beth who made an etching of him.  While the cartel's fortunes are shattered by a man's desire for vengeance, Gwynn realises that Beth is not quite what she seems.  And wow, that summary does not do the book justice; it forgets Raule, a doctor who collects deformed dead babies; it doesn't quite express the dark, chimeric nature of the book.  This is real "dark fantasy".

2nd Place: The Scar, by China Miéville
Linguist Bellis Coldwine is fleeing New Crobuzon aboard a ship headed for an island colony, when the ship is attacked by pirates.  Along with all the other passengers, she is taken to Armada: a vast floating city of ships of all sizes slung together, grown over with houses and offices and gardens and more.  There, with a fellow passenger, she realises that the city's leaders, the Lovers, have a dangerous plan in mind for the city, and she becomes determined to stop it.  This book is vast, filled to overflowing with Miéville's imagination, and everything about it works - setting, characters, plot, narrative.  An absolutely stunning book. 

And the best book I've read in 2006...

The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden

1st Place: The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden, by Catherynne M Valente
A girl has been cast out into the palace's gardens for a strange marking: the skin around her eyes is stained black, with stories written in tiny handwriting.  She tells these stories to a daring boy, and the fairy-tale stories weave in and out of each other with beautifully imaginative lyricism.  An absolutely amazing book, brimming with ideas and beauty.
Read the prelude, and then the beginning of the stories.
Also, read her short stories:
The Maiden-Tree
Bones like Black Sugar
Urchins, While Swimming

And, quick life update:
- My gran died on Friday.  Looks like it was in her sleep.  I'm okay (she was 90, and very frail, so this isn't exactly unexpected) but then I'm not quite okay, you know?  I'm not depressed or anything, and I cried once and probably won't again until the funeral, so don't worry about me.  Still, I miss my gran a little, and I think it will hit more when I go up to Scotland for the funeral (whenever the hell that is - because she died unattended, the doctor won't simply sign off on her death certificate, so there has to be an autopsy.  She was 90, WTF?  Heart gave out, or a stroke, or some other kind of system failure.  Stupid people.) 
- Working tonight.  Closing, out at 10pm-ish.  What a rocking New Year's Eve I shall be having.  Ohhh riiight, sexy time!  Though, I will be home before midnight, and will try to finish off Catherynne M Valente's book The Labyrinth - so the moment of 2007's beginning will actually be quite good, despite the McDonald's smell clinging to my hair.
- Sent off TANSU to Sybil's Garage a few days ago. 
- Finished a first draft of A TRIPTYCH, for the Iris Print "fairy tale and fantasy" boy's love anthology.  It's currently 6,500 words, which is about twice as long as I expected.  I think I like it, quite a lot actually, but I need to re-read, see what it looks like in dawn-light, and some tweaking will probably be in order before I send it to Rhi for beta-ing.
- Still excited about THE BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION being accepted.  Can I call myself a writer yet?  I don't know.  But I'm not a not-writer either.  And yeah, I know, anyone who writes is a writer, but am I a writer?  I think there is a difference, be it just the flimsy barrier of published/not-published.  But I changed my LJ profile from "a hopeful writer" to "a writer" and it feels a little odd, still. 

At Rhi's prompt I finally got around to uploading the backlog of Bunia's journal entries, including the one I finished off today which contains a sex scene.  :S  Because I usually fade to black pretty early on in such scenes, I'm always nervous about writing them out in full, and this is the longest one I've ever written.  While I do know to avoid daft euphanisms, and my own sexual experience means that I won't make stupid mistakes about the basic mechanics of the act, I nonetheless don't know if my writing will be good enough.  I want it to be a little hot, but don't want it to look like I was trying too much to make it hot - natural, then; a natural representation of what the viewpoint character (first-person narrator in this instance) was feeling. 

In this case, it's one of the moments where I think I stretch the realism of this being someone's journal entries.  Back when I wrote a journal of my own I never felt inclined to detail the sex I was having (instead I was angsting about my woeful life, along with a million other teenagers with equally woeful lives... as Bunia is 24, she doesn't angst all that much), but maybe some people do.  I intend to slip a comment into one of the earlier entries, saying she has a very good memory that allows her to remember the details of conversations (again, another moment where I stretch the realism of the journal format), but would she remember the details of sex?  I don't know. 

This whole issue of the journal realism is one reason I'm considering self-publishing the entries when they're done.  For one, they're likely to be too long for almost all magazines, but too short for novel publishers - currently 16k and counting.  And this dubious realism of the journal entries means I think it'd be a tough sell.  While I could convert it to basic first person, or even third person, I like the journal format as something different from everything else I write, and would have to rewrite some bits so they felt less like summaries of recent events.  I'll see what I feel like when it's done, and I do think it will be done in the near future.  There's another brief entry to upload, and then we get back to some non-sex plot. *snerk* 

My Nano count is up to 37328, so it looks like I'll be able to push it over 40k before the end of the month.  I still don't think it will make it up to 50k, if only due to time constraints.  Still feeling a bit ill today, but tomorrow I really need to start writing an essay and start revising for my floor manager exam.  Grr. 

Got two rejections today.  The most important one was from Apex Digest, concerning A SHADE OF YELLOW.  Form rejection:

"I have reviewed the story but must decline publishing because it does not suit the current needs of our magazine."

While I have no particular issue with form rejections (I understand that some magazines/publishers receive so many submissions that they simply don't have time to write out personal rejections), it's nonetheless a little disheartening to receive no indication of what specifically didn't appeal to them.  My own thinking on the matter is that the submission guidelines do say they like dark scifi, and most stories they buy will be a mix of scifi and horror - and, well, there's not really any horror in A SHADE OF YELLOW.  It's definitely dark, but it's not really horror-y.  Also, I would really classify it as urban fantasy, and while a lot of people will equally happily interpret that a form of scifi as well, maybe this mag doesn't.  Maybe I didn't fit their boundaries quite snugly enough, and the story wasn't exceptional enough to be an exception.

So... whatever.  Or maybe the story's just not good.  But I refuse to be put off, so I'm going to send it away to another magazine, this time Interzone, a UK magazine of science fiction and fantasy.  Apparently they're quite big for a UK mag - I'd never heard of them, but I'd never heard of any of the scifi/fantasy mags so that doesn't really mean much.  Their logged response times of Black Hole and Duotrope's Digest are sometimes quite long, and I have only approx. 110 days until the RLD Anthology deadline closes, but I'll take the chance.  Their recent times are about a month, plus I'm in the UK so there won't be trans-Atlantic postage times, and I can always withdraw the story at the end of February if I have to. 

The second rejection was for SNOWDROPS, a 99-word flash piece I penned a month or so back.  I had an email conversation with one of the editors this afternoon, the ultimate conclusion of which was that the story isn't suited to being only 99 words, but needs to be longer instead - and, as the publication is for flash stories only, she can't take anything longer than 100 words.  So I shall write a longer version sometime, once I've played around with the idea more. 

It's very easy to say that the road to writerly success is paved with rejections.  It's somewhat harder to face that reality, especially when they pull double-team-attacks like today's.  But I'll never become a published author if I don't face that reality, so I shall keep trying.  Eventually I'll get my stories in print. 

This evening I am going to compile a happy-songs playlist (which will be quite short, considering my taste for moody music, but it will be happy!) and then I shall write more of Bunia's journal because it will be supremely more fun than trying to tackle a space battle.  There will probably be some purchasement of chocolate from the supermarket as well because as all girls know, chocolate makes *everything* better. 

CLICK FOR THE HILARITY

All true excerpts from stories submitted to Asimov's Magazine.  Some personal favourites:

"Weston was known for the firm but genital hold he had on his men. It was one of the reasons he was chosen for this mission over six other equally qualified men."  This, my friends, is why the gods invented proof-reading. 

"John wasn't at all surprised at the transformation of his body into what he believed were light waves."   Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

"Ejaculations aside, that's one hell of a package to swallow!"   Is it now?

"Instinctively, without thinking about it, he grabbed the woman and hugged her and then gave her breasts a couple of playful pinches. "Commander please," she said as she blushed and began yodeling."   *sides.... splitting.... can't...... breathe......*

"A large serf of joy rode under Lisa's face."  I'm just trying to picture that and... let's say that's an amusing image I'm holding onto for my next dull class. 

You know, this gives me faith in my own ability to get some of my short stories published, because if people are writing things like this then I'm already doing better than a fair few of my competitors. 

I'm stuck on PA again, though I'm not entirely sure why.  I'm getting to some good stuff now - finding out something very important, and then Trifmara's reaction to that.  And, soon, a big battle near Katina which will be followed by the final battle at Krak'vi. 

I think maybe I'm worried it's starting to drag a bit, that I should wrap it up faster, even though the sensible part of my mind says to just write the damn chapters and then go back and make changes.  Blegh.  It's probably just the same "getting towards the end" mental block I get when I approach the end of anything long - happened with my finished piece of mystery crap that will one day be totally reworked, and also with Statues. 

In the meantime, I've been working on short stories:

Statues - Still waiting for a response from Writers of the Future.  I reckon I'll hear from them January-ish, maybe later.  If they don't like it, I'll send it to Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine.

A Shade of Yellow - Still waiting to hear back from Sybil's Garage.  No news is, I hope, good news; a suggestion that they're having to think about what to do with my story.  If they reject it, I'll send to Apex Digest.

Tansu - This is finished and ready for submission, but I'm waiting for Sybil's Garage to respond because if they don't want aSoY then I'll send them this.  If not, I intend to send this to Shimmer.

Snowdrop - A flash fiction of 99 words, submitted to Flash Shot.  Still waiting for a response.

The Beautiful Collection - A fantasy short, just over 1,000 words, that I began in the summer and finished the other day.  I'm not completely happy with it yet, but when it's done I think I'll submit it to Midnight Street first. 

I'm also working on two pirate stories, one for Shimmer and one for Sails and Sorcery.  Both feature my latest muse, D'sil, a mercenary-pirate type.  He's certainly an interesting man to have around.  And my cross-dressing muse will have a short story of his own, but I can't figure out quite how to start it.  

My ambition is to have found a home for all of these stories by the time I submit PA to publishers. 

In the immediate future, November is nearly upon us, which means that Nanowrimo approaches...  I've pretty much decided to write a first draft of Our Green Fairies for this, simply because I feel that if I can get a first draft of it done, no matter how crappy it'll be, at least I'm one step closer to having another finished novel.

I am writing.  Just slowly at the moment. 

Something I've noticed about the world of science fiction and fantasy is an aspiration among some to strive for something noble and grand, to say something profound in their work.  Take, for instance, this extract from the submission guidelines to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine:

"A good overview would be to consider that all fiction is written to examine or illuminate some aspect of human existence, but that in science fiction the backdrop you work against is the size of the Universe."

Why, exactly, does this need to be the case?  Why should any fiction strive to convey a greater message?  Whatever the heck happened to writing for the simple pleasure of crafting a story, creating and developing characters, and watching it all come together in a conclusion? 

My stories have no greater meaning.  I am not setting out to say something meaningful about humanity.  If there are morals and themes to be found in my work, then that's because they crept in without my being aware of them.  You can blame my muses for morality or lack thereof in their lives; I certainly don't decide that about them. 

I find it annoying that Asimov's might reject a story because it doesn't deal with profound statements about humanity.  I think they're underrating the simple joy of a story. 

(Cross-posted to __fantasynovel and my LJ account)

I recently picked up Devices and Desires by KJ Parker. It looked interesting enough - the protagonist is motivated by revenge, not 'the greater good'. Upon reading, I learnt that he's an engineer (and a good one, thus an intelligent man) who thinks in long-term schematics. This obviously means he could realistically concoct a decent revenge plan. Well, that's good.

The other characters are interesting enough. Valens started out as a whiny teenager, but the book quickly cuts forward to him as a shrewd political leader, so that's good too. Orsea, the Duke of the other country is a reluctant leader, brought into rule unexpectedly by a reasonably sensible political system - basically, the Duke had only daughters, who can't rule (why not?), so one of them must marry the future ruler. But to avoid a massive civil war between the powerful aristocrats, the husband is chosen from among the lesser aristocrats. Thus, Orsea was not raised for the role like Valens and isn't as sensible. The culture that the engineer comes from is interesting: a technologically advanced society for the setting that maintains a strict monopoly on its knowledge.

I'm a bit worried by the romance between Valens and the wife of Orsea, particularly as Valens spent a few pages going on about how their relationship isn't love, because that's all political; instead it's a kind of friendship; but it was so border-line angst, and I fear there will later be a scene where he sings joyfully about how it *is* love after all! The answer to the first question on this worries me too.

But I could just about stomach a corny romance if everything else was good.  

Last night I was working on my contest entry, and I was trying to come up with a word for how Illan jumps/slides/gets into the aircar while some people are trying to shoot her.  I wanted a word that implied the hurried jerkiness of the motion, so 'slide' was definitely out, and 'get' wasn't nearly descriptive enough, while 'jump' implied too much of an upwards motion.  So I went through to the kitchen to bounce word ideas off my parents; they do crosswords and read a lot so they have pretty damn good vocabularies.  Anyway, while throwing myself around the kitchen trying to demonstrate the action I wanted, I realise 'throwing' - or, rather, 'threw' - was the word I wanted, to which my dad piped up, "No, no, you need something smoother, like 'slide', because everything in scifi is smooth."
    (Head, meet desk.)
    (Ow.)
    As someone who doesn't read scifi, and whose recent contact with the genre has probably been shiny TV adverts that use a 'scifi' setting to show how such-and-such product is the product of the future, I suppose I can forgive him. 
    I've never understood how a massive jump in technology would make everything shiny, clean, pristine, even, or aesthetically 'perfect', or however you want to describe it.  The jump from caves to where we are today certainly didn't produce such an effect, and I don't think technology ever will.  Sure, you might get certain areas in certain cities/space stations that have this shiny, metal-and-glass appearance, but it will never be universal.  Humans are dirty, gritty creatures and we would never lose that.  That's why I liked Star Wars, because no matter how wonderful Naboo looked you could go to some dodgy bar and find Han Solo hanging around.  (Mmm, forgive me while I drool...)  Sure, that comparison isn't perfect because a massive war and societal collapse happened between scenes on Naboo and scenes with the sexy Han, but dodgy bars nonetheless existed on Tatooine before the war.  Heck, Tatooine itself was a dirty, gritty place. 
    Most of my scifi leans far closer to the gritty side.  In my contest entry, a high-tech society collapsed, leaving only a small scavenger community to pick through the ruins.  Their technology is reasonably low, often using plants along with more traditional building materials - their city, Haven, is constructed from stone and the metaga plant, which is manipulated with song.  In Painted Angels, Carrenei City is very shiny, made of metal and glass in the upper, central levels - though the city never actually appears 'on stage' in the story, it is compared by both Fox and Falnec to the planet Nhkotai's dusty cities.  Mey is definitely gritty, with lower tech, and the various other settings are like that too. 
    Why not write everything with high tech?  Well, because it would probably get boring.  "OOoh look, another shiny city. Mmm. Wow."  I like varieties and ranges of tech, preferably suitable to the location if the story is set off-world and/or in extreme climate conditions.  For instance, the scavenger people in my contest entry are in a desert, so they use weapons with sand as ammunition - certainly no danger of running out!  In the story after Painted Angels, there's a water world where glass and other building materials are made from shells (obviously some shells there are pretty sturdy!).  In Kevin J Anderson's Saga, the people of Theron live in giant, dried-out fungal thingies because their world is covered in vast trees, while the Roamers live in all manner of ingenious asteroid/moon/planetary settings. 
    In conclusion: Scifi doesn't need to be like a shiny car advert.  The more imagination used in devising scifi settings, the better.