Writing Advice (From an Agent!)

Nathan Bransford is one of the many agents who blog, and he's one of the better ones out there. I follow a lot of blogs and long before I started following his I was reading his work. That's because what he writes gets picked up and redistributed throughout the 'Blogosphere'.

And now it's my turn to push his stuff.
Today he has put up a pretty complete index» of his advice articles on writing.
Go now, check it out, bookmark it and follow his blog.
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What do you want from a Writing Group?

Seriously. What?

I know what I want, but it doesn't matter what I want. What's important is what you want. Do you want to write? Do you want to be critiqued? Do you want to participate? Do you want to rise to the challenge and produce your best work?

Or,

Would you rather flop lifelessly on your keyboard in defeat?

I've done both, and I have my own opinion on which is preferable.

Tonight is the second failure of my writing group to meet. :(

This could be an issue with my bodily odour or just bad timing and luck this spring. ;)

I'm actually not bent out of shape over it because I'm not the one being harmed here. With or without the insight and critique of the group members, the fact remains that I am still writing. That is one of my main goals with the writing group and it's working (for me at least). Now there is a new season upon us and a new member coming out next month. To dwell on the past is only useful if I'm writing my memoirs.


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Eating my own words?

So a few days ago» I listed three common mistakes made by members of a writing group. (at the bottom of the linked post)

* Didn't Finish the Story.

* Didn't Edit the Story.

* Submits Story Late.

Last night I had to send in a story submission for the next meeting of my writing group. So did I follow my own advice and avoid the three mistakes?

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In reverse order:

* Submits Story Late.
I did submit my story on time. I sent my submission sometime around 8pm last night, so I didn't make this mistake. Not that I wasn't tempted as we'll see below.

* Didn't Edit the Story.
I spent a good few hours editing this story. It needed it and sadly I'm not that good at editing. What I struggle with is grammar and I blame myself for that. I didn't really pay attention to grammar in school and by the time teachers started to really get serious about the intricacies for grammar I had already closed my mind to the subject. My instincts were 'good enough'. Well today I am admitting that they aren't 'good enough'. I really need to understand the mistakes I am making so that I can avoid them in the first place. Is my story edited and readable? Yes. Are there still errors in the writing? Plenty.

* Didn't Finish the Story.
Well I finished, but in less than 3000 words. I had a goal of 3 to 5 thousand words and I fell short. This kills me. I tried during editing to increase the length of the story and ironically enough shrank it down by 300 words. So even though I am sure that the story would be better for the addition of a 1000 words, it is finished at least.

So in conclusion, while I did complete, edit and submit my story, I know that I could have done better, and next month I will.



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Ten Styling Mistakes

Over at Holt Uncensored a few days ago was a fantastic article on Ten Common Mistakes made by all writers». The beauty about these mistakes is that they are all very common, easy to spot once you know what to look for, and by fixing them the quality of your writing will improve immediately.

Moving on, I also wanted to share a link to Writtenwyrdd where today writer D. Lynn Frazier discusses the impact something as simple as Concrete can have on World Building» (puns not intentional).

On the home front, I'm busy working on my next story for my writing group. We have a simple system: 1 short story a month, 3 to 5 thousand words in length. Ideally in a few months each member should be starting to build a collection of short stories that have been peer reviewed and would be suitable for submission to editors and magazines.

See that's ultimately the goal of this group. To write and submit our stories in pursuit of publication. To some writers it's about finding personal meaning in stories, and developing their craft or art. All very literary, and a great use of 6 years of university. I get it,and I could spend years at my desk writing things that make me happy. Of course by ignoring the current markets desires then I would have little chance of being published. Happy, but unpublished, and that's not for me.

So back on the topic of mistakes, here are three common mistakes made by members of a writing group:
(I have made all of these mistakes!!)

* Didn't Finish the Story. Members with an incomplete story that drags on for months (with edits, additions, rewrites and changes) will bore the other members of the group and have nothing of value to use for submission. Finish the story and move on. If you want to edit, fine, but don't resubmit the edited piece the next month and the next month, ad nauseam. The converse of this is the member who submits the first part of a different story each meeting without ever submitting the second parts (or even finishing the second parts oftentimes). They likewise short change themselves. There is no market for half written stories, nobody publishes a book of chapter ones. In the meantime what value is the critique of half a story?

* Didn't Edit the Story. It should be as obvious as the nose on your face that if you write something for publication that commas, periods, paragraphs, and other correct uses of punctuation are expected. To submit unformatted stories, riddled with punctuation errors, to the writing group is a waste of time. Nobody can effectively critique the work because they have to struggle to read it. The writing group isn't there to fix errors that should have stopped in Grade School.

* Submits Story Late. Deadlines are hardly deadly in an informal writing group, and the story may be better for the extra time spent on it, but a late story is less likely to be read and critiqued. Not everybody has a schedule that allows them to read late stories in the hours before the meeting. Which is exactly why many writing groups have stories due days or even a week before the meeting. This allows everyone time to read the story and prepare a critique.

The nice thing about these mistakes is that they are easy to avoid. Just write and finish what you write. Don't delay, don't dwaddle, just DO IT. And on that note: Time to get back to my own writing.


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Advice fail? Me? Never.

So I open my mouth and make a silly statement.
I find Worldbuilding for short stories effortless.
And I get called on it (twice).

Hee hee.
And here I thought nobody paid any attention.
I think that my statement (which was meant as a joke on my laziness when worldbuilding) also illustrates one view of writing fiction. Write first, fix later and only if it needs fixing. I'm not saying that it is a superior view over others, just that it exists.

A few weeks ago I read an interesting Mind Meld Discussion over at SFSignal (seems all I do is read their Mind Melds) where they asked authors for the best advice they've received on writing.

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I've actually linked to this Mind Meld before. Proving just how full of info those Mind Melds are.

One of the answers came from Author John C. Wright and he discussed advice given by Robert Heinlein. I really want to include John C. Wright's answer in full but I don't think that's fair to SFSignal - so go there and read the whole Mind Meld. In the meantime here's a couple of the important bits from Wright:

Heinlein's rules for writing were professional and simple. "1) You must write. 2) You must finish what you write. 3) You must not rewrite unless to editorial demand. 4) You must mail your story to an editor who will pay you money. 5) You must keep it in the mail until someone buys it."

Rule number 1 and 2 are paramount and cannot be over-praised. The Dean of SF is exactly right. Rule 4 and 5 are paramount and cannot be over-emphasized. The Dean of SF speaks words of wisdom more precious than gold, more to be treasured than refined gold.

Rule 3 is just bad advice.

--snip--

Now, on the other hand, Heinlein not only sold these books, but won plaudits and awards for them, so take my caution with a grain of salt. On the gripping hand, A.E. van Vogt wrote tightly-plotting thrillers of cosmic wonder without a wasted scene and barely a wasted word; J.R.R. Tolkien rewrote and rewrote until magic shines from his pages.

Obey Heinlein's rule number 3 if and only if you have Heinlein's knack at charming characterization and if and only if you find a market for meandering, plotless, charm-driven stories.

Don't fall into the trap of rewriting if it means you cannot finish your work. That is a fine rule.

I like John C. Wrights reinterpretation of the Heinlein Rule 3. I edited out a chunk of his answer and again I encourage you to read the complete answer and see his justification for disagreeing with Heinlein. (Wright's is the 8th down the page)

The reality is that Heinlein was writing in a different time and what worked for him doesn't work in a more mature Speculative Fiction Market. I say more mature because our expectations are higher, we've been raised on a solid foundation of character and plot driven stories that make sense (worldbuilding!) and push the boundaries of literature even. Do I need to make a list ? (Simmons' "Hyperion", Atwood's "Handmaids Tale", Brin's "Earth", to start)

My personal opinion of Heinlein (formed when I was a judgemental youth) was that his early work was fantastic and he went crazy later when he was writing the big stuff ("Number of the Beast", "Cat Who Walks Through Walls"). Now I know that he just didn't edit.

Lesson learnt - bad editing and world building can make people think you are crazy. (Perhaps that explains the failure of my writing group to meet last week. ;)




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World Building

Yesterday's ramblings lead to a more focused look at World Building today. I have always found world building difficult. Well, let me rephrase that. In the context of a short story it's almost effortless, for a longer work though I really struggle.

To me the less of the world you reveal in a short story the more room there is for the actual story. And if I need something, I just throw it in. Of course the problem with that philosophy is revealed when a piece starts to get beyond the short story range. It becomes hard or even impossible to just throw something in without breaking the world. This means that if I want to write more than just short stories I need to get a handle on world building (also plotting, characterization, outlining, etc...).

First I want to point out a great blog dedicated to World Building:
WorldBuildingRules!.
It's an informative and insightful blog that tracks resources and provides information to help writers design the reality in which their characters live. For example, the recent discussion on "Write what you know" was useful in allowing me to get my story together for my upcoming Writers Group meeting.

Continuing on with World Building here is an interesting article and other resources over at author S. Andrew Swann's blog Genrewonk.

He breaks world building down to Clarity, Conciseness and Consistency. These are the elements that will allow the 'World' to be an effective supporting part of a story. As long as an author maintains an awareness of these elements without losing their story to them (spending days on huge infodumps) then they should be on the right track. Obviously if the world is consistently crap, it doesn't matter how concise or clear the description is, but none of my worlds are crap, really! :)

And finally for those interested in a technological way of tracking the details of their worlds I would suggest a Writing Wiki. Using a writing wiki it's easy to organize and relate notes on characters, locations and more to each other. Much like in Wikipedia, the wiki about the Real World.


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The Readers Voice

There was a post over at SF Novelists discussing a Post Modernist concept Marie Brennan called "Reading In". The idea is that different people will find their own themes and meanings within a story, regardless of the authors conscious intent.
Here is her description of this, minimally edited and I encourage you to read her words for yourself.

...in the context of the type of story with an element that might or might not be fantasy. Me? I say screw the hedging and the ambiguity; I read that type of story as fantasy, and I do so willfully...It happens with other things, too. I willfully read strength into characters (especially women) that aren’t given any, or sympathy into characters the story wants me to demonize. And I choose that phrase for it because this isn’t something I think is in the story at all; I’m adding it wholesale, entirely against any reasonable interpretation that would pass muster with a decent literature professor.

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It's an intriguing idea that I fully agree with slash understand. What Marie Brennan calls "Reading In" I call the "Readers Voice". As a reader we are actors in our own stories. Rather than allowing the story as written to remain static words on a page a reader provides the hundreds of little details that breath life into the story. The hidden beliefs of the characters, the emotions in their voice, the humour or irony in comments that may read stale or sad. This is the same thing that a good actor does as they turn a page of words from a script into a compelling performance.

In my last writing group meeting the Readers Voice came up, though we didn't discuss it directly, it was forefront in my mind. The nature of a writing group meeting is for the members to share their views and impressions of each others work. This is the time for us as writers to find out what our readers see in our work, and use it to strengthen our stories, or to even take them into entirely new directions.

With one story in particular we all had different reactions. The Author meant for it to be a two part story, but the readers were happy with it ending in one part. While one person saw it as a mythical quest for meaning, another read it as an elaborate suicide note. Both interpretations are valid, even though one is more in line with what the author intended than the other. So to sum: Be consciously aware of the Readers Voice, use it to shape the editing of your stories (which means you need Readers). And of course it's ok to disagree with the author if it makes the story more enjoyable for yourself (though there are many 'Egos' that would disagree).



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Writing Group Wrap Up

So last night was the second organized meeting of the writing group, and as before everyone had something to share. This week our stories had immortal body snatchers, the melusine and alien fairies by firelight. So a pretty wide collection of stories all falling within the speculative fiction definition. One thing that was surprising to me was the similar darkness to all of our stories. Nobody seemed depressed, so I'm gonna chalk it up to a reflection of the winter, or the current economic climate.

On that note, over at SFNovelists S.C. Butler has posted an article entitled The Happy Place. The article (and associated comments) explores the recent trend of what he calls the Pessimistic Fantasies garnering greater attention over Optimistic Fantasies. Pessimistic Fantasies are stories that start in a dark place, a cruel world so to speak, where characters struggle to bring positive change. Whereas Optimistic Fantasies start in a idealized place, and typically characters attempt to protect this world.

If I were to evaluate the stories presented in the meeting last night I would characterize them as pessimistic, however this is not meant as an insult. Our choices of dark worlds for our stories gave us the freedom to explore the ramifications of our characters decisions, and in a sense let them define Good or Evil, instead of their world defining it. This is one of the strengths of a short story where world building, must by necessity, be a distant second or third to the character development. There simply isn't time to waste filling in all the details of a world when an actual story must unfold. Ultimately it's easier and faster to describe Dystopia over Utopia, because the former doesn't require you to have all the answers.

Next month, new meeting, new stories. Tick Tock goes the clock, time to get writing.


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Secret Agent Contest: What's the Hook?

An interesting contest just wrapped up over at Miss Snark's First Victim. The contest was simple, write a first page to a story and have it evaluated by an agent, with feedback given to you. The best first pages 'win'.

I don't think there was a physical prize but the value of the commentary from an agent is worth more than a free book or cute trophy. Even for those who didn't 'win'. There were 60 entries ranging from way out there speculative fiction to more contemporary settings.

The 'Secret Agent' for this contest was Kristen from Pub Rants. On her blog she discusses the experience and the value to be gained, not just from her comments, but from those of the entrants. That's because in order to participate in the contest each entrant was required to comment on the at least 5 other entrants. In a sense this created an online flash mob/critique group. The comments are insightful and the discussion is a great look at writing the first page and developing a hook.

And speaking of resources, Jeffrey A. Carver, has created a detailed online resource of references and lessons to help develop your skills as a Speculative Fiction writer. Many common concepts and terms specific to the writing industry, like the above mentioned "Hook", are explained and explored there.


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Best writing advice EVER?

Not from me, however there are a few established authors willing to give that question a spin. Over at SF Signal are the collected answers of a number of authors, Ben Bova through to Robert Silverburg, in a little thing SF Signal calls a 'Mind Meld'. I suspect they borrowed the term from somewhere. ;)

The best advice I personally received came during a writing course conducted by Paula Johanson.
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She asked each of us if we wanted to become writers. Then, after a number of affirmative responses, she produced her magic wand (it was invisible!) and waved it over our heads, pronouncing the magic words "Yew Err Wryters". (Only it sounded more like "You are writers"). Then she said "Ok, that's done. Now there's nothing stopping you. Time to get started."

The point is: There really is nothing stopping you, or anyone from being a writer. Even Stephen Hawking writes and he arguably faces challenges most of us can't conceive of. Much of the advice in the SF Signal article is similar. Just write, don't fret or worry too much about it, just get the words on the paper. Once they are down then you can go nuts on the editing or submitting, but get the story out first.

Yesterday morning I found myself unable to finish my story for my writing group. It was due in the evening and I was stalled only a couple of thousand words in. I had already revised the beginning twice and changed the whole story in my head a dozen times.

In the end I had to produce something and felt like I'd made a mess of this story. So I put that story aside and sat down to start writing something new, something fresh. For the rest of the day I wrote and by the evening I had a story. It was a complete simple piece that didn't even need much editing to make it ready to send to the group. The key was I stopped questioning myself, my ideas or my story and instead just wrote.



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Coming up with Short Story Ideas

The first submission for my writing group is due on the last Tuesday of the month. The first meeting is the following Tuesday. This is going to be the pattern going forward with the group. That way everybody has a week to read all the submissions and prepare their comments. This is an important part of the writing group. In a previous writing group I was a part of there was one member who would not read the submissions before the meeting. This led to a lot of awkward moments where he expected us to simultaneously accept his excuses for not reading our work and provide comments on his material. This kind of thing can act as a poison to the writing group. People resent the member for not doing the same 'work' as the rest of them. This is why the deadline is set a week before the meeting for this group. There should be few excuses with a week and weekend to read the submissions. That's all that is really needed too. Read the submissions and comment on what feelings the story inspired in you, and what you liked or disliked.

Of course all of the above on being a good group member is useless if you don't have a submission to begin with. This month and most months my group will be working on short stories. When writing a short story the first step is coming up with the idea. The idea doesn't have to be a completely plotted ready to write story, it can just be a scene you wish to write, or a vision of some new technology, or magical wonder. The point of the idea is that it gives you a place to start (or finish) and the other stuff is just words on paper that will eventually be a story. I find many times that as I begin to write I really don't know what my story will be about or how it will end, but as long as I keep exploring the idea the story will reveal itself.

Where to get ideas? I have a few places I like to go for inspiration.
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First off by just paying attention to the news, any news, provides all sorts of fuel for the idea machine. I tend to mix my reading between technology news, political and legal news, and oddball stories - 'Man bites dog' sorta thing. Beyond the news there are some tried and true places for inspiration. One I particularly like, more so because it helps me refine ideas, rather than generate them is The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Cliches.


Some of my inspirational links:


Biology in Science Fiction


Daily Space


NewsNow Science


MIT Technology Review

*added May 15th 09
I also suggest browsing the articles on this blog tagged Story Ideas», they don't always explicitly spell out ideas, but can be great for inspiration.

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The Initiation of a Writing Group

From humble beginnings as an ad in Craigslist my Speculative Fiction writing group begins. What is Speculative Fiction you ask? Well, it covers the range of Science Fiction & Fantasy writing. Now you know.

A lot of learning and development has already happened for me and the group hasn't even begun. For example I learnt that putting an ad on Craigslist will draw a lot of emails - and giving out a non-anonymous email just fuels the fire. However that's the nature of the beast and I can always kill and create email addresses. One of the core components of the writing group has to be trust, we are going to be sharing our stories - good,bad and ugly - being able to trust the other group members not to wound you is important. That's why I used a 'real email address', one that clearly came from the local service provider.

Some of the highlights from the emails that I received responding to my writing group ad:
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'The Dood' with the obvious pseudonym who is a wiccan sorcerer. He had recently published his first novel (all 14 pages!) and the second would be published soon (at the same online website).

The very nice 'Retired Lady' who argued that the things described in bodice rippers are fantasy in nature and thus would qualify for Speculative Fiction. I was genuinely interested to see what she would write, just not in the context of *this* writing group.

'The Soldier' who wrote humorous stories about, well...being a soldier. Very interesting subject material, but again without aliens, time travel, psionics or Fairies it doesn't really fall into Speculative Fiction.

After a couple of months of the above and similar I did receive a response from a someone who actually wrote speculative fiction. She has travelled the world teaching English with her husband, and now lives here in the city. We've met in person, verified that we are not crazed axe wielding psychos and set a date for the first meeting. So with two (myself and Her) we have a writing group.

Humble beginnings still, but I did receive an email the other day from a self described pack rat of people. Seems she writes journals of her travel experiences, but now wants to explore fiction and fantasy....

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