WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU COULD WALK THROUGH WALLS?

People always ask writers where we get our ideas. There must be as many answers to that question as there are writers. No—scratch that. There might be as many answers to that as there are stories. Because each story is different and comes to us in a slightly different way.

My story “No Walls” is the only one I can remember that sprang from one line. The first line of the story. Suddenly it was there, in my head: I almost died the first time I learned that I could walk through walls.

Along with that first line came the basic premise: the main character can sometimes, for some reason, walk through walls. Of course, some of the walls of a structure are exterior walls, and if you’re on the thirteenth floor of an office building, that’s not a good wall to walk through. So he almost dies, taken off guard by this sudden ability.

Neither a first line, nor a basic premise, do a story make. SF writers have to come up with a basic concept, then extrapolate for all its worth to make an actual story. As the narrator of the story says, “What would the average person do with a ‘gift’ like mine? Is it good for anything but larceny?” I guess that depends on what kind of person you are before getting the gift. It also could depend on who finds out about your gift and what ideas it gives them. Clearly, the dark direction I took with the premise must say something about me.

It also struck me that a man with the power to ignore barriers would actually be trapped by that ability. And hopefully you’ll see the many ways that occurs when you read the story.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Gerard Houarner of Space and Time Magazine because, although he rejected “No Walls”, he gave me his reasons for doing so. There will be a special place in Heaven for all editors who take the time to do that! He was right—I made some changes, and my very next submission, to Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, the story was bought. It became my first published story in Issue 18 of Neo-opsis in December of 2009. For that reason it holds a special place in my estimation. I hope you like it, too.



Writers And Their Work: Who Creates Who?

I don’t ever want to stop learning. So I still attend workshops on writing whenever I can. It’s a great way to learn new perspectives, like a few I encountered at a recent workshop given to my local writers’ group by a long-time university English professor and small press publisher named Laurence Steven.

Laurence believes that, as writers create our fiction, we are also created by it. Think about that. Unless you’re the world’s most formulaic hack, there will be many elements of your fictional universe that appear from somewhere you can’t explain or control. Call it inspiration, or the Muse—it doesn’t matter—the result will surprise you, in ways big and small. And in doing so, it will change you, too. You aren’t the same person at the end of a project that you were when you began it.

We always want our writing to affect readers that way—why should it surprise us that a creation of imagination will also reshape its creator? I say, “Bring it on!” (Just as long as it makes me a better writer.)

Related to that, Laurence feels there are two main approaches to fiction writing. Aesthetic writers are those of us who work in a very structured way: modeling characters and situations and working out detailed plots before ever starting the prose process, using discipline to marshal our resources and capture a vision. Inspirational writers essentially wait for inspiration to strike, and hurry to get it all down while the spark is hot, believing that good writing can’t be forced.  Aesthetics seek to capture; inspirationalists wait to be possessed. You may see yourself in one of those categories. Or you may see yourself in both, because the truth is, both approaches are present in all writing processes to varying degrees. Something has to happen to grab the writer’s attention before the process can even begin. No matter how disciplined you are, you have to depend on ideas coming to you all along the way. And no matter how much you depend on inspiration, you have to exercise discipline or you’ll never get anything done. Too much rigid adherence to structure can lead to formulaic writing and even copying others. Too much dependence on inspiration can lead to sloppy writing, and ignoring the culture of the genre you’re writing in.

Both approaches are necessary for significant writing to happen. It’s ultimately our interaction with something (Inspiration? Possession?) that results in the story.

And that’s how our work creates us.

Cancel the exorcist. Fire the life-coach. The keyboard’s really in control.



Does A New Year Make A Difference?

At the change of the year it’s the tradition to examine the past twelve months and develop a new strategy for the next dozen, in the form of New Years Resolutions. I’ve never gone into that in a big way. If there’s something I think needs to be changed in my life I don’t wait until January 1^st. Every day is just as valid as any other for the beginning of a new me.

So how do writers evaluate the past and plan for the future? Especially somebody just getting a career rolling?

For me, 2010 was a productive year in terms of the amount of material I created—I finished a first draft of a novel, polished another, completely rewrote a third (an earlier work), and began a fourth. Plus I wrote at least a half-dozen short stories. But it wasn’t so productive in terms of publishing credits. I only sold one fiction piece during the year. (Thank heaven I’m not counting on that income for survival!) Instead I aimed higher—I took a shot at the bigger, hardest-to-crack markets, reasoning that they’d be more impressive publishing credits when it comes time to solicit interest in my novel-length work. For my daring, I got some encouraging rejections from some of the most influential editors in the biz. Close, but no cigar.

So what should I resolve to change?

Thanks to some tips from Robert J. Sawyer, I’ve already begun to strive for more deeply meaningful stories, with significant themes. Writers like Sean Costello have taught me how to polish and cut and trim and polish some more. Each time a story is rejected it goes back under the knife for reconstructive surgery, to some degree. I’ve also taken greater pains to ensure there’s a real scientific basis to my SF stories. It didn’t help them sell.

As other writers before me have noticed, there’s been a shift—in the short fiction markets, at least—toward well-written stories with striking prose and SF-style premises, but no real science backing them up. In that sense they’re reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s fiction. Don’t get me wrong—Bradbury was a terrific writer, and I’m a fan. But at the risk of sounding like I’m crying sour grapes, I think having the whole genre skew that way is unfortunate.

So will I change my style? Chase the markets? Aim lower, just to see my stuff posted on somebody else’s website?

I don’t think so.

I will crack those big markets. I will get an agent, and a book deal (though maybe not in that order). I think 2011 will be the year.

Come along. It should be a good ride.

Print Versus Digital Magazines

After waiting for months to learn when my story “The Wind Man” would be published in On Spec magazine, I got word last week that it will be in the upcoming Winter issue slated for publication in January. Along with the notification was a request for permission to have the story included in the digital version of the magazine. For all the times I’ve gone to the On Spec website, I hadn’t realized they offered a digital version. I readily gave my permission—the more readers the better, even if the magazine isn’t offering additional compensation for the e publication.

I’m a book lover—I love all the sensations of a book in my hand, and that includes magazines. When I look for magazines to submit my stories to, I always prefer those that aren’t exclusively electronic, and at least include a print edition or a year-end print anthology. It just seems to make the publication more “real” to me. Literally, a more solid publishing credit. Yet I’ve subscribed to Analog in digital format for two years. I read it on my KOBO reader. I read a few other magazines that way, too. Does that make me a hypocrite? I hope not.

Some people will clearly prefer the convenience and lower cost of enjoying their favourite magazines with an ereader, and I certainly don’t want to miss out on that readership. There’s also something to be said about saving paper, and the environmental costs of delivering physical packages. But I can’t help it, I also want my published writing to have an element of permanence—a lasting presence—that I just can’t associate with a digital file on an electronic device. Not yet, anyway.

Whichever form of reading material you prefer, I hope you’ll look for the Winter issue of On Spec, either at your bookstore, newsstand, or online at http://www.onspec.ca/ . “The Wind Man” is a light fantasy about a restless wanderer with an unusual curse. I think you’ll enjoy it.



AWAITING PUBLICATION

Being a writer involves a lot of learning: much of it to learn the craft, some of it to learn research details to give a story authenticity. I don’t mind that—I’ve always loved learning. But one of the most necessary skills for a writer to learn, and possibly the hardest, is patience.

The waiting is a killer: waiting to hear back about a submission (a lot of that!), then waiting to get a contract, go through the copy-editing process, and above all waiting to see those sweat-infused lines of prose or poetry actually appear in squiggles of print. That’s why writers go grey. Or even bald…in patches.

All of this is a lead-up to say that I still don’t know when my story “The Wind Man” will appear in On Spec (http://onspec.ca/news ). I’ve been listed in the “Upcoming Issues” section for several issues now, so hopefully it will be soon. My story “Tartarus Rising” will be included in the anthology “Doomology: The Dawning Of Disasters” from The Library Of Science Fiction and Fantasy Press, (http://libraryofthelivingdead.lefora.com/2010/05/19/doomology-the-dawning-of-disasters-toc/) but no publication date has been announced yet. It should be soon, too. At least we’ve been able to get a look at the cover art for the anthology. I like it a lot—surreal, with just the right amount of B-movie pyrotechnics. Have a look.

"COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

If you’re a reader of crime fiction or a fan of crime shows on TV you’ve probably wondered how much of the police procedure you see depicted is accurate. In books? It’s probably not bad. On TV? Maybe not so much.

Sooner or later most writers, even if they’re in science fiction, will probably feature a crime scenario and the ensuing police investigation, and I think writers have an obligation to try to get the details right. Fortunately there are now lots of resources to help, including websites and books especially produced for writers. But details can vary a lot from place to place, so why not get it straight from the horse’s mouth (a police horse, of course)? You might be surprised to find that your local police service is very willing to help you get your facts straight. Here are some of the things I’ve learned about policing in a medium-sized city in Ontario, Canada.

-         police services in Ontario are networked and use PowerCase software to collect case information. One of the benefits is that similarities to a case in another jurisdiction can be readily found and flagged.

-         Any major case passed to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) is handled by a Major Case Management Team (MCMT) which uses the Major Case Management Triangle, consisting of a Team Commander, a Primary Investigator, and a File Coordinator. The titles sometimes change, and the triangle can be only two people instead of three, but the three roles must be covered.

-         In my city, investigators routinely handle 20 cases at a time. In some jurisdictions it can be twice that many!

-         Some police services have Scenes Of Crime Officers known as SOCO’s who take all the photographs and collect all of the physical evidence at a crime scene. In other places, it is an officer of the Forensics Identification Unit who does this. In every instance they’re very strict about who gets access to a crime scene. A local FIU might process fingerprints on their own, but chemical or other physical evidence is sent to a specialized lab. In Ontario it would be either the Centre for Forensic Science in Toronto or the Northern Regional Forensic Laboratory in Sault Ste. Marie. Your area will have similar places.

Just from this sampling, it’s easy to see how a writer could go wrong and damage the credibility of their story.

So don’t “surrender” to your lack of knowledge. Get the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.



HOW TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION

The title of this post is not mine—it’s the title of a workshop given by Canada’s most successful SF writer, Robert J. Sawyer. I was lucky enough to catch it at the “Social Science on the Final Frontier” conference at Laurentian University in Sudbury, but you can read a lot more of Rob’s advice on writing at his web site www.sfwriter.com . It’s must-read material.

Before you do, you should know that Rob has said in a keynote address that the days of the SF novelist who can make a living at writing are numbered. He estimates there might be ten years left before the well dries up (http://sfwriter.com/blog/?p=2413 ).

If you’re still determined to soldier on, the most important point Rob makes about writing is that you must have something to say. The kind of plot that’s just one damn thing after another will not make your book stand out. You’ve got to have a strong theme that will get people talking about the book.

Before you do anything else on your manuscript, decide on your theme and then choose a character who’s opposed to it (like the astronaut Taylor in the original Planet of the Apes movie, who begins the movie sneering at the faults of humankind as he leaves it behind forever, only to end up in a courtroom defending the human race).

Rob points out that the number one reason people will buy a particular book is author recognition, but the number two reason is because someone else recommended it. So talk at the watercooler translates into sales. Don’t try to be blandly acceptable to everyone—make a point, and don’t be afraid to be controversial. That’s the only way to make something of lasting quality. And wouldn’t we all rather leave behind a body of work that will still be remembered by generations to come?



How To Be An Editor's Dream

I took in the 2010 Ad Astra Science Fiction Convention in Toronto. Yes, it can be a circus, watching stormtroopers and Jedi knights mingle with zombies and characters from “Dr. Who”. But there were also some good sessions, including one about how to get on a book or magazine editor’s good side. Four editors revealed what they like and don’t like.

• The first thing is to do your homework: read an issue of their magazine or some books they’ve published so you don’t send them material they don’t publish. That just wastes everyone’s time. Pick a publisher who puts out work you like. Then read the submission guidelines and follow them. Every publisher who accepts unsolicited manuscripts will have guidelines for authors. Not following them just looks unprofessional.

• Your query letter is your first impression. Show professionalism in every aspect. Don’t give away the story’s ending. Don’t claim your work is the next Da Vinci Code or Harry Potter series, although more realistic (ie. less arrogant) comparisons can be helpful (particularly in an elevator pitch). Just don’t make any claims you can’t live up to. Only include the best of your credits, and only personal info that’s relevant to the work.

• Don’t feel entitled, as if you’re shopping for someone good enough to handle your masterpiece. You’re asking someone to invest in you.

• Have a good attitude: positive, open-minded, willing to accept hard criticism. Because editors really do want to work with great writing and great writers—harsh criticism means you’re going to get somewhere in the end.

• Never ever badmouth an editor at a convention, online (it stays in cyberspace forever), or anywhere else. They have long memories.

• Bottom line: be totally professional and make their job easier, not harder. As one of the editors put it, 90% of his experiences with writers are positive…because he never works with problem writers a second time.

A Book Review

You're a writer. You want to sell your work, preferably to a mass market. So the big question is: Do you need to have an agent?

The title of Richard Curtis' book "How To Be Your Own Literary Agent: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published" seems to suggest that the answer is, "No". But by page 11 he is unabashedly making the case for getting an agent, reasoning that (and he has the numbers to back it up), "…an editor will read the most dismal piece of junk faster and maybe even more attentively than he will a good book that comes in on the slush pile." Curtis himself is a literary agent, and has been for over forty years. He's also an author, with more than fifty books to his credit. So what gives?

His purpose in writing this book is really to help authors understand the publishing business and how it works, so as to have a relationship with their agent and their publisher that will be a well-informed one. That can only be a good thing.

With chapters like "Negotiation", "The Basic Deal", "Termination and Reversion of Rights", "Royalty Statements", "Movie and Television Deals" and many more, he walks the reader through the whole process, from seeking an agent to well past publication, and he does it with many contract samples and other excellent illustrative examples. His writing is always accessible, often self-deprecating, and frequently entertaining, so the chore of slogging through this vast legal 'briar patch' isn't as daunting as you would think.

Curtis also recognizes the paradox we authors face, namely that, "You can't get published without an agent, and you can't get an agent until you've been published." He even offers a possible solution, but for that you'll have to get the book -- there's no room to get into it here!

This is not a book you can read and retain. There's just too much information. You'll need to get a copy and keep it as a resource. Parts of it you'll want to re-read with each new work you try to sell. If you can't find it at Chapters or other bookstores, you can order it (new or used) from Amazon.com, and it's not very expensive. The direct link can be found on Curtis' website at http://www.curtisagency.com/about.html .

Personally, I consider this book a 'must-have' for the author who is serious about being published for large markets. It teaches us about the 'dark side' of our beloved work: that it is a business! We don't have to embrace that, but we do have to know enough to get over our squeamishness. This is a book with the right mix of medicine and mirth to make that pill a little less bitter to swallow.

"How To Be Your Own Literary Agent: An Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published" by Richard Curtis. Published by Houghton Mifflin 2003