In September of 2007, I started this blog
with a bit of writing advice. A little over a year later, I discovered how
little I knew about writing after hearing children’s writer, Lin Oliver speak
at a convention hosted by the Minnesota Society of Children’s Book Writers and
Illustrators. Since then, I have shared (with their permission) and applied the
writing wisdom of Lin Oliver, Jack McDevitt, Nathan Bransford, Mike Duran,
Kristine Kathryn Rusch, SL Veihl, Bruce Bethke, and Julie Czerneda. Together
they write in genres broad and deep, and have acted as agents, editors,
publishers, columnists, and teachers. Since then, I figured I’ve got enough
publications now that I can share some of the things I did “right”.
While I don’t write full-time, nor do I make
enough money with my writing to live off of it...neither do all of the
professional writers above...someone pays for and publishes ten percent of what
I write. When I started this blog, that was NOT true, so I may have reached a
point where my own advice is reasonably good. We shall see! Hemingway’s quote
above will now remain unchanged as I work to increase my writing output and
sales! As always, your comments are welcome!
It feels like my writing – well, to be honest, my PUBLICATIONS
– have hit a brick wall.
HEIRS OF THE SHATTERED SPHERE and VICTORY OF FISTS were
available as ebooks briefly, but the publisher was ignoring my agent’s request
for royalties (which actually never came), so I suggest that you avoid MuseItUp
Publishing (unless they’ve gotten their act together since the middle of last
year)…
At any rate, I had a few stories published at the beginning
of this year, and it looked to be good.
Then I hit a brick wall.
In trying to “leave a mark” or “say something”, I clearly
stumbled. Since my last sale, I’ve submitted sixty times with no acceptance. My
recent stories have fallen on ponderously deaf ears.
“What the Cockroach Said” (N-S Korea), “Storm Change”
(Native American sovereignty), “The Princess’s Brain” (What fraction makes us
Humans?), “And After Soft Rains, Daisies” (Alzheimer’s future care), “Talking
my Way Back Into Life” (what happens when you’re suddenly older than you
were?), “Rock of Ages” (When you’ve hated someone for two hundred years, can
you make peace?), “Titan Mission Drops Bomb” (scat humor in space…OK, maybe I
get it for this one…), “Lovely to Behold” (incredibly weird biology leads to
murder; accused of being magic…), “Possums Don’t Have Belly Buttons” (cute but ultimately
futile), “Candace Mooney and the Princess of Mars” (homage to ER Burroughs,
falls flat on it its face and everyone hates me), “The Daily Use of Gravity
Modification in Rebuilding Liberian Schools” (this one is my biggest
disappointment…I wanted to show the impact of a technological breakthrough on
an everyday job in a civil war ravaged country (I’ve been there, seen the results
of war) and how it might be used to help raise a place up; as well, my agent
and I parted ways (amicably)…and now I have a slew of stories that don’t seem to
be going anywhere.
I am so tempted to be bitter and blame The Media, but the
fact is that I’ve turned into my now-least-favorite-author in that I’ve allowed
my “message” to sublimate my story. Have I lost focus because I’m intent on “leaving
a mark” on society? It’s what I challenge my seniors to do as they contemplate
graduation in the spring of 2018. I am trying to meet that goal myself, but…it’s
FRUSTRATING. I also wonder about how this blog impacts my work. My politics and
religion don’t line up at all with…well, the circles I choose to be in – speculative
fiction and education. Seems that how I see the world is diametrically opposed
to the majority in both places…
So, I’ve been reading and I’ve started to pick up some
wisdom. The three most important things:
1) Think before you write. THAT’S a hard one to do for me.
I tend to just pop off a story without much thought as to the emotional and
intellectual impact I’m looking for. That segues into…
2) Advice Nancy Kress gave that I’m working hard at
absorbing: “How can I lay out a story so that a reader will be ‘always absorbed’?”
and “How can I lay out a story so that a reader will END the story with a
different perspective, a confirmation of their belief system, or discover a
new, interesting place?”
3) VERY recently, I discovered this from Chuck Wendig: “All
stories need unanswered questions. All stories demand mysteries to engage our
desperate need to know. Storytelling is in many ways the act of positing
questions and then exploring the permutations of that question before finally
giving in and providing [some] answers.”
4) Literally TODAY, I learned this from Lisa Cron: "Story is what enabled us to imagine what might happen in the future...we're wired to turn to story to teach us the way of the world." [From the Introduction]
4) Literally TODAY, I learned this from Lisa Cron: "Story is what enabled us to imagine what might happen in the future...we're wired to turn to story to teach us the way of the world." [From the Introduction]
Now, how do I combine those three things in order to take
me into CONSISTENCY?
I’ll keep you posted…
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