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!
As far as I can tell, I tried to sell this story longer
than anything else I’ve ever written – with the possible exception of EMERALD
OF EARTH…
Why did I keep at it?
I guess because I loved this story. On reflection, I
think my mom was the model (appropriate as next weekend is Mother’s Day) for .
This summer, we’ll celebrate her memory two years after her passing. Ruby
Marcillon is a long-time Lunar worker, pilot, paramedic, and anything else she
needs to be.
She’s got a smart mouth and she’s funny! I loved her, but
then, I love my mom, too, so my perspective wasn’t exactly unbiased. So let me
see if I can step back and be objective. What did I do RIGHT about this story?
Let me go for a second, into one of the things that went
wrong. “A Woman’s Place” was written when the electronic magazine age had
barely begun. One of the subs I made was to SciFi.com, edited by Ellen Datlow,
which ceased publication in 2005. I sent it twice to Artemis, which closed down
in 2003. Tales of the Unanticipated died a few years ago, as did Ray Gun
Revival and Absolute Magnitude. Two others, I can’t even find references for: Fantastic
Stories (2002), and HMS Beagle (2002)…so of the places I submitted the story,
only ANALOG, ANDROMEDA SPACEWAYS, and the Baen Contest remain active; so I
suppose it’s a good thing I didn’t try and send it anywhere else.
I revised the story and send it to PERIHELION after Sam
Belatto published my first piece with them, “Invoking Fire”. Sam took it and ran
it.
It can’t be accessed anymore, but I just discovered that
he does keep a few Permalinks of stories at the author’s request. I want to pursue
that…
At any rate, why did it eventually get accepted?
Ruby is a great character! Her entrance into the story
and her first words is fabulous: “From the shadow in front of the LookOut!’s
door, a female tenor voice crooned, ‘If you ain’t the Pickled Sexist from the
Twentieth Century, then I just won the Miss Universe swimsuit competition in a
bikini.’”
Priceless! She and her ex-husband, who is nearly as
famous as she is, are sent out on a Lunar rescue mission which necessitates her
removing her helmet and becoming the first Human to breathe the air of an alien
world. The science of it, while close to fantastic is at least feasible; and
the resolution of the story covers both the rescue and a their personal
struggle – as they haven’t spoken about the death of their adopted daughter for
years.
I don’t usually say this, but after thirteen years of re-writes,
I think I finally got this story right. I SHOULD have tried ANALOG again; even
ASIMOV’s or F&SF. There’s a good chance it would have been picked up.
As it is, it was an exercise for me in developing
character.
I went down to my paper files to look up how she grew and
it was…instructive. In several earlier drafts, when she enters the Lunar Bar
(or Martian Bar in one version), she announces, “If that ain’t the Last Sexist
of the Twenty-Second Century, then I
must be at the Gorilla Recovery Reserve outside of Kinshasa, Zaire.”
Hmm…that would have landed with a resounding “thud!” on
the ears (or eyes as the case may be). It’s not in the slightest bit funny,
though it was trying to be. I guess that it might have been practice that
finally made her line sing. Thirteen years of practice…
The piece I sold to PERIHELION clocked in at 5000 words.
I’ve discovered that that is a sweet spot for fiction magazines, though hitting
it regularly has been a struggle for me. It seems MY sweet spot in about 8000
words. *sigh*
At any rate, the reason it was successful was because I wrote
it over a period of 13 years. I also wrote it at the correct length and I’d
finally developed a sense of comedic timing. Oh, and I finally learned to trim
out things I thought were funny – because they weren’t funny at all.
All for the best – I had an idea yesterday for a humorous
story about a road veterinarian who gets a call to northern Minnesota because a
US experiment may have invaded Canada…stay tuned for details.
Later!
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