World in the Satin Bag

How To Be a Writer

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…Or do you have what it takes? I’ve talked about some aspects of this before, but I think it all bears repeating. Young writers constantly ask other people whether they have what it takes to be a writer. Often times they ask based on writing alone and when you think about it that’s not the best approach. While it is important that you be a good writer, or even a fair writer, it’s not the only thing you need to be concerned about. Being, or trying to be, a writer isn’t easy, even if you’re published. It’s a rough road full of disappointment and rejection. It can be an emotional ride too.With that in mind, here is a list of things that you need to do if you want to be a writer: PracticeYou can’t go from being an okay baseball player to a great player if you don’t practice. Same with writing. Don’t kill yourself, but you should write when you can. ReadWhether it be books on the craft, your favorite authors, or whatever, reading will teach you new things. For example, I learned ways to use the dash and the semicolon in fiction from authors who did it well. Grow Thick SkinLearn how to take rejection. This is life. Whether it be an editor, a friend, some random person on the Interwebs, or someone in your writing group, you will get rejected and criticised. It’s okay, though. If a story gets rejected, don’t fret! Submit it elsewhere! Don’t get ticked off at the editor. That’s never a good idea. Grow a SpineDon’t be afraid of what people will think about you and your writing. Being afraid of criticism means you lock up all your writing and never let anyone see it. If you’re okay with doing that, then no problem, but if you want your writing to be read by other people, well, then you have to put your writing out there! Develop a Web PresenceSome vote against this because it sucks time away from writing, but I recommend you try to get involved with potential readers now rather than later. You can make new friends, learn a lot about the craft and promotion, etc. It’s up to you if you want to do this through a blog or just being a part of a social network or group. The WillYou can’t just like to write. You have to have the desire to be published and the desire to do whatever it takes to get there (and when you get there, to do whatever it takes to make sure you can keep doing that–all within reason, of course). Plenty of people fail at this because they don’t have the will to learn, to write, to do anything that is required of you to be a writer. This applies to any form of writing. Be GraciousThis is one that took me a while to learn. If someone is kind enough to look at your work and offer a critique, be sure to thank them! Don’t spend your time arguing and disagreeing. There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing on some things; not all of the changes another person suggests will be useful. But it doesn’t help if you’re going to be disrespectful of ungrateful. Remember, they put a lot of work into their critique for you (or, at least, they were supposed to). Accept FailureEmbrace it! Tack your rejections to your wall or laugh about them. It’s important! You can’t expect to win from the start and you can’t let it get you down. Turn the emails or rejection letters into paper airplanes and toss them around the house or, if you’re not the sentimental type, collect them together and have a bonfire! If that isn’t a good starter list, then I don’t know what is! Any suggestions for things that should be included?

World in the Satin Bag

Academagia: My First Writing Job

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As some of you may remember, I have been on the lookout for freelance writing jobs (still am, by the way–hint, hint). While perusing Craigslist I came across an interesting writing job for an online game that seemed like a mix between choose your own adventure and Harry Potter–with RPG mechanics. I contacted them to see if they still needed writers/editors and was told that I could be put on their backlist of candidates, since they had filled the full-time positions. I agreed and they sent me a prompt to see if I would be right for the position and…Well, it turns out that I’m actually a good writer! My samples following their prompt turned out to be what they were looking for. Instead of being on a backlist, I was offered a contract job for the next four months. It’s a small job, though. But for the next four months I will be writing for Academagia! My understanding is that the game is still in beta testing, however you can still sign up and of course you can check it out. It looks really promising and fun! And I get to write for it. I’m really stoked and generally happy about this (because that’s probably a normal reaction to being told you’re a good writer and being offered a job).So, that’s the news! I’m excited to be a part of this because I really do think the product is fun and worthwhile. It may not be original, but unlike other games with similar styles of game play, Academagia actually takes itself seriously, or at least its creators do. The game is well put together with gorgeous artwork and a steampunky interface.But that’s enough from me. I’m glad to be a part of this and thought you all should know about it!

World in the Satin Bag

Inside the Blogosphere: Question #12 (I’m in it!)

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John of Grasping for the Wind has yet another Inside the Blogosphere feature up at his blog. Obviously I’m in it, because I’ve been in all of them…because I’m awesome or something like that. Or maybe it’s because I like answering questions. That’s it… In any case, the question for #12 was: Though we all know that some books only come out in certain formats, if the world were perfect and you could have a book in any published format, which do you prefer – hardcover, trade paperback, mass market paperback, audiobook or ebook? Why? What do you think?

World in the Satin Bag

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and God

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Yahoo! Answers is a remarkably interesting place to go if you’re interested in seeing what other people are saying about your favorite genre. Sometimes the responses are dead on and other times they’re so outlandish that I’m left scratching my head. But, they do get me thinking, if not on a deep, intellectual level, then at that knee-jerk level that puts me in the mood to write something new.One of the interesting discussions in science fiction is about the inclusion of God, or gods. While people in the United States are overwhelmingly Christian, there are plenty of people elsewhere in the world that believe in different forms of the same basic idea. We are, by default, a species of many beliefs, customs, and ideals.With that in mind, I came across this question: If God is mentioned in a story does it make the story science fiction?I’m reading a story entitled “The Nine Billion Names of God” and it’s considered a science fiction story, but why? Is it because of the notion of God or what? And this response: Yes, because God is not fact. Some people believe in it, but then again some people believe in dragons and unicorns. That’s why it’s science fiction. I’m a bit perturbed by the complete lack of knowledge about science fiction and fantasy. Since the primary issues here are similar to the issues that rose out of the werewolves discussion from before, I’m going to try to focus on one rather alarmingly ignorant assumption: that science fiction is not about fact.While it is true that science fiction is not necessarily about what is necessarily fact, the genre does arise out of a fact-based reality. The land of Middle Earth did not exist, while Mars and Jupiter do. It is also true that science fiction can often be rather outlandish in its portrayals of future peoples.But what separates science fiction from fantasy is the very fact that it is intended to be about what is possible based on what we know at the time (this explains why many older science fiction stories are now out of date and completely ridiculous). The notion that something is science fiction simply because it isn’t fact is an ignorant assumption. All fiction is fake. If it were real it would be called something else (which it is). The assumption intentionally ignores what science fiction is actually supposed to be and makes light of it as a genre. Fantasy is a more accurate fit for something not factual, because it is a genre about things that aren’t established facts or established truths: people can fly or shoot fire out of their hands, or dragons, in the mythical sense, fly around burning villages while knight-like individuals run around in armored suits swinging their enchanted swords (and yes, I know that fantasy can be far more complex and interesting than this, but I’m making a point here). Science fiction is intended to be the genre of the possible, based on what is real.To mention God in a story doesn’t make it any sort of story, let alone science fiction. That’s absurd. It’s even more absurd to say that a story that mentions God is science fiction because God is not a fact. That would mean that any story with non-factual elements are automatically science fiction–and that’s fortunately not true at all. Equally absurd is to say that because a story mentions spaceships it must be science fiction by default. Science fiction isn’t a broad genre in the same sense as fiction. It’s a narrowed field with parameters and logical limitations.Moving to the specifics of the question, however, we find that the story “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke is not a story about a fantastical concept akin to, say, flying chipmunks or Greek gods. It’s actually a story about monks wanting to calculate all the names of God because they believe that once that happens, the universe will end. Okay, sounds like fantasy right? Well, no. You could argue that the story is fantasy based on its ending, but because the story itself deals with an abstract religious concept and no God actually appears to wave his hand magically we can assume that perhaps the story is attempting to be more “current” and realistic.The story is primarily about calculating the name of God–a scientific concept. The Monks believe they’re really finding the names of God, but if you think about it you’ll find that the Monks could be calculating anything, but are calling it something else. What if the names they are finding are related to astronomical signs or some such? A lot of questions can be raised once you’ve finished the story, and for good reason.The ending, though, is the one section of “fantasy” because the universe does begin to end. Okay, but can that be explained? Perhaps. Clarke never provides the explanation. It could be mere coincidence, or it could be the end of the world as the Monks see it, or it could be something else entirely (perhaps calculating whatever is being calculated is some sort of early and quite twisted form of quantum physics). Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the overall story, and that story is clearly science fiction.Science fiction is perfectly capable of dealing with God, religion, etc. It’s capable of a lot of things, actually, but what must be true for a story to be science fiction is that the story and the science arise out of a realistic current reality. Otherwise it becomes fantasy. That’s what I think, anyway.

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