How To Be a Writer
…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?
Science Fiction: Sometimes it’s wrong.
Browsing through today, I discovered a very interesting website that discusses the errors within science fiction, particularly in TV and movies. Some of these errors are, quite frankly, rather stupid on the part of the creators. Such as: In the Star Trek Voyager episode “The Fight”, Voyager encounters a Negative Space Wedgie that is “2 light years across”. They start “11,000 km” away from it and yet, the whole phenomenon is visible on the viewscreen. As the Agony Booth review of this episode points out, this is exactly like “putting your nose on the ground, and still being able to see the whole landscape from horizon to horizon” except…you know…even worse. The thing also looks about as big as Voyager when it engulfs it, which might make slightly more sense (for a given value of “sense”) since Voyager is apparently the size of a planet. Yup, that’s Star Trek. There are even a few related to literature. Such as: The original Dune series was set 10,000 years (human history goes back 7,000 years at present) after the Robot War known as the Butlerian Jihad, featuring an old, decadent society that had presumably been going downhill for a long time. However, when Frank Herbert’s son picked up the reigns and wrote prequals set before and during said Butlerian Jihad, the prequels end with all the social orders and customs, and even the religion, of Dune already established as nearly identical to the ones in the original novel. And the reader is expected to believe that they stayed exactly the same for almost a third longer than the time between the invention of writing and the present. Yeah, pretty interesting, don’t you think? Check out the site. Maybe one of your favorite shows is on there with an error.
The Common Mistakes Solution
Alright, so I’ve decided to do something new with the way I write–or edit, actually. And I think this is a good idea for a lot of writers to do. Here goes: We all make mistakes, and some of us make the same mistakes over and over. Mostly I’m referring to spelling and grammatical errors, even errors that don’t seem like errors, but really are. Sometimes you catch them; sometimes you don’t. It’s when you don’t that it’s a problem. See, sometimes you write a word and it’s actually correct…according to the dictionary. But that word isn’t really correct, because the context is wrong. Take for instance the word “breathe”. Sometimes I screw up and use “breath” instead. You can’t take a breathe. You take a breath. It’s one of those strange British things that never went away, and while it might be silly, that’s just the way it is and you have to deal with it. I imagine a lot of people don’t even realize it’s a mistake too (I didn’t for a while, and that’s because I’m sometimes an idiot about such things). So, here’s a good idea to solve this problem. If you start noticing you make a mistake, and you make it repeatedly (even just two or three times every other story or something), write it down and take note. Put it in a word document or something and then the next time you go to edit you can start doing search and kill procedures to find all the little mistakes. In fact, that breath/breathe thing should be a standard, because many of you may make that mistake and not even realize it’s a mistake. I’m doing this now. I’ve started putting a list together of things I can search when I edit in hopes that I can catch more of these mistakes and kill them before they end up going to a crit buddy or to a publisher (I made a mistake with one of my last submissions and left some errors in there, and I’m a bit miffed, because I didn’t see it for some reason). So that’s my recommendation for solving this issue.
Guest Post: When Does Fiction Become Unbelievable?
Firstly, I’m honoured to guest post here, while, ahem, some people get to go away on holiday! 😉 I struggled to think what to post about, and then I saw a film trailer… When does fiction become unbelievable? I haven’t seen 10,000 BC yet, but I gather that the mammoths play a large part in the creation of the Ancient Egyptians’ pyramids. Fine, I’ll accept that: it’s fiction, a ridiculous premise, but it sounds quite fun. A strange alternate history. What still bugs me is that the mammoths gallop at speeds of upwards of 60 kilometres per hour. What?! I can accept that they hung around several tens of thousands longer than in actual reality, but during that time, they also devised some way to motorise themselves?! Perhaps in hundreds of thousands of years worth of evolution, they developed little natural rubber wheels? Nooo. But in SFF, a certain suspension of disbelief is often required. In all imagination, really. We are quite prepared to accept the Chosen One, spoken of in prophecies written on napkins by the Ancient People, but I’ve friends who throw books across the room if a cave is described inadequately. “Hewn from the living rock,” just won’t cut it. It’s often the mundane done wrong that annoys people. Have magic coming from a nameless source, but woe betide you if the smell of a trench (or goblin faeces, etc) isn’t up to scratch. A lot of authors talk of a good story being combined of one element of the mundane, and one element of the fantastical. Brandon Sanderson’s YA novel, Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians or something, has librarians in it — this is obviously quite ordinary. The fantastical element: they’re an evil librarian cult which sacrifices small boys. So, there I was, tied to an alter made from outdated encyclopedias, about to get sacrificed to the dark powers by a cult of evil Librarians. As you might imagine, that sort of situation can be quite disturbing. It does funny things to the brain to be in such danger — in fact, it often makes a person pause and reflect upon his life. If you’ve never faced such a situation, then you’ll simply have to take my word. If, on the other hand, you have faced such a situation, then you are probably dead and aren’t likely to be reading this. And it’s a book I really want to read! 🙂 I’m off now; thanks. And yes, Mr. Sanderson, deliver the pimpage-cheque soon 😉 ~ChrisThe Book Swede
Realistic Fantasy Required!
I believe that of all writers, fantasy writers have the hardest job. This is of course excluding textbook writers. I also will not address young adult fiction here because I believe that young adult fantasy is an entirely different genre from regular fantasy simply because the rules on what works are tremendously different. Children and young adults are more likely to believe in things that would otherwise cause suspicion in adults. This is why children enjoy fairy tales and believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the like. They don’t question the reality of these things because, generally, children have no interest to. They live almost in a fantasy world of their own so long as they remain children. Adults, however, have seemingly lost their innocence and become aware of the world around them. For that reason, we generally don’t find the same enjoyment on a literary level of fairy tales and the like. We don’t believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny, or gnomes, elves, or the bogeyman. That’s simply part of becoming an adult. As such, I won’t address young adult fantasy in any way during this post because it is an entirely different beast.Fantasy is, to put it frankly, one of the most fascinating, and most difficult genres at the same time. On the one hand there is a tendency for it to be highly derivative. In fact, the entire genre is derivative, and not just because of Tolkien. Tolkien himself was not an entirely original writer. His world was a product of his education. Fantasy writers, therefore, have been using mythology and history to write some of the fantastic stories we all have come to love and enjoy. On the other hand, however, fantasy also has the tendency to push the boundaries of reality, which can, and is, a problem.Fantasy must, as a rule, be more realistic and believable than any regular fiction story or a science fiction story, barring once again historical texts and the like which are, hopefully, real anyway. This is true because, while fantasy is filled with magic, kingdoms, prophecies, kings, soldiers, and a million other commonly ‘medieval’ ideas, it must present these ideas so that the reader can accept them as being realistic in the context of the world presented. While Tolkien may be a poor example in this post, he is, interestingly enough, the most recognized example. When you read Tolkien you are not suddenly encumbered with magic toting wizards that seemingly throw magic around the same as a non-environmentally conscious human being tosses trash on the side of the highway. Gandalf and Saruman both are powerful wizards, yet their magic is used sparingly. We’re led to believe, then, that magic is not something available in vast, unrestrained quantities, and one cannot simply do magic without extensive knowledge, something which both Gandalf and Saruman have plenty of. Perhaps Tolkien is an example of ‘high fantasy’ rather than an example of fantasy in general, but in the case of fantasy that is intentionally serious, it is clear that magic must have a reason to exist and be balanced. Unless your entire world is built on magic, and therefore everyone uses magic, the magic in a fantasy world must be believable. We can’t think that a knight would have any chance alone against a sorcerer with unimaginable power that seems to be endless and easy for the sorcerer to use.Of course, this doesn’t apply to all fantasy. In the case of fantasy that is intentionally humorous, magic may or may not have a need for balance. We might call these types of stories ‘fairy tales’ for adults. An example might be Stardust by Neal Gaimen. For any that have the read the book you’ll have to excuse me. I am basing this on seeing the movie. However, the magic in Stardust, while with limits, is not necessarily balanced in any traditional sense. Presumably, if the witches manage to get hold of a star, they will be granted youth and amazing power, power which seems to be very hard to counteract without other magic involved. But it doesn’t matter. In context of the story, things don’t have to seem entirely real because that’s not what the story needs to exist. Stardust is a love story with a fantasy twist.Magic, therefore, has two purposes–realism and entertainment. Still, since the majority of fantasy happens to be of a serious nature, I will only address magic in context of seriousness. In serious stories, as I’ve mentioned, magic must make sense. It must be real and believable. If every character can summon the almighty evil monster from the depths, then there is almost no purpose for magic to exist. Magic must have a reason to exist, otherwise it becomes like technologies that we no longer find of use today. We all rarely, if ever, use typewriters since our computers now can do the same thing, but with more functionality.Now that magic seems to have been address, I’ll have to divert my attention elsewhere. Another feature of fantasy that must be taken seriously is race creation. This refers to any sort of creatures you might create, or have been created previously. We have all heard of elves, dwarves, and the myriad of other fantasy races that have already been done before. For that reason, I see no reason to address them since it is apparent that they are all relatively accepted as believable creations anyway. However, I will address creature creation in general. Because a fantasy story deals exclusively with things that do not exist in our world, and couldn’t exist in our world–which takes care of science fiction being included here–it is apparent that whatever you or someone else creates must have a purpose, much as magic has a purpose. If you create a creature that has an arm come out of its head, that arm better have a reason to exist. It would be unbelievable to have such a creature, which we will call
Dystopian Commonalities in SF
…or why dystopian fiction is so common We all know what the model dystopian novel is, since we had to read it in school. Some of us enjoyed it immensely; some of us hated it with a passion. In either case, we were presented with 1984 by George Orwell as the first true dystopian novel. Few of us probably questioned this, as many students seem apt to accept the almighty wisdom of their teachers. The truth of the matter is that dystopian fiction had already been invented before Orwell ever wrote 1984–a fact we have to accept because Orwell drew heavy influence from We by Zamyatin–and in a lot of ways, the idea of a dystopia is endlessly entwined into our literature no matter where we turn.But, that aside, it has been an interesting phenomenon to watch as science fiction paved the way for grander concepts in dystopia. Many who read science fiction and understand what a dystopia is will say “that sounds like half of all the science fiction books I’ve ever read”, or at least something to that effect. Those who criticize science fiction, for whatever reason, might be apt to use the common placement of the dystopia as a means to hurt the credibility of science fiction as literature. All of us should take a step back, however, and not criticize science fiction writers, whoever they may be, for their supposed lack of new ideas, but commend them for unintentionally realizing that you can’t escape the dystopia.Taking the definition of what a dystopia is–a work of fiction describing an imaginary place where life is extremely bad because of deprivation or oppression or terror–we have to come to the realization that we live in a dystopia. While some of us live in what we might call a utopia, or at least as close as we as a society could come to such a thing, great masses in the world are living in a dystopia. You could say, then, that science fiction writers are not writing some unimportant, overused idea, but rather taking something that is common place in normal society and stretching it into the vastness of technological advancement. Science fiction writers tackle issues that plague us in our everyday lives, some more so than others.The fact of the matter is, if true literature must take from real life, must draw upon social or cultural issues of the times, then science fiction is doing this better than any other literature. Books like The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, while now considered a classic, took our world, flung it into the future, and showed us what could happen to a world subjected to militaristic capitalism and ultimately what a society could become if it succumbed to extremist genetic manipulation–a veritable utopia where war and hatred have been bred out of the human race. But, to add to the tension, to draw upon the idea that one man’s utopia is another man’s dystopia, we get to see what happens to the poor individuals who aged mere years in their long, faster-than-light travels, while the rest of society grew by centuries. How would someone who grew up in a world not far from our own deal with returning to a place that no longer resembles home? And how would one react to knowing that you are a relic of a time when to think andfeel as an individual was common, a relic of a time long lost? How would you adapt? Certainly, the end of The Forever War presents a position we might consider utopian, but to look deeper into the position of the characters, which we followed from the start of the book, we have to agree that they are not living in a utopia. They can never live amongst what has now become ‘regular people’ because, in essence, they are the abnormal ones and to agree to sacrifice what makes you who you are seems an idea of lunacy to them. Thus, they are outcasts who know are outnumbered by a population of ‘humans’ who can easily replicate themselves as super soldiers many times faster than the significantly old-fashioned population.Any time a character is placed in a position where things seem particularly bad, that is a dystopia. It doesn’t matter than the rest of world might be moving along normally, for that character normalcy no longer exists, only pain and suffering. One might look at Andorra by Max Frisch, a play written some years ago presenting a unique take on racism, anti-semitism, and anti-individualism (I made that one up). To live in a society where to be Jewish is cause for unnecessary stereotyping and maltreatment would be dystopian on both ends. The play begins simply as stereotyping, with the main character refusing to accept that he is different, but everyone else treating him as the adopted Jewish child. For the main character it becomes impossible to lead a normal life as the rest of society pressures him into certain life paths based on Jewish stereotypes–money, sensitivity, etc. For the main character, things seem rather dystopian, but it becomes clear that he is not the only one suffering this condition. The end of the play shows this perfectly when the “Blacks”–the people of a neighboring country that oddly feel like Nazis–invade, as feared, and take complete control. Only the main character seems solid in his attempts to maintain his individuality, while most everyone else has given in without a fight, despite their earlier claims to do otherwise, in one way or another. For the main character, a world that is slightly dystopic, comes fully into its own as a modern dystopia. For the others, their sacrifice of their individuality for social order brings them into an unimaginably strict and immoral society where the destruction of a people is accepted as a means to preserve the whole.In essence, one must realize that the dystopia has always been there. Science fiction, while more flamboyant–for lack of a better word–in its endeavors,