It’s been how many months since I posted? Hmm, yes, since February and my nice, long unplanned snow vacation from the day job. Pure bliss that was. The day job has really sucked the life out of me the past few months and I’m afraid it also sapped my writing a little as well. And then a couple of great writing moments happened for me:
I had a short story (novelette really) receive Honorable Mention at the Writers of the Future Contest for the 3rd quarter, and I just got back from David Farland’s Professional Writers Workshop in Dallas, Texas. I met many wonderful people and had a great time–and learned a great deal!
I’ll write more on my experiences during the workshop this week. But now it’s back to the manuscript and major overhauling/revisions.
Tags: David Farland, editing, revising, Short Story, Writers of the Future, Writing
So, I live in the D.C. area and love life at the moment. Why? Well, it’s the snow. Sure, it’s a lot of snow, and I’m sure at one point growing up in northern NJ, I’ve seen this much, but for D.C. and northern Virginia this is a lot. Why is this snow making me happy? Friday they let us go from work four hours early, and I haven’t been back to work since. They keep canceling work, and I keep getting paid for it!
I’ve used the time off wisely of course, and put a lot of energy into outlining and beginning to write a science fiction novel, as well as revising and editing a short story I’ve let rest for awhile. The problem is that I’m getting used to this and would love to be able to wake up each day, get ready, and head downstairs to write for a few hours. I could hit the gym, run a few errands, then spend the afternoon writing and revising. I probably won’t see that kind of schedule until I can retire from my job, but I can dream, and for the time being, I can live with it while the snow keeps cooperating!
Tags: outline, Short Story, snow
Yes, I’ve been focused on writing short stories much of the past six months. Oh, I’ve had quite a few great ideas for novel length stories, but I’ve become fascinated with short stories. Why? Well, because it seems many science fiction and fantasy writers break into the business on short stories. And anyone who is interested in attending certain workshops (Clarion, Clarion West, Odyssey, Orson Scott Card’s Writing Class & Literary Boot Camp, etc.) as I am, short stories are what is needed to get into them.
I’m hoping to attend one of those workshops in the near future, but this year I’ll probably have to just try for the week long Orson Scott Card workshop. Maybe next year I’ll have enough time off saved up to go to the six week Clarion workshop. Of course, I’d have to be accepted to these workshops, so I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m hoping my writing is decent enough, or has at least improved enough by application time to be accepted!
I was never attracted to short stories growing up. Maybe I was one of the few who didn’t have a short attention span and preferred novels. <shrug> Now though, I see the merit in pursuing this form of story. So, I’ve submitted a story to the Writers of the Future Contest and as I mentioned in a previous post didn’t even receive an honorable mention. I’ve re-examined the story and identified why a reader may not have wanted to go beyond the first couple of pages. Heck, maybe not even the first page. I’ve fixed those problems, but before I was able to identify them, I had ordered a couple of books that really helped me.
I was excited when Creating Short Fiction, by Damon Knight, Storyteller, by Kate Wilhelm, and Reading Like A Writer, by Francine Prose showed up on my doorstep. Knight and Wilhelm helped to found the Clarion workshop, so I was very interested in what they had to say. After reading their books I knew exactly what was wrong with my short story and have a much improved opening and complete story.
After having written a couple of novel length stories, tackling my first short story was difficult, and forced me to write more efficiently. I believe the short story is much more difficult to get right than a novel. In a novel, the writer has time to let things develop over the course of many chapters, and indulge in minor characters and side plots. In a short story there is little or no room for any of that.
Well, off to read a little Stephen Baxter, Manifold Time, before I hit the hay.
Tags: Clarion, Damon Knight, Francine Prose, Kate Wilhelm, Odyssey, Orson Scott Card, revising, Short Story, Writers of the Future, Writing
I’ve been concentrating on short stories lately. While my experience writing in that form is limited, I’m finding it difficult to embrace. It has it’s advantages–a complete story in basically what would be the chapter of a novel–there are more that I’ll mention, but there are also disadvantages to the form as well.
Advantages: Learning economy of words–short of poetry, I can’t think of a better way to learn to be succinct and get the most across in the shortest amount of words. Also, the aforementioned complete story in the space of maybe 5k words. The short story doesn’t allow boredom. One can simply finish a story and move on to a nice new shiny idea and then another, and another. The blood, sweat, and tears just isn’t there in a short story as it is in a novel. Just the sheer number of words the novel requires makes the short story very satisfying to get ideas out.
Disadvantages: Developing multiple characters and stretching out. There are times I just want to keep going on a certain topic, and then I realize I need to keep it going or the short story will turn into a novelette, and morph into a novella, or novel. I love to write from multiple POVs, meaning: I like to have multiple POV characters and write chapters based on their POV. Similar to George R R Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series, but of course I could only hope to write half as well as GRRM.
On the surface, it may seem there are more advantages to the Short Story, but the chance to fully develop characters and be able to live with them for thousands and thousands of words in a novel is very appealing to me. I find it very hard to get in the mind of a character in a short story, and maybe I’m just missing the point in that form. I’ve read that in Science Fiction short stories it’s more the gimmick that the story evolves from, and in the end the character learns something meaningful. I know that is a simplification, but I’m just too lazy to quote from the actual text.
Well, I’m going to keep plugging away on the short stories. I do feel they are a great way to break into writing–at least into Science Fiction and Fantasy. On a related note, I got notification back from the Writers of the Future Contest that I did not win, and in fact, I didn’t even place in the competition. The good news is that I submitted the first short story I had ever written and the coordinating judge for the contest, K.D. Wentworth (a past winner and published writer of fantasy and sci-fi) submitted stories five (5) times before she won. So, I don’t feel bad, I’m still learning and with each story I can only get better.
So for now, I’m busy writing short stories, and revising the ones I’ve finished. I still need to finish revisions on my novel Progeny, which I’m becoming more excited about revisiting.
I’ve become fascinated (after writing some sci-fi short stories) with writing a Science Fiction novel. I’ve been tossing some ideas around in my head, but decided I needed to re-educate myself on modern physics. It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve taken a college level physics class and I’m quite sure there have been major advances since then….
For some light reading I chose Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku. Very easy read so far, it’s definitely written for the layman, and at times I find myself wanting a little more number crunching and pure science. Overall I’d recommend the book if you are at all interested in cosmology but are afraid to pick up a book on it for fear it will be over your head.
Alistair
Tags: Progeny, revising, Short Story, Writers of the Future, Writing
What began as a short story quickly morphed into a novelette. I finished the first draft of the story today with close to 13k words. The revision process will begin tomorrow and I hope to have it mailed out to the Writers of the Future contest by the December 31st deadline.
I began research for the story right around Thanksgiving, so the entire process for the first draft took almost a month. Not bad, but I should have been able to hit those 13k words much sooner. The revision process at least should be easier since I think the opening will need the most change in order to have it mesh with the events occurring at the end.
I’m a bit of a pantster. Oh, I have a pretty good idea of where the story is headed, but a lot of what happens comes to me as I write. I’m not by any means an outliner. I feel too constrained by it, but I can see the merit in using an outline as well. I had a few ideas for the ending of the story, but it came to me today while I showered (the ideas always come when I’m not in a position to do anything about them, like when I am jogging or working out). I couldn’t get out of the shower fast enough and down to the computer to begin putting down the ideas. Once I started on the end, the final 2.5k words were easy.
Anyway, I’m excited to be done with the first draft and look forward to this story joining my last one as entries into the Writers of the Future contest.
Alistair
Tags: draft, revising, Short Story, Writers of the Future
I’ll start with what’s been going on in my writing world:
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted to the blog, but I’ve been updating my word counts daily on the main webpage. I’ve been working on another science fiction short story to enter into the Writers of the Future Contest. I submitted a story back in September for the same contest, and should be hearing within the next month whether or not my story has been chosen. I’m a little nervous, but I know that either way I’ll continue to learn the craft of writing, and improve with each story I write. For those who are not aware, this contest has been discovering new writers for over 25 years now, and is judged by well-known and respected names in the Science Fiction and Fantasy communities. To be a finalist in the competition opens quite a few doors, not to mention publication in an annual anthology.
Once I’m finished with the current short story, I’ll be working on the revisions for the Progeny novel. I completely rewrote the beginning a couple months back and I think it has provided some grit and immediacy to the entire story. I’ve learned that revising is difficult. It isn’t hard for me to chop off words, or make subtle changes. The hard part for me is the macro editing: looking at the entire story and seeing how all the pieces fit, and if they’re all doing what they are supposed to be doing, as well as knowing when to add or subtract big pieces from the story. I thought I’d be able to have the first revision to Progeny done by the New Year, but….
Life happens, and it has happened in good ways for me:
I got married to my long time girlfriend on November 1st, 2009 in Washington, D.C., which was an amazing event in my life. We then took a transatlantic voyage on the Queen Mary 2 from New York to England, and spent a few days in London. An incredible honeymoon, and an absolutely awesome way to begin our marriage.
The month leading up to the wedding was full of stress however, as our day job didn’t see fit to cooperate with our carefully laid plans for her to move down to Northern Virginia. In the end it all worked out, but getting to that point was pure hell. So, with my personal life at an all time high, I’m poised now to enter a very creative phase, and I’ve even felt an itch to compose some music again, but we’ll see. I don’t want other creative endeavors to take away from my writing, so the music just may need to take a back seat until a few things are completed.
So, now that my life has somewhat settled down again, I believe I can find the time to blog on a more regular basis!
Alistair
Tags: Life, marriage, Progeny, Queen Mary 2, Short Story, Writers of the Future, Writing
Revising. I love the idea of revising. So, I let my completed manuscript sit for about a month. I did absolutely nothing with it, I didn’t even think about it. What did I do during that time? I wrote a short story in a different genre. I wrote the short story, let it sit for a week or so and then I revised that.
Why did I not go back to my 115k word novel? Well…for one I had a contest deadline I wanted to meet for the short story. Plus, I figured revising the short story would be excellent practice for when I started on the novel. I learned a lot during the revisions on the short story, and I also learned that I had to let it go. No matter how many times I read it after a revision I always found things I could fix or tinker with. Finally, I had to stop. I read it through after I don’t know, nine revisions and said that’s it. I checked it for obvious errors and just sent it away to the contest.
I think the process of editing the short story was important for how I was going to tackle the 115k word novel. Seeing the short story grow with each revision excited me and I actually started to believe I could write an engaging story and craft interesting sentences. Those sentences came to life and the characters became real.
So, now I’m revising my novel and it is still daunting. I’ve restructured the opening and believe it is much stronger this time. I know though that once I make it through the whole novel it is going to take a few more passes before I think it is anywhere close to being ready for me to query agents about it.
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While revising the novel I thought I’d write the second book of the series, but I’ve decided to write something entirely different. After I write this book I’ll go back to the series, but for now I think it’s a good idea to try writing something much different than the first book. It’d be so easy for me to continue to write the series since I know the characters and setting so well, but I don’t want a comfort zone at the moment. In the end I think this will make me a better writer. Once I get the world built and some characters to inhabit the world I’ll post more on it.
Anyway, off to revising the Progeny manuscript.
Alistair
Tags: draft, editing, Progeny, revising, Short Story, worldbuilding
I was recently interviewed at Book-in-a-week . For those who do not know, Book in a Week is a great motivational writing group. Once a month for a week it’s all about BIC HOK TAM (butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly). The people over there are great!
Tags: book-in-a-week, Writing
Well, I broke down and joined the Twitter sensation. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it, but so far I’ve found it to be fascinating. I’m not the kind of person who likes to give constant updates, and I’m not sure anyone cares if I went to the bathroom, or what I had for lunch. And, I don’t really care if what other people eat or when they need to take care of bodily functions… At least I have the option to stop following people who insist on reporting everything they are feeling, doing, or thinking about doing. I can see how there’d be a lot of TMI on something like Twitter. Having said that though….
I see many uses for Twitter. I’ve focused my following on mainly literary agents, authors and publishers. I feel it keeps me in the loop, makes me feel like I’m part of the industry–even though I’m still an unknown and outsider. Seeing the updates keeps me focused and is a constant reminder that I’m involved in writing, that I am writer.
Along with Twitter, I obviously have my website and blog to keep people informed. If I ever manage to attract a following other than my fiance’ and the furry feline congregation at home, they will come in handy. So Twitter will be for announcements and other nonsense, and the website and blog will be for much larger ideas and updates. I like the setup, it makes sense to me now, and I’m somewhat annoyed at myself for not joining Twitter earlier. Oh well.
On another note, this weekend I’ll be heading up to North Jersey to spend time with family and friends. I’m looking forward to spending Saturday evening eating, drinking, and talking with my old high school buddies. One of which, is also a writer, but much further along in the process than me. His blog can be checked out here: Traveler’s Tales. I’m looking forward to seeing him and discussing writing and what’s been going on the past eight years or so since I last saw him.
And one last thing: I’ve completed the edits on the short story which now has a name: Shadowsphere. I’ll be submitting it soon and hoping for the best! In a very general sense, Shadowsphere is a story of loss, loss of faith, and the restoration of faith in a science fiction setting.
Until next time–happy writing and happy living!
Alistair
Tags: friends, Twitter, vocroth, Writers of the Future, Writing
It’s been a while since I last posted, but quite a few things have been happening! First off, before I went on vacation to Novia Scotia, I finished the first draft of the fantasy novel and a first draft of a science fiction short story.
The short story I intend to enter into the Writers of the Future contest. It’s actually the first short story I’ve ever written. I wasn’t sure if I’d like to write short stories, but I have to say, it was quite enjoyable. So, I’m polishing that story in order to submit it by the end of August. I intend to keep writing short stories while in revision mode on the fantasy novel. I may just end up with a short story that begs to be turned into a novel.
Vacation was great. That trip to Nova Scotia was the first time I’d been to a foreign country since 1988 I think. Quite a long drought huh? Canada was a lot of fun, and during the course of the trip I got engaged to the most wonderful, intelligent, caring, and beautiful woman. I was very lucky she said yes. :)
It was hell coming back from Canada though…I had to be back in Virginia for the movers the morning after we got back, but the flight was delayed. It was beginning to feel a lot like the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles for a while. In the end I made it home, but only had a few hours to sleep before the movers showed up. But it all worked out. I am now in an even better townhouse, in a better neighborhood. My fiance’ (what a wonderful thing to be able to write) will be joining me Virginia in early October. So for now I continue to be looked after by my two furry little friends Juniper and Woobie.
Anyhow, it’s great to be back, and there will be more updates soon!
Alistair
Tags: fiancee', moving, Writers of the Future, Writing