Five things I learned at Clarion: Science Fiction writers speak out

Clarion Writers' Workshop for fantasy and science fiction writers has launched many careers, including that of friend and fellow Madrid writer Sue Burke. Sue has had many short stories and poems published in top magazines like Asimov's and Interzone, and recently signed her first book contract with Edge. Clarion asked alumni to list five things they learned from the workshop. Here's what Sue had to say.

"Established in 1968, the Clarion Writers' Workshop is the oldest workshop of its kind and is widely recognized as a premier proving and training ground for aspiring writers of fantasy and science fiction. I attended in 1996, and James Patrick Kelly, one of my writers-in-residence, has challenged alumni to write about the five things we learned at Clarion to encourage applicants. Here are mine:

1. How to critique. I'm still using Maureen F. McHugh's format in my local critique group. As a corollary, why to critique: Because seeing how to strengthen someone else's work is a fast way to learn how to strengthen your own work.

2. Only one miracle per story, and the first sentence should point to it.

3. The person (or thing) that hurts the most is usually the best perspective for a story.

4. Landscape reflects character, and different characters will experience the same setting differently.

5. The first draft may have everything you need, but you might need to change it all. A good time to outline of your story might be after the first draft to identify these changes."

Some very good advice from a very good writer. You can read what other writers learned here. And don't forget to check out Sue's excellent blog! Clarion is accepting applications until March 1 for Clarion 2011.

[Photo courtesy user AdamBMorgan via Wikimedia Commons]

My thoughts on my page 99

As I mentioned in my post on What the Blogger Stats Page tells You about your Blog, I like to check out the data relating to Midlist Writer. In my last post I presented page 99 of my novel and asked for input. More than fifty of you read the thing but only one person left a comment. That just goes to show how many lurkers there are on the average blog! I'd really be curious to know what my readers in Colombia and Latvia think of my writing.

Anyway, thanks for the input, Sioux.

This scene shows our young band of Confederate bushwhackers riding through the woods of mid-Missouri after killing a Unionist civilian. They had never killed a civilian before but did it because they were told he was a spy who had gotten a local secessionist hanged. There's more to this, of course, and the ramifications of their actions power the rest of the novel. It's interesting that this page shows Jimmy, one of the two protagonists besides Union Captain Richard Addison, in an entirely passive role. He's usually in charge of the bushwhacker gang but he's so stunned at what they've done that he's momentarily given up trying. He will be given another chance to step back and wash his hands later in the book, and his choice will determine the ending.

So is this a good page? Well, it does have tension, and gives a bit of insight into some of the characters, but I'm not entirely happy with the Southern dialect. That's a tricky thing to get right, especially the Missouri dialect. Plus I have to put it back into the 1860s. It's something I'm still working on.

So. . .if any of you lurkers out there want to post page 99 of your novel on your blog, feel free to put the link in my comments section. I'll be sure to read it and give my two cents' worth.

The Page 99 Test

Ford Madox Ford suggested that if you want to know how good a book is, you should "open the book to page ninety-nine and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."

A new website plans to let aspiring and published authors upload page 99 of their work for public scrutiny. The Page 99 Test isn't running yet, so I've decided to jump the gun and post page 99 of my Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness here to see how it stands up. Regular readers of this blog will know that this novel made it to the finals of Dorchester and ChiZine's Fresh Blood contest before losing. Oddly enough, five months on, the novel's fan page is still attracting hits. The manuscript currently squats malevolently in ChiZine's submissions pile.

So here's page 99. Let me know what you think. I'll post my own thoughts in my next post.

“This the right way?” Hugh asked.

“’Course it’s the right way,” Morgan said. “You think I don’t know where I’m going?”

“Don’t seem the right way,” Hugh said.

“It ain’t,” Elijah replied.

“Shut your mouth,” Morgan said, looking around at the woods uncertainly. “What’s that old devil thinking making us come all the way out here for anyways? Why didn’t we meet back at his cabin?”

“Probably afraid we’d get followed,” the Kid said.

“Damn it, we should have made that road by now. He said head north five miles and we’d hit it,” Morgan grumbled.

“We would have if we’d gone north,” Elijah said.

“Course we’ve been going north!” Morgan shouted. “We’ve been going north the entire time, haven’t we Jimmy?”

Jimmy didn’t reply, looking down at the ground as the Kid led his horse.

“Don’t ask him nothing,” Elijah said. “He’s been told his end and that’s a hard thing to take. And we ain’t been going north the whole time. When we took off from the Schmidt place, remember how we cut along that streambed? That made us move east a ways before we straightened out. We’ve passed the road.”

Morgan frowned at him, not wanting to believe, but he knew as well as the rest of them that Elijah never got lost in the woods.

“Jimmy, what do you think?” Morgan asked, bringing his horse alongside him.

“I don’t know what to believe,” Jimmy said.

Voting has started in the Fresh Blood contest

Well, it's finally started. I and the other eight finalists in Dorchester Publishing's Fresh Blood Contest had our first chapters analyzed by the judges and now public voting has begun. My Missouri Civil War horror novel A Fine Likeness got off without too many slings and arrows. The chapters, judges' comments, and voting information are up on ChiZine's website.

You know, I wasn't nervous about this contest at all, even though a publishing contract is the grand prize. Perhaps organizing my trip to Ethiopia kept my mind off it, but now that voting has started I'm getting a wee bit obsessed.

You can vote by sending an email to freshblood (at) chizinepub (dot) com with the subject line "Fresh Blood Vote: A Fine Likeness by Sean McLachlan". You can insert a different title and author, of course. If you do, feel free not to tell me about it. :-P

You can also check out the book's fanpage here.

There's a new editor in town

I'm obviously not doing my job.

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about the agonies of the freelance life and yet in the past week two friends have asked me to read their novels, and now another friend has started a freelance editing business. Have I taught you people nothing?

The new editor in town is Missouri poet Shawn Douglas, known in Madrid as Shawn Numero Dos because he arrived there after me. Well, having spent two years teaching English and surviving snarky comments from inferior poets, he's back in St. Louis writing and setting up his own editing business. It's called Write-Edit-Teach and besides editing he's offering writing services, including technical writing (he's a computer whizz who's saved my Luddite ass on several occasions), and teaching everything from English to SAT preparation. So if you're in the St. Louis area, or willing to work via email (and as a writer you better be) then check him out. He's easy going, his rates are competitive, and he knows his stuff.

The Ups And Downs Of Writing

It's been a mixed week. I made a lot of good contacts at the Oxfringe literary festival last weekend. Then Pulse Guides told me they won't be continuing their European line, including the online updates for Madrid I've been doing. They blamed the poor economy and reduction in international travel. Then a university press hired me as a peer reviewer for a history book. It's always nice to be recognized for your expertise. Then an agent rejected the query for my Civil War novel. Up and down and up and down goes my career. You'd think after eight years I'd be used to it!

Place Names in Fiction

As I was saying yesterday, I've been editing my horror novel set in Civil War Missouri. One of the people in my writer's group had an interesting comment that made me realize that as a writer you have to be careful with every aspect of your story.

One of my main characters comes from Springfield, a city in southwest Missouri. I chose to have him from there because it was an important Union military base, sort of a last outpost in a wilderness of rebel guerrillas.

My critique partner, who is English, asked me, "Are a lot of towns named Springfield in America?"

"Sure," I said. "In fact I can't think of a state that doesn't have a Springfield."

"Well then that might work for your American readers, but when I hear Springfield I think of The Simpsons."

Doh!

My character is now from Republic. Same county, much more neutral name. Actually, it makes for a nice irony. I like having a Confederate character from a town named Republic!

Revisiting An Old Manuscript

I'm in an in-between period with my fiction. My last novel is sitting in an editor's inbox, I'm waiting for my critique partners to finish with my work in progress, and my next book is percolating through my head until I move to Oxford next month. I've decided to hold off on it until I get there because it's set in England. Also, my last novel taught me the benefits of letting a story develop for a while before setting it down on paper.

Anyway, I haven't had much to do with my fiction other than think. Most of my workday has been dedicated to my nonfiction, but this week I decided to have a change of pace and gave my last novel another read. Just because it's sitting in the submissions pile doesn't mean I can't still fiddle with it!

I hadn't looked at it for six months and thought I would have a lot of changes to make, but it turns out I'm generally happy with it. I only had minor changes--a few typos and some poorly written sentences that needed untangling. I realized that I'm pretty much done with that book. If it gets accepted, I'm sure the editor will have changes, but until then I'm done with that book. Sometimes it helps to look at older work that's still bugging you just to put it to rest.

Different Readers, Different Critiques

The writers' group here in Madrid is still going strong. I now have three different people reading my Civil War horror novel. All of them are good writers, and all of them are coming at my text from very different angles.

One is an avid reader of military history and many of his critiques are about tactics, military procedure, etc. Another is an experienced science fiction writer who is making me look more closely at the motivation of my characters. The third has just started my book, and I've just started hers. She's very talented even though she hasn't been published yet, and because she has a background in writing advertising copy she really picks apart the building blocks of my sentences.

Together they make a well-rounded critique of my book, each one bringing their own interests and point of view to the text. While it's important to get several people to read your work, it's also important to find people with widely different backgrounds and viewpoints who will look at your work in different ways.

What Book Reviewers Think About Self-Publishing

I've come across a couple of great articles about self-publishing, the temptation every struggling writer faces. They confirm my earlier argument that most writers should avoid it. Paul Krupin at Direct Contact PR interviewed a long list of book reviewers about their feelings when they receive a self-published book for review. The article is here.

It isn't pretty. There were comments such as,

"They go to the bottom of the pile."

"Do not send them, I will not read them."

"So far I have not found one that I would recommend to any reader."

"Rarely do I examine such a book, the quality is likely unappealing to readers."

Ouch. The thing is, book reviewers cover books their readers are likely to read. Since self-published books rarely make it into bookstore shelves, and are usually ranked so low on Amazon that nobody sees them, readers aren't going to find them. A common theme among the responses was an aversion to the poor editing, self-indulgent plotlines, and amateurish cover art found on so many self-published books. There was also a distressing confusion between POD (a method for making books) and self-publishing (which often uses POD)

On the other hand, several reviewers said they occasionally found good ones, and that they're far more likely to review a self-published work if it has a local angle. Check out Paul's excellent article for more information.

Kel Munger, book reviewer for the Sacramento News & Review has an informative rant on the subject here. The skinny: if you're a worthy writer, you'll put in the time and effort and eventually you'll be rewarded.

It worked for me. Well, with my nonfiction. Apparantly I have more time to put in before my novels are up to snuff. I guess I could self-publish them, but then what? Sell a dozen copies?

What Novel Should I Write Next (Part 2)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the question of what novel I should start in the New Year. I also posted it on several of my online writing lists. Thanks to the many of you who responded. The answers were split about evenly between people who said I should do the Civil War sequel and those who said I should do the London/Oxford book. Oh well!

I'm leaning more towards the London/Oxford book since I'll be there starting in April, and I don't want to get really into the Civil War book and then have to set it aside. If I'm feeling really stuck at the beginning of the year with the London/Oxford book, I could always play hookey until April by working on two short stories and a novella I have outlined. One short is almost done, and the novella is about a fifth done. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how things strike me on January first. In the meantime, back to my nonfiction deadlines!

Another thing I'll be doing before I head to England is revise my Civil War novel. A rejection from an agent and a couple of good critiques have shown me where I need to firm up the characterization and flow. I already know what I want to do, and I just edited chapter one over the past two days. A book isn't finished until it's published!

Seven Reasons for NOT Joining A Critique Group

Donna's Book Pub recently posted the Top 7 Reasons to Join a Critique Group. Just to play Devil's advocate, here are seven reasons not to join a critique group. I've actually gotten a lot out of crit groups and I'm in one now, but there are some pitfalls to watch out for. Take this list only half seriously.

7. People talking about things other than writing.

6. Newbies who say they'll read your stuff and never show up again.

5. That one person who rips apart everything you write despite having published less than you. (there's one in every group)

4. The regular who always wants people to read their entire novel but "doesn't have time" for more than a few pages of your own.

3. Five people having five mutually exclusive opinions about your work.

2. Printing out an entire chapter, waiting three weeks for it to be returned, and finding only one little comment at the end saying, "good job."


. . .and the number one reason for not joining a critique group. . .


1. It takes time away from your writing!!!

Conflicting Critiques

I've been handing out two very different pieces in my writers group lately, a nonfiction book proposal on Confederate General Sterling Price's 1864 invasion of Missouri, and a horror novel set during the same invasion. Yep, a novel and a history book in the same period. I have to save on research time somehow.

Two of the regulars have read both the proposal and the first four chapters of my novel, but they have completely conflicting reviews. One really enjoyed the novel, but found the proposal boring. The other loved the history book, but was less than thrilled with the novel. I respect both of these people as writers, and more importantly as readers, so what to make of this? It's not because they like one subject and not the other, they're both too experienced at critiques to fall into that trap, they simply have opposing positions.

Every writer needs to listen to critiques, but every writer also has to know that they can't please everyone. The woman who didn't enjoy my history book loves reading history, but maybe my style of history writing isn't for her; it obviously works for the other reader, who's also a history fan. Fortunately they both gave more detailed critiques than simply a thumb's up or a thumb's down (otherwise it would be a waste of time giving stuff to them) so I was able to get some useful information.

Critiques can be like that. You have to take what you can use and leave the rest. You can't please everybody, but be careful if you aren't pleasing everybody. If five out of six people say the same thing, it's time to listen; if two people say opposite things, go with your gut.

Making Readers Cry

I've been busy editing my second fantasy novel these past few weeks. My first novel got rejected by an editor at a major publishing house, but she wants to see my second one. I sent out a panicked email to a couple of my writing newsgroups asking for critiques. It was kind of a tall order--read and critique a 87,000 word novel in less than a month. Nonetheless, seven people replied.

That's one of the great things about the writing community, most writers support one another. Oh, I've met some notable exceptions, usually writers who have recently become successful and have gotten a swelled head, but all in all we're a pretty supportive bunch.

The critiques were quite helpful. Besides catching some typos (you can never catch them all yourself) they had some good suggestions for fleshing out the supporting characters, and clearing up a few scenes. They were also very complimentary. One even said the nicest thing anyone has ever said about my writing--that one scene made her cry.

Wow. I've never been happy about making someone cry since breaking up with a certain deserving ex-girlfriend in college. The scene was designed to make the reader cry, but I didn't think it actually would.

I can only hope it will make the editor cry.