Friday 27 February 2009

Painting Words

They say that a picture paints a thousand words. Thus, in order to look at thousands of them, take a trip over to Peter's Flickr website. There are loads of photos, many of writers in the fantasy and SF field.

Junk!

I thought I might recommend Junk by Melvin Burgess. Although this is aimed at the YA market, it warrants reading by adults, especially those with children, to help them understand their offspring. Junk tells of two young teenagers who run away from home, one from an abusive father, the other... Well, her reasons aren't as strong to the book's other protagonists. Gemma and David end up in squats in Bristol, amongst the unemployed, druggies, prostitutes. And it is only inevitable that they fall into this pit. Junk follows their life from several viewpoints, like the statements of all protagonists; and they come over with verisimilitude. Junk is so convincing. It is a salutory story which, I suspect, acts as a better caveat than all manner of warnings by teachers, politicians and parents.
--- Peter Coleborn

Monday 23 February 2009

Ellen Datlow's Writing Tips

I contacted Ellen yesterday, and she gave permission for the following article to be reprinted on this blog.

WRITING TIPS BY ELLEN DATLOW

Are you writing for yourself or an audience? If you're lucky and good, you can do both at the same time. How accessible must you be? How accessible do you want to be? There are fine writers in and outside the sf/fantasy, and horrors field who are respected and read by editors and other writers but who don't sell very well.

This matters more in novel form than in short fiction. A writer can afford to be more experimental in short fiction because each story in a magazine or anthology does not sell the entire magazine or book. Each novel published needs to make money for the publishing house. You can and indeed must be literate in everything you write, but this does not mean you must be "literary."

When submitting fiction to an editor, send it in as finished and polished as you can. A story can only be read a first time once. In other words, impact counts. Editors are more likely to buy a story that hits them strongly on the first read. Whether a story is meant to be read more than once or not, the first read is the most important.

If you're having trouble with dialogue, I highly recommend reading the work of Elmore Leonard. You can pick up almost any of his books, turn a page at random, and find terrific, effective dialogue. People speak in idiom. Most people do not speak with perfect grammar or sentence structure. If you are using formal dialogue intentionally—for example, to show that a character speaks English as a second language—it's allowable. Leonard's dialogue runs fast and furious. It's not appropriate for every kind of story, but you can still learn from him.

The first line and paragraph of a story count. To see examples of effective first lines, check out William Gibson's stories in his collection BURNING CHROME. You don't have to start off with a bang, but something has to hold the reader—an image, a character, a hint of an event to come. This is known as the "hook." Practical advice on submitting a story:
  • Always double space
  • Paper clip your submissions
  • Do not put tape on every corner of your submission envelope as it makes it exceedingly annoying and difficult for whomever is opening the envelopes to do so.
  • Underline to show italics—do not italicize in a manuscript as it makes it difficult for the editor and copy editor to read.
  • Use a standard, easy-to-read 12 pt font
(c) Ellen Datlow

Roots of an Editor: Ellen Datlow


Jan Edwards interviewed Ellen Datlow for a series of "Roots" interviews that appear in the magazine Dark Horizons, in issue 51 published in 2007. Ellen, a New Yorker, gained a BA in English Literature, and began at the roots of the game, building on hard work and dedication to become editor of Omni magazine and Omni Online from 1981 to 1998, and oversaw Event Horizon: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Webzine from September 1998 to December 1999. Ellen was also editor of SCI-FICTION until 2005. She had edited and/or co-edited approaching 50 anthologies. She has won seven World Fantasy Awards; two Bram Stoker Awards; an International Horror Guild Award; a Locus Award; and two Hugo Awards. The following is an extract from the original interview. (Photo of Ellen Datlow by Peter Coleborn)

JE: What story first sparked your imagination and led you into a career in the fantasy field?

ED: I don’t remember just one but there were fairy tales and Greek myths that I read when I was young and also the Mushroom Planet series of books by Eleanor Cameron. Later it was The Twilight Zone (original series) – I was too young to stay up for them so my mom told me the stories the next day (or sometimes, my sister and I watched from the direct line along the hallway from our bedroom to my parents’, where we could see the TV if we weren’t caught).

What was your earliest ambition? Did you always know that you would work with books or writers in some way?

I wanted to be a veterinarian because I love animals and I thought it would be wonderful to be around them all the time. Of course, as a child, I didn’t realize that [1] I’d have to take maths and science courses (ick) and [2] I’d be around a lot of sick and dying animals – those two things put me off the idea pretty quickly (especially the maths part). Then I wanted to work in a bookstore because I loved being around books and reading them. I knew nothing about how one would work with writers when I was young. In fact, I’m not really sure how I discovered that editors existed and that one could work for a publisher and help produce books. But somehow the connection was made and by my early twenties I wanted to get into editorial work in book publishing.

What where you first jobs before you became an editor?

Nothing very interesting before publishing: putting together cardboard boxes; bakery one summer; working in the university library in college; working in the Nizo-Braun camera factory in various jobs (machine room, assembly line-which was so boring I asked to do something else after a few days, helping in the kitchen) outside of Munich for several months after college.

You were born in New York, and still live in Manhattan. Do you feel that it was life in a big city that prompted you to explore the more colourful side of the human imagination?

I grew up in the Bronx until I was eight and hung around my block with a bunch of friends where we did things that kids do now in the suburbs. Play, build snow tunnels (yes, there was enough snow in the Bronx sometimes). My dad pulled me down the streets in a sled. I climbed bus poles (I was a tomboy), my friends and I practiced blowing bubbles with bubble gum. We practiced whistling (the only way I’ve been able to do it is the two fingers screech with the pinky and forefinger – you know? The taxi cab hailing whistle you sometimes see in movies. My father owned a luncheonette kitty corner across the street from where I lived and even after we moved to the suburbs when I was eight, we’d come to the luncheonette for lunch every Saturday (my sister and I went to music school that day) and I’d read all the comic books in the store, from Little Lulu and Superman to Classics Illustrated and the ones with creepy crawlies on the covers (I don’t remember the titles). So to answer your question – bet you thought I wasn’t going to get to it – I don’t know if it was the city per se that prompted my interest but certainly my upbringing encouraged it in some ways.

What was you first editing job?

You mean editorial job? Then I was as editorial assistant at Charterhouse, an imprint of David McKay (neither which exist any more). If you mean actually editing, it was Arbor House, which at the time was owned by the monster Don Fine. No one lasted very long there and the six months or so I worked there I went from answering the phone to editing a couple of novels and doing publicity. But my first real editing job was at Omni magazine, when I was hired as Associate Fiction Editor by Ben Bova, and worked with Bob Sheckley.

You edit both novels and short fiction. Do you have a preference? And can you remember which was the first story you selected for your first anthology?

I much prefer to edit short fiction. I’ve done it longer and I think I’m better at it. Well, since I started editing at Omni way before editing any anthologies, the first stories I selected and edited there once I was promoted to Fiction Editor were ‘Eyes I Dare not Meet in Dreams’ by Dan Simmons, ‘Burning Chrome’ by William Gibson, and ‘Petra’ by Greg Bear. Before that, of course, I was not yet buying the fiction myself but I was reading and editing all of it, including ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ and ‘Hinterlands’ by Gibson.

Anthologies have been scarce outside of fantasy and science fiction for many years. But in recent times the publishing houses have started to bring out more anthologies, especially in the YA ranges. How encouraging do you think this is for the future of fiction in general and fantasy in particular?

I’m not sure. Terri Windling and I have had luck selling a series of Young Adult anthologies to Viking – we get good money for them and they sell very well. Will Viking continue to support them? Who knows? It’s always a struggle to sell another anthology. I did an original horror anthology for Tor (The Dark) and it did well enough for them to commission a second from me (Inferno, out in December). If that one does well enough, I hope they’ll have me do another. I’ve got feelers out about some other anthologies – horror and fantasy ones. I don’t think mainstream publishing has much impact on genre publishing with regard to anthologies.
(c) Jan Edwards / Dark Horizons

Sunday 22 February 2009

Editorial advice

One issue that troubles many newer writers is how to get one's manuscript read by an editor. Ellen Datlow is one of the finest editors in the SF, fantasy and horror fields, but her advice is applicable to all types of writing. She says, "When submitting fiction to an editor, send it in as finished and polished as you can. A story can only be read a first time once. In other words, impact counts. Editors are more likely to buy a story that hits them strongly on the first read. Whether a story is meant to be read more than once or not, the first read is the most important." Read her advice on her website.

Scriptwriting

If anyone is interested in writing screenplays, you may wish to check out the following links. The first is for ScriptSmart, from the BBC. The second is Microsoft's own template. I don't know how good they are, or if they function at all. There are other templates available, that cost money. These two links here are currently free : BBC and MS Word.

Sunday 15 February 2009

SToW -- Minutes

Here is a summary of the minutes of the first Stoke-on-Writing (SToW) meeting, held at the Bentilee Community Centre on Saturday 14 February 2009. Present were: Jan Edwards, Peter Coleborn, Gwyn Booth, Darren Buttery, Martine Iwaszko, Mel Baines, and Amy Shutler on behalf of Bentilee Library.

It was agreed that the group should be constituted so that funding can be sought.

Committee members of the group were elected: Chair – Jan (JE); Secretary – Mel (MB); Treasurer - Darren (DB)

It was agreed that a £20 per year membership fee be charged. Concessions should be available. The fees will refreshments at meetings, help towards costs of workshops, photocopying & stationary

It was decided that while the group was establishing itself the meetings will be monthly on a Saturday morning at Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre.

It was agreed that group members must be aiming towards publication. An age limit of 16 was agreed.

PC offered to create a blog for the group and look at newsletter ideas for the next meeting

It was agreed that group members submit or bring work to be read out at the next meeting; either 2000 words or a max reading time of 15 minutes

It was decided to find out if local book shops would support us.

After a long discussion discussion it was decided that the group should be called Stoke-on-Writing, or SToW for short.

Next meeting: Saturday 7 March 10am at Bentilee Neighbourhood Centre.

Email for the full transscription of the minutes, and for further details.

Saturday 14 February 2009

First post

Today, the Stoke-on-Writing (StoW) group met at the Bentilee Community Centre, at which we discussed our future. The meeting was very production, the minutes of which will be posted at a later date. The chief actions and decisions were the election of a chair, secretary and treasurer; and of course, the naming of the group.