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