Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for February, 2011

Guest Post: 5 Things To Do In Your First 3 Paragraphs

Monday, February 28th, 2011

by Cat Rambo

1. Engage the senses. You don’t have to hit every sensory stop – but it sure helps. Vivid visuals are great, but they are even better when backed up with visceral, precise taste or touch or sound.

2. Hint at the conflict. The majority of great stories provide the reader with some clue to the conflict driving the story within the first three paragraphs. Here, for example, is the first paragraph of Kelly Link’s marvelous “Travels with the Snow Queen”:

Part of you is always traveling faster, always traveling ahead. Even when you are moving, it is never fast enough to satisfy that part of you. You enter the walls of the city early in the evening, when the cobblestones are a mottled pink with reflected light, and cold beneath the slap of your bare, bloody feet. You ask the man who is guarding the gate to recommend a place to stay the night, and even as you are falling into bed at the inn, the bed, which is piled high with quilts and scented with lavender, perhaps alone, perhaps with another traveler, perhaps with the guardsman who had such brown eyes, and a mustached that curled up on either side of his nose like two waxed black laces, even as this guardsman, whose name you didn’t ask calls out a name in his sleep that is not your name, you are dreaming about the road again. When you sleep, you dream about the long white distances that still lie before you. When you wake up, the guardsman is back at his post, and the place between your legs aches pleasantly, your legs sore as if you had continued walking all night in your sleep. While you were sleeping, your feet have healed again. You were careful not to kiss the guardsman on the lips, so it doesn’t really count, does it.

Holy cow, talk about grabbing the reader with bravura and effortlessly stuffing them full of story. Second person is such a wonderful and reckless choice and it works here in a way not all second person narratives do. There’s physical pain, the bare bloody feet, and sensory beyond the visual with lavender and high-piled quilts and pleasant aches. And beyond that there is both an external conflict, the enforced journey, the drive in her dreams, and an internal conflict, a shame that, because the narrator is so careful not to look at it, makes us achingly aware of its existence: You were careful not to kiss the guardsman on the lips, so it doesn’t really count, does it. (The rest of the story is even better, and Link’s collection Magic For Beginners is worth picking up for its craftsmanship as well as the enjoyment its fabulous stories offer.)
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Tags: cat rambo
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners, Writing Technique | 2 Comments »

What’s an Idea Worth?

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you'll know that I'm fascinated by the bizarre things that happen at the outer fringes of the publishing universe.

Well, here's one: on eBay, someone is attempting to auction off his or her story idea. Starting bid? $3,000,000. Alternatively, you can buy it outright for $10,000,000.

No, I did not accidentally attach any extra zeroes.

I am selling my story that I have been creating for 10+ years. (not constantly writing, but of piecing everything together in a cohesive manner) It can be compared to stories like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Indiana Jones and other titles in those categories...
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Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 2 Comments »

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 11 – Make the problem hard to solve with disadvantages

Saturday, February 26th, 2011

by John D. Brown

The following is part of a continuing series. If you wish to start at the beginning, head to It’s All About The Reader.

Readers want to hope and fear for a character. To feel this, they must not know what WILL happen, but do need to suspect or know what MIGHT happen and feel tension about the possibilities. They want that tension to build, and then they want to feel a cathartic release.

The reader will continue to feel that tension as long as the problem is unresolved (the danger or menace remains, the character continues to suffer hardship, the mystery becomes more puzzling) AND the situation changes in such a way that the reader’s worry grows.

How do we make sure the problem persists and intensifies for forty to seventy scenes (an average range for many novels) despite the character’s efforts?

Easy. Plot is nothing more than the character’s attempts to solve the problem and the results of those attempts. There’s no mystery to it. A character has a problem. Character tries to solve the problem. And something happens as a result.
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Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners, Writing Technique | Comments Off

Deadline for Claiming Cash Payment Under Google Book Settlement Has Been Extended

Friday, February 25th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

A couple of weeks ago, I reported that the parties involved in the Google Book Settlement had applied for an extension of the deadline for authors to file claims for cash payments for works scanned by Google without permission.

On Feb. 18, the Court approved the extension. Claims were due by March 31, 2011; they will now be due one year after the date on which a court order is issued approving the Settlement. In other words, the new deadline doesn't have a fixed date, and you'll need to keep your eye on Settlement developments. (Don't worry; I'll continue to report as necessary.)

A couple of other deadlines are unchanged: to remove your works from Google's Participating Libraries and Research Corpus databases, you must make a request on or before April 5, 2011. To remove your works from Google Books, you must make a request on or before March 9, 2012.

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Tags: Writer Beware
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Quick Updates for 2011-02-25

Friday, February 25th, 2011

• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member, Laura Ruby (@thatlauraruby), author of The Chaos King (HarperCollins/07) http://www.lauraruby.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Charles Oberndorf, author of Foragers (Bantam Spectra '96). #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member @stdennard author of THE SPIRIT-HUNTERS (HarperCollins Childrens/12) http://susandennard.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member @MykeCole author of Shadow Ops Series (ACE 2/12) http://www.mykecole.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Diana Peterfreund (@dpeterfreund), author of ASCENDANT (HarperCollins 9/10) http://is.gd/7WAzYy #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Julia Watts Belser with three short story sales. #
• @ThomasMcNamara I can certainly try. What's up? #
• @ThomasMcNamara It must have a speculative element to count BUT that necessarily doesn't mean it has to be SF or Fantasy. Make sense? #
• @ThomasMcNamara So a ghost story would count. Or a talking horse. That sort of thing. #
• @ThomasMcNamara Sure thing. Thanks for being interested in joing. #
• RT @NASA: Watch Discovery's 4:50 p.m. EST launch on NASA TV’s HD channel: http://bit.ly/hIx0IG or standard online at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv #

Tags: twitter
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Quick Updates for 2011-02-23

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

• Not that we have news to post or anything, but… stand by. #
• @JulietteWade It works when I click it. #
• @WannabeWriter06 It works when I click it. Are you sure? #

Tags: twitter
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Guest Blog Post: Beware of Pay-To-Play TV Talk Shows

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

This guest post by author and essayist Kim Brittingham addresses an issue I've been getting an increasing number of questions about lately: pay-to-play TV talk shows. Kim takes an illuminating look at the phenomenon euphemistically dubbed "branded entertainment," and explains why these infomercial-style shows--which charge fees of up to several thousand dollars--aren't a genuine path to media exposure.

The same cautions apply to radio, by the way. There are many shows on regular and Internet radio that charge appearance fees, or want you to pay for turning your interview into a podcast, or use some similar ploy to remove money from your pocket. The amounts are usually smaller--a few hundred dollars, rather than a few thousand--but the principle is the same. Whether it's radio or television, you should never have to pay a fee to be a guest on a show.

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By Kim Brittingham

If you're an author -- whether you sold your book to a publisher or self-published it -- you'd probably jump at the chance to talk about your book on national television. Who wouldn't?

But beware of predatory producers of "branded entertainment" TV talk shows that are little more than glorified infomercials. They know how badly you want to promote your book to a large audience, and they'll use that desire to try and separate you from your money, to the tune of thousands of dollars.

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Tags: Writer Beware
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SFWA announces the 2010 Nebula Award Nominees

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is proud to announce the nominees for the 2010 Nebula Awards.

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of  SFWA. The awards will be announced at the Nebula Awards Banquet on Saturday evening, May 21, 2011 in the Washington Hilton, in Washington, D.C.. Other awards to be presented are the Andre Norton Award for Excellence in Science Fiction or Fantasy for Young Adults, the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation and the Solstice Award for outstanding contribution to the field.

Short Story

• ‘‘Arvies’’, Adam-Troy Castro (Lightspeed Magazine 8/10)
• ‘‘How Interesting: A Tiny Man’’, Harlan Ellison® (Realms of Fantasy 2/10)
• ‘‘Ponies’’, Kij Johnson (Tor.com 1/17/10)
• ‘‘I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno’’, Vylar Kaftan (Lightspeed Magazine 6/10)
• ‘‘The Green Book’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Apex Magazine 11/1/10)
• ‘‘Ghosts of New York’’, Jennifer Pelland (Dark Faith)
• ‘‘Conditional Love’’, Felicity Shoulders (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 1/10)

Novelette

• ‘‘Map of Seventeen’’, Christopher Barzak (The Beastly Bride)
• ‘‘The Jaguar House, in Shadow’’, Aliette de Bodard Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 7/10)
• ‘‘The Fortuitous Meeting of Gerard van Oost and Oludara’’, Christopher Kastensmidt (Realms of Fantasy 4/10)
• “Plus or Minus’’, James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 12/10)
• ‘‘Pishaach’’, Shweta Narayan (The Beastly Bride)
• ‘‘That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made’’, Eric James Stone (Analog Science Fiction and Fact 9/10)
• ‘‘Stone Wall Truth’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 2/10)

Novella

• The Alchemist, Paolo Bacigalupi (Audible; Subterranean)
• ‘‘Iron Shoes’’, J. Kathleen Cheney (Alembical 2)
• The Lifecycle of Software Objects, Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
• ‘‘The Sultan of the Clouds’’, Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine 9/10)
• ‘‘Ghosts Doing the Orange Dance’’, Paul Park (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1-2/10)
• ‘‘The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window’’, Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine Summer ’10)

Novel

• The Native Star, M.K. Hobson (Spectra)
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit UK; Orbit US)
• Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
• Echo, Jack McDevitt (Ace)
• Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafor (DAW)
• Blackout/All Clear, Connie Willis (Spectra)

The Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

• Despicable Me, Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud (directors), Ken Daurio & Cinco Paul (screenplay), Sergio Pablos (story) (Illumination Entertainment)
• Doctor Who: ‘‘Vincent and the Doctor’’, Richard Curtis (writer), Jonny Campbell (director)
• How to Train Your Dragon, Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders (directors), William Davies, Dean DeBlois, & Chris Sanders (screenplay) (DreamWorks Animation)
• Inception, Christopher Nolan (director), Christopher Nolan (screenplay) (Warner)
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Edgar Wright (director), Michael Bacall & Edgar Wright (screenplay) (Universal)
• Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich (director), Michael Arndt (screenplay), John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, & Lee Unkrich (story) (Pixar/Disney)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown)
• White Cat, Holly Black (McElderry)
• Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins (Scholastic Press; Scholastic UK)
• Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword, Barry Deutsch (Amulet)
• The Boy from Ilysies, Pearl North (Tor Teen)
• I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday; Harper)
• A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)
• Behemoth, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

For more information, visit www.nebulaawards.com or www.sfwa.org

About SFWA

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 1,800 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals.  Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

Posted in SFWA Blog | 74 Comments »

Quick Updates for 2011-02-22

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Member News

• SFWA member Tobias Buckell was on the front cover of the Bluffton News last week.
• SFWA member Keffy R. M. Kehrli‘s story “The Ghost of a Girl Who Never Lived” tied for third in the InterGalactic Awards.
• SFWA member Jeffry Dwight‘s speculative poetry collection, PHANTAS, is available now from Curiosities.
• SFWA member Blake Charlton‘s novelette “Endosymbiont” is on Escape Pod.
• SFWA member Allan Cole asks How Many Agents Does It Take To Screw A Writer? New Hollywood MisAdventure: here.
• SFWA member Catherynne Valente announces her candidacy for Eastern Regional Director of SFWA.

Industry News

• The deadline for claiming the Google Books Settlement cash payment has been extended to 1 year after/if the settlement is approved.

Tags: Allan Cole, Blake Charlton, Catherynne Valente, Jeffry Dwight, keffy r.m. kehrli, Tobias Buckell, twitter
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Quick Updates for 2011-02-21

Monday, February 21st, 2011

• @johnjosephadams On Tuesday. There is a preview of the list of nominees in the SFWA forums. #

Tags: twitter
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