Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for April, 2011

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 20 – Patterns for Presenting the Problem 1-3

Saturday, April 30th, 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.

In my last two posts I talked about looking for plot/structure patterns. I’ll start now with patterns for presenting the problem.

The story begins when we present to the reader (a) the main character, (b) the problem she’ll face, and (c) a good reason why the character can’t or won’t walk away from the problem. If the main character is sympathetic and interesting, the reader will root for her and want to see what happens. If some of the particularities of the character and problem are surprising to the readers, it will generate more interest than if it’s something they’ve seen many times before.

Here are some elements to think about when you structure the event sequence of the presentation phase.

• Number of scenes to present the problem
• Straight or twist presentation
• Central problem or a subplot problem start
• The reason why the hero can’t or won’t walk away
• Size of the presentation phase (proportion)

In this post, I’ll briefly discuss some options for the first three elements.
(more…)

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

Clarion West to Honor
Paul Park, Connie Willis, and Gardner Dozois

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

On June 24 at 8 p.m., Clarion West will open the Locus Awards Weekend with a party in honor of CW instructor Paul Park. The party will also celebrate Awards Toastmistress Connie Willis, SF Hall of Fame inductee Gardner Dozois, and other stars of the speculative fiction cosmos attending the Awards Weekend. Festivities will take place in the Seattle Center’s Best Western Executive Inn, which is near the EMP, site of the SF Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Party attendance is open to all Locus Awards/SF Hall of Fame event ticketholders, as well as Clarion West Writers Workshop donors and supporters.

This will be the first of six weekly parties presented this summer by the Clarion West community in conjunction with the annual Clarion West Writers Workshop, which prepares writers for professional careers in the fantastic genres. More information on Clarion West is available at www.clarionwest.org.

Tags: Connie Willis, Gardner Dozois, Locus Awards, Paul Park, SF Hall of Fame
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-04-30

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

• @Shirin_Dubbin @jayewells If you look at sub-genres, no category dominates the Nebula awards. UF is part of Fantasy. #
• @JeannieHolmes @StaciaKane @jayewells Clearly we are using dif. defs of urban fantasy. "American Gods" is UF but not paranormal romance. #
• @jayewells @JeannieHolmes @StaciaKane Which is what? #
• @jayewells I didn't see what your big question was? #
• @StaciaKane @jayewells @JeannieHolmes Not at all. I'm aware that the definition is shifting & wanted to be sure we were clear on terms. #
• @StaciaKane @jayewells @JeannieHolmes Also, this is @MaryRobinette manning the feed now. #
• @StaciaKane @jayewells @JeannieHolmes Is that how you see the dif? I don't think writer or MC gender matters in defining subgenres. #
• @jayewells @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes Well, that's a bullshit idea. Of course you're writing fantasy. #
• @jayewells @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes But RWA has a UF specific award & UF has won the Nebula before. #
• @jayewells @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes Very little interesting fiction fits into one category. #
• @sblackmoore @jayewells @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes SFWA doesn't. If there's ANY speculative element, it's our type of fiction. #
• @dianarowland @Jayewells @staciakane Sorry. I was thinking of RT Reviews. #
• @StaciaKane @jayewells @JeannieHolmes Having a separate award seems like it would reinforce the idea that UF is something else. #
• @JeannieHolmes @StaciaKane @jayewells Urban fantasy is fiction set mostly in or around a city with fantastic elements. Usually contemporary. #
• @jayewells @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes Most fiction is lots of something elses. What element makes UF not count as fantasy in your mind? #
• @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes @jayewells Less and less, thank heavens. Look at the gender breakdown of the awards this year. #
• @dianarowland @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes But there's also historical UF & secondary world UF. Also contemp fantasy that's not urban. #
• @dianarowland @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes This is what I meant about the definition of UF shifting. I'm using Ellen Datlow's defintion. #
• @jayewells @StaciaKane @JeannieHolmes "The Ghost Brigades" is Hard SF. It's also a romance. Containing more than 1 genre isn't unique to UF. #
• @DevonMonk @staciakane @dianarowland @jayewells @JeannieHolmes There were 2 UF works on the Nebs last year. #
• @jimnduncan You could argue that it is. However, since genres exist primarily as a selling tool, it would be cleaner to say steampunk. #
• @DevonMonk @StaciaKane @dianarowland @jayewells @JeannieHolmes I do not understand this desire to put UF in a ghetto of its own. #
• @JeannieHolmes @DevonMonk @StaciaKane @dianarowland @jayewells But almost all fiction blends genre. Seriously. Not unique to UF. #
• @JeannieHolmes @DevonMonk @StaciaKane @dianarowland @jayewells I don't think UF blends genres more than any other spec fic. #
• @Jess_Haines I'll just point out again that last year the Nebs had 2 UF on the ballot. #
• @StaciaKane @DevonMonk @dianarowland @jayewells @JeannieHolmes Really? There's ONE standard that all UF should be judged on? #
• @FabulaUrbanus @StaciaKane @jayewells @jeannieholmes YES. So true. Genres are a useful marketing tool. #
• @jayewells But, understand, that we don't single out any sub-genre for awards. #
• @StaciaKane I'm– I'm confused. Are you angry because SFWA doesn't have a UF specific award? #
• @jimnduncan The members nominate works, then vote on them. #
• @StaciaKane Let me ask more specifically, because I'm still confused What requests/subgenres are you saying I just refused to consider? #
• @StaciaKane The way to get UF on the Nebula ballot is to point to the good stuff so that people who don't read it know where to look. #
• @jimnduncan @jayewells @JeannieHolmes @StaciaKane @katrchrdsn Except that the Nebula ballot had UF on it last year & this year. #
• @StaciaKane And, representing the organization, I'm trying to figure out what specifically causes you to feel excluded. #
• @dianarowland That would be great. #
• @StaciaKane In the forums, you can bump and point to eligible fiction. Blog about it. Email colleagues and point it out. #
• @StaciaKane You should hear the hard SF writers talk about how the Nebula always goes to fantasy… #
• @dianarowland And the point I'm trying to make is that if you drill down to "like mine" there are no similarities between nominees. #
• By the way, if you are interested in running for office next year, contact @LAGilman. SFWA is only as strong as its members. #
• @jayewells Hurrah! That is excellent news. Welcome back. #

Tags: twitter
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In Memoriam: Joanna Russ (1937-2011)

Friday, April 29th, 2011

Joanna Russ (b.1937) died on April 29, 2011, two days after entering hospice.  Russ was admitted to hospice following a series of strokes. Russ received a BA from Cornell in 1957 where she studied under Vladimir Nabokov.  She began publishing science fiction in 1959 with the short story “Nor Custom Stale.”  In 1960, she earned an MFA from Yale University and began teaching at various colleges and university in New York before moving to Boulder, Colorado and, eventually, Seattle, where she was a professor at University of Washington from 1984 until her retirement in 1994. She published her first novel, Picnic on Paradise, part of her series of Alyx stories, in 1968 and followed up with several more novels. 1975 saw the publication of her ground-breaking feminist novel The Female Man, which was awarded a retro-Tiptree and inducted into the Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame. Around the time of its publication, Russ began to come out to as a lesbian. In addition to writing science fiction and horror, Russ also wrote several non-fiction works, including How to Suppress Women’s Writing and What Are We Fighting For? Sex, Race, Class, and the Future of Feminism.  In the 60s and 70s, Russ reviewed books for The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy and received a Pilgrim Award for her criticism in 1988. Her fiction won two retro-Tiptree Awards, a Hugo Award for “Souls,” and a Nebula Award for “When It Changed.” Her “The Autobiography of My Mother” was one of the 1977 O. Henry Prize stories.

In addition to being a feminist and writing both fiction and non-fiction that included that point of view, Russ was part of the New Wave and experimented with her writing style. Her novel And Chaos Died attempted to portray telepathy as directly as possible. Russ was the subject of Jeanne Cortiel’s 1999 Demand My Writing: Joanna Russ/Feminism/Science Fiction and Farah Mendlesohn’s 2009 On Joanna Russ.

Tags: Joanna Russ
Posted in In Memoriam, News, SFWA Blog | 3 Comments »

Quick Updates for 2011-04-29

Friday, April 29th, 2011

• SFWA member @mbennardo announces call for submissions (pays $200) for anthology Machine of Death 2: http://is.gd/YAoegY #

Tags: twitter
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The Interminable Agency Clause

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

I'm down to the wire on book revisions (hope to have them done and dusted by Friday afternoon), so this week, I'm re-purposing (with some updating) a blog post from 2007 on the interminable agency clause in author-agent agreements. I'm not just doing this to spare myself a bit of time. I'm seeing such clauses in agents' contracts more frequently these days, and they are definitely something for writers to watch out for.

An "interminable agency clause" (sometimes called an "interminable rights clause" or a "perpetual agency clause") is language inserted into an author-agency agreement whereby the agency claims the right to remain the agent of record not just for the duration of any contracts it negotiates, but for the life of copyright. In other words, once your agent sells your book, the agency has the right to represent that book for as long as the book is in copyright (currently, in the USA, Australia, and most of Europe, your life plus 70 years)--even after the original publishing contract has expired, and even if your original agent leaves the agency.

Why is this a problem? Suppose you decide to move to a new agency, as often happens. If your old agency's agreement includes an interminable agency clause, you may not be able to bring with you any of the books your old agency sold for you, even if the contracts covering those books have long expired and rights reverted to you. Those rights, which can sometimes be profitably re-sold (especially if you score a success with a new work) are one of the things that can make you attractive to a new agent. Beyond that, it may not be a good thing to leave your rights sitting with an agency with which you no longer see eye to eye.
(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
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Self-Publishing: An Interview with Scott Nicholson

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

by Jim C. Hines

I met Scott Nicholson in 1999. We were both first place Writers of the Future winners that year, but Scott snatched the grand prize with his tale of a vampire shortstop. Scott was also the first of our WotF group to “make it big,” landing a deal with Kensington for his novel The Red Church [Amazon | B&N]. Yes, I had much envy

These days, Scott has switched over to self-publishing, where he’s been quite successful. He and I may not agree on everything, but he’s certainly made it work for himself. I invited him to share some of his thoughts and experiences, and he was kind enough to accept. (Translation: I conned him into doing the real work for one of my blog posts while I was out doing a few school visits. Heh…

Welcome, Scott! I wanted to start with a comment you left on my blog: “I don’t make the case for indie or trad because I don’t know what’s best for anyone else.” Why did you personally make the choice to self-publish your work, and have you been happy with that choice?

I’m ecstatic. Despite working with respected agents, I wasn’t seeing any decent prospects and I had wandered afield a bit into comics, where almost everything is self-published outside of the top few companies. So that made the “do-it-yourself” ethic cool, because there is no stigma in comics like there is in fiction publishing. I had received the rights back to The Red Church, my first novel, and I had explored various ways of getting it back into print, but ordering up a print run and investing thousands of bucks only to begin a distribution struggle just didn’t sound like a productive way to spend time. I’d been watching the Kindle a bit, but from failed dabbling in e-books seven or eight years back via Fictionwise, I’d concluded that there was no market.

(more…)

Tags: ebooks, Jim C. Hines, Scott Nicholson, self-publishing
Posted in Building a Career, Networking and Self-Promotion, SFWA Blog, The Business of Writing | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-04-26

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member @marygthompson, author of Wuftoom (Clarion Books, 2012) http://www.marygthompson.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Barb Hendee, author of Of Truth and Beasts (9th in a series) http://www.barbhendee.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member Paul Celmer, with a sale to Bull Spec #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member @Rachel__Graves, author of Waking Up Dead (Tor, 2012) http://www.rachelgraves.com/ #
• SFWA member @ferretthimself's story "The Sound Of Gears" is now an audio production at Pseudopod? http://is.gd/A0TcDQ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member @raecarson, author of The Girl of Fire and Thorns (HarperCollins, 9/2011) http://is.gd/Eo0LBL #
• SFWA member @StinaLeicht interviewed for the Austin-American Statesman. http://bit.ly/eSXBpZ #

Tags: twitter
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Hugo & Campbell Best New Writer Nominations Announced

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

 
Nominees for the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer have been announced.

Voting for a Hugo nomination was open to anyone who had a supporting or full membership of Renovation as of January 31, 2011 and to members of Aussiecon 4 (the Worldcon in 2010).

The next stage of voting is the final ballot. This stage is only open to Renovation members. In the final ballot, members choose between the finalists in each category.

Here are this year’s nominees.

Best Novel

Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz; Pyr)
Feed by Mira Grant (Orbit)
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

Best Novella

“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2010)
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club)

Best Novelette

‘“Eight Miles” by Sean McMullen (Analog, September 2010)
“The Emperor of Mars” by Allen M. Steele (Asimov’s, June 2010)
“The Jaguar House, in Shadow” by Aliette de Bodard (Asimov’s, July 2010)
“Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly (Asimov’s, December 2010)
“That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made” by Eric James Stone (Analog, September 2010)

Best Short Story

“Amaryllis” by Carrie Vaughn (Lightspeed, June 2010)
“For Want of a Nail” by Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Ponies” by Kij Johnson (Tor.com, November 17, 2010)
“The Things” by Peter Watts (Clarkesworld, January 2010)
(more…)

Tags: hugo awards, John W. Campbell Award, Renovation
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 19 – Use Patterns & Options, Not Formulas

Saturday, April 23rd, 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.

Too Many Variables

The three phases of problem solving form the basic structure of a story that builds suspense in readers. As I said in my last post, we need a bit more detail to translate the three phases into the events and scenes of a specific story. But before we move into those details, I want to take a moment to talk about what I think is the wrong way approach to structure.

That wrong way to is to use formulas for the details that go in your three phases. A formula is a static thing. It’s a specific set of steps you follow every time. So one plot formula might be to structure your story with a 25-50-25 proportion—25% for the presentation phase, 50% for the struggle, and 25% for the resolution. Another formula might be that the structure must show the character change. Another formula might state that you must have a major reversal at the 50% mark. Another one might be that the hero has to refuse to engage the problem, and so the presentation phase must include this. I remember one popular story guru had a formula he taught to screenwriters in which he claimed every romantic comedy required that the two love interests must dance!
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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

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