Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for April, 2011

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 17 – Structure is Problem Solving, Not Voodoo

Saturday, April 9th, 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.

The Big Picture

Let’s review what’s been discussed in the last 16 posts.

 

Key PROBLEM conditions for reader suspense

• Part 1 – It’s all about the reader
• Part 2 – The 3 Problem Types
• Part 3 – It’s gotta be difficult
• Part 4 – Uncertainty

Key CHARACTER conditions for reader suspense

• Part 5 – Character troubles
• Part 6 – Character deservingness
• Part 7 – Character draws 1-4
• Part 8 – Character draws 5-8
• Part 9 – Character draws 9-10

Key PLOT conditions for reader suspense

• Part 10 – Clarity, the first principle of plot
• Part 11 – Make the problem hard to solve with disadvantages
• Part 12 – Make the problem hard to solve with conflicts
• Part 13 – Make the problem hard to solve with growing troubles & surprise
• Part 14 – Put your plot together with the story cycle
• Part 15 – Story cycle action and trouble
• Part 16 – The story cycle’s dynamo (and a little Hitchcock)

In the next ten or so posts, I’ll discuss the key conditions for reader suspense with regards to structure, which is just the big picture of plot. But before I dive in, I want to make sure we step back and review what we as authors are trying to do.

People go to movies, watch TV, and read novels because they enjoy having a certain type of experience. They enjoy it so much that they are willing to pay for it, again and again and again.

Our job as writers is to create a narrative that evokes this desired experience in the reader. Yes, we have to be passionate about our story. Yes, it’s an art and is complex and sometimes feels a bit mystical. But we can’t let that make us forget the fact that the ultimate purpose of the story is to guide the reader through an experience.

Now maybe that approach is too businesslike for you. Maybe it removes the artist too much from the production. If you feel that way, then think of it as the writer finding and inventing crazalicious things that he or she just can’t help but want to share. In this view, the author goes out into the world and brings back delights and wonders for others to enjoy.

There are many different delights to share. So some people love humor. Others delight in being spooked. Others want to relive the feeling of falling in love. Still others want to feel adventure and thrills. Or they enjoy the feeling of insight, wonder, curiosity, and wish-fulfillment. Others want a mix. (more…)

Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners, Writing Technique | 1 Comment »

Atlanta Nights, the Movie: From Hoax to Film

Friday, April 8th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Once upon a time, a motley crew of knights, hobbits, and assorted elves--all members of the Fellowship of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America--set out to prank a certain publisher of ill repute. This publisher, you see, was an author mill--it accepted pretty much any manuscript that came its way. Yet it held itself out as being selective, just like a "real" publisher, the better to lure unwary authors into its Mordor-like embrace. And the motley crew thought that wasn't proper.

A kindly wizard was the project's mastermind, and he decreed the parameters of the quest: create a manuscript so wretched, so mind-numbingly awful, that no sane publisher--not even a slightly selective author mill--could possibly accept it. Calling his unlikely band of adventurers into conclave, he conferred upon each a solemn task: create a chapter based on three characters, their one-sentence descriptions, and a single writing prompt. The adventurers weren't to worry about plot; they weren't to concern themselves with continuity. "Into the fray, brave champions!" the wizard cried. "You know the rules of writing. Break them. Break them all!"

Thus was born the immortal manuscript known as Atlanta Nights. Through tumbled wastes of fractured grammar, across stinking swamps of purple prose, through forests of confusing metaphor swept by hurricanes of dreadful dialog, where said bookisms swung like rotting fruit, our heroes fought to fulfill their quest. And each in the end did deliver to the wizard one horrifyingly bad chapter. And the kindly wizard dubbed the band of heroes Travis Tea (say it fast), and molded the chapters into a digital file (wearing a wizardly hazmat suit, lest the bad writing prove contagious), and with a wave of his staff, sent the file winging through the digisphere. And the publisher, which hadn't yet reached its acceptance quota for the day, and often never bothered to look at the manuscripts it accepted anyway, sent back this clarion call:

"I am happy to inform you that PublishAmerica has decided to give 'Atlanta Nights' the chance it deserves....Welcome to PublishAmerica, and congratulations on what promises to be an exciting time ahead."

PUNK'D!
(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
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Quick Updates for 2011-04-08

Friday, April 8th, 2011

• @madcowtweets Do you mean how does one become an Active member, or what are the benefits? #
• @DavidRozansky @GLHancock That is not flatly not true in SFWA's case. POD is simply a technology and SFWA has no bar against it. #
• @DavidRozansky @GLHancock SFWA requires a circulation OR print run OR "the equivalent in other media" of 1000 or more #
• @DavidRozansky You are misreading. It says "Must have a print run OR circulation of at least 1000 copies, OR the equivalent in other media" #
• @DavidRozansky Nothing there precludes POD. You may quote me, "SFWA has no prohibition against POD." Mary Robinette Kowal, VP #
• @DavidRozansky Clearly, I can't speak for other writers' organizations. I just want to avoid misstatements about SFWA. #
• @DavidRozansky I don't know who you were speaking with before, but it's been this way for years. #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member @quantumage with a sale to Realms of Fantasy. http://www.randy-henderson.com/ #

Tags: twitter
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Quick Updates for 2011-04-07

Thursday, April 7th, 2011

Member News

• SFWA member Vera Nazarian is interviewed at My Jane Austen Book Club.
• Welcome back to returning SFWA active member Lyn Nichols.

Tags: Lyn Nichols, twitter, Vera Nazarian
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An Interview with Kay Kenyon

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

by Cat Rambo

 

Science fiction and fantasy writer Kay Kenyon‘s novel The Seeds of Time appeared in 1997. Since then she’s followed with Leap Year (1998), Rift (1999), Tropic of Creation (2000), Maximum Ice (2002) and The Braided World (2003), as well as epic series The Entire and the Rose. Currently she’s finishing her first fantasy novel. She is the chair of the Write on the River writer’s conference in Wenatchee, Washington.

The Braided World is perhaps my favorite of your books. Where did the book have its genesis – a particular idea, scene, character? It’s also got a lot of beautiful but visceral imagery – was that a deliberate strategy or just what the book demanded?

This story is loosely related to my book Maximum Ice. In Maximum Ice I asked what might happen if all information was a physical quantity subject to the law of entropy. When an information-poor cloud of stellar dust passes by, threatening to pull information, people here create a protective mechanism (“Ice”). After the disaster, a minor character asks: I wonder what happened to all that information? In Braided World I explored the answer. The sensual imagery of the habitat sprang from my decision to make it a beautiful tropical world. I was also playing with the juxtaposition of brutality and beauty to see how the newcomers deal with that push-pull.

Your first book of the epic The Entire and the Rose, Bright of the Sky, is available for free on the Kindle. How do you think that’s affected sales? Is that a strategy you’ll pursue again in the future? How do you see ebooks changing the publishing industry and how much attention should writers be paying?

We experienced an immediate, and so far sustained, spike in sales of paid Kindle for the other three books in the series. So just when the series in paper had crested, along came a new wave. I’m starting to believe that giving away free stories–those that represent you at your best–can greatly boost your profile, especially–but not always–if you have some brand recognition. “Oh, I’ve heard of her, let me give this free book a try.” Without obsessing about ebooks and their evolution, we should pay close attention. The possibilities intrigue me: better connections with readers, new income streams and even freedom from genre.
(more…)

Tags: cat rambo, interview, Kay Kenyon
Posted in SFWA Blog | 3 Comments »

Free Ebook: The Arm of the Stone by Victoria Strauss

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

My fantasy novel The Arm of the Stone is this month's free ebook from Phoenix Pick. For the entire month of April, you can download it free by clicking this link and entering Coupon Code 9992593.

In April only, you can also download the sequel, The Garden of the Stone, for half-price--just enter Coupon Code DIR06579 at checkout.

Long ago, when the worlds were one...So begins the Tale, the ancestral legend Bron's family has guarded for a thousand years. Once, they were the keepers of the Stone, the most sacred object on earth, from which all the powers of Mind are drawn. But when the conflict between Mind and Hand split the worlds apart, the Stone was seized by an ambitious sorcerer. To keep the new world from contamination, he created rigid Limits circumscribing which tools might be made and which knowledge might be pursued—laws brutally enforced by a group of Guardians known as the Arm of the Stone.

For centuries, Bron's family has concealed the secret of its heritage. But when Bron's brother invents a new kind of plow—an unpardonable heresy in the world of the Guardians—the Arm of the Stone reaches in once again to tear them apart. Fleeing for his life, Bron vows revenge. To strike the Guardians down, he will become a Guardian himself. But Bron cannot know how much that choice will change him. Nor does he anticipate the hatred of a powerful enemy, or the love of a beautiful Guardian named Liliane...whose mission is to destroy him.

“Involving fantasy, treated with unusual depth.”—Locus

“This book was so compelling that I put everything else aside and read it...a most unusual and fascinating novel, exceedingly well-done.”—Anne McCaffrey

“An intelligent, fascinating novel...the complicated politics and social structure of this world give it a depth most fantasy novels lack.”—SF Site

"A rich story about human nature, this fantasy is a thought-provoking page-turner....A thoroughly enjoyable read."-Kliatt

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in Press Book, Writer Beware | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-04-06

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

Member News

• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Associate member Julie Jansen with a sale to Nature.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Associate member Paul Daly. Read his qualifying story at Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Monte Cook, author of THE GLASS PRISON.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Mark Niemann-Ross with three short fiction sales to Analog.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Ernest Cline, author of READY PLAYER ONE (Random House, 2011).
• SFWA member Nisi Shawl writes a compelling column about “Race, Again, Still” at Strange Horizons.
• SFWA member Eugie Foster‘s short story “Biba Jibun” was published in the April issue of Apex Magazine.
• A Hungarian reprint of SFWA member Eugie Foster‘s novelette “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest” was published in the 4/11 issue of Galaktika.
• SFWA Member Paul S. Kemp‘s most recent Star Wars novel, DECEIVED, debuts at #13 on the 4/10 NY Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller list.
• You can now read SFWA member David Levine‘s disturbing story “Trust” for free.
• From SFWA member Allan Cole, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DIANA ROSS: New Hollywood MisAdventure.
• Interview with SFWA member Holly Black at My Bookish Ways.

Tags: Allan Cole, David Levine, Ernest Cline, Eugie Foster, Holly Black, Julie Jansen, Mark Niemann-Ross, Monte Cook, Nisi Shawl, Paul Daly, Paul S. Kemp, twitter
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Quick Updates for 2011-04-05

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

• @RodneyRamsey Well, to be fair, he only just applied. We would happily have accepted him earlier. #
• @JL_Anderson I'm glad to hear it! #
• SFWA member @eugiefoster's short story "Biba Jibun" was published in the April issue of Apex Magazine. #
• Interview with SFWA member @hollyblack at My Bookish Ways: http://bit.ly/i4gvFx #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member Julie Jansen with a aale to Nature. #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member Paul Daly. Read his qualifying story. http://is.gd/fjzD3O #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Mark Niemann-Ross with three short fiction sales to Analog. http://www.niemannross.com/ #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One (Random House, 2011) http://www.ernestcline.com/ #
• @rahkan Congratulations. Might I ask you to read this before deciding that we aren't "incredibly useful?" http://is.gd/P9fULP #
• SFWA member Nisi Shawl writes a compelling column about "Race, Again, Still" @strangehorizons. http://is.gd/mu2GnF #

Tags: twitter
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Lies (Dishonest) Fee-Charging Publishers Tell

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

This blog post was inspired by a recently-seen "acceptance letter" from a fee-charging publisher (which doesn't admit its fees on its website; writers don't find out about them until they've actually submitted). The arguments below are commonly used by less-than-honest fee-chargers to distract authors from the fact that they're being asked to pay several thousand dollars for publication.

---------------------------------

We aren't a vanity publisher because we don't publish every manuscript we receive. Many fee-charging publishers make this meaningless claim. Sure, they probably do reject manuscripts, if only to keep their output in line with their production capacity, or for logistical reasons--mss. that are too long (and would reduce the profits from fees), that conflict with stated goals (for instance, if the publisher self-identifies as Christian), or that are written in crayon on construction paper (digital conversion would cut into profits). There may even be some real level of quality control. But fees are a fee-charging publisher's main source of income, so it can't afford to be too picky. Any gatekeeping that exists is unlikely to be even remotely equivalent to that exercised by genuine trade publishers. In any case, whether the publisher is selective or not, it doesn't change the fact that you're being asked for money.

We aren't a vanity publisher because you're not paying for publishing, just for [pick one] editing/publicity/a supply of books to keep on hand. In an attempt to dodge the "vanity" label, some fee-charging publishers have switched their fees to aspects of the book publishing process other than production, such as editing, publicity, cover art, and the like. Or else they pretend to avoid fees entirely, requiring authors instead to buy bulk quantities of their own books. These diversionary tactics allow them to claim, with straight faces, that authors don't have to pay for publication--even as those authors are being asked to hand over thousands of dollars.

We aren't a vanity publisher because we don't make you buy your own books. Amazingly, some fee-chargers attempt to use a diversionary tactic by their less-than-honest brethren as...a diversionary tactic. You don't have to buy your own books! Instant non-vanity! Just overlook the fact that we want you to give us several thousand dollars!

(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | 1 Comment »

Quick Updates for 2011-04-04

Monday, April 4th, 2011

• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member @MonteJCook, author of The Glass Prison. http://is.gd/j9tYTa #

Tags: twitter
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