Comments on: Writing: Your Subconscious and You

By: Roy Huggins

Roy Huggins — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:10:13 +0000

I don't see what's wrong with writing about Kansas. And the story about the dead guy made of potatoes sounds interesting. Where'd you get the idea that these are bad concepts? FYI, after my summer in Mcpherson ("There's no 'fear' in 'Mac-fur-suhn'!") I think Kansas would be a great place to set all kinds of crazy shit. For example, the vast majority of humans have never seen an honest-to-god green sky.

By: Merc

Merc — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 03:25:08 +0000

Hey, I’d read about mole men in Kansas… O:)

I know now not to drink when reading any posts with Potatohead… *grin*

By: Dan Beeston

Dan Beeston — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:17:18 +0000

As someone who lives on the other side of the world, Kansas is one of the states in America that has a strong association in my mind (thank you Wizard of Oz). I don’t really know much about New Mexico, Colorado, or Dakoda but my preconceptions of Kansas, while probably mostly wrong, are where my ideas of middle America happen.

Also, if Potatohead asks you to participate in fight in a bar carpark, you may want to think twice.

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:27:25 +0000

Dude, I’ll read about mole men in Kansas any day of the week. Especially if the alternative is Another Fucking Singularity.

By: cdthomas

cdthomas — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:50:45 +0000

What about detail?

Doesn’t that sway readers to commit to a world you built? If Kansas has a pull for you, maybe you need to write *more* about it, to find that Lovecraftian place under the Newhart sheen.

By: Adrian Faulkner

Adrian Faulkner — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:43:20 +0000

Hey, I actually spent time researching a story I’m going to set in Kansas and I’m based in the UK! (really need to finish that).

I keep a log of all ideas, some have sat there a long time before marrying up with a new idea. I’ve also told myself it’s OK to write the potato-man stories as in my view, they may never be publishable, but it clears it out the way for new (and hopefully publishable) stories

[Here via Jay Lake Twitterstream]

By: Jeff Spock

Jeff Spock — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:58:13 +0000

The time I spent in Kansas was in the southeast part of the state, hauling hay as a summer job. My memories are necessarily different from yours and primarily involve dust, heat, and chewing tobacco. I was glad to visit and glad to work; for a Yankee it was a very educational summer. But I was also glad to leave.

It could be that until you write those stories Potatohead won’t be willing to shut up. Maybe the best is to subvert him, i.e. set the potato story in Maine or Idaho…

By: Jeremiah Tolbert

Jeremiah Tolbert — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:42:39 +0000

I don't know if I have it anymore. I would if I could find it. I'll look around. The problem is, all of those places are about 100 times more popular with the public than fucking _Kansas._ I say "Kansas" and 90% of people not from Kansas thinks "creationism" and if I'm lucky, "wheat." It's a bad location to be subconsciously saddled with I think. I sometimes think its value as literary real estate is approximate to its value as real real estate. A 3500 square foot Victorian mansion can be had in parts of Kansas for less than $150,000! If nobody really wants to live there, I'm having a hard time convincing myself that anyone, especially east coast editors, are interested in reading about living there.

By: Nick Mamatas

Nick Mamatas — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:37:37 +0000

You should post the rejection letter!

Anyway, a fair number of writers do manage to cultivate certain locations for stories, whether real (Etchison’s Los Angeles) made up King’s (Castle Rock) or a mix of the two (Lovecraft’s New England).

Looking at that list a few seconds later though, I note I mentioned horror writers. Perhaps at least as far as the scares go, a little grounding in the familiar is necessary to introduce the unfamiliar. Of course, fantasy writers often dedicate themselves to a single setting of their own manufacture…