10 Ways to Have a More “Interesting” Convention Experience
Filed Under: Speculative Fiction, Writing Advice
I am not attending WorldCon (AKA Anticipation) this year. Last year was great, and I met a lot of really interesting new people, and got to meet some people in the flesh for the first time like John Joseph Adams (whose collection The Living Dead was nominated for a World Fantasy Award this week! Congratulations are in order). Why am I not going? Well, there’s the financial reasons of course, but there’s also a little dispute I had with the Canadian Border Control back in 1986 involving the illegal importation of furry porn. I’m not allowed to talk about it, but suffice to say, I can only travel to Canada under pseudonyms such as Harrison T. Merriweather. And now I can’t use that one. Canada’s agents are everywhere.
It’s rather too easy for the seasoned con veteran to end up in a bit of a rut when it comes to cons. “Find a seat in the bar and leave only for your panels” seems to be the writer/editor/publisher’s way. I think they sometimes actually take in food in a solid form over the course of the convention, but I have no evidence of this.
I’ve decided, as a service to the convention goer, to provide this helpful list of activities you can participate in to make your convention-going experience that much more interesting.
- In a very public space, ask Gord Sellar to imitate his Quebec-born mother. (The resulting mob will give you all the exercise you need for the week).
- Dress up as a polyp and jump out at Jay Lake every time you see him, yelling “Boo!”
- Squeeze Harlan Ellison’s boob.
- Walk up to Tempest, and whisper, in a nervous voice. “I see black people.”
- Go to a Gordon van Gelder panel and stand up to ask a question. Congratulate him on finally breaking down and accepting electronic submissions and start a standing ovation. Then flee. (Also, scratch F&SF off your submissions list)
- Treat everyone in cosplay as you would treat their actual character. Run in terror from stormtroopers. Try to rescue Slave Girl Leia. Laugh and point at Klingons.
- Ask Ted Chiang to tell you about the cover of his collection. (Only do this if you have 4 hours of time you need to kill).
- Find Cory Doctorow. Secretly replace his iPod with a Zune.
- Dress up as the ghost of Robert Heinlein and demand royalties from John Scalzi all weekend.
- When they announce the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, race to the podium, snatch the award, and smuggle it home to ME.
Anyone else have any ideas to make those lucky folks attending WorldCon have a more “fun” time?
Why You Should Apply to Attend LaunchPad Next Year
Filed Under: Writing Advice
TheLaunchPad Astronomy Workshop has been held three times now, each summer in Laramie, Wyoming. This project is the brainchild of Jim Verley and astronomer/SF writer Mike Brotherton. The goal of the workshop is to help expand the audience for science literate fiction and other popular endeavors. This year, we not only had science fiction writers in attendance, but also comedians and poets. Utlimately, I think it would be great to have some screenwriters for film and television attending as well. Especially considering how much we harp on Armageddon during the workshop.
The goal of the workshop is not to turn you into an Analog-style hard SF writer. The goal is to make sure you understand some of the basics of astronomy so that, even if you’re writing fantasy, you can get those details right. So that maybe you will *want* to write a story about the phases of the moon or about orbital mechanics in some way. Each year, several straight-fantasy authors attend and get just as much out of it as the nerds like me who already have a decent amount of astronomy science under our belts. I even had one major misconception of mine corrected. About the Earth’s axial tilt.
It’s a week of intense classwork, telescope viewing when the weather works, fun meals, a hike, and generally just getting to socialize with amazing people (many who happen to be writers). It will feel like, to quote Gord Sellar, a “pig has shit galaxies into your head.” Ultimately, it’s knowledge, and knowledge has a way of making you a better, richer writer.
When applications open up again next year, I will post about it here, and I expect all of you to flood Mike and Jim with applications. Heh heh.
Keeping an Ideas File
Filed Under: My Writing, Writing Advice, creativity
When I first started writing seriously, I kept a little text file on my desktop where I would rapidly jot down ideas for the premises of stories. Eventually, this turned into a notebook that I tried and failed to carry around. Then it turned into a collection of random documents on Google Docs. It’s current incarnation is a folder on my EverNote account.
With evernote, I can record voice notes, type ideas in on the computer or my phone, include photos, and more. Pretty much anything I want to remember and have accessible from anywhere, I throw into Evernote these days, and that includes story ideas.
But I wanted to talk about the importance of capturing more than just the premise for stories. I’ve started trying to capture any kind of fascinating tidbit that I think might be useful at some point. When I see a person with a trait that I think would make an interesting concept for a character, I put it in. Collect everything, because I am finding that when inspiration is running a little low, these notes can be the kernel of creative energy I need to steamroll through a project.
I also carry around a flexible-cover Moleskine notebook, and I do jot down story ideas in here, but I also use that for website thumbnail sketches, doodles, and more. Because I do all my writing on a computer, it works very well for me to have this central, searchable tool for my random bits of ideas.
Somtimes, writing a story is like playing Katamari Damacy. You just keep rolling the sticky ball of your brain around until it accumulates enough junk to let you go to the next level.
This Week’s Editoral Advice: Do Not Reply to Rejection Letters
Filed Under: SF Business, SF Podcasting, Writing Advice
This is still happening from time to time with my work for Escape Pod. I had kind of thought by now that arguing with an editor over their comments in a rejection letter was commonly considered a bad idea to be avoided at all costs, but I’m still getting these at Escape Pod. Let me put it to you all straight.
Nothing makes me more disinclined to purchase your work than you arguing with me about me not buying a story.
There are a lot of minor mistakes you can make as a slush writer. I overlook most of them. For instance, we get sent things as attachments when our guidelines call for them to be in the body of an email. I might mention it briefly to the submitter, but I don’t hold it against them much. There are so many differing e-submissions systems that I can understand why this happens. No big deal.
But when you decide to quibble with an editor over the points of his or her rejection letter, you’re crossing a professional line. You are entitled to your opinion. It’s a good thing if you have enough faith in your story that you will continue to send it out, because one editor’s opinion doesn’t amount to much, which is why I say my editorial comments are not intended as writing advice.
The main thing it will lead to is an editor not providing you any detailed feedback at all. We will simply write form rejections for your work from then on out. Because nothing is more annoying to me, at least, than someone deciding to bicker over a rejection. It’s not going to change our minds. It’s only going to make you look worse. So we’ll stop giving you points to quibble with. This is not good for you. We don’t want to do this.
It is a no-win situation for the writer.
So just don’t do it. Stick to creating your editor voodoo dolls and slagging us off to your cats. Take out your frustrations another way, even if the editor is dead wrong. It doesn’t matter.
And another thing– I would rather not see replies, even short thank yous, at all. It clutters up my inbox, which I work very hard to keep organized, and your continuing submissions with us is thanks enough. Tack what you want to say on to the cover letter of your next submission. I would prefer that.
Also, Machine Gun Submissions
Oh, and finally, one last thing– it does you no good to send me story after story after story when I’m reading them quickly, when you get rejected every time. You should cool it and wait a bit between submissions. Probably want to wait and let me forget about how I rejected 3 stories in an hour. Because I do notice, and I know other editors do too, especially with e-submissions at ‘zines with relatively fast turnaround times. Nick Mamatas even had a submissions limit. I’m considering implementing one if this keeps up. At the very least, you’ll stop getting such rapid replies.
