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Posts Tagged ‘creativity’

Writing Tip: Crazy? Maybe. Constructive? Yes!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Last night I was facing down a story that’s had me stymied for a while, a tedious rewrite I wasn’t sure was going to work. That uncertainty took up so much brain space I didn’t have the energy to actually write. I finally remembered that the best way around that sort of questioning is to turn off my critical brain, or at least keep it busy in another room. So I put on some music, loud, and sang along while editing.

That’s how I finished my dissertation. Something about the singing ties up my internal editor; he’s too busy trying to get the song words right to nitpick over the written words. There’s probably a neurological explanation for this but whatever, it works for me:)

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What Have I Been up To? Dr. Seuss Knows!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 11, 2013| 2 Comments »

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
— Dr. Seuss, in “On Becoming a Writer,” The New York Times, May 21, 1986

In related news, I just got a terrific rejection. Yes, acceptances are great but there is a lot to be said for a rejection that offers praise while pinpointing the one thing that’s problematic. I’ve been asking myself what was missing from this piece for months and now I know. That’s helpful in terms of this particular story but also for future work over the long term.

So thank you, Every Day Fiction submission readers, for doing what so many markets can no longer take the time to do: provide useful feedback.

Onward!

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Artists, Wills, and Iain Banks Has Cancer

Posted in Other, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 3, 2013| 1 Comment »

Iain M. Banks Cancer: Author Announces He Has Only Months To Live.

Scottish writer Iain Banks said Wednesday he has been diagnosed with late-stage gall bladder cancer and has just months to live.

(updated) For his personal statement on this, see his website. This is a tragedy for those immediately involved and bad news for anyone who enjoys good writing.

For writers thinking about what comes after this, visit Neil Gaiman’s post on writers and wills, both standard and literary.

Neil Gaiman’s Journal: Important. And pass it on….

Writers put off making wills (well, human beings put off making wills, and most writers are probably human beings). Some of us think it’s self-aggrandising or foolish to pretend that anyone would be interested in their books or creations after they’re dead. Others secretly believe we’re going to live forever and that making a will would mean letting Death in a crack.

Others make wills, but don’t think to take into account what happens to our literary estate as a separate thing from the disposition of our second-best beds, which means unqualified or uninterested relatives can find themselves in control of everything the author’s written.

Neil’s post is from 2006 and applies to the U.S., but it’s a good place to start. No, I haven’t done this myself. Yet. But I will. Soon!

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Worlds Within Our Own

Posted in Likes, Other, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Oh, this is wonderful. I’ve just gone to an underground lot in China, a restaurant in India, and an Arctic outpost. Wherever the Secret Door takes you, I doubt you will be disappointed.

Thank you, magic internet!

The Secret Door

The Secret Door is presented by Safestyle UK

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To Anyone Who Has Ever Wondered About the Vagaries of the Slush Pile…

Posted in Funny, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The New Yorker Rejects Itself: A Quasi-Scientific Analysis of Slush Piles

… I grabbed a New Yorker story off the web (no, it wasn’t by Alice Munro or William Trevor), copied it into a Word document, changed only the title, created a fictitious author identity, and submitted it to a slew of literary journals, all of whom regularly grace the TOC of Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize, O’Henry, etcetera and etcetera. My cover letter simply stated that I am an unpublished writer deeply appreciative of their consideration.

That was it. I sowed the seed, and waited.

As for the result, please sit down and place your Starbucks Venti on a secure surface.

Dear reader, every single one of these journals rejected my poor New Yorker story with the same boilerplate “good luck placing your work elsewhere” auto-text that has put the lid on my own sorry submissions.

Oh my.

Obviously I’m not the only one who has ever wondered how overworked slush readers can stay consistent in the face of all of that precipitation. Author David Cameron’s quasi-scientific study (sample size: two) concludes, quite sensibly I think, that “slush sucks.” Now, I can either be depressed that even previously published stories can’t get published in some markets, or, well, not.

Rejections are inevitable, but I have to say that this makes me feel a bit better about my own.

Chin up, folks, and soldier on. The good news is, it’s not just you.

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A Thought for Monday Morning: Keep Going

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2013| 1 Comment »

This is a great bit by Ira Glass on Art, and how you have to keep working at it if you’re going to be any good… even when you know that what you’re doing isn’t as good as you wish.
 

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A Duotrope Replacement, & It Looks Good

Posted in Reviews, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Like many I was disappointed (if not terribly surprised) to see Duotrope go to a paid subscription model. This market database and submissions tracker is a great service, no mistake, but the subscription barrier felt a little high. There are some potential substitutes and while I was able to put together a system for story research, tracking, and submission, the process took time. Time I’d rather spend working or sleeping.*

What’s that? You know I’ve found a replacement and you just want me to spill the good news? Well then:)

Welcome to The Grinder, from the good folks at Diabolical Plots. It is a market database and submission tracker with Duotrope-style summary data and response time statistics. Those statistics will improve as more users add submission info, but I was surprised that after just a few months their data look similar to what I remember from Duotrope. And if you have an unaltered .csv export file of your Duotrope submission records, The Grinder has the option to import that information. See this summary page for more details on what it can do. And did I mention this service is free?

Drawbacks? It’s in beta so they are still building the market list and some of the features you might expect aren’t yet in place. (For example, I can’t find the Favorites list but as I just started using it that might be me.) It’s currently for fiction only but plans are in place to expand to non-fiction and poetry soon. These issues aside, The Grinder has a lot going for it, and the team seems genuinely interested in user suggestions and making improvements.

If you are in the market for a market list and submission tracker, this looks like a very good option.

* Or enjoying a frosty glass of some adult beverage with friends. Because there’s more to life than working and sleeping, people!

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Way to go Scalzi & Co

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

This is still in progress but John Scalzi reports new updates have been made to the previously mentioned contracts through Random House’s Hydra and Alibi imprints:

Random House Makes Changes to Hydra/Alibi Contracts

… and Scalzi’s immediate followup:

Immediate Thoughts on the Random House eBook Imprint Contract Changes.

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More on Bad Contracts… and One Very Good One

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

John Scalzi’s righteous assault on bad deals for authors continues, with a look at a contract from Alibi, a sibling imprint of the previously discussed Hydra. The downsides look very similar and the upsides are few and very far between:

A Contract From Alibi

So, don’t ask me how, but I have in my hands (from what I consider a reputable source) a contract from Alibi, which is the sibling imprint of Hydra, the Random House imprint that I thumped on roundly in the previous entry.

And if you need more evidence that signing over all rights for the term of the copyright is a terrible idea, check out this DBW piece on Wool author Hugh Howey’s latest contract. He cut a deal with Simon & Schuster for print rights only to the tune of a seven-figure advance. Yes, apparently Howey’s self-published e-books were bringing in $150k a month already, but no matter who you are, why sign your work over to anyone else for nothing? Heck, you’d be better off printing your book out and using it for party invitations. Or tinder. Or any other use you can think of that is controlled by you and not someone else.

Just saying.

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“Random House’s Hydra Imprint Has Appallingly Bad Contract Terms”

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 6, 2013| 2 Comments »

A great discussion is going on right now over on Whatever, John Scalzi’s site, around publishing contracts. Specifically, Random House’s new science fiction imprint Hydra is (so far as has been determined) acting as a vanity press. No advance, signing over copyright forever, and the author pays for expenses. In sum, Hydra somehow manage to make the music industry’s often exploitative contract terms look more reasonable in comparison.

Read John’s excellent salvo here:

Note to SF/F Writers: Random House’s Hydra Imprint Has Appallingly Bad Contract Terms

Random House recently started Hydra, an electronic-only imprint for science fiction stories and short novels. But, as noted by Writer Beware here, the terms in a Hydra deal sheet shown to them are pretty damn awful…

I’d say this is a must-read for all new or un-agented (i.e. unprotected by someone with industry experience or a lick of financial sense) writers. John’s right, there’s no justification for terms as bad as these.

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