I write fantasy and science fiction. My agent is currently marketing my YA fantasy novel Bag of Tricks (formerly known as The Talisman Bag). I update this site quarterly, with information about me, my fiction, and writing in general. Older posts are available on the Archive link in the left column. I update my blog two or three times a week with my thoughts on publishing, life in general, and speculative fiction in particular.
Becoming a Writer
Writing is not for the faint hearted or the easily discouraged, mostly because it’s an occupation
that requires criticism. I have been writing seriously for a number of years.
At first I wrote alone, sitting in my basement for hours almost every day. Just
as I am a fast reader, I am also a fast writer. I cranked out several
manuscripts over those first few years, and I did give them to friends to read,
but my friends were not writers or serious critics. They would tell me what
they liked and didn’t like, but they had no clue what point of view was, or
passive voice.
Writing is something you learn by doing, but it also requires feedback. If you have ever looked at a flowchart, you might know the concept of a feedback loop. When you have a product, you need a way for it to be evaluated, improved, and then evaluated again, in a continuous loop until it’s as good as it can be. This principle can be applied to writing. In the illustration below, the objective is to write the story. As I work on that objective, I read and revise the story, monitoring as I go. When I think it’s ready, I give it to other folks to evaluate. Then I, as the writer, decide what to do with the results of the evaluation. If I make changes and decide the story needs to go around the loop again, it does.
That evaluation step is essential. When I write a book, I
immerse myself in that world, that story, those characters. I am so close to
the story that I can’t really see what I’ve written objectively. If I put the
manuscript away for a few years, when I pull it out, I see it much more
clearly. A shortcut, and a better solution all around, is to give my story to
someone who will read it objectively and tell me what they see as its strengths
and weaknesses.
Writer’s Resources
The someone who gives a writer feedback can be a member of
a face-to-face critique group made up of writers who live near by, it can be
other writers in an online critique group, it can be members and teachers of a
writing workshop held for a set period of time, or it can be a teacher at a
local writer’s center or college. In fact, it could be all of the above. I
have used all of those resources over the years.
Writing for publication takes not only talent but self confidence. You have to have enough faith in your work to show it to other people. A lot of people prefer to join an online critique group over a face-to-face group. For one thing, the person who critiques you doesn’t see your reaction. No need to keep a stiff upper lip if you’re sitting alone in your own basement. For another, it doesn’t matter where you live. There are several online groups; here are a few I know about for speculative fiction writers
The Critters Workshop: This online workshop is free but you have to critique others to be able to get critiqued. It has been online for a long time, and I’ve heard people speak well of it.
Hatrack River Writer’s Workshop: This workshop was founded by Orson Scott Card and is part of his Hatrack River site. The workshop also includes forums and discussion groups on writing-related topics. You must be 18 or older to register.
Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: This workshop was started by Del Rey Books and then eventually branched out to become its own thing. It does charge a small yearly fee, but it also offers reviews by professionals in the field. Every month a short story and several novel chapters are chosen as “Editor’s Choice” and critiqued by the guest editor, agent, or published author. I used to belong, and I keep a link to this workshop on my blog
Local Resources
If you live in an urban area, there is probably a college
or community college near you.
If you have time and money enough to do it, you might want
to take a writing class. I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, and
I was lucky enough to take a class in writing speculative fiction taught by
Nancy Kress at the
Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD.
Nancy is an excellent teacher as well as an award-winning writer,
and I think her class helped me a lot. If she hadn’t
moved away from this area, I would have taken her class again.
I learned almost as much from
hearing her critiques of other students as I did from her critique of my own
work.
Caveat Scriptor
To pass along what I have learned, there are two things to be wary of as a new writer looking
for feedback. One is that for anything that costs money, be sure the organization is
legitimate. Anyone who promises that you will be published if you pay
for their service is most likely a scam artist. Check out the company or group online and ask
around.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has a whole
section on bogus agents, vanity presses, and writer’s services
Closing the Loop
Once I figure out what needs to change in the story, I make
those changes! The next steps are to make sure the manuscript is in the proper
format, proof every page carefully, and submit the work! Short stories can be
submitted to a magazine or web-zine editor, but if you’re a new writer who
writes novels, you’re probably better off sending queries to agents. It's
tough, but your chance of getting published is zero if you don’t try.
For more musings on writing, see the link for my blog on the left.