Sorry about how irregular I’ve become. Clarion West is truly the sweatshop you’ve heard about. Yesterday, in addition to the story I had due, I had to critique 35,000 words of story. That’s a third of a large novel. I got very little sleep.
Last week went well. I had my meeting with John Kessel. We spoke about my admission story and the story I turned in to critique. I need to flesh out the setting for THE HAIRY MAN IS DEAD, and I have some ideas on how to do that, but I might switch the sex of the main character to make the point a little stronger. I also asked John what I could do, beside write a great story, to win an award. He told me there are two ways. Either write amazing stories over and over until you get noticed, and then your stories will get noticed by those who nominate, or attract a large following on your blog and become very involved in the community. Since I’m a bad blogger, I guess I just have to write amazing fiction. 
Our Mystery Muse on Friday was Ellen Datlow, which was pretty amazing. She had a lot of wisdom and insight to share about the business, but I was disappointed to find out that she wasn’t accepting work from new writers. The slush pile is just too big. I guess I see her point. Looks like magazines are the way to go.
I attended the Locus Awards on Friday and Saturday, and met tons of big name authors, as well as editors like Gardner Dozois and Gordon Van Gelder. It was funny to see the Clarionites dogpiling Mr. Van Gelder (myself among them). Luckily he was a great sport about it.
Karen Joy Fowler’s week is proceeding very well. Her friends are insane. She’s shared a few stories, but sworn to us that she will have our heads if we repeat them, and so I shant. If you, dear reader, are a friend of Ms. Fowler’s, no, don’t worry, YOUR story, she kept in the strictest confidence. 
I really admire her. She’s a bestselling author and teacher, and is still very grounded, but she knows her shit. I mean really. Her work is amazingly complex.
We met Ted Chiang today as well. He came to class mostly to warn us against writing media tie-ins. He warned that it devalues prose in general, and I really see his point. HOWEVER, I think that publishing in general is moving back towards the old patronage system that was around in the middle ages (you know, where a lord supported a writer while they worked). Holders of valuable intellectual property like Star Wars and D&D are like those lords. I can see writing for them in order to be able to afford to write my own stuff.
I’m really worried about the story that is being critiqued as we speak (THE CHEMICALS BETWEEN US). It’s definitely the furthest I’ve ever stretched and I probably bit off more than I can chew, but I’m really proud of this piece. On nearly every level, I think it’s the best that I’m capable of writing right now. Of course, that means I’ll probably take a beating on the critique. Lord, I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I think that, for the first time, I’ll be taking the Versimiltoad to a critique.
Anyways, I’m working on a new story, kind of a fantasy/steampunk piece for next week, tentatively called IN THE SHAPE OF A MAN, though I’m sure that will certainly change, since my protagonist is, yet again, female. I don’t know why, but I write best when I’m writing female characters. Is this true for any other male writers out there? Any theories?
4 Comments(+Add)
I’m glad all is going well. I was worried you’d fallen off the Space Needle for a little while.
I, too, feel like I write female characters pretty well. Maybe it’s because I take the time to wonder how a woman would act/react in certain situations while I might take a male character for granted.
Media tie-ins are indeed hack work. But that’s okay for some writers, because they want to pay the bills. Depending on the type of tie-in (such as a movie novelization) it’s easy money from what I hear, but, at the same time, I think a little of your soul dies …
A friend of mine has a Stars Wars novel coming out this fall. He said it’s a lot of money up front, but very little in the royalty department … still, it should bring more readers to his other stuff.
Glad to hear you’re having a good time.
On the one hand, I can see how we should look down on the big franchise books; they’re essentially officially condoned fan fiction. But on the other…there are solid writers like Peter David who do lots of books like that and still pump out quality original material. And a lot of that stuff is what gets kids interested in reading to begin with; whether it’s written well, a lot of it is fun. I still fondly remember reading the original Dragonlance books when I was a kid.
There’s also something to be said for getting a chance to write characters you’ve loved forever. If someone offered me a chance to write a Dr. Strange novel or something I wouldn’t hesitate.
I prefer writing female characters, too. In a way, it’s like rooting for the underdog, right? There are so many built-in burdens and stumbling blocks that come with being a woman, it’s fun to come up with ways for them to overcome. There’s a great inner strength to women that’s generally more interesting than men.
Thanks Jordan for letting us participate in your conference here. I am always trying to write male characters, but at my best with females. I keep trying though because from my viewpoint, men and women will read books with male protags, but some men will only read with male protags. You guys excluded since you’re all on a higher plane than most!