Hello all,

Sorry I’ve been so slow with the blog posts recently, but last week was crazy busy. I was getting ready for my weekend away with Alicia. I took a few pictures. Yeah, I needed that:

Anyways, Elizabeth Bear’s weekend went quite well. She’s really made a science of writing well, and is therefore able to show you the mechanics behind it. This suits me just fine, since I’ve tried to do the exact same thing, and it was like the apprentice learning at the feet of the master.

Her critiques were spot on, but still pretty enthusiastic, which is a great quality to have in an instructor. My private meeting with her went well, though we mostly just shot the shit since I hadn’t prepared any questions for her, and she’s pretty thoroughly critiqued HIVE GOD in the workshop. I think that story has legs, once it’s been to a second draft. Oddly, I think I learned a great deal from our “extra assignment”. Bear brought in a 1st draft of her short story “Shoggoths in Bloom”, as well as the full text of the story that was eventually nominated for the Hugo. I can see what works and what doesn’t in the first draft, and see how she worked to change it in the final text. This was a wonderful experience. Also, with Karen Joy Fowler’s advice to insert specificity into short fiction in mind, I could spot how Bear does this very effectively without tons of exposition.

Oh, HIVE GOD did well in the workshop, which kind of makes up for the beating I took on THE CHEMICALS BETWEEN US. I just don’t write as fast as some of the authors here, but this was a fun story, and I already have ideas on how to rework the second draft with Bear’s advice in mind.

I’m writing a horror this week, which might be the workshop’s first (if you don’t count a really excellent piece that evoked Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”–that has already been before the group). I’m looking forward to gross a few people out and murdering a bunch of characters, but since I spent the weekend with Alicia, it’s going to feel a little rushed. We’ll see how it turns out.

Going to meet Nalo Hopkinson in a couple of minutes. I’m very excited to meet her, as she has not only won the World Fantasy Award, but also a slew of Canadian awards that I think I also have a shot at, eventually. Her voice is also extremely unique and flavourful, so I’m looking forward to any help she might be able to offer there too.

I’ll just leave you guys with a few images I’ve taken of some of the people we’ve met so far: Gardner Dozois, Gordon Van Gelder, and Ellen Datlow.

Tags: 2009, Clarion West, Nalo Hopkinson, Workshop

Alright, I realized that that last post probably seemed a little whiny, so I figure I should probably mention all the great stuff that has happened recently.

At the Clarion West party on Friday, I met and spoke with Elizabeth Bear for about an hour. This is going to be a great week. One of the best things about talking to “Bear” as she likes to be called, is that there is one underlying conversation, and then a dozen tangents that she feels free to pursue while always returning to the core conversation. We spoke about her writing style, media fiction and paying the bills with your writing, and even about Racefail09. She mentioned the concept about Roving Internet Flash Mobs, of which I was not aware, but now totally believe in. She’s funny and awesome and not afraid to speak her mind. This is going to be a lovely week.

Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to Karen Joy Fowler, who is one heck of a decent human being. I think, thanks to her, everyone now believes in themselves just a little bit more, and that’s a hell of a gift. Nate came up with the idea to buy her a giant plush squish because, for some odd reason “tentacle love” seemed to come up as a theme all week, and Karen mentioned the concept of a “squid on the mantlepiece”, which is a term covered in the Turkey City Lexicon. We gave her the gift and then this NYT Bestselling author and Nebula Winner, put the squid on her head and wore it like a hat. I’m certainly going to miss her.

Steve, Lucas, Derek and I spent the 4th of July watching “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra“, which is a spoof of 50s sci-fi movies and probably cost 20K to make. It was quite awesome. We followed that up with “Monty Python’s The Life of Brian” a one-two punch of comedy. Lots of laughter last night.

I FINALLY figure out how to start my insect story. I needed to find the voice of the piece, and I think I’ve done that. We’ll see how it works out. I need to practically finish it today if I want a decent submission for Tuesday, so it’ll be a fun day of writing awesomeness.

Thanks for all the love you guys have been sending me in the comments, though I’ve been pretty poor at responding to them. Your support is really helping me get through this. TTFN.

Tags: Clarion West, Elizabeth Bear, Karen Joy Fowler, Workshop

Savaged.

…

At Clarion West, we are issued tickets at the start of each week, maybe four or five of them. If we go over time, or start with a negative critique, or don’t get around to critiquing someone, we are supposed to throw the tickets into the centre of the room. At the end of the week, we put all the remaining tickets into a bowl and we draw for prizes like books and toys. Obviously, these tickets are fairly valuable, although very occasionally (maybe five times so far), someone will have a lot to say about a particular story and cast their tickets in.

Three people cast tickets in for my story.

Everyone agreed there wasn’t much problem with my prose (although one person described it as “workman”, which I’m not sure is entirely fair. Flowery, no. But workman? D&D writers are workman. I figure I’m a little more metaphorical than that). But nearly every other aspect of the piece was criticized. Only one person caught that one of my main characters was named Sally Hemings, and he thought it might have been for shock value. I held the Versimiltoad close to me the entire time.

I’m feeling pretty beat up. People tried to tell me that it was a good thing that my story meritted three tickets, but praise was thin. Few people understood the message I was trying to impart in the piece. At least, people found the rape to be inoffensive, which is what I thought would be the tricky part, so I guess I succeeded there.

I feel like a fraud. I won Writers of the Future, but my stories keep getting savaged. I’m sure everyone is asking themselves right now just how the hell I did it. I wish I’d never said anything at all about it, except that I thought it might help in my application essay (Turns out it doesn’t. They do no good).

I think that I tried to write an amazing work of literature, and I’m just not good enough yet to do that. I’m a beginning writer who’s not particularly well read, and I was arrogant enough to try and make a “Statement”. I need to just accept that right now, I need to learn how to write a “Story” well, and not set my sights any higher.

My next piece, “IN THE SHAPE OF A MAN” is going to be a fluff piece. Hopefully original and awesome, but no messages this time. Pure escapism. I hope it’s better received.

Tags: Clarion West, Week 2, Workshop

Got here at 9am because border traffic was exceptionally light. The house was locked so I had to call Neile after making a trip to the local Starbucks. I needed internet access to retrieve her number.

When I’d finally gotten in to the house and was halfway through unpacking, Cat Rambo showed up, and we had the greatest conversation. Cat is a hell of a writer. Don’t believe me? Go here.

We talked for about two hours about the Clarion Experience, which she went through in 2005. Her biggest piece of advice was to “experiment” and “take chances”. This is the place to take risks. I asked her what kinds of things to look out for in the class dynamics, and she graciously shared some wisdom.

I’ve been thinking that there is a real temptation to judge your peers by the writing you see at the workshop, but that’s just not the way to go. Because we’re all “experimenting” and most experiments fail. In fact, the writer who does the best in the workshop may not be pushing themselves enough, playing it too safe. I’m not going to judge anyone by what they put out here, but rather by the quality of the critiques they give (is that fair either?).

Picked up Tom Rodgers at the airport, which was a bit of an experience. Lucas and Miranda volunteered to come with me, and when we got to the carousel, we spotted someone matching Tom’s description. He was even wearing a NASA badge. Too embarrassed to ask him directly, we decided instead to shout out “Tom Rodgers” in his general vicinity. Did this save us from embarrassment? What do you think? In any case, he had a bad case of altitude deafness because he didn’t hear us. Nor did he spot my hand-crafted “T-Rod” signs. Finally, we connected over iPhone and found each other.

Had some lunch, and have retreated into my room to Skype Alicia. Just finished the 2nd draft of “The Naked Leading the Blind” and am ready to send it out. Wish me luck.

There’s a great bunch of people here, all of whom write very different fiction. I can’t wait to read their application stories, which will probably happen Monday.

Tags: Clarion West, workshops

Okay, okay, I don’t actually leave until tomorrow at 5am, but I’m already there in spirit.

I’ll miss my wife, cats, and house (in that order), none of which I’ve ever been separated for such a long period of time, but I’m looking forward to the experience.

Tonight I’m going to set up Skype so Alicia and I can video conference (dry word, but we won’t be nearly so business-like), and I’m sure there will be some cross-border traffic as well.

I’m looking forward to meeting seventeen other students and six instructors who know their way around fiction. But that’s a lot of introductions for a shy guy like me to handle (not to mention a lot of social landmines to step on!).

Quite a few workshop journals have mentioned that some students, at the start of the workshop, try and figure out who are the keeners and who will take a little longer to break through. I guess that’s to establish some kind of writer pecking order. I don’t want to buy into that, so I think I’ll try and keep my Writers of the Future win under my hat for as long as possible, though Todd Vandermark, fellow Clarionite and Codex member, almost certainly knows about it.

Fact is, everyone attending the workshop is at a certain level, career-wise, so no one should have to prove anything. I know better than anyone that it just takes one great story to make or break your career and it could come from any one of us. The fact is, if we’re lucky we’ll form the kind of group that will help each other for the duration of our careers.

The thing to remember is that writing fiction is not a zero-sum affair. If any one of us does well, we all succeed. That’s not to say that there won’t be a little friendly rivalry to see which one of us makes a pro-sale from a story written at the workshop, of course. I hope to make one DURiNG the workshop for a piece I’ll finish polishing on Saturday, but we’ll see what the future holds.

To regular readers of this blog, I plan to leak like a sieve when it comes to Clarion teachings. If you have questions for me, ask them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Tags: Clarion West