THE ICE PICK

Storyteller : Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, by Kate Wilhelm. Northampton, Mass., Small Beer Press, 2005. 190 p. $16.00. Includes: Notes and Lessons on Writing, and Writing Exercises. ISBN: 0-7394-5613-x.

You’ve probably heard of Clarion. Maybe you’ve even wanted to go. Although the elite Clarion Writer’s Workshop has evolved beyond its beginnings, it was begun by and for science fiction and fantasy writers like us and that remains its major emphasis.

Half memoir, half writer’s "how-to" book, this lighthearted little gem tells of the origins and growth of the workshop and of the crazy, funny, and wonderful happenings and events in Clarion’s history.

Along the way, Wilhelm offers advice, hints, and tips, and even weaves Clarion exercises into the narrative in a way that made me immediately want to try them out in my own writing. Most of the writing exercises are gathered in the back of the book, as well, in a separate section, but doing them as I read along made me feel more like a real participant of the workshop, even if I was missing out on the cafeteria food and water balloon fights.

Here is a sample of one of the exercises. "Using a finished story, take a clean paper and cover everything but one sentence. Read that sentence. Does it say exactly what you intended and nothing else? That’s the test. For example: ‘"Don’t do that!" he exploded.’ Looks okay? Wrong. You can’t explode words. You can utter them, say them, mutter, murmur, yell, shout, whisper, and so on. You can’t laugh words or giggle words, or ejaculate words, or jump up and down words. Use say. If something stronger is needed, go to yell or shout. . . . Forget the story line, the plot, everything about the story except the sentences, and examine them one at a time, and then one word at a time."

I didn’t say it was going to be easy! Clarion was never easy or for the faint of heart. But if you want to improve your writing, there are few better teachers than Kate Wilhelm and her late husband, Damon Knight.

The second half of the book emphasizes writing craft and techniques, but uses the background of the workshop and examples from it in such a way that the narrative seamlessly blends together and continues the feeling of imagined participation.

There are chapters on characterization, setting, plotting (or not), beginnings, viewpoint, creating and maintaining suspense, creativity, etc., but it’s difficult even to categorize them that much, since everything overlaps everything else, just as it does in a story. And in the end it doesn’t matter, though I do wish the book had an index, because I read so many wonderful things that I wanted to go back to. But there is a nice section called "Notes and Lessons on Writing," which summarizes the main elements and points made in the text.

This is such a great book, and I enjoyed reading it so very much. I can only imagine what six weeks at Clarion would be like!

If you’ve been to Clarion, this book may serve as a reminder of what you learned and the (I hope) good times you had there. If you’ve never been there, it may inspire you and teach you to be a better writer. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2003. 956 p. $55.00. Includes: bibliography, illustrations, index, and "key terms." ISBN: 0-226-10403-6.

If you have questions on manuscript preparation and editing or are looking for authoritative answers on style and usage, this classic manual is the one most commonly used in general publishing by editors and publishers.

You may be familiar with the Associated Press Stylebook, which is the usual guide for journalists. Differences abound, which is why some authors insist on putting spaces before and after dashes (preferred by AP) and others insist equally strongly that there should be no spaces surrounding dashes (preferred by CMS).

Electronic publishing has created even more confusion, and this completely updated new edition of CMS has substantial sections dealing with manuscript preparation for electronic submissions and publications, as well as a much-needed section on usage and grammar.

It covers not only manuscript preparation for authors and thorough explanations of punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation, spelling, author-editor relationships, editorial markings, rights and permissions, authors’ responsibilities, publishers’ responsibilities, and design and production, but also how to handle numbers, quotations, abbreviations, foreign words and phrases, dialogue, page numbering, spacing, glossaries, illustrative material, author’s changes and corrections, and even things like how to estimate the time needed to make revisions on your manuscript and a "sample design and production schedule for a book printed domestically." Yet the gentle humor present in many of the examples cited keeps CMS from being just the very dry manual it could be.

You may find that you wish to handle a certain thing differently from CMS’s recommendation. For example, CMS puts interior dialogue, or thoughts, in quotation marks, but most authors prefer to reserve quotation marks for actual dialogue. And where CMS calls for only one space after a period, most of the editors I’ve talked to prefer you give two spaces for easier readability. CMS allows for an author’s individual stylistic differences, and if you do deviate from their preferred practice, at least you will know where you have done something that may go against their rule, and be ready to justify your choice.

There are some things about this edition I don’t like as well as I did in the previous one. Lacking, are the very straightforward typing instructions like, "Chapter openings should begin at least three inches from the top of the page." And you must be very careful with advice such as, "don’t worry if, in the hard copy, [hard] hyphens happen to fall at the end of a line." Yes, but later on it says, "End-of-line hyphens should be marked to distinguish between soft and hard hyphens. Soft hyphens are used merely to break a word at the end of a line; hard hyphens are ‘permanent’ hyphens (such as that in twenty-first) and must remain no matter where the hyphenated word or term appears." So they are distinguishing between manuscripts submitted electronically and those submitted on paper, but not saying so very clearly. This going back and forth is tiresome to say the least, and I think it is a result of their dropping the chapter on "The Author’s Manuscript" and trying to blend it with the one on "The Author’s Responsibilities, all of which makes the book much harder for authors, especially beginners, to use. It also requires that you be more aware of the context of their rule and the contents of the manual, and that you think more about the rule you are reading and not just try to apply it blindly. If you already have a copy of the 14th edition, I recommend hanging onto it, for a while at least, to help fill in the gaps left by CMS’s leap into the future.

Many other writing reference works are now available online, but CMS, unfortunately, is not. You still have to buy it or use it in your local library. The price is annoyingly high in my opinion, although the online bookstores have it for less, or you may be able to pick up a used copy.

Things are changing so fast that what publishers wanted and expected in authors’ manuscripts and the rules many of us faithfully followed when we started writing our books, are out of date. So, regardless of price and certain drawbacks, I have come to believe that this is an essential reference book for all serious fiction authors.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Sept. 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Self-editing for Fiction Writers : How to Edit Yourself into Print, by Renni Browne and Dave King. 2nd ed. New York : HarperCollins, c2004. 279 p. $13.95. Includes illustrations, bibliography, and index. ISBN: 0-06-054569-0.

You probably already know that editors at most publishing houses no longer edit books the old-fashioned way and that imperfect manuscripts don’t stand much of a chance in today’s competitive market. Publishers now routinely reject manuscripts that need any kind of work, regardless of their innate potential. This means that if you submit something that needs editing, even if the story itself is fantastic, it will almost certainly be rejected. And self-publication of such deficient work, on-line or not, has resulted in such poor quality that it has given the whole industry a bad name.

If you are serious about wanting to publish the very best work you can, you have to face the fact that you need to edit your own manuscript or hire a professional to do it for you. "But," as Browne and King say, "even if you do hire a pro, you want your manuscript to be as strong as it can be before you have it worked on. After all, why pay for editing you can do yourself?"

Recommended to me by an editor, this book is superb at showing what is wrong and how you can correct it.

For example, you are told to "show, don’t tell," and that "many writers rely too heavily on narrative summary," losing out on dialogue and action that would make their story or novel come alive. And, of course, "the first chapter is not the best place for narrative summary--you want to engage your readers early on." But you are not often told that you need a balance between telling and showing or you will throw off the pacing of your work. For example, you might combine the two techniques by summarizing a dinner scene in a paragraph or two and then showing "the five minutes of after-dinner conversation that were really crucial to the story" in detail. Using a "telling" narrative summary in that way would be wise.

Or you might use narrative summary "to capture weeks or months of slow, steady growth," to handle repetitive action, and to take care of plot developments that are "not important enough to justify scenes."

The book goes on with practical, no-nonsense advice for characterization and exposition, point of view, proportion, dialogue, character voice, interior monologue, beats ("the literary equivalent of . . . ‘stage business’"), pacing, avoiding repetition, stylistic tricks, and writer’s voice.

Each chapter contains checklists to help you revise your work and exercises to help you learn the principles. One thing I really love about this book is that it gives you answers to the exercises and doesn’t just leave you to flounder and wonder if you did it right or not. Of course, there are many "right" ways to do something, but I’ve found it very helpful to have this kind of guidance.

I hesitated even looking at this book, because I wasn’t that thrilled with the first edition, but it has been completely revised, especially in the area of showing writers where characters’ emotions do and do not belong, thus avoiding the earlier edition’s mistakes, which--as the authors admit--caused some writers to strip their stories to an emotional minimalism. So, if you have been relying on the first edition or you didn’t like it, you may want to check this new one out. I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Aug. 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Novelist’s Boot Camp: 101 Ways to Take Your Book from Boring to Bestseller, by Todd A. Stone. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, c2006. 309 p. $19.99. Includes illustrations, index, and Twelve-Week Novelist’s Boot Camp. ISBN: 1-58297-360-1.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a novel and haven’t gotten your act together yet, started a dozen times and never finished, or finished and stalled out on revision and rewrites, this book may be the perfect answer for you.

"The sheer size of the task of writing a novel . . . can be intimidating," says Stone. "Military tacticians face the same kind of intimidation and challenge when planning and executing complex operations." You need to follow a process "and concentrate on one task at a time."

As Stone says in the appendix, it doesn’t matter if you can’t set aside a literal twelve weeks to write or not--very few people can--you can still use the framework of his calendar to work through your novel. The important thing is to get started and establish target dates for achieving your objectives, and if it takes a year to write your book, that’s fine--at least it will be written.

Among books on how to write novels, this book definitely stands out with its khaki cover and its commanding no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners tone. Stone doesn’t suggest or persuade you, he orders you to work on your novel. In the end, of course, you get out of a book, workshop, class, or retreat what you put into it, but if you feel you need discipline, and if you can use your imagination to enter into the idea of a writing boot camp, Stone’s focused missions and drills are inspiring and refreshing. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and imparts excellent advice with simplicity, clarity, and vigor. "No sniveling allowed."

If your novel is complete, you may find the sections on revision and editing especially helpful, not only for the practical advice--like making a backup copy of your manuscript before you start revisions--but also for the simplified way of approaching your manuscript in multiple passes to find specific kinds of errors, rather than trying to find and fix everything at once.

My only complaint was the way the book was laid out. For example, in Drill 40 of Mission 3, Stone has some great advice about upgrading your character cards. Except that up to that point, he’d never mentioned character cards. Creating the basic card isn’t covered until Drill 53, Mission 5. Nor did I feel enough attention was drawn to the appendix with its twelve-week sample calendar, so that when he talks about controlling your calendar in Drill 4 of Mission 1, but fails to mention there is a sample in the appendix that will help you do that, you are left hanging. All of which means you should do a thorough reconnaissance of the book before you start and also not be surprised that there is a lot of marching and counter-marching involved as you go back and forth between sections.

"No one would expect soldiers to sit around and wait to feel the flow [of inspiration] before they went into battle. . . . A successful attack depends on a strong plan and disciplined execution. Writing your novel works the same way."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and if it makes you sit down and "start thinking of writing your novel as a mission," allocating time and making a mission calendar, so you can "execute small tasks each day," and eventually turn your dream of writing a novel and completing it into a reality, then Stone’s the book will have accomplished its mission. And so will you!

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, July 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Between the Lines : Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing, by Jessica Page Morrell. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 2006. 299 p. Includes index. ISBN: 1-58297-392-X. $16.99.

We are always being told that if we want to improve our stories, we must analyze successful novels and stories and apply the lessons learned. That’s a difficult thing for most of us to do, especially when we are just beginning.

We have enough trouble trying to analyze our own work when we are told it is melodramatic or the pacing is off or it is underwritten.

Morrell not only lists novels and films which showcase the specific techniques she is addressing, but also how to reach deep into stories and find the techniques and tricks--the subtle magic that lies "between the lines"--of successful fiction, which we would love to learn about. Then she shows us how to apply these techniques in our own work.

This is no airy-fairy book, but one filled with practical hands-on help, tips, advice, and suggestions. For example, she suggests using a highlighter pen on your manuscript to mark different sensory information: "yellow for sight, pink for smells, green for sounds, etc." (You can use small colored, removable flags or page markers to prevent marking up a book.) This helps us see if we need to add more sound, smells, or visual description in our story, scene, or chapter.

World-building is so important for fantasy, horror, and science fiction authors. To prevent story-slowing info dumps of backstory, she says, "read through your first fifty pages and highlight wherever you’ve used backstory information." If "you discover that one third or more of your pages contain backstory" in a "chronologically structured story" you have a problem. We need to hold back on information, only giving out what "is necessary to understand what’s going on," thus creating "suspense and intrigue while teasing the reader with tidbits of information and minor skirmishes. . . . What lies above the surface often only hints at a more dangerous core, and this is particularly true in the first fifty pages."

In addition to discussing how to slip in sensory details and reveal backstory, Morrell gives practical advice about how to set up cliffhangers and thrusters, use epilogues and prologues, write transitions, weave in subplots, generate suspense and maintain tension, handle epiphanies and revelations, develop good pacing, create a sense of place, make effective flashbacks and lay in foreshadowing, and use imagery and language to create mood and paint pictures.

Things like epiphanies and revelations, themes and premises, character arcs and transformations all make fiction look and sound polished and professional and make the story resonate with readers, but we may feel they are beyond our ability to handle--sometimes we don’t even understand what the terms mean. Morrell explains what they are, how they impact a story and a reader, and how we can master and use them to create deeper and more successful fiction.

This is a book I wish I’d had years ago. It is a real treasure, and I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

Children’s Writer’s Word Book, by Alijandra Mogilner. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 1999. $16.99. ISBN: 0-89879-951-1.

"Fantasy is a healthy field for juvenile publishing. . . . Science fiction becomes popular around fourth or fifth grade when it is a venue for fast-paced adventure. By the sixth grade, character development becomes important."

If you write science fiction or fantasy for children from kindergarten through the sixth grade, this is a wonderful book to have. If you have thought about writing for children, but didn’t know what words publishers would consider appropriate or acceptable for which age level, this book is definitely for you.

If you want to use a word, but aren’t sure what age or grade level it would be appropriate for, an alphabetical list shows you, for example, that "nebula" is a fourth grade word and "airtight" is a fifth grade word.

The second section lists words by grade level. If you want to write for the third grade level, it lists words that an average third grader will understand, e.g., "vapor" and "arctic."

The third section is a thesaurus. For instance, if you want to describe an airtight compartment, it tells you that for kindergarten level, "closed box" or "room" is acceptable. A first grader would know "sealed cell," "place," or "space." A fifth grader would understand "airtight" or "self-contained cabinet," "stall," "department," or "locker," as well. "Compartment" is a sixth grade word, and although many younger children would know the word, the average child would not. You may argue with the list; "prayer" isn’t acceptable until third grade and "earthquake" not until fifth? And your children, with a writer for a parent, may be far more advanced, but these lists are compiled from many basic word lists and standard sources.

Besides the lists, there are tips on writing for children, hints on sentence length and word usage for each grade level, and guidelines for using words not found in the book. Samples of writing for different age levels are given along with discussions of vocabulary development, social changes for today’s children, and what subjects are currently covered in specific grades. If you’ve been out of school awhile, you may find it surprising to see what is, and what is not, covered at the same grade it was when you were in school. Also, there is a discussion of reading levels and what kinds of books and magazines are published for the different age groups.

This is an excellent book, and I recommend it highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, May 2006; and reprinted in Washpan News (Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators), June 2006.}

THE ICE PICK

2006 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books. ISBN 1-58297-397. 650 pages. $24.99.

Aimed specifically at those of us who write fiction, whether long or short, N&SSWM lists non-paying markets as well as those that pay, with over fifteen hundred listings for literary agents, book and magazine publishers, conferences and workshops, and contests and awards.

Book publishers and magazine markets are listed alphabetically, with magazines divided into literary, small circulation, online, and consumer magazines. There is a general index in the back to help you locate a specific market by name and an extensive category index to help you find markets that take the kind of story or novel you have written. And fantasy, horror, and science fiction are not combined, but are listed as separate genres--a nice touch for us.

There is also a category index for the approximately two hundred literary agents listed in N&SSWM.

In the back of the book, conferences are listed by region and indexed by date. Under "Resources," publishers are listed with all of their imprints, along with notes for Canadian writers. And a glossary of printing and production terms is included along with a more general glossary.

In each market section, new markets, paying markets, and those seeking or accepting new writers are clearly marked, as are Canadian and non-North American markets, and for book publishers, those accepting only agented submissions.

As with its sister publication Writer’s Market, the magazine listings in Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market explain the kinds of stories the editors want, minimum and maximum lengths for your manuscript, how many manuscripts they receive per month (to give you an idea of the competition you face), and payment rates, as well as tips from the editors. Entries include information on how to obtain guidelines and/or sample copies, submission guidelines, response times, e-mail addresses, rights acquired, and whether payments are on acceptance or not.

Entries for book publishers give details about how to obtain guidelines or order a catalog, along with subjects published, and recent titles. They also tell the number of first-time authors published in the last year and the publishers’ policies on simultaneous submissions, on response time, on how long it usually takes to publish a book, and on royalties, advances, etc. The all-important contact information, including names of editors, is given, as is advice from the publishers.

About two hundred literary agents are listed with recent sales, terms of payment, the kinds of books they represent, and the writers’ conferences they attend, if you’d like to meet them.

In addition to the market listings there are articles on "The Writing Life," "Craft & Technique," and "Getting Published," plus interviews with authors and editors, including Gordon Van Gelder and Mel Odom, and a list of resources for SF/F/H writers.

In addition, if you buy the book, it includes a coupon code for ten dollars off the regular $29.99 year’s subscription to their online service, which gives recent updates and market changes, as well as a host of other services.

I think you will find this annual market guide indispensable if you want to sell your work, and I recommend it very highly.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter,Nov. 2005.}

THE ICE PICK

Writer’s Market 2006. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books, 2005. ISBN 1-58297-394-6. 1178 pages. $29.99.

One of our members recently wrote me and said, "I have no idea who all is looking for stuff, or where to look to find out. I’d love to sell something, anything, to anyone."

If this sounds like you, you need to check out this market guide or one of its sister publications--Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, Poet's Market, or Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market.

Whether you are trying to sell a story, a novel, an article, a nonfiction book, a poem, or a filler, this guide has the largest list of paying magazines and book publishers.

In addition to the sixteen magazines dedicated to science fiction, fantasy, and horror, it features dozens of other magazines, as well as literary and "little" magazines, that take SF/F/H stories and pay cash for them. But there is no subject index for magazines, as there is for the book publishers, so you will have to read through the listings to find them. Of course, if you write other kinds of stories or articles on science or any other topic, you will find markets for your writing here. Also featured are many contests and awards.

In each market section, high-paying, Canadian, and online markets are clearly marked. And each section has introductory information about that market.

The magazine listings explain the kinds of material the editors want, how many manuscripts they buy each year, minimum and maximum lengths for your manuscript, and payment rates, as well as tips from the editors. Entries include how to obtain guidelines and/or sample copies, e-mail addresses, submission guidelines, response times, rights acquired, and whether payments are on acceptance or not. They tell whether the magazines accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, fillers, photos, and reprints, and what the columns or departments accept.

Entries for book publishers and producers include the number of queries and manuscripts they receive and the number of titles they publish per year, with the percentage of those titles from first-time authors and the percentage from unagented writers. The entries give details about how to obtain guidelines or order a catalog, along with listings of various imprints, subjects published, and recent titles. They also tell the publishers’ policies on simultaneous submissions, on response time, on how long it usually takes to publish a book, and on royalties, advances, etc. The all-important contact information, including names of editors, is given, as are tips from the publishers and a summary of the kinds of things they are currently emphasizing or de-emphasizing.

Fifty literary agents who are seeking new clients are listed with bio notes, recent sales, terms of payment, the kinds of books they represent, and the writers’ conferences they attend, if you’d like to meet them in person.

In addition to the market listings is a section "For Beginning Writers," plus interviews with authors and articles covering such things as improving your odds of getting published, query letters, writing groups, and e-mail communication.

The "Business of Writing" section includes information on contracts, rights, and taxes. Each year special articles deal with topics of interest. This year they include articles on finding time to write, overcoming writer’s block, and creating online publicity.

Missing from this year’s guide, as from last year’s, are the script markets and script agents, and the list of magazines, websites, and organizations for writers, but it still has a glossary of terms like "frontlist" and "kill fee" to help you, as well as average word lengths for "novella," "short-short," etc.

In addition, if you buy the book, it includes a coupon code for ten dollars off a year’s subscription to their online service, www.writersmarket.com. I use the book and the website together, finding it easier to locate markets in the book and then check the website for recent changes or updated information.

In writing for publication, I find this market guide indispensable, and I’m always amazed when I meet writers who know nothing about it. If you want to sell your work and don’t know where to start, I highly recommend this market guide.

{Published in SF and Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, Oct. 2005.}