Author Interview — Ogarita

The authors of stories in the upcoming anthology Avast, Ye Airships! continue to be willing to be interviewed by me. I haven’t scared the remaining ones away yet.

Speaking of scaring others, today’s interviewee is author Ogarita, no stranger to the art of terrifying readers, while armed with nothing but her bare words. Think I’m kidding? The opening picture on her website is of a lonely cemetery, in the dead of winter. My internet browser was afraid to open the page the first time, and now refuses to go back.

Here’s the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?

Ogarita: I’ve noodled around with writing stories since I was ten years old and conjured a girl, dumped in a boarding school, who is transported (via a mysterious and never explained glowing rectangle) to a world combining elements of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain. I turned to writing daily about three years ago, after retiring from an active-duty career in the U.S. Navy.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

O.: Most difficult? I always, always begin a story in the wrong place. A couple of novels ago I decided this just didn’t matter . . . for first drafts, at least. I save that pain for subsequent revisions, during which I suffer the recurring and depressing realization I will never produce anything as wondrously creative as the beginning of Nabokov’s Lolita. Regardless of one’s opinion of that story, the opening is fabulous writing.

The easiest part of writing? Everything other than beginnings.

P.S.: On your website, you’re known as Ogarita (not your real name), and the story of how you got that name is fascinating.  Is that family tradition of bestowing strange, secret, family names likely to continue to future generations?

O.: My family’s history is filled with bizarre names, among which Ogarita figures as fairly tame. This custom took a steep dive, however, two generations ago, when my grandfather abandoned the name Yakeley and renamed himself Robert. The love of eccentric names continues, however; throughout my childhood my mother expressed frequent regret she hadn’t named me Hepzibah. It’s possible this close call inspires me to write stories filled with fear.

P.S.: Ogarita it is, then. You’ve said you write stories of “ghosts and banshees, creepy houses and spooky cemeteries, stalkers and extroverts.” How did you become interested in writing tales of that type?

O.: First, discovering the best ghost movie ever filmed: The Uninvited, made in 1944 and based on Dorothy Macardle’s 1941 novel, Uneasy Freehold. When, three-quarters of the way through the movie, the double doors bang open . . . glorious terror! The book isn’t bad, either, although the secondary female characters tend to be a bit soppy. Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House kept me awake at night for three days after finishing it, and I’m still not keen on holding hands in the dark. I’m always searching out well-written stories in which sympathetic characters find themselves inadvertently involved with the supernatural . . . and scared nearly to death.

P.S.: You call yourself a middle grade and Young Adult author. In what ways is that different from writing for a more general audience?

O.: A fair number of writers, and I include myself among them, claim there is and should be little difference between writing for MG/YA and adults, other than the former being a bit less overt in depicting violence, sex, and in using profanity/obscenity. These, however, are far from being hard rules. The characters in John Green’s collaborative book (with David Levithan), Will Grayson, Will Grayson, don’t hold back in terms of verbal obscenities. Nor does Stephen King dumb down the dangers faced by nine-year-old Trisha (in The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon), when she’s lost in the woods. Are Green and King writing for adults or middle-graders?

In my MG/YA ghost story novels I shoot for spinal meltdown moments, hoping to ruin the sleep of all my readers. That’s what I’ve loved since I was a kid and still do today.

P.S.: You have a story, “Captain Wexford’s Dilemma,” in the anthology AvastYeAirshipsAvast Ye Airships! Without spoiling anything, can you tell us a little about the story, and what inspired you to write it?

O.: The superheated steam produced by a ship’s boilers, properly controlled, creates enormous amounts of beneficial power. Controlling the steam, however, requires careful maintenance and the right materials—steel, for example—that can withstand the intense and high heat. In October 1990 the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) docked in Bahrain for repairs to a steam valve. A contractor mistakenly chose metal fasteners of brass, rather than steel, to fasten down the bonnet of a steam valve; when the ship got underway, the fasteners gave way and the ship’s boiler room flooded with superheated steam. Eleven men died because of a small, crucial, mistaken choice. Captain Wexford’s Dilemma allowed me to create and take control of a similar situation, but from that starting place spin a fantasy with a different outcome, one that I found emotionally salvific. And, because I have long worked in the field of religious diversity, humor crept in as the story revealed itself and Captain Wexford struggled to find ways to deal with a far less material challenge to the safety of her airship.

P.S.: What other authors influenced your writing?

O.:

  • Terry Pratchett. A genius who made Death one of fantasy’s most believable character.
  • Barbara Hambley. Those Who Hunt the Night (1988) a vampire-filled murder mystery, uses suspense and a sense of place exceptionally well.
  • Katherine Catmull, Claire Legrand, Stefan Bachmann, and Emma Trevayne. The Cabinet of Curiosities (2014) contains thirty-six inventive and beautifully written short stories. I read these, then decided I needed to explore this form; the result was “Captain Wexford’s Dilemma.”
  • Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. I Remember You (2014; 2012 in the UK) is the best ghost story published in the last five years, hands down. Like Stephen King, Sigurðardóttir isn’t afraid to allow her characters to develop before she turns loose the ghosts.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

O.: I’m finishing the first draft of “The Lake Eerie Ghost,” a MG murder mystery/ghost story about a group of kids attending summer camp on a fictitious island in Lake Erie. There’s a haunted lighthouse involved, because I’m crazy about lighthouses. At the same time, I’m revising another MG story that I hope will delight and frighten: “Curse of the Banshee,” in which a young girl and her twin cousins investigate a series of near-fatal accidents and an ancient curse. Murder, mayhem, and spooks make each day of writing pure pleasure.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Ogarita:

  • Don’t let anyone, editors or readers, tell you the semi-colon has no place in fiction; this fabulous bit of punctuation has ably separated closely-related independent clauses since 1494.
  • Write or revise or outline every day. Every. Single. Day. Doing this has been a trial at times, but it has also improved my writing and kept at bay writer’s block.
  • Ignore those who say one’s best writing (or revising and outlining) is done early in the morning. I’m convinced early-morning writers are masochists.
  • Exercise. Walk, lift weights, bike, swim, do yoga, anything that keeps blood pumping and muscles toned!
  • Find or create a support group of other authors. A good group celebrates success, understands rejection, and keeps dreams alive, often with cupcakes.

 

Ogarita, thanks so much for that fascinating interview. My readers can find out more about Ogarita’s spine-chilling tales on Twitter and at her website.

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 21, 2015Permalink

The Votes Are In

predlogoTheCometeers72dpiTimesDeformedHand72dpi

 

 

 

 

 

I owe a great big thank-you to those who voted for my stories in the Critters Workshop Annual Preditors and Editors Readers Poll for 2014.

My story “The Cometeers” came in 3rd of 7 among Steampunk Short Stories, and “Time’s Deformèd Hand” tied for 3rd out of 25, in the All Other Short Stories category.

Thanks again for voting for—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 17, 2015Permalink

Author Interview — Jeffrey Cook

A group of fascinating authors contributed to the upcoming anthology Avast, Ye Airships! Today I bring you another intriguing interview, this time with Jeffrey CookJeffrey Cook.

Jeff lives in Maple Valley, Washington, with his wife and three large dogs. He was born in Boulder, Colorado, but has lived all over the United States. He began writing professionally in 2014. In addition to his novels and anthology projects, he has contributed material to publications by Deep7 Games out of Seattle, WA. When not reading, researching or writing, Jeffrey enjoys role-playing games and watching football.

Here’s the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?

Jeffrey Cook: I got the storytelling bug when I was about six, on long car rides with my dad. My mother insists that’s when I started proclaiming I wanted to be an author when I grew up. I began my first series of books, a set of emergent Steampunk epistolary novels, after getting laid off from an energy-draining desk job, thus freeing up a lot of time and creativity.

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

J.C.: Output is easier for me than for a lot of people. Once I get some momentum going – in a decent atmosphere without any large dogs trying to get on my lap – I’m fairly prolific, writing in big chunks.

The most difficult aspects are the editing and the marketing.

P.S.: You have written in the steampunk, science fiction, and urban fantasy genres. Which is your favorite genre and why?

J.C.: Steampunk has been and continues to be a really fun experiment, and the best way of telling the story of the characters I wanted to tell there, but I grew up on fantasy. It pretty much has to be my favorite.

P.S.: Your website mentions you enjoy role-playing games. Aside from the enjoyment you derive from that, do you find that RPGs influence or even improve your writing?

J.C.: I love telling stories as a team. I like the combination of planning and improvisation, the characterization, worldbuilding, and different perspectives. Kate, my editor and sometime co-writer, feels the need to point out how action-oriented a lot of my writing is sometimes, which certainly gets a lot of practice narrating RPG scenes.

Additionally, I met Kate in an online role-playing group, so that’s certainly been useful, too.

P.S.: You mentioned having a co-writer. What is it like to write collaboratively with another author?

J.C.: As with RPGs, I love collective storytelling. In addition to bouncing ideas off of each other, we can capitalize on each other’s strengths and compensate for weaknesses. Kate, for instance, is very slow at writing, but incredibly efficient at rewrites.

P.S.: You have a story, “Maiden Voyage,” in the anthology AvastYeAirshipsAvast Ye Airships! Without spoiling, can you tell us a little about the story, and what inspired you to write it?

J.C.: From time to time, Kate and I write stories about a one-eyed cross-dressing lesbian cavalry officer and her clockwork-and-steam-enhanced dancer girlfriend. When we first saw the web site for the Avast anthology, we decided to put the girls on an airship. This is actually the second published Luca and Emily story. We’re hoping to eventually combine our various anthology submissions with them into a book of short stories.

P.S.: You’ve written some stories aimed at the Young Adult market. In what ways is that different from writing for a more general audience?

J.C.: It was a huge transition. The stories in the Dawn of Steamdawn-of-steam-first-light-w-award-badge series are, intentionally, very dense reads. They’re written in Regency voice (early 1800’s, like Jules Verne or Jane Austen) and in epistolary (letters and journal entries) format. They required a lot of historical research. Writing for YA involved as much world building, but since both my current, and upcoming YA books are set in Seattle, I know some of the area better. They’re also much more dialogue heavy and faster-reading.

P.S.: What is your current work in progress? Would you mind telling us a little about it?

J.C.: With my epistolary Steampunk series wrapping up this March, I’m focusing a lot on a four-book YA urban fantasy series about, among other things, fairies in Seattle. It’s another collaboration with Kate, who’s really quite interested in getting the folklore research about different legends – mostly Irish/British but also Hawaiian and others – alongside medically accurate descriptions of ADHD.

While it’s also almost done, I’m also heading up a charity anthology consisting of Shakespeare stories reinterpreted through the lens of different punk genres: steampunk, cyberpunk, etc. The proceeds from that will benefit a local animal shelter. I’m contributing the “More bear”-steampunked version of The Winter’s Tale for that.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer aspiring writers?

Jeffrey Cook: Try to write or do something related to your writing every day in order to cultivate good habits.

Get someone reasonably impartial to read your work at some point, and learn to take constructive criticism, because once you publish, criticism is going to come eventually. Having done both self-publishing and with a small press, I I’d like to point out that in self-publishing, two very important things to have are good editing and good cover art.

 

Thank you very much, Jeff! Readers of Poseidon’s Scribe will be eager to find out more about you, and here’s how they can. You’re on Twitter as @JeffreyCook74, and on Facebook, Goodreads, and Amazon. Explore Jeffrey Cook’s website here.

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 17, 2015Permalink

Author Interview — Robert McGough

Robert McGoughAnother treat for Poseidon’s Scribe readers today. I had the pleasure of interviewing Robert McGough, whose short story “Black Hydra” will appear in the upcoming anthology Avast, Ye Airships! He tells me he writes in the Horror, Steampunk, and Southern Gothic genres. On to the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: When and why did you begin writing fiction?

Robert McGough: I have written fiction as long as I can remember really, though my first serious attempts came in high school. They were laughably bad, so I more or less shelved any sort of serious writing til about two and a half years ago, during grad school. As for where, I was born and raised in south central Alabama!

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

R.McG: Writing is easy. Editing is a nightmare. I can happily crank out 1-3 thousand words a day for weeks on end…but when it comes time to edit, I typically don’t. I would rather get new ideas to paper than spend time revising old ideas. I typically only edit when I am actually sending something off for submission.

P.S.: I see on your website you have participated in Nanowrimo several times. What were those experiences like? Do you plan to do it again?

R.McG: I have ‘won’ it three times now, the past three years. My first ‘win’ came about four months after I started back seriously writing. I would not trade the experiences for anything, but I find that each year gets a little bit harder. I will likely keep doing it until such point that I feel the strain outweighs the gain.

AvastYeAirshipsP.S.: You have a story, “Black Hydra,” in the anthology Avast, Ye Airships! Tell us a little about the story, and what inspired you to write it.

R.McG: I have created a fantasy/steampunk world that all of my steampunk stories take place in. As most of them are currently tied up in what I hope will be a future publication, I decided to write a story for this anthology. It is in fact the third story I have written featuring the main character, Colonel Gurthwait, a somewhat bumbling ‘great white hunter’ type.

P.S.: Your story “Whispers on the Wind” got published in the anthology Journals of Horror: Found Fiction. Please tell us about that story, and how you got the idea for it.

R.McG: H.P. Lovecraft is a huge influence on me, and this was the first story that I wrote in emulation of his style. It is about a writer who hears stories on the wind, and begins to write them for publication, and the fall out that ensues. It is not cthulian however, I have come up with my own mythos which is based on gnosticism. But if you love Lovecraft, then I think you will like it.

P.S.: Your website suggests you write in three genres: Horror, Steampunk, and Southern Gothic. I haven’t heard of Southern Gothic–can you describe it?

R.McG: The most famous southern gothic writers are Faulkner, Flannery O’Conner, and Harper Lee. They are tales set in the south that feature the eccentric, the strange, the grotesque. Like more mainstream gothic tales they often feature a bit of a hint of the supernatural. All in all, good stuff!

P.S.: What is your current work in progress?

R.McG: Tonight I finished a southern gothic tale called ‘Pearls Before Swine’ which is a take on deals with the devil. I am also working on a weird fiction story, editing up a steampunk novella, and am about to start a pair of fantasy stories. I typically keep several projects going at a time so that I don’t get bored.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer to aspiring writers?

Robert McGough: The best advice I can give is that whatever excuse you have to not write is likely bullshit. If writing is important to you, you will make the time. If you find yourself continually making excuses, maybe you need to find a different hobby.

 

Thank you, Bob! Folks can find out more about Robert McGough on Twitter (@talesbybob), Facebook, at his website, and his blog.

 Poseidon’s Scribe

January 16, 2015Permalink

Editor and Author Interview — Rie Sheridan Rose

SteampunkRie-e1302614168720Today I’m delighted to welcome Editor and Author Rie Sheridan Rose to the world of Poseidon’s Scribe. She’s the editor of the forthcoming anthology Avast Ye Airships! as well as being an accomplished author. Among her published novels is The Marvelous Mechanical Man. Mechanical Man Final COVER ONLY

On to the interview:

Poseidon’s Scribe: When did you begin writing fiction?

Rie Sheridan Rose: Technically, I began writing when I was a kid, but I began doing it for publication in 1998 when my children’s story “Bedtime for Benny” was chosen as a finalist in the Half-Price Books “Say Goodnight to Illiteracy” contest.  My first novel was published in 2000 (after I started it at 12 originally…)

P.S.: What are the easiest, and the most difficult, aspects of writing for you?

R.S.R.: The hardest is having the discipline to actually do the work. I’ve been very bad about procrastination, though I am working on it. The second hardest part is finding markets–but places like ralan.com can help with that.

The easiest is…oh, wow…I’ve never thought about that. For me, the easy part is talking about my writing once it is done. 🙂

P.S.: On your website, you refer to yourself as the Barbadee Poet. What does that mean?

R.S.R.: When I originally coined that title, I was very enamored of the Brobdingnagian Bards. I wanted to be a bard myself…but I didn’t feel I was quite there. So I was a “wannabee” bard — or a “bardabee”.

One of the proudest moments of my career was when Marc Gunn named me Bard. Now I have to figure out the requirements to make it official…

P.S.: Who is the audience you’re trying to reach in your stories?

R.S.R.: My audience varies as widely as my subject matter. I wouldn’t expect the people who like my fantasies to necessarily be comfortable with my horror stories. I can’t decide if being so diverse is good because it expands the potential markets or bad because it dilutes the fan base…but I get bored if I stick to one genre. I am pretty sure that I have at least something for everyone though.

P.S.: What are your favorite genres to write in?

R.S.R.: Poetry — always number one; horror; and Steampunk. But I dabble in everything from Weird West to noir to science fiction.

AvastYeAirshipsP.S.: Where did the idea for Avast Ye Airships! come from, and can you briefly describe the idea of the anthology?

R.S.R.: The idea was first proposed on the Mocha Memoirs Authors Facebook page when Dahlia DeWinters was bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t find enough good Steampunk romances. Particularly with Steampunk Airship Pirates. Then Wynelda-Ann Deaver suggested we do our own anthology and graciously volunteered me to edit it. I thought about it…and said “Why not?” The rest is history.

The premise was to provide a collection of stories representing the vast diversity to be found in the world of Steampunk piracy. And we do have a very diverse group of stories from fantasy to science fiction to romance with the unifying characteristics of Steampunk and piracy.

P.S.: You have a story, “Hooked,” in the anthology Avast Ye Airships! What inspired you to write “Hooked”?

R.S.R.: From the moment we started talking about the anthology, Captain Hook kept popping into my head. Who is the most famous pirate of all time? Well, some might claim Blackbeard, or Jack Sparrow, but I think Hook trumps them all. And the Jolly Roger? It already flies!

I wanted to have a story in the anthology, but I didn’t want to take too much of the space away from other authors, so I wrote this very short piece to satisfy both of those requirements. 🙂

P.S.: Have you ever edited an anthology before? What was the most difficult aspect?

R.S.R.: No, I have never edited an anthology before, though I have always been curious about it.

The most difficult aspect is the logistics of it all. What stories do you choose? What factor decides this well-written story beats out that well-written story (in the end, for me, it was space.) Which story goes in what order? How do you decide on the length of the submissions period? How will it be marketed? How do you coordinate everything?

I have learned a lot doing this anthology…and hope to do another one some day. But not for a little while. I need to recover!

P.S.: What is your current writing project?

R.S.R.: My personal project at the moment is to get the second volume of my Steampunk series The Conn-Mann Chronicles through a second draft before I start edits in March. Hopefully, we will release in June or July. I love my characters, and can’t wait to let the world see what Jo and Alistair are up to next.

Poseidon’s Scribe: What advice can you offer to aspiring writers?

Rie Sheridan Rose: Set goals. You might not meet them, but have them. Two years ago, my husband challenged me to get 300 rejections by the end of the year. His theory was that immersion therapy would have me get over the fear of rejection — and therefore of submitting — by making it a routine thing. You can BET my submissions went up astronomically from ever before. And I’ve gotten in the habit of sending most things back out the day they are rejected to see if another market wants it.

That first year, I got 145 rejections and felt terrible because I was so far below his mark. On the other hand, I got 43 acceptances, which was the most I have ever gotten in a year.

Last year, I cut it back to 200 rejections…and slacked off a lot. Only 70 rejections and 21 acceptances.

So this year, I am changing things up and coming at it from a different direction. I have a personal goal of trying to make a submission every day this year. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a new piece, but it has to be something sent out to a new market every day. As of the time I am writing this, I’ve made that goal…but it is difficult some days!

I have cut the rejection number again to 100, but with the increase in submissions, I hope to do better. I’ve got three so far…

 

Thank you very much, Rie! I wish you every success in your writing endeavors. Readers of the Poseidon’s Scribe blog can find out more about Rie Sheridan Rose on Facebook, at her website, on Goodreads, and at Amazon.

 Poseidon’s Scribe

January 14, 2015Permalink

Words You Hate…and How to Love Them

Hated WordsAdmit it. There are some words and phrases that irritate you. Words you wish others would stop saying. Words that shouldn’t have become trendy, but did, without anyone asking your permission. Words you think should be banned.

This blog post might cause you to think about those words in a different way.

First, what sort of words am I talking about? Some are used to fill up silence with sound, but don’t mean anything. Some occur at the beginning of sentences, others at the end. Some convey a meaning, but either the meaning is stupid, or the word’s trend has run its course. In the following sentences, the hated word is italicized:

I was actually so mad I could spit.

Anyways, that’s what I heard.

Anywhoo, I figured I’d head out to the park.

Duh.

Then I go “what?” and she goes “you heard me.”

Honestly [or To be honest], he was really mean to me.

Like, my math teacher is crazy.

When I said that, his head literally exploded.

Meh.

I know, right?

Say, are you doing okay?

See [or You see], it was like this…

So what are you doing today?

That was totally the best.

Then the, uh [or um or er], transmission thing failed and I had to pull over.

Well, I don’t know about that at all.

It was, you know, the funniest thing I ever heard.

Some of these may not bother you at all. Others may drive you toward causing great bodily harm. (My current pet peeve is starting sentences with ‘So.’) Each of us has different reactions to these words.

How is my blog post going to make you love these words? Simple. If you’re a writer of fiction, you need to understand that people really say (or used to say) these words and phrases in conversation.

For you, the words can serve several purposes. They can:

  1. Help distinguish one character’s speech mode from another—very helpful to a reader confronted with a long string of dialogue;
  2. Lend realism to your dialogue;
  3. Establish the historical timeframe of your story;
  4. Emphasize an age difference between characters, as when an older character uses “Well,” and the younger character uses “Like;” and
  5. Increase the hatred you (and possibly some readers) feel toward your story’s antagonist.

Let the debate rage here and there on the Internet about which is the worst word on the planet. You can even leave me a comment about your own personal, hated-word list. But you have to admit, those hated words can be useful to you.

So you’re actually starting to look at those, um, hated words in a different way, right? You’re starting to love them, aren’t you, as much as—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 11, 2015Permalink

Vote for Your Favorite Story of 2014

Happy New Year! That must mean it’s time for the Critters Writers Workshop to conduct their Preditors and Editors Poll (the 17th annual one this time) to see which newly published e-book readers prefer.

critters_headerYou can vote for your favorite book in a wide variety of categories. It’s not really a scientific poll, but winning it (or landing in the top ten) gives each author some bragging rights.

TheCometeers72dpi Someone has entered two of my own stories in the poll. “The Cometeers” is in the Steampunk Short Story category and is currently running 2nd out of 6 in the poll. Also, “Time’s Deformèd Hand” is in the All Other Short Story category and is currently running 3rd out of 22 in the poll.TimesDeformedHand72dpi  The links in this paragraph and the story cover images take you straight to the correct poll category to vote.

If you wish, you could vote for my stories. All you do is click the button beside your favorite story’s title (for example, “The Cometeers” and “Time’s Deformèd Hand”), then scroll to the bottom, enter your e-mail address, and type an author’s name from a book cover image to prove you’re not a spam robot. Then you’ll get an e-mail to confirm your vote; just click the link in the email and you’re done. Please vote before January 14, when they close the polling.

Once again, our good ol’ Earth has reached the beginning of its orbit and started another elliptical swing around the Sun. That’s worth celebrating! The astronomers and calendar manufacturers have declared we get to start a new year, so that’s not a bad deal. Happy 2015, everyone, from—

Poseidon’s Scribe

January 4, 2015Permalink

Fiction Market Ratings

If you’ve just finished writing a short story and would like to get it published, the array of available markets can be confusing. I’ve blogged before about some websites with valuable information about markets and also about how you can prioritize a list of markets for your story. Today, I thought I’d delve into how the markets are divided up according to rates of pay.

The short story market is chaotic. Although there are several long-lived publication markets, there are many that are born each year, and many others (particularly during downturns in readership) that die off.

At any given time, though, there is a spectrum of markets running from those who charge readers a great deal, pay authors well, and publish high quality fiction; all the way to those who charge readers nothing, pay writers nothing, and publish fiction of variable quality. It’s that spectrum that the rating system is trying to map.

Just to make things confusing, there are various rating systems. Most have Pro (or Professional) at the top, followed by Semi-Pro, then Token, then Non-Paying (or For-the-Love).

Fiction Market RatesAs you can see from my chart, FictionFactor sets their Pro category at 3 cents per word and their Semi-Pro starting at 1 cent per word. However, their term for markets paying between 0 and 1 cent per word is Low. They use the term Token for markets paying a flat rate between $5 and $15 per story.

Both The Grinder and Duotrope set their Pro category starting at 5¢/word.

Ralan uses 6¢/word as the lower bound of Pro markets. Ralan also includes a Pay category between Semi-Pro and Token.

Confused? I don’t blame you. You might be asking why such ratings matter, either to a writer or to any of the markets. One reason is that some professional societies, like Science Fiction Writers of America and the Horror Writers Association use market ratings to determine some membership categories. That is, you need to have published some number of stories in Pro markets to qualify for certain membership types.

Romance Writers of America categorizes some of their membership groupings by the amount of advances or royalties from a single work, not by the market rating.

A more important reason why you might care about these market rating systems is that they serve as a gauge for you to rate your own development and advancement as a writer.

Think of Non-Paying, Token, and Semi-Pro as being analogous to the minor league in baseball. Many players in that league would like to get to the majors, though some might be content where they are. The fans don’t see quite the same level of play as they would in a major league stadium, but they don’t pay as much either. Also, the fans get a chance to see players at an early stage who may very well make it to the major leagues.

Unlike the baseball analogy, though, I advocate first aiming for the top with every story. Keep sending to Pro markets until you get sick of the rejections. Only then aim at the Semi-Pros, and on down the list. Whether you get to Token or Non-Paying markets depends on how badly you want that particular story to be published. You might decide to shelve it rather than accept a lower payment.

There are some who contend that any markets not paying Pro rates (especially Non-Paying markets) are “ripping off” writers. I disagree. It’s good to have a spectrum of markets available, especially for beginning writers who want to get in print and are satisfied with a lower rate of payment while they hone their craft.

Once again, there’s another aspect of the world’s confusion and chaos cleared up for you by—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 28, 2014Permalink

Conflict, the Necessary Evil

Ever notice how fiction seems full of conflict? Characters hate each other, fight each other, struggle with problems, strive to survive, etc. Why can’t they just get along together and have nice, trouble-free lives? After all, that’s what we real people want for ourselves, right?

Necessity

You may go ahead and write stories where nothing bad happens, where characters are always kind and thrive in a stress-free environment.

Just one little problem with that notion…no one is going to read those stories. They’d be boring! There is no reason to care about such characters. Their outcome is not in doubt.

ConflictConflict is, therefore, an essential aspect of all fiction. Conflict drives the plot and creates interest in the characters. Since all fiction is about the human condition, and since conflict is inherent in the human condition, your stories had better include some type of conflict.

You might be objecting as you think about great stories you’ve read that didn’t involve any guns, bombs, swords, spears, knifes, or fistfights. Ah, but think deeper about those stories. Did characters disagree verbally? Did a character struggle to survive against Nature’s fury? Was a character conflicted internally?

Conflict comes in various kinds and need not involve violence at all. At its essence, conflict is two forces in opposition to each other. That’s it.

Types

What are the types or categories of conflict? Here’s my classification schema:

  • External
    • Character vs. Character
    • Character vs. Nature
    • Character vs. Society
  • Internal
    • Character vs. Self

Some people add other external conflict types such as Character vs. Technology, Supernatural forces, Fate, or others. To me, those are all included in the basic four types.

How many types of conflict should you include within a single story? Unless it’s flash fiction, I recommend at least two, with one of them being an internal conflict. We live in a psychological age, and readers want to see characters with some depth, some internal struggles, some flaws. Readers don’t even want antagonists to be pure evil; there needs to be some explanation how they turned so bad.

Resolution

I’ve blogged before about the need to ramp up the level of conflict in your story, but what about the resolution of the conflict at the end?

Although I personally enjoy stories where protagonists overcome their adversity through wit, cunning, and intelligence, it need not be that way. Not all conflicts need to be completely resolved at the end. Or the resolution of one major conflict may spark the start of another. Really, the struggle during the bulk of the story is more important than the resolution.

In fact, the protagonist may lose the struggle, as in Jack London’s famous short story, “To Build a Fire.”  That story illustrates that fiction really is about characters contending with difficulties, not necessarily overcoming them in the end. It truly is about the journey, not the destination.

Resources and Summary

There really are some nice blog posts about conflict out there, including this, this, this, this, and this.

Those are my opinions about conflict. You might disagree, and that disagreement itself would represent a type of conflict between you and—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 21, 2014Permalink

A Tight Plot

“Tight plotting” is the term I use where everything is necessary to the plot and the story moves along without tangents or superfluous references. I didn’t invent the term, but it’s not yet in widespread use.

First let’s examine the opposite—loose plotting—and we’ll be able to make the contrast. Loose plotting is more common in novels than in short stories, and somewhat common in movies. Why? In a novel there’s an expectation of length, and a tendency for the writer to get a related idea and decide to stick it in the manuscript, even if it has to be force-fit. The creation process for movies is more collaborative than that of books, and with many cooks there’s a tendency to lose focus and spoil the broth.

Airplane!To illustrate, consider two movies, both rather silly comedies. To me, the movie Airplane! (1980) is an example of loose plotting. It’s filled with funny little gags that bear little relation to the main plot and don’t advance the story. The movie may be funny, and it was a financial success, but it is not an example of tight plotting.

By contrast, the movie Galaxy Quest (1999) has a far tighter plot. There are humorous gags and lines, and some subplots, but nearly all the action and dialogue moves the plot along.

Galaxy_Quest_posterOne can argue which movie is funnier, and audiences might be more forgiving with comedies if the jokes are comical enough. But it seems to me that Galaxy Quest has the more focused, the more integral, of the two movies’ plots.

In written fiction such as short stories, novellas, or novels, I believe it’s important to keep the plot tight. Resist the temptation to “work in” what seems to be a great, though tangentially related, idea. Keep asking yourself if each scene, each character, each paragraph and sentence, advance your plot in some important way to keep the story moving. It’s okay to have subplots, but make them related to and supportive of your main plot, and don’t linger too long on any one subplot.

The editing process is where you’ll have the best chance to tighten your plot. You have to be brutal in cutting out unnecessary parts and words. As we say in the biz, you have to “kill your darlings.” Loose plotting is indicative of lazy editing.

Don’t think your readers can’t recognize loose plotting. Once they start your story and latch on to the main plot, they want to follow it to see what happens. They’ll detect any deviation from that plot. At first they’ll wonder how this new path is connected to the main plot. They may forgive an occasional tangent if it’s short. But with each digression you run the risk of boring the reader. A bored reader probably won’t finish your story, and definitely will not read your other stories.

For more information on tight plotting, and overall tight writing, see this great blog post by Margot Finke.

If there’s one writer who really strives to keep his plots tight, it’s—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 14, 2014Permalink