Guest Post: How Science Fiction and Fantasy Have Changed Over the Years

I'd like to welcome author Scott Seldon to the blog today to share his thoughts about a topic I've begun to investigate. It's good to share ideas and the thoughts of others and I hope to be able to add to them when I relay my own findings in the future. This is a starting point and I'm grateful to Scott for kicking it off. Please share your own thoughts in the comments.
 
What we think of as genre fiction didn't really exist a century ago. Jules Verne did not write science fiction, he wrote fantastical adventures based on his knowledge of science and where it could lead. H.G. Wells projected his hopes and fears of the future, again based on science. Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote romances (then the term did not mean what it means today; it referred to stories like Le Morte D'Arthur and Ivanhoe) set on other worlds. Today we consider all three and their works to be the foundations of science fiction. Their stories stand the test of time, but they are nothing like what we see modern writers producing.

You just have to look at the changes in our world to understand some of the changes to science fiction. In 1915, WWI raged in Europe. Einstein was a German. His Theory of Relativity had yet to be proven and was only ten years old. Atomic energy and weapons had not been dreamed of yet. Airplanes and automobiles existed, but were not much more than toys of the rich, though there already was an electric car. Spaceflight was a dream and Goddard hadn't even conducted his experiments yet.

Language has also changed, as has education. Latin was nearly always included as were the classics. It was to this world that science fiction and fantasy were born. Science fiction pushed into the future and to the other planets then known. They were swashbuckling adventures and their science was questionable by today's standards, but they let their imagination fly. Isaac Asimov was born in 1920 and grew up on the short stories produced in that period. C. L. Moore set out to write westerns, but ended up writing science fiction and fantasy. The stories for both genres bore some similarities because they still relied on the romance model. The difference was they were stories set in the future in space or in the past. Nearly all of the authors that would become well-known icons of science fiction and fantasy were growing up or starting their first works. J. R. R. Tolkien was about to begin his construction of Middle Earth as he manned the trenches.

But a century ago, none of this had happened yet and what we think of as a complex genre had yet to really be born. People did write what we today consider to be genre works, but the genre had yet to even be born. Typically the founding of science fiction as a genre dates to 1926 with the publishing of Amazing Stories.

Let's jump forward 50 years to 1965. Science fiction was in what I think of as a golden age. The greats were publishing stories and new writers constantly sprang up. Isaac Asimov had retired from fiction while Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein were going strong. The Lord of the Rings was complete and the seminal work of fantasy. The space age was on. Satellites orbited our planet and astronauts and cosmonauts had been in space. Science fiction graced our TV and movie screens. In fact, 50 years ago as I write this, both Lost In Space and Star Trek were in the works and Doctor Who had been on the air for well over a year. 2001 was still a few years away as was the Apollo program.

Gone were the Romances in space that filled the early years. Monsters, aliens, strange worlds, amazing sights, and incredible encounters filled the pages (and screens). Writers looked to the future, hopeful that we would soon be doing these things. Stories were set 20-40 years in the future with incredible ideas of where we could be. Some dreamed further and created the civilization they hoped we would develop into. Science fiction roamed the universe, peeing into every corner and finding amazing things. I would use one word to describe the tone of most fiction from this period - hope.

Language has changed. Latin was not yet gone but the classics were being studied less and less. Instead there were new topics to cover in schools. Science abounded with new discoveries. Medical, chemistry, and physics textbooks were filled with new things that previous generations had been forced to learn the hard way. We spoke in a more direct manner and the writing reflects that. Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and the others used simple and clear language.

Some things in life had just begun to change. The Civil Rights Act had only been passed the previous year. No one had heard of LGBT and marriage equality referred to interracial marriage. Gene Roddenberry was forced to cede his female second in command and had to fight to keep the alien character. Uhura had yet to be cast and he had to fight for that. What we see today as a token African American and Asian American on the Enterprise bridge were hard won fights for diversity.

Which brings me to today. I feel that science fiction has lost that hope. 50 years on and the space program is routine. We have not even started a lunar colony or sent a manned mission to Mars. We are 15 years past 2001 and we have done none of these things that movies and novels projected. Science has come down hard on some of the old tropes such as FTL, time travel, anti-gravity, teleporters, and the like. Consequently, you don't see these those things as much any more, though Star Trek and Doctor Who refuse to give them up. Instead of professional scientists churning out the likes of Foundation, Caves of Steel, 2001, and many others, they stick to the facts, what could be real. Hard science fiction is no longer just for scientists, but it is braked by what the scientists deem possible. Our dreams of the future have gotten closer to home and are less fantastic.

Fantasy, on the other hand, is having its own golden age. The publication of some very epic tales by Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin are truly incredible in scope. Terry Brooks and Stephen R. Donaldson have given us some great dark evil in their stories and given their heroes the talents to overcome. The likes of Sam Sykes and Mark Lawrence are currently showing us how dark the world can be. The adventure continues in the pages of the many fantasy writers out there as they explore ever more interesting worlds.

Tolkien still inspires. His language, as fitting a professor of linguistics, is an art of its own and that pushes fantasy writers to make good use of language. His world building set the bar high and few truly come up to his level, but not for want of trying. That isn't to say that it is in any way out of reach of readers, but I have noticed writers spend a few more words to help paint the picture.

Science fiction is producing some truly great works as well, but the tone is different. The sense of the incredible that was there a century ago and the sense of hope from 50 years ago has been replaced with exploring society. Science has cut off many from exploring the limits of theory, but they make good use of practical science and weave incredible tales. There is no lack of story telling skills.


Scott writes science fiction and prefers that idea of hope found in mid-20th century science fiction. He is currently writing about a space trader in the far future and looking for interesting ideas for his next novel. He is a big fan of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Jack McDevitt.

You can find him at his blog and on Smashwords.

Guest Post: The Story Behind My First Story #2

I'm still out on blogging break, but I do have a guest post for you today. Please welcome back Margaret Fortune. (You can read her previous guest posts on friendship here and landing a literary agent here.)

The very first stories I ever wrote were for elementary school. They would give us these worksheets that contained a picture, along with five lines to write a story about it. I would use all five lines and then start writing up the margins. The adults were always terribly impressed. (Well, you know how easily impressed adults are!) No doubt one of these was my actual first story. However, the first story I remember writing was “The Numbers’ Birthday Party.”

This story was different. I didn’t have a worksheet; I didn’t have a drawing. I just sat down at home one day and wrote it. It was a simple tale, about a little number called 0 who was sad because all the numbers were invited to 10’s birthday party except him. I was in first grade at the time, and I had no idea the kind of stir it would create.

Before I knew it, news of my story spread around the entire school. Not only did the school newspaper do a write up about it, but I had to go to the vice-principal’s office and read it to her. What’s more, my teacher made dittos of it and handed it out to the entire class. (Dittos are those frightening purple-ink copies, for anyone not old enough to have encountered one.) I remember sitting on a stool at the front of my class reading the story aloud while the whole class followed along. In a word, the whole thing was: Terrifying! Let’s just say I wasn’t cut out for the life of a famous author at that time.

While I continued to write stories for school assignments, it wasn’t until a slow semester at college that I really started writing short stories on my own again. It was then I rediscovered how much I loved to write, and have been writing ever since. However, I have yet to encounter the same attention as an adult that I did as a child. Perhaps that’s for the best; I wouldn’t want to put my writing career on hold for yet another twenty years while I got over all the fuss!

On an interesting side note, my original title for the story was “0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10.”  Pure literary genius, I know! However, the teacher apparently didn’t see it that way, as she changed it to “The Numbers’ Birthday Party.” Even in first grade, the “publisher” still changed my title. Well, that’s the publishing world for you! I guess some things never change.

Margaret's Bio:

I’m from Wisconsin, home of the six-month winter. With five foot snow banks and temperatures that could generously be termed as “frigid” for half the year, it is, needless to say, a good place to curl up on the couch and write. I have short stories published in magazines such as Nth Zine and Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine, and am currently being represented by Lindsay Ribar of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. I also write customer service emails for a living, so who knows! If you’ve ever gotten a customer service email back from someone named Margaret…maybe that was me!


Thank you, Margaret. I'd love to read that story sometime *hint, hint*.

For readers: Do you have an anecdote or strong memory of trying to write your first story? I'd love to feature you on the blog. Contact me (see the sidebar) or share in the comments.

Guest Post: To Do's and To Don'ts about Networking

Please welcome Dean C. Rich back to the blog today. He's come to share some thoughts on social networking and how following some simple guidelines can make the experience more enjoyable not only for yourself but others.

Writing is oxymoronic. It is an art and yet a business. An author writes alone, but has to work with others. The writer's subjects are what inspire him/her, yet the material must interest others.

Today I want to focus on the part of solitude while playing well with others.

The internet and social media allows writers to sit alone and literally have the world at their fingertips. Thus the world has shrunk. Gone are the days of anonymity. While writing is still somewhat a solitary venture, the writer still needs to connect with others if his or her words are to be read.

Connecting with others is networking. The word networking has taken on so much negative connotation. It almost seems selfish to connect with others to promote yourself. At least, that is what many take networking to mean. That may be true too. If so, that is one of the things not to do.

To Don'ts:

1- Don't Have an Alter Ego:
Folks think that being on line they are invisible. The "handle" or pseudonym gives a false impression of invisibility, or anonymity. Thus with the idea of no one knows who I am, gives them license to write whatever they want, because their identities are hidden. Understand this: no one is anonymous online.

2 - Don't be a Know-It-All:
I stumbled into Agent Query Connect. In the time I've been there I've seen folks show up thinking they had all the answers. These people spurned advice from members who offered some very sage advice, and these members knew what they were talking about. After awhile, no one would offer the newbie any advice.

3 - Don't Take on More than You Can Handle:
I enjoy the interactions I've had with my online friends. I want to help them, and I want to participate. However, to use an overused cliché, I bit off more than I could chew. I committed to doing things and then didn't deliver. I may have damaged some relationships because of that. I had good intentions, but being overwhelmed and not delivering didn't help the people I was trying to help. It also tarnished my reputation. I hope to make things right, but with relationships there are no guarantees.

4- Don't Lie:
This may seem obvious, but when sharing work with each other the idea to not hurt feelings may be very tempting. That is not helpful. Do not tell someone that their work is great when it is not.

5- Don't be Brutally Honest:
On the flip side, do not blatantly tell someone that their work sucks.

To Do's:
Be Willing to Share:
1- One of the first things I learned as I began networking online is this: If you want help, you must be willing to help. Everyone is busy. Beta reading - you read their work, they read yours. Critique partner? You help with theirs, they help with yours. So be willing to help others and you can get the help you want.

2 - Leave comments on people's blogs:
To network, your name has to be out there. To get your name out there, you have to be out there. Read blogs that interest you and if you like something, say so. To network you can not be shy.

3 - Find multiple outlets:
Blogging is great. Blogging circles are great. Add Twitter, find things on Google +, LinkedIn, and other online communities. I personally have found Agent Query Connect to be a fantastic place to get answers on writing, and the people I've met there are super fantastic.

4 - Learn the etiquette of each site you join:
Twitter has etiquette expectations, depending on the circles the account is in. Writers have a #WW which means Writer's Wednesday where you list the @ of the writers you follow. #FF is Follow Friday where you list those you follow who you like. When someone follows you, you should follow back.

Facebook is another way. Build an author page. I've chosen to use Facebook for my personal things and Twitter for my writing interests. Google + allows me to build circles.

A forum has its own set of rules. Read the FAQ and read posts and responses to learn what is and isn't acceptable.

4- Have fun:
If you are not enjoying things, you may want to rethink what you are doing. Having fun and enjoying the interaction makes it real. Just because there is a name and a picture on a computer screen, there is a real person on the other end.

5- Give back:
As you learn and grow, be willing to share what you've learned with those who follow.

6- Always be polite:
I think that says it all. There are feelings, hopes, and fears. We all have them. The golden rule works very well with all of this. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Networking on the internet is about like networking in the real world. You are dealing with real people. What is neat about the internet is you can make friends all over the world. I've had a guest post on a blog whose author is in Africa. I've exchanged ideas with someone from England. I've been in chat rooms with folks from the east and west coasts and Canada. It has been a lot of fun getting to know these people and I am excited when someone I've made friends with gets a book published, or gets an agent, or completes a first draft. It's all good.

Thanks, Joyce, for having me over.

Thank you, Dean. Great thoughts. If anyone would like to add to Dean's list please do so in the comments.

More on Dean:
Twitter
The Write Time (his blog)
Agent Query Connect

Guest Post: Sunset on the Perimeter: Being a Brief Reminisce on Early Influences

And now, another episode from the imagination and background of author/artist Aaron Bradford Starr:

It was evening in the closing days of summer and I was being hosted by my good friend, Joyce Alton. She and I were launching sentry dirigibles over the mangroves that surround her family's secret estate and watching as the inflated shapes rose high enough to catch the last orange light of the day.

"And that," I was saying, "was how my first story came about."

"But," she protested, "surely you wrote something before?"

"No, no," I answered her, clipping stiff fabric above the gas jets and giving them a loud burst of flame. The final dirigible fluffed out, slowly filling with hot air thus created. "The first time I realized I might want to be a writer was in fifth grade, but it wasn't until sixth grade that my main influences were introduced to me."

Sitting on one of the upholstered chairs scattered about the security deck, I stretched out my feet and considered the fading light as crocodiles rumbled in the darkening swamps all around. The dirigible continued to fill on its own.

"My brother, David," I said at last, "is very close in age to me, but somewhat different in temperament. I would put him into a class far more ready to step off into new territory than I. He was always introducing me to the very newest music and literature."

"Disco?" Joyce asked, with a smile.

I laughed at the thought. "No, we were too young for disco," I said with a wistful sigh. "This was the eighties already, and metal was all the rage among the youth of the day. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, surely you remember these musicians?"

"Why, Bruce Dickenson and I used to play soccer in my London days," Joyce replied.

"Really?" I asked, startled.

"Perhaps not."

Puzzled and intrigued, I continued, "Well, it was not long before David had brought home daring new literary efforts by the rising stars of the day. Chalker, Anthony, and Donaldson were the main authors I remembered from that time. He was always reading something. I, as a youth, had eschewed reading, for the most part, save for comic strips and the occasional Dr. Seuss."

"Ah!" Joyce exclaimed. "I used to play whist with the good Doctor!"

"You did?" I exclaimed, startled anew.

"Not exactly," she responded, sighing. Brightening at once, she stood and worked the brass lever that released the last of the dirigibles into the sky. "So he was bringing home fiction for adults, was he?"

I nodded. "It took awhile for me to actually start reading one. I remember that the cover painting for The Source of Magic caught my eye, but I didn't read it for some time. The first book of adult SF or fantasy I remember reading was Quest for the Well of Souls by jack Chalker. It was book three of five, so I didn't understand a lot of the backstory, but the adventurous nature of it hooked me at once."

"And the sex might not have hurt, either," Joyce added, her eyes twinkling.

"Certainly not," I answered, "though I haven't emulated that in my own writing."

"Chaste as fallen snow, if I hear correctly," Joyce said, opening the hummingbird shelters and whirling the bird call over her head, silently summoning the tiny creatures from their daily rounds.

"As plowed snow, perhaps," I allowed. "But beyond the stories, I also found David and I talking about the books we were reading. He'd read one and then give it to me and we'd talk about them. Reading, he showed me, could be a very social thing, not simply lonely page-turning in some dim corner. Soon the entire family was at it."

"Cuts into dinnertime conversation, I imagine," Joyce replied.

"Entirely, some nights. I remember entire meals with all of us reading books one, two, and three of our latest series, and everyone waiting for the others to finish so we could all talk about characters and such."

"And reading habits are writing habits," Joyce said with a nod. Hummingbirds flitted near enough to whirr against her hair as they arrived at their cages. "I can see how this is an important writing influence."

"Yes," I nodded, musing. "Not only was I reading the sort of thing I would like to one day write, but was surrounded by like-minded people within my very own family. This was an important development. Who knows how many more years might have elapsed before I found these authors, if David hadn't brought them home from his many voyages overseas? I might have gone in quite another direction."

Joyce nodded, clipping the last of the bird cages shut. "Just so," she said.

Satisfied the night's perimeter was in good order, she suggested we retire to the billiard room, where fine brandy and cigars were waiting, and I thought that sounded splendid.

For more from Mr. Starr, see his previous post: What Justifies a Larger Word Count in Speculative Fiction. And What Doesn't.

Aaron can also be found at his blog, Imaginary Friend, or roaming the corridors of Agent Query Connect.

How I Outline, Guest Post #4: NCB

The purpose of this series is to debunk some of the mystery, myth, and frustration behind the concept of outlining. No two people outline the same way and there is no one right method to outlining.
Please extend a welcome to NCB, a fellow AQCer and writer, to the blog today. Here's his thoughts on outlining:

On Outlining and Planning

My process of outlining takes place mostly in two distinct "waves." The first comes before I write a word of the novel. I'll know how I'm going to begin the book (typically around the first 10k-15k words) and I'll know some specific details of the ending stretch (again, roughly 10k-15k words), but I'll have only a vague sense of what's going to go on in the middle. When I do get to the middle section, I'll start free writing, but I can't help myself from planning where the story will go three to four chapters down the road.

During this unplanned middle, a lot of unexpected things happen. I'm not going to lie; some of these unexpected things are terrible beyond words. I've lost days of writing either trying to find something for a character to do or trying to kill them off, only to realize by draft's end that the character never really belonged in the book in the first place. but even if I end up with five terrible parts f the first draft, if the brief "free write" process gets me two or three wonderful scenes or story arcs, the free writing part has done its job. Regardless of how much planning I may do, the act of actually writing always brings out the most creativity for me.

After completing the first draft and setting it aside for a month or two, I go through the book chapter by chapter and make notes on what specifically is happening in the first draft, and what needs to happen in subsequent drafts. Then comes a detailed, complete outline for the second draft. This is the point where useless characters are chopped or combined, fuzzy details are made more specific, and pacing issues are addressed. Briefly summarizing each chapter after finishing the second draft is an easy way of noticing glaring pacing flaws, such as "I have 15 chapters in a row that are more 'low key,' followed by 15 chapters that never let up."

During this second draft outline, most supporting characters undergo a severe overhaul. It's difficult for me to get a feel for a character (especially a minor one) before I've written about them, which causes my first drafts to have plenty of flat characters with thin personalities and unclear motivations. After making it through the first draft, it's significantly easier to see the characters in a more complete way, and that's where the fun quirks and pet peeves come out for me.

After these two main "waves," pretty much all of the major planning is done. If something else comes out that wasn't expected in the second draft, and it requires more than a few extra paragraphs to set up, I'll plan out the scenes necessary for it before starting draft three. By this point I know the ins and outs of my story like the back of my  hand though, so further explicit planning isn't necessary.

Great process, NCB. Thank you for sharing with us.

For more posts on outlining see:
Outlining: The Simple Version
Jumping the Tracks
How I Outline, Guest Post #1: Darke Conteur
How I Outline, Guest Post #2: Derrick Camardo
How I Outline, Guest Post #3: Ian Isaro

If you would like to share your method or reason for outlining in a guest blogpost, send an email to joycealton at ymail.com

 

How I Outline, Guest Post #3: Ian Isaro

The purpose of this series is to debunk some of the mystery, myth, and frustration behind the concept of outlining. No two people outline the same way and there is no one right method to outlining.

Welcome back to Ian Isaro, author of the Sorcery and Scholarships series and fellow AQCer. Here is Ian's method to outlining in his own words:

I'm pretty far on the outliner side of the continuum. I think of my process as having two outlines, but now that I consider it there's actually more stages than that.

Books gradually coalesce out of my general creative process. This step shouldn't be ignored, because I rarely write anything down until I have quite a few ideas. When I feel like I have most of the book more or less clear I put things down in categories, which quickly reveals what I'm lacking. Maybe there's no balance in my POV characters, maybe I just have plot ideas and not enough substance, or maybe I've neglected someone's personal arc.

Once I have what feels like a balanced set of ideas, I lay out the plot. Sometimes there's a series of events that go in an obvious sequence, which forms a narrative spine. Otherwise, I only have a plot in stages. A generic example: mystery is introduced, characters investigate based on wrong assumption, pivotal scene gets them on the right track, major plot twist, climax, ending.

I'd then place all my ideas in one of those six segments. Most ideas are obviously attached to one, so the plot of the story becomes clear. Some could go anywhere: say the villain has an interesting subordinate, and I decide to put the first conflict with him in the investigation section because that part isn't as exciting. Others are like subplots: if characters have a book-long conflict, I'll put notes to start it in the first segment, then have follow-up scenes where talking would be appropriate.

Things tend to lump together during this stage. Maybe an action sequence lacks emotional weight, so one character's personal crisis should happen at the same time. Maybe I realize that one character disappears for a while, so I give a subplot to him/her so it can happen simultaneously instead of two events back to back. That kind of thing.

Once I finish the outline, I usually have a vision of the whole story in my head. In a sense it's "written" for me; I might not know some of the details, but the plot is clear and I have some scenes thought out almost word for word. Typically the outline is more detailed at the beginning of the plot and grows less so toward the end. I start writing and do a second outline for upcoming segments as I decide how to do things.

Unless I've made a large mistake, I only stretch/compress things while writing. Maybe the way I write, it's obvious the characters would realize their false assumption early and that part has to speed up. Sometimes a character or element doesn't fit in a scene and I place it somewhere later. But other than these things, I basically write straight through to the end.

For series that I can't write all at once, there are a few additional outlining issues. I have a grand series outline that covers what broad issues each book will address as well as major character arcs and developments. Until books are written, elements can shuffle around like they do in the plot of any given book.

Once I've written one, however, I consider it "canon" and build other outlines from there. If I foreshadow something, I make sure I have a clear idea what exactly I intend (and that subplot chain throughout all the future books solidifies). I also keep a list of promises made to the reader and which pieces of worldbuilding I've referenced to influence what new elements I should introduce in the future.

With The Dying War, I have the additional complication of too many side characters for any one given book. I try to have each book choose a few characters as strongly secondary and I note this so that no one disappears for several books at a time. Ideally that coincides with a reason for the character to be absent, but I could improve on character management overall. This is one of the areas where my series-long outlines are lacking, because it's difficult to know which secondary characters will become strongest in the writing.

I have an additional piece of advice for series writers: watch the complexity. In my series, I didn't want any major force to seem thrown in at random or invented just for a later book, but because of that I went overboard with foreshadowing. The first novel needs to be a strong hook, fulfilling enough of its promises that readers want to continue. Every reader's opinion on this will vary, but in general be careful not to overshoot. Things that look neatly intricate in outline will appear messier in the reading.

Thank you, Ian. You've made some excellent points.

For more posts on outlining see:
Outlining: The Simple Version
Jumping the Tracks
How I Outline, Guest Post #1: Darke Conteur
How I Outline, Guest Post #2: Derrick Camardo

If you would like to share your method or reason for outlining in a guest blogpost, send an email to joycealton at ymail.com

How I Outline, Guest Post #2: Derrick Camardo

The purpose of this series is to debunk some of the mystery, myth, and frustration behind the concept of outlining. No two people outline the same way and there is no one right method to outlining.

I want to welcome fellow AQCer and writer, Derrick Camardo to Yesternight's Voyage today. Here's his outlining process:

The Premise

I start with a premise. I have a dozen of these bouncing around in my head at one time. Some are inspired by dreams. Some are brainstormed. Some just pop up in the old cranium. Most of these ideas have no characters or setting or anything that actually make up a cohesive story.

This means I have to do a lot of outlining to even get to a stage where I can begin writing. So I start asking myself these questions:

What kind of person would make this premise happen? What do they want?

How does this premise happen?

Depending on the idea I'm developing, questions may vary, but these are the basics.

The Heart

Once these questions are answered, I outline what I call the "heart" of the story. I've heard other authors refer to the heart of their story as something different than what I call it. So let me explain this. To me, the heart of the story is the epitome of the premise. It is the utter essence of what this idea that had been bouncing around in my head is all about. If I told people what my book was about in one sentence, and they flipped to the heart of my book they should say, "Yep. That's about what I would expect."

The heart could be a scene or a series of scenes. It does not have to be the climax. The heart is formed from the raw premise and the questions of the who, how, and where.

The next two questions form the rest of a vague outline:

What leads to the heart?

Where does the heart lead?

In those two questions, supporting characters, villains, and events are formed. But events can be vague. There are plenty of times where I come to an event that just says, "The good guy wins." So at that moment I have to use what I've written up to that point and how I want to end the book as guides to how the event plays out in detail.

The Voice

After this vague outline forms itself around the heart, I write the first few pages. This is to get the voice. I have found it very difficult to edit in a better voice after an entire manuscript is written. Nowadays, I write the first few pages and bounce that off my critique partners/beta readers just to see if the voice works.

When I get the green light that the voice is working, I write through what is outlined. As I write through the early scenes, I start to make the vague scenes that happen later more and more detailed.

The Hook

Once I have about 5,000 words written with a clear enough outline and an established voice, I write the hook. That's right. The hook as in the hook. Of the query. Which will eventually be sent to agents. After my first two manuscripts, which I really wrote for me, I told myself I wouldn't write a book I couldn't sell easily.

The Timeline

An important thing to address while outlining is timeline. This is especially important while writing contemporary fiction. In fantasy, a lot of times people just leave their old life behind to go on an adventure. With contemporary, that usually isn't the case. People have jobs. They go to school. They have special clubs they belong to.

I initially don't worry about the timeline when I first start writing, but then as I flesh out more of the details, days of the week become important. I will then go back and figure out what chapters happened on what days. Tweaking might be necessary.

For instance, I have a character who attends chess club one day out of the week. When I realized this, I was maybe 16 chapters in. So I had to go back and find what day of the week he was least visible. I picked the least frequented day. Then, wrote him out of the ones he happened to be in, or changed the day, which changed the timeline.

In two of my manuscripts, I had specific events occuring on specific days of the year. In one case, I had the outline detailed enough to write to that end as I went along. In another case, I have the following written in my outline: "At this point, go back and write in the weather." Because I don't know how long it will take me to get to that specific day, I'm instead letting that happen organically and once I get there, I will follow the timeline backwards to figure out what the seasons were during previous chapters.

Thank you, Derrick! You can find out more about him on his website or follow him on Twitter.

For more posts on outlining see:
Outlining: The Simple Version
Jumping the Tracks
How I Outline, Guest Post #1: Darke Conteur

If you would like to share your method or reasons for outlining in a guest blogpost, send an email to joycealton at ymail.com

Guest Post: When Longer Books Work

I'd like to welcome another Speculative Fiction Group member to Yesternight's Voyage today.

Robert Courtland writes epic fantasy tales from his home in Colorado at the foot of the majestic Rocky Mountains. His main goal in writing is to bring something new to epic fantasy. In his first novel, Counterpoint to Chaos, he created an Asian inspired setting and inserted a young woman from Pakistan as the heroine. Look for Counterpoint to Chaos at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords. Visit Robert’s website for the latest updates on what he is writing.

To continue the question of word count from last week, here we go:

Fiction comes to us in many lengths, from the flash fiction stories that are barely a page to the great epic tales that play out over multiple books and millions of words. When done right, stories are enjoyable to read at any length. But the longer the story is the easier and more likely a writer will include things in the final draft that serve no purpose and often only end up boring the reader. The structure and content of a story is very much related to its length and a story won’t work if it is built on the wrong structure.

That brings me to the dark horse of most of the publishing world, novels with high word counts. How do these authors justify such lengthy stories? They exist in many genres, but only in speculative fiction are the longer lengths books truly the norm and there is a very good reason for that. To justify having a longer story, the story needs to be grander and unable to be told with fewer words. My examples are from epic fantasy, but they apply to any successful story in the neighborhood of 150,000 words or more.

One of the first things about speculative fiction is a broad and varied world to set the story in. J.R.R. Tolkien spent years creating the world of Middle Earth from tidbits of Finish and English myths and legends and a good bit of his own imagination. He created parts of it in the trenches in WWI. Twenty years later he penned The Hobbit and then fifteen years after that he finished The Lord of the Rings. That is a bit extreme, but such thorough work meant Tolkien knew his world intimately. Writers of historical fiction do this same thing through research, but for speculative fiction writers, it requires far more imagination than research.

Another thing is a vast scope to the story. Kings and commoners, humans and elves (or aliens), good and evil, war and peace all work to add to the scope. On the surface, The Lord of the Rings is about the quest to destroy the One Ring, but doing so leads from Hobbiton to Rivendell and eventually to Mordor. It becomes a slight of hand where the battle for Minis Tirith and the attack on the gates of Mordor serve to distract the enemy from the real mission as two lone Hobbits journey into the heart of Mordor to the only place where the One Ring can be destroyed. This is not a story that can be told in fewer words. It is intricate and complex with little that could be trimmed without compromising the whole. The movie adaption really showed this in the difference between the theatrical version and the extended versions. The restored scenes add so much to the story.

Another hallmark is an intimacy with the characters. With such a length of story we spend more time with each of the characters and we get to know them even better. We journey with them through their trials and sometimes as they die. We become more emotionally invested. It serves to make these epic tales more real and personal. Carol Berg did this excellently in her debut Rai-Kirah trilogy as we follow one man, initially a slave, as he discovers his destiny. After three 170,000 word novels, he is like an old friend.

Probably the most extreme example of a truly epic tale has just come to a close with the publication of its final volume. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (posthumously completed by Brandon Sanderson) spans fourteen volumes and nearly 4.5 million words. It brings up a benefit to publishing long novels. That output in other genres would yield over forty separate books, but condensing it to just fourteen books that average 300,000 words, the author takes fewer publishing slots and the reader has to buy fewer books. It also leads to a more immersive experience.

It can all so easily go wrong. Fortunately, thanks to the publishers, we have rarely seen those blunders (though they may be more common as self-publishing takes off). A few make it to print, some by very esteemed writers, and they are a cautionary tale of how one or more of the things I’ve mentioned have gone wrong. Usually it is that the scope of the story fails or that too much extraneous material remains in the published edition.

 
The best way to avoid the pitfalls is to do what most writers do and that is read, and read a lot. Knowing your genre and what the premier writers in your genre do is the best class anyone could ask for. If you want to write epic fantasy, read J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Brooks, Stephen R. Donaldson, George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan, Melanie Rawn, Carol Berg, and Brandon Sanderson. If you want to write space opera, read Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clark, Frank Herbert, David Brin, and Jack McDevitt. After getting to know the masters, you will know how a new writer stacks up.

Guest Post: 10 Things Learned in 2012

I'd like to welcome Michelle Hauk to Yesternight's Voyage today. Michelle blogs at It's In the Details, is a fellow Speculative Fiction Group member, and a soon to be published author. You can follow her also on Twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads. She hosts a group on Goodreads devoted to discussing speculative fiction.

Her book, Kindar's Cure comes out in March of 2013.
"Princess Kindar of Anost dreams of playing the hero and succeeding to her mother's throne. But dreams are for fools. Reality involves two healthy sisters and a wasting disease of suffocating cough that's killing her by inches. When her elder sister is murdered, the blame falls on Kindar, putting her head on the chopping block.

"No one who survives eighteen years of choke lung lacks determination. A novice wizard, Maladonis Bin, approaches with a vision - a cure in a barren land of volcanic fumes. As choices go, a charming bootlicker that trips over his feet isn't the best option, but beggars can't be choosers. Kindar escapes with Mal and several longtime attendants only to have her eyes opened that her country faces dark times.

"Her mother's decision to close the prosperous mines spurs poverty and joblessness, inciting rebellion and opening Anost to foreign invasion. As Mal urges her toward a cure that will prove his visions, suddenly, an ally turns traitor, delivering Kindar to a rebel army, who have their own plans for a sickly princess.

"With the killer poised to strike again, the rebels bearing down, and the country falling apart, she must weigh her personal hunt for a cure against saving her people."

And now over to Michelle directly:

Being always slightly off my rocker, I volunteered to do a post for Joyce about ten things I learned in 2012. Ten things. Ten things. That will be easy, right? Eager to find a starting point, I looked back to last year, examined where I started it and where I ended it, and can honestly say they were not the same spot. Things did change for me. I became wiser--or maybe more experienced as a writer (definitely bolder.) Sometimes it was painful and sometimes embarrassing. I'll let some proverbs show what I learned.

Back in that faraway time of January 2012, I was querying my second manuscript, Kindar's Cure. (Strangely enough in this here and now time of January 2013, I'm querying my third manuscript, Dodge the Sun.)

10. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Is this old proverb true or false in regards to querying? After getting many, many, too many rejections over three different manuscripts, I can honestly say...querying is extremely painful.

Did it kill me?

No.

Did it make me stronger?

Eh. Maybe. Form rejections hurt as much the one hundredth time as the first time. I think I dwell on them less now. What I learned is not to let them stop me.

9. Rome wasn't built in a day. In regards to the publishing business, this one is absolutely true. Publishing moves like a snail with a hangover. To write Kindar and edit it took a year. (Nanowrite people are looking at me. What can I say? I'm slow.) From the start of the query process until I signed a contract to publish with a small press was ten months of near constant email checking and refreshing. Be patient. If you're looking for an agent or a publisher, expect to wait and wait and wait and...

8. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. What does this mean? After you send those queries, don't be sitting around pressing refresh on your email. Start a new project while you wait for responses. Then if nothing happens on your current manuscript, you'll be ready for more crushing thoughtful replies on another.

7. Fortune favors the brave. If someone is kind enough to hold a contest where you might be brought to the attention of agents, don't be afraid to enter just because the feedback is tough to bear. Just remember that contests are long shots and no substitute for putting in the work of researching agents to see which are the best matches for your work. After all, there are no quick fixes.

6. All that glitters is not gold.  Keep in mind that an offer, whether from an agent or publisher, is just the beginning. Some writers forget to look on down the road. There is more work to be done once you get an offer because now you have to build yourself as an author. If you don't believe me, then check out the promotional checklist on AQC. It's a killer.

Not only do you have to write and edit, but promote yourself and your book. It's not something that comes easily if you're a shy person. In the middle of 2012, a lot of my attention turned toward this perplexing riddle of how to draw attention to myself.

5. If you build it; they will come--eventually. I ramped up my efforts on blogging in the beginning of 2012. At first, I was writing to myself because I was the only one reading the dang thing. But gradually the followers built to where I'm not alone. Now, a lot of nice people actually leave me comments. I even have a dedicated following of spammers who leave me incomprehensible comments with links I'm afraid to click. (I highly recommend inviting real writerly guests to contribute to your blog until you're off the ground and adding pictures to your posts.)

And as for embarrassing moments as I promised above, think and rethink having giveaways on your blog. Make sure you can get people to enter so you won't be giving books to empty air.

4. If a tweet falls in the forest will anyone care? That should be a proverb, don't you think? I finally got up the nerve to join Twitter. I do not find it a great place for promotion. No matter how often someone shouts out about their book, I don't click their links. I expect many others don't either. They are all there to shout out their own business. There is just too much traffic, too much promotion, with no way to weed the good from the bad.

I do find it a great place to connect with friends and make new ones. It's also a useful place for learning from agents. You can discover some great contests. Twitter has been a timewaster and unexpected bonus. Take the good with the bad. (Ha! Two proverbs for the price of one.)

3. Don't burn your bridges behind you. In other words, watch what you say because the internet is forever. I've heard of writers responding to bad reviews or troll comments and they usually get the worst of that attempt to vindicate themselves.

2. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Help out fellow writers as often as you can. Host them on your blog. Give suggestions on their queries. Feedback their chapters. Retweet their tweets. Not only will they repay the favor, but you'll feel happier with yourself. He who gives, receives.

1. Friendship is golden. The surest and best way to succeed in life (and in promotion) is to make friends. Of course you have to be genuine; this isn't something you can fake. Nothing will serve you better than surrounding yourself with supporters. Of all the treasures writing has brought me, I value the friends I've made the most.

Guest Post: What Justifies a Larger Word Count In Speculative Fiction. And What Doesn't.

 Today's Guest Blog Post comes from author, Aaron Bradford Starr, a fellow Speculative Fiction Group member. Aaron's published short stories, paintings, and interior art in Black Gate Magazine, Black Gate Online, and Stupefying Stories. Follow him on his blog, Imaginary Friend or on Twitter. 

I was visiting with my old friend, Joyce, one summer, when the subject of word count came up. We were sitting on the veranda of her chrysanthemum plantation, after a leisurely day of beekeeping, and I happened to mention I’d recently finished my current manuscript. After a round of congratulations, she inquired as to its length, and was horrified when I answered it was 200K, give or take. Setting down her mint lemonade with trembling hands, she composed herself.

“Surely you can whittle that down, in the next draft? Eliminating about half the book should just about do it!” It is to her credit she didn’t rub her hands together in anticipation, being, as she was at the time, in the throes of a stint with flash fiction and haiku. The opportunity to assist in editing such a work as mine had her mentally sharpening her reddest pencil in anticipation.

I shook my head. “No, I think it’s about right. A little tightening, perhaps, is called for, but it’s the right length for the story it tells.”

“But think of the trees!” she exclaimed, waving to the stately oaks that stood in the distance, across the fields. “No environmentally conscious agent would ever represent such a behemoth.”

“Ah, but the speculative fiction genres tend to run longer than others,” I reminded her.

“Poppycock!” she responded, then amended herself. “Well, some authors do. But new authors must keep under 115K, or so. At least for their first novel.”

“I suppose,” I said. “But can you not think of any legitimate reasons why a novel might be allowed to run long?”

Taking up her tea once more, she leaned back into her wicker chair, considering, and we sat awhile, the only sound the wind across the fields, carrying to us the scent of flowers. “Well,” she said at last, “the setting itself might need more visual description than in other genres.”

I nodded, thinking of my lovingly crafted vistas. “Yes, yes!” I agreed. “The setting is a primary way to invite the reader into your new world. A believable, vivid setting will go a long way toward suspending the reader’s disbelief.”

“True,” Joyce said. “And once the magic or SF-stuff gets into full gear, you can always fall back on the setting. The way the world reacts to your imaginary dangers and resolutions does make it easier to support the completely impossible, I would think.”

“So you agree, then?”

“Not so fast!” she said, fixing me with the calculating gaze that has set so many authors to flight. I swallowed, taking an unsteady sip of my tea.

“What about keeping your writing tight?” she asked. “Lean and mean?”

“You can do that,” I said, thinking furiously. “I fact, my first novel, which I’ve since split up into a trilogy due to it’s very great size, had exactly this quality. The first draft was entirely too fast, for all of its length. I actually had to add in as much as I took out, and a bit more besides, in the following drafts. Speculative fiction needs to carefully control the pace. Readers must be allowed to process the new before more is piled on, and this is most easily done by exploring a bit of the familiar in between.”

Joyce nodded, mulling this over. “Yes,” she allowed. “I suppose that’s true. Sometimes, slowing down the pace a bit is necessary.” Her eyes widened in outrage. “But not with fluff!”

“No, never,” I agreed quickly. “You can do so with exploring the character’s personalities, or the setting, as we agreed before.”

“Maybe,” she said, scowling. “But I still think that seventeen syllables should be sufficient for anyone.” As someone who wrote the definitive haiku version of Lord of the Rings, I couldn’t argue her point too directly, so I tried another tack.

“But if the reader’s interest is held, nay, embraced, by a longer work, is word count actually a problem?” I asked. “Length isn’t always bloat, as we’ve agreed. Now, multiplying these considerations with complex plots, a longer work might well be necessary.”

“True,” she said. “But that isn’t license to lollygag with literary bric-a-brac! It’s still better to err on the side of brevity.”

“If an error is necessary,” I agreed, relieved at our accord.

“An error is always necessary, in fiction,” Joyce said, sipping her tea. She waved a hand at the fields before us. “With the petals of these chrysanthemums, I make the finest red pencils in the world. And where would my fortune go, if not for the endless errors of authors?”

“Where indeed?” I asked, and we clinked glasses, settling in to watch the sun set over the distant trees.

Guest Post: Adding Genre Without Switching Genre

Today's guest blogpost comes from Eli Ashpence, author and fellow Speculative Fiction Group Member. She is the author of Genocide to Genesis:

"Eighty years after World War Three, the immortal Val is one of the few who lives long enough to see the modern world of science crumble into a medieval world of magic."

"The world can change in a matter of minutes. No one knows this better than Val, a life-sucking immortal who wanders the world in search of amusements. The latest, in a city twisted by fallout, is the role of "Vampire Val, Private Detective." But no diversion is lasting enough when the Earth itself incites a massive apocalypse - one that Val has to live through and, possibly, learn from."

Without further ado:

"Adding Genre without Switching Genre" might sound simple on the surface.  It's a little romance in your fantasy or a little erotica in your horror.  It's a little mystery in your sci-fi and a little crime in your paranormal.  But where does an author draw the line?  How can you stop your Alternate-History/Dystopia from turning into a mess of A.History/ Dystopia/ Inspirational/ LGBT?

I'll try to answer this with the experience I've gained from crossing that line.  First, and foremost, you must decide on a primary and secondary genre.  Planners usually decide this during their outline phase.  Pantsters (those that write by the seat of their pants) should have some idea by chapter 3. 

You'd be surprised—or maybe not—at how many writers don't decide their genre until they're ready to query an agent or publisher.  I know I didn't think of it until after I wrote my first novel.  I just wanted to see what would happen next with Character X in Setting Y. However, it makes everything easier when this “little detail” is written in stone. 

Mostly, knowing your primary and secondary genres ahead of time will allow you to better recognize when you're deviating.  And THAT allows you to pick and choose which genres will benefit the story rather than distracting from it.

(This is also why you only list your primary and secondary in your query letter.  You don't want agents and publishers to think your writing lacks focus.)

This is where you say, “Get to the point!  How do you add genre without switching your genre?”

I'm assuming you already know what genre you want to add.  And, for that, there are two *main* methods to consider.  Those are:

1.  Ommission:  I'm not trying to punk you.  This IS an option.  Try to explain the story (to yourself) with the extra genre thrown in.  If it's overload when you try to explain it, then it'll be overload when you write it.  So, don't write it.  Pick two genres (primary and secondary) and stick with them.  This method is usually suited for planners that can stick to an outline. 

2.  Side Stories:  Whatever tertiary genres you pick to add to your story should be relegated to side stories.  This will keep your main genre clear by keeping your main plot-line clear.  I believe this method is suited for pansters that don't bother writing outlines.  As an added bonus, side stories are easier to edit out than trying to remove details integrated into the core plot.

Of course, no one method is 'one size fits all'.  If it were, this would be a rather short post and Clipper would hide my cookies. 

Other options to add genre:

3.      Contrivances:  Every story has minor items/things that don't quite fit, but aren't genre-breaking.  For example, a magic mirror in a sci-fi/horror, or a jet pack in an erotica/romance, or buying a magic charm in a mystery/western.  These are good for adding the flavor of a different genre without adding the entire genre.  Sometimes, this is all an author needs to soothe the craving for 'more'.

4.      Settings:  Dream settings are the most commonly used to add another genre.  However, there are also paintings, books within the world, and distant lands/planets/amusement parks that can be mentioned in passing.  Again, sometimes the mention is enough.

And that's it!  Did you expect something else?  Maybe you thought I was  going to come in here and list fifty ways for you to salvage your horror/crime/urban fantasy/romance?  How about just one?

5.      Simplifying Fractions:  (Horror/Crime*urban fantasy/romance = Crime/Urban Fantasy) Make sense?  It's important to know the expectations within genres.  No matter how horrific crime becomes, it's still crime.  And most fantasies (of any type) include some kind of romance.  The important part is to identify what genre is most inclusive to all aspects of your novel. Everything else is just gravy. 

Although.... too much gravy can make you sick.  ^_^

Further Reading:

Genre Shift: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GenreShift

Wikipedia's Genre List:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres