Tag: clarion west

Who New?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

The stomach virus seems to be gone (a few symptoms remain but we won’t go into detail).  I stayed home again today because my muscles are sore (we don’t have to detail why) and my voice is gone (I’ll just say “acid” and leave it at that).  Sorry if this disturbs you.  I had to explain it to someone.

Sitting at home, I decided to contemplate my Clarion West application, specifically the story.  It was 35 pages and they want 30.  Back in high school, manipulating page numbers was all about margins and font size.Nothing says amateur hour like non-standard margins or an 11 font size (instead of 12).  So I didn’t go there.  I could play with fonts a bit, though.  It’s not cool to use a varying font size, like Times-New Roman, but I thought I might be able to use another standard format font (per online recommendations) and squeeze it closer to the page count.

It turns out I had my story in Courier New.  Sounds like just a better Courier, doesn’t it?  Well it ain’t.  The typeface is significantly larger than Courier.  How much?  A simple switch to Courier moved this 35 page story to…wait for it…30 pages.  So I guess I’m ready to apply.

Bizarre.  I don’t usually deal with number of pages, just word count, so I really had no idea the difference was so considerable.  Anyway, I guess I’ll get my CW app out today, after a quick trip to the store for some Aleve and some Lipton’s Noodle Soup.

UPDATE:

This got me wondering about what else I didn’t know.  A quick check suggests that editors want 1-inch margins all around.  I knew that.  However MS Word apparently defaults to 1.25 inch margins on the left and right.

Why didn’t I know this?  I’ve been writing and submitting manuscripts for over a decade!  Why am I just figuring this out now?  This margin thing is the biggest clunker since editors look at page numbers for their estimated word counts (they don’t all trust word processors).  I don’t think it’s a huge deal, especially for electronic submissions which tend to get reformatted anyway, but I suddenly feel like a rank amateur.  I guess it’s just a bit of humbling data to remind me that’s exactly what I still am.

Trouble with numbers

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

Maybe I’ve been aiming at Writers of the Future too much, but I’m having trouble finding stories to submit to Clarion and Clarion West.  My stuff is just too long.  The story I just finished is 8000 words, 33% too long for a C-SD story and quite a few pages longer than CW wants.  “***************” (still hate the title) came in at 6600 and 34 pages, still too much for either.  The naked man story will be at least novelette length, so finishing that up isn’t going to help.

Stay with me while I think out loud…or skip to the next paragraph.  I sent “Leech Run” last year, so that’s out.  I have “Secondhand Rush” that’s shorter (3000 words or so?) but I wrote most of that maybe five years ago.  It did pull an honorable mention from WotF, but so did “Leech Run” and I didn’t quite make it.  “Brother Goo” is kiddy stuff and very derivative, by intent but still out.  I don’t think “How Quickly We Forget” is quite strong enough to send and it’s too short for C-SD.  “Excuse Me” is too…well, it sold to The Rejected Quarterly, so…  If I need to go short-ish, “Faerie Belches” is probably my next strongest piece, again a little too short for C-SD; it’s kiddy stuff, too, but more original.  I’m not happy enough with “__________” to send that.  Maybe I could check the word count on “Chasers”…but that was published in an anthology called Triangulation 2004.

Bottom line, I need to get a new story from zero to publishable in about two months.  Don’t get me wrong, if “****” comes up big in WotF, I’m sending it.  I have an edit that pulls it down to 6200 words (I think) and 32.5 pages.  (It’s hard to remember; I’m a math teacher and not real good with numbers.)  It looks like I need a new idea, something deep enough to inspire a story with umph.  I thought of using my fear of snow-driving as a catalyst (hence the rambling blog post a couple days ago), but it hasn’t taken me anywhere yet.  I have a few little vampire ideas in my head, but really?  Okay, one is pretty good.  No actual vampires needed, but I haven’t found the speculative angle to it yet.  Nothing says it needs one specifically, but I’d like to sell it somewhere.  It’s not a story I need to write, so it’s probably not the one I’m looking for.  Nor is the zombie idea.

I don’t seem to have any good science fiction ideas floating around my brain.  Too bad, because I think I do sci-fi better than fantasy or horror.  I’ve definitely sold more.  Even that wacky talking hat of a Christmas present hasn’t given me any good ideas.

I’m playing writer for the next few days.  All day, typitty-typitty-tap-tap.  (Note to self: still need to send in lesson plans to school.)  It’ll be out of town so maybe the change in scenery will help.  Not a workshop or anything, just escorting my wife to a photography conference.  I need to get something at least planned and started while I’m there.  I’ll bring along some science stuff to get the old brain rolling: Popular Science (because no one writes stories from those ideas, right?), a Michio Kaku book or two, explorations into the fourth dimension, light reading like that.  Not that any of it matters.  Ideas hit when and where they please.  I got an idea for a whole novel based off the title of a book I bought out of a bargain bin(And no, my idea was in no way related to the book in question.)

Maybe I’ll try some workshop techniques.  I could interview a stranger.  Maybe I’ll end up with a photography story idea and be in the perfect place for inspiration.  We’ll see.  Until then I’ll be trying to finish up some lingering projects.  And praying we can get the car up the hill and out of the subdivision.

CW Forums

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Clarion West has finally created a forum for 2010 applicants.  

Last year, I met a lot of other CW applicants through that forum.  It was very active, very pleasant, and very supportive.  I hope it will be the same this year.  I’ve already posted a greeting and await replies from other applicants.  Of course you don’t have to be applying to participate in the banter, but most participants are either applicants or alumni.  

So if you haven’t checked out the forums at CW, do it.  They’re a little slow yet (read: dead), but they’ll pick up as the deadline nears.

CW 2010 reading begins!

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I just finished reading Maureen McHugh’s story “Presence” in a Year’s Best anthology from 2001.  While her style was remeniscent of much SF I’ve read — the POV character was an engineer, etc. — I found the story didn’t really feel like science fiction.  This is assuredly a good thing.

The story hinges around a fictional treatment for Alzheimer’s, so it is definitely SF, but the story was about the protagonist’s struggle with her husband as the disease pulls him under and about how the treatment affects her relationship with him.  It’s a story about a person, about people, about relationships.  The science takes a backseat, but without the science there is no story.  At least not this one.

Can Ms. McHugh teach that?  Probably not, but she can encourage it, adjust students’ focus.  Either the research involved was immense or she had already lived through supporting an Alheimer’s patient.  Either way, the story was credible and realistic and emotional.  And a bit of a downer all the way through. If my next read is like that, I’ll have to switch to humor for a little while.

Clarion West 2010 Instructors

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

I just dropped by the Clarion West homepage and discovered the instructor lineup for next year:

  • Michael Bishop
  • Maureen McHugh
  • Nnedi Okorafor
  • Graham Joyce
  • Ellen Datlow
  • Ian McDonald

Confession time.  I look at these names and scratch my head.  I am familiar with Ellen Datlow by name but not by work (not generally a horror reader).

However, I found the same difficulty about ten months ago looking at the list of names for both Clarions.  I had no idea how sheltered I was.  I discovered John Kessel and am now a fan (I had unwittingly read him before).  I discovered Rudy Rucker and enjoyed his stories.  I discovered Robert Crais (C-SD) and loved the Elvis Cole novel I listened to (and I don’t usually enjoy straight mysteries).  I discovered I had already read and enjoyed several stories by Karen Joy Fowler.  I also have books and/or stories standing by from Kim Stanley Robinson, Elizabeth Bear, and Elizabeth Hand.  The instructors were a who’s-who of speculative fiction and I was a poorly-read wannabe.

Now I feel like a wannabe again.  Michael Bishop has been publishing and winning awards since before I was born.  (I need to do some research to see if I’ve read anything of his before.)  Maureen McHugh has been popping out short stories since I was in middle school; Graham Joyce, winning British Fiction Awards since I was in high school.  Nnedi Okorafor seems to be an up-and-coming author with YA experience and cites Donald Maass as one of her agents.  Ian McDonald has a list of awards that could choke a…well, whatever eats awards.

So my ignorance says nothing of the quality of the instructors for next year.  I intend to get started reading right away.  I bet I can find a McDonald novel at the Book Cellar and I bet I have some of Bishop’s stuff lying around the house if I look hard enough.  Others will require deeper exploration.

I will likely apply to both Clarions again next year, especially if the C-SD lineup is as promising as this one.  I’m hoping to see some of this year’s CW names show up there, but I’ll wait and see.  It will probably be a bit of a wait to find out that list.  (Insider information always appreciated.)

I also hope to see some familiar names from here show up on the student lists.

Coming to terms

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

I just read a Clarion Update from Rochita and it helped me understand that I may not have been ready for Clarion West.

I don’t doubt that my writing is up to snuff for the workshop (I wouldn’t have been waitlisted if it weren’t).  What I may lack is a certain level of self-awareness.  What kind of fiction do I do best?  What do I enjoy writing about most?  What is it I bring to stories that no one else can?  I suspect that the workshop is supposed to help me find those answers, but it’s been a while since I even asked those questions.

The questions I’ve been asking recently have been “How can I make this story better?” or “How can I turn that into a story?” or even “Why can’t I finish this !@#$**! story?”  The answer to some of those questions may be to abandon them and try something else, something I need to write rather than want to write.  What stories are really mine to tell?  Ideas are cheap.  Any idiot can come up with an idea for a story.  I need to do a better job of finding the right idea for me.

I think that is what I’m supposed to be working on right now.  For instance, I think my military clone novel (Honor by Proxy) is a great idea and may be my best chance at selling a novel.  However, I am far from a military expert.  That doesn’t mean I can’t write the story, but it may mean I need a new direction.  While my YA space novel (untitled) will undoubtedly draw on my more immediate expertise as a close observer of children (teacher).  I don’t yet have my characters polished for that one, so it keeps skidding to a halt every time I try to work on it.

Am I well-suited for YA writing?  I don’t know.  I’ve sold two stories to youth-themed publications (“Faerie Belches” and “Brother Goo”).  Time will tell.

I need to reorganize my projects, set some deadlines, and bring order to my chaos.  (It can still be chaos, just scheduled and catalogued chaos.)  I have eight months (+/-) to raise my game and become part of the class of 2010.  Right now “Poison Inside the Walls” seems my strongest submission candidate (and likely my next WotF entry), though “Secondhand Rush” (my current WotF entry) seems a good second.  I might be able to use both.  But ideally I’ll create something between now and then that eclipses both.

A wedding and a possible divorce (not my wife)

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 5 Comments

I’m going to a wedding on Saturday.  (Trust me, this is related to writing; Clarion West specifically.)  Weddings are generally happy occasions with people coming to wish the new couple well.  But I suspect that every wedding has an angry spinster or two.  Or a jealous younger bridesmaid.  Or that guy whose girlfriend just dumped him.  In other words, though wishing the couple well and meaning it, there’s always someone hurting as they realize how long it will be before THEY say “I do.”

I am the spinster at the Clarion West wedding.  I want every attendee to have fun, learn, and succeed.  I am trying hard to keep up with the logs of their experiences.  But inside, there is that nagging feeling that this could have been my dance.  I can deal with that.  What I think is bigger is the issue of how long it will be before I get my turn.

Best-case scenario, I’ll be there next year.  (We are planning another baby inside a reasonable window of time there, so we may be looking at two years!  Let’s ignore that for a moment.)  I believe I will make it into one of the Clarions next year.  Does that make me egotistical?  I suspect it does, though I like to call myself “confident”.  Same thing.  I doubt it’s a stretch for a writer on the waiting list to expect to make it next year.  Anyway, that’s a long way off.  I still have to write new stories, isolate my “best”, send them out, wait out that interminable acceptance interval, get accepted (please), find the money, make plane reservations, wait until summer, then FINALLY go.  See, it feels like a lot.  Still, I know I need this kind of experience to really get me going.

Ever watch American Idol?  You know how there is always that guy that makes it all the way through the audition process and is the last guy cut, watching the dude standing beside him move on to primetime while he gets a heartfelt invitation to jump through the hoops again?  That’s me.  And the first episodes of the show are airing (or blogging) now.  I watch; I cheer; I’m sad.

I dwell on this now because I am slumped.  I can’t focus on writing.  I have other distractions contributing (notably my involvement with my church’s bible school), but I’m also inventing distractions.  I pulled out an old video game and am obsessing over it.  I started reading a book that has been on my shelf for months (though that may help).  I check my email for story critiques seven times a day.  Writing just isn’t coming out.

Face it, I’m depressed about CW.  Lame of me, but I am.  I dared to hope and now I reap the consequences.  I need something to snap me out of it.  I go camping in a few weeks; I tend to do well there (not internet to distract me).  I did some late-night freewriting for a story idea based on Japan’s Festival of the Naked Man; maybe breaking ground on a new project could get my wheels spinning again.  Or seeing some of my stories in print.  Or some forced keyboard time.  Or taking those morning walks I keep insisting I’m going to do.

I need to do something.

Moving on to the divorce part of the post, I find myself very disappointed with the SFF Online Writing Workshop.  The quality of the critiques I have received has been pretty good, but I am displeased with the quantity.  So far it’s just two apiece on the stories I posted.  Critters could usually deliver anywhere from eight to twenty, depending on the length of the story, though the quality of the comments was admittedly inferior (not immensely, but somewhat).  It’s tough to determine a consensus with only two and a consensus is what critique groups should offer best.  How do I make alterations based on that?  To make matters worse (the way plot lessons always tell you to), my one-month free trial is over in less than a week.  I need to decide: do I pay for a year or not?

I confess, a month is the time it takes for a story to reach the top of the Critters queue to get read, so maybe I need to give my stories a month at OWW to generate a reasonable number of critiques.  Still, I find some things lacking.  There is almost no incentive to offer a SECOND critique at OWW.  A story with no reviews earns double poiints, so why comment on a story with one or two?  The crit-4-crat approach may work better, but I have struck out there, too.  I opperedC4C on my longer story and have since had one taker.  I’ve been getting more attention on stories at Baen’s Bar (though, admittedly, the comments are less complete there).

We’ll see what I decide.  It may be worth the fifty bucks to try to generate a community of people who want to read my stuff (even if it’s just because I read theirs).  As for my jealous spinsterhood — this too shall pass.

Back to life

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 3 Comments

I just spent a nice few days in Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains with my family and inlaws (not as bad as it sounds).  I got no writing done.  I don’t think I got any ideas (though I got a great one off National Geographic before I left).  It wasa real vacation.

It was rough being away from the internet, only dropping by the chalet check-in office once for a fix.  I need to catch up this week.

I still haven’t heard from WotF, but my wife stopped the mail until tomorrow.  I am anticipating a rejection due to the late speculative element (page 4, not 1), but I refuse to abandon hope.

Speaking of abandoning hope, Clarion West begins on Sunday.  I gave up a long time ago on my attending, but the event’s arrival is a reminder that I’m missing out.  Humbug.  I left a nice “good luck” message on the old CW forum,though it seems largely inactive so it may go unread.  But I wish the best for Jordan, Rochita, Randy-the-Robot-Overlord, everyone else I met on the forum and everyone I did not.  I’ll be watching for CW diaries online, so don’t keep us in the dark (but don’t sacrifice your writing, either).

I still have eyes on next year.  Until then, back to the keyboard.

-Oso

Ever feel brilliant?

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Some days I feel like I am a genius.  This usually happens on days where I don’t get a lot of actual writing done.  Today is one of those days.

I was once an outliner, using the whole Roman numeral system and everything, just like they taught me in middle school.  I eventually regressed to a bullet system, but even that is often too rigid for my short fiction.  Now I do almost all of my story planning in freewriting exercises (also something i learned in middle school).  It usually just helps me find character motivations, flesh out plots.  Today it worked a miracle.

Okay, it’s probably not the freewriting.  Only so much of it is even me.  I got my inspiration from, of all places, a reality television show.  The rest came from about a dozen of those writing books that line my bookshelf (many described here).  I kept asking myslf the right questions.  Like what?  The biggest: What human truth am I revealing with this story?  According to Kate Wilhelm’s Storyteller, triviality is a regular problem with stories, even at Clarion.  I suffer that problem a lot.  I am pleased to say that this story isn’t planned to be trivial.  How about that, huh?  (Sorry, watching Leno as I type.)

Other questions: Why do I care?  Who’s viewpoint is the most dramatic?  Why would she do that?  How would I accomplish this or that goal?  It’s all basic stuff, but I finally feel like I’m asking the right questions at the right time.

I realize, this late in the post, that most of you probably don’t care.  I sound kind of like I’m bragging.  Maybe I am.  It has seemed recently that everything I’ve been writing has either slipped out too smoothly or bogged down in attempts  be relevant only to end up monotonous.  People keep telling me that making the Clarion West waitlist this year means I’ll surely make it next year (unless lightning hits Jordan Lapp before June).  But I hadn’t felt like the ideas hitting me had the potential to be any better than “Leech Run” or “Glow Baby”.  This one could be.  I’m excited about my good idea and I’m taking it out on you.

Reality check: I haven’t written the first word yet.  I have my main characters (mother and daughter named Evelyn and Kelby Abrams), an opening scene idea (think the opening of The Great Gatsby set in a CEO’s waiting lounge), a POV (Kelby’s), the antagonist’s motvation, the SF plot points, comuppance, a major foreshadowing element, a few minor characters, and that great human truth that so many of us endure…but they are all ideas in paraphrased forms that may or may not play out in words the way I envision them.  Basiclly, I’ve done the easy part.  Next comes the gruesome act of spewing this into narrative form, followd by the painful art of revision and editing.  It’s like I’m looing at Everest from basecamp praising myself for making it this far.

Still, I am thrilled that my brain has returned to me.  I go through phases like this, where I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere just to come out of it a long way ahead of where I fell off.  My monkey paw touched the monolith.  Now let’s see what I can do with this bone.

My wait is over…or not

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 6 Comments

Ever waited a really long time for something just to realize you have to wait some more?  Welcome to my world.

I got an email from Clarion West.  I’ve been waitlisted.  This means that if John Doe is accepted, says he’s going, then develops a case of malaria that prevents him from attending, I’m in.  Actually it is reasonable that someone would drop out of a six-week event like Clarion West.  Job issues, money issues, love life issues, spontaneous success, spontaneous combustion…lots of possibilities.  I do not wish these issues on anyone, but if they come up, I’m here.

It’s not clear how long the waitlist is.  Just me?  Two or three of us?  A whole minor league team worth?  Do I get a call for any dropout or just another male?  I guess the issue is merely academic.

Still no word from San Diego.  It should come tomorrow.  I’m still holding out hope.  I really think that application was stronger.  We’ll see.

Good luck to the Clarion West class of 2009.  I’ll be watching for your names in the big zines; you watch out for mine.  It will be there.

-Oso