I just realized something. In Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, one witch helps another, and makes a promise to another, because of their membership in some kind of sisterhood or something…and other characters help the main character because they’re members of a guild or something… Anyway, I don’t remember the names of their organizations, but I just realized what a strange kind of motivation that is for a character – to do something solely out of membership in an organization, not because they felt one way or another about the situation – or DESPITE how they actually felt about the situation. I can’t decide if that’s a cop-out or not, to have a character be motivated by organizational rather than personal ties, but it certainly opens up another world for character motivation, and it certainly could let you get more nuances in motivation.
Writing
January 21, 2008
January 21, 2008
Today the New York Times had an article called Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular. To summarize, in Japan, online services have allowed people to write novels using text messages, and some of those novels have been published in book form and gone on to be best sellers. One has even become a movie and manga and has been adapted for TV.
What I enjoyed about this article was the discussion of how prose is different when it’s written on a cell phone. I was also impressed that there should already be talk about cellphone purists and discussion over whether a book written on a computer could still be considered a cellphone novel (I’d side with the purists, just as I wouldn’t call an American comic in manga-style “manga” – because manga specifically refers to Japanese comics when used in English).
I agree that this type of literature dilutes literary style, but I don’t know if it’d do any permanent damage. Crap novels gets sold in the US all the time and yet people still have the vision to write remarkable literary works. But, this does put me in mind of something a teacher of mine noted when we were admiring the details on the gutters on an old mansion (they had like…lions…or something); he mentioned that the art of doing that has probably been lost. Just like we’ve lost the technology to build a road as perfectly as the Romans did, or a wall as fine as the Incas’, or build a pyramid without electrical machinery. As I mentioned, I don’t think Japan would lose too much in a literary sense because there will always be those who want to learn the more refined art of writing, but I could also imagine a world far in the future, where forming a long, complex, and nuanced sentence is a lost art.
Wikipedia provides a link to another article, entitled Cell Phones Put to Novel Use. In this one, author Yoshi points out how he uses online hits to determine whether his plots are working. I think that’s a very clever method that defines this new cellphone novel – something made for mass consumption (and even in response to the masses), something very light and fluffy (despite the dark subject matter Yoshi wrote about in Deep Love), something that if you have pretty decent taste you might enjoy out of guilty pleasure but you wouldn’t want to emulate. More power to these writers for entertaining people and hopefully their readers will expand to more literary novels after the cellphone ones.
July 9, 2007
Much like the ninja vs. pirate battle that has lasted for centuries (long enough for there to be shirts on sale at the AnimeNEXT Dealer’s Room, so long enough for someone to try to profit off this blood feud), there has been the battle between “gray” and “grey”.
How the hell are you supposed to spell it? Wikipedia, which is of course the know-all of the Internet, claims that the American spelling is “gray” and the British version is “grey”. And rightfully comments, at least at the moment, that writers tend to assign “grey” “wistful, positive connotations”. Quite so. As a writer a few years ago, I decided to write using “grey” because I thought it was artsy and…wistful. It reminds me of the word fey as in faerie. I thought using “grey” for writing in American English was my own personal idea, but being around other writers and reading manuscripts at my job has led me to realize that many, many writers prefer to use “grey”.
What does this mean? Many things. For example, you’re not being radical or artsy or deviant when you opt for the British spelling. You’re essentially joining a multitude of writers that are doing the same. Though I wonder if maybe this “grey” appears more in the slush pile than in actual published works.
My reaction to this? Embrace “gray”. Because as “grey” goes in and “gray” goes out, I’ll prefer to have stayed on the conservative side of the spelling – keep it American, hehe – and like American English, out goes the wistfulness – it’s for the Brits. If anything, might “grey” become a mark of poor writing if it’s more common in the slush pile and fanfiction (just like violet eyes are the fanfic cliché) than in professional, publishable works?
I think the lesson to be taken from this, in any case, is that it isn’t how you spell it, but how you use it. But you may just be telling your reader something depending on which spelling you choose…if you’ve got the time to worry about being artsy with your vowels, you just might not have edited the rest of your story very well…
But I may be completely wrong, being that my observations are based on a small, small sample of the writing community. What’s your opinion? Gray or grey? Why? Do you think fanfic uses grey more than gray? (I tried to come up with a semi-accurate idea using Google to no avail.) Will this become a bitter feud? O rly?
Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, I just wrote a whole post about this:
June 28, 2007
Okay, it’s not quite a job. It’s an internship. But I think I’ve learned a lot. I’m currently interning at a certain genre fiction magazine (if I say what genre, it will be immediately obvious, perhaps, where I’m interning), and I just got assigned to 1) sending out rejection letters and 2) reading some of the slush pile. As a writer, I think this has been a very important experience for me, since I’ve learned several valuable lessons and I think other writers might be interested in getting a mini-inside scoop on what some genre fiction magazines look for. Or maybe on what some big NO-NOs are.
Now, let me just say that I have NO professional training. I just have my little experience, common sense, what I’ve read in many writing books, and my eyes and ears. And here’s what I’ve heard and seen.
1.) Recently, because of reading another blog, I picked up a copy of Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy. In that book, he gives some sage advice about sending in a story for a magazine – make your cover letter short and sweet. I have seen page-long cover letters at work, with the font size reduced – do the writers actually think the editor wants to read that? And even if the editor does, do they really think that’ll make a good impression?
Biggest mistake I’ve seen: One writer whose work had been rejected included something like this in his cover letter: A few years ago, I decided to write a novel. 400 pages later when I finished, my friends told me I should learn how to write. Since then, I’ve been writing short stories, so I’m sending you one.
What the hell? The last thing you want to tell your reader is Warning: I don’t know how to write! I’m not saying the story was rejected because of the cover letter; I doubt our magazine would ever be that shallow, but you never know what kind of subliminal effect that kind of cover letter might have. That’s why I’ve made it a point to not read the cover letters when I go through the slush (although, granted, my opinions on the slush don’t really count).
2.) Do not misspell anything in your cover letter. Or on the first page of your story! So many people have had blatant mistakes like that that just piss me off. I can’t imagine how the editor feels, but I don’t think s/he’s happy about having to go on with the reading. Again, watch what you’re unconsciously telling your editor – that either you don’t care enough about your submission to edit properly, or you just don’t know enough about English to write it properly.
3.) Make sure you’re sending your story to the right market. We had one story that was way off base that I tossed into rejection not because it was bad but because it was for a different kind of magazine. So, especially if the magazine you’re sending your story to doesn’t accept multiple submissions, make sure that magazine won’t reject you because you’re just not right for them. You don’t want to waste 3 months or more of your time (and theirs) while you wait for a reply. For example, if a magazine does horror, don’t send a story about a spaceship to them.
4.) Getting published is tough. Tough for everybody. I went through files as part of an organization job I had to do, so I got to see a lot of authors’ folders. In their files were their acceptance letters and their rejection letters from the magazine – and let me tell you, for some of the authors, for one acceptance letter they had five rejection letters. So don’t let rejection get you down. These guys, I’m sure, are still writing! Also, sometimes, they would be asked to edit a piece and it still wouldn’t be right for the magazine. So don’t think you’re the only one if this happens to you. I’m sure many of the writers also found other magazines to publish their stories in. As I’ve learned from being around the office, if your work is halfway decent (and you’re writing fiction) you may just find some publication (albeit not that elite if your work is only halfway decent). That is to say, if one place says “no”, that doesn’t mean they all will.
5.) Please don’t send crap. Get at least one honest person to read your work before you send it in. I saw a few rejected stories that just left me with question marks because I couldn’t understand what the author was talking about. So, make sure someone else gives your work at least a once-over, if at least to check for spelling mistakes.
6.) Don’t call! At least where I work, editors HATE having someone nag them on the phone about not receiving a reply on their manuscript. If you think you’ve waited long enough, send a letter before you call. Calling really seems to tick them off. I mean, after all, they’re putting a magazine together – it’s not like they’re reading stories 24/7 – they have to deal with publication and formatting and proofreading and keeping everything else together.
7.) Don’t forget a SASE if you need one!
I hope that advice helps someone out there. And I hope it reassures others. Love to y’all =)
