I write fantasy and science fiction, both for adults and for young adults. My agent is currently marketing my novels. I update this site quarterly, with information about me, my fiction, and writing in general. Posts on specific topics are available on the link in the left column. I update my blog two or three times a week with my thoughts on publishing, life in general, and speculative fiction in particular.
Becoming a Writer
Writing is not for the faint hearted or the easily discouraged, mostly because
it’s an occupation that requires criticism. I have been writing seriously for a
number of years. At first I wrote alone, sitting in my basement for hours
almost every day. Just as I am a fast reader, I am also a fast writer. I
cranked out several manuscripts over those first few years, and I did give them
to friends to read, but my friends were not writers or serious critics. They
would tell me what they liked and didn’t like, but they had no clue what point
of view was, or passive voice.
Writing is something you learn by doing, but it also requires feedback. If you have ever looked at a flowchart, you might know the concept of a feedback loop. When you have a product, you need a way for it to be evaluated, improved, and then evaluated again, in a continuous loop until it’s as good as it can be. This principle can be applied to writing. In the illustration below, the objective is to write the story. As I work on that objective, I read and revise the story, monitoring as I go. When I think it’s ready, I give it to other folks to evaluate. Then I, as the writer, decide what to do with the results of the evaluation. If I make changes and decide the story needs to go around the loop again, it does.
That evaluation step is essential. When I write a book, I immerse myself in
that world, that story, those characters. I am so close to the story that I
can’t really see what I’ve written objectively. If I put the manuscript away
for a few years, when I pull it out, I see it much more clearly. A shortcut,
and a better solution all around, is to give my story to someone who will read
it objectively and tell me what they see as its strengths and weaknesses.
Writer’s Resources
The someone who gives a writer feedback can be a member of a face-to-face
critique group made up of writers who live near by, it can be other writers in
an online critique group, it can be members and teachers of a writing workshop
held for a set period of time, or it can be a teacher at a local writer’s center
or college. In fact, it could be all of the above. I have used all of those
resources over the years.
Writing for publication takes not only talent but self confidence. You have to have enough faith in your work to show it to other people. A lot of people prefer to join an online critique group over a face-to-face group. For one thing, the person who critiques you doesn’t see your reaction. No need to keep a stiff upper lip if you’re sitting alone in your own basement. For another, it doesn’t matter where you live. There are several online groups; here are a few I know about for speculative fiction writers
The Critters Workshop: This online workshop is free but you have to critique others to be able to get critiqued. It has been online for a long time, and I’ve heard people speak well of it.
Hatrack River Writer’s Workshop: This workshop was founded by Orson Scott Card and is part of his Hatrack River site. The workshop also includes forums and discussion groups on writing-related topics. You must be 18 or older to register.
Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror: This workshop was started by Del Rey Books and then eventually branched out to become its own thing. It does charge a small yearly fee, but it also offers reviews by professionals in the field. Every month a short story and several novel chapters are chosen as “Editor’s Choice” and critiqued by the guest editor, agent, or published author. I used to belong, and I keep a link to this workshop on my blog
Local Resources
If you live in an urban area, there is probably a college or community college
near you.
If
you have time and money enough to do it, you might want to take a writing
class. I live in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, and I was lucky enough
to take a class in writing speculative fiction taught by
Nancy Kress at
the Writer’s Center in
Bethesda, MD. Nancy is an excellent teacher as well as an award-winning writer,
and I think her class helped me a lot. If she hadn’t moved away from this area,
I would have taken her class again.
I learned almost as much
from hearing her critiques of other students as I did from her critique of my
own work.
Caveat Scriptor
To pass along what I have learned, there are two things to be wary of as a new
writer looking for feedback. One is that for anything that costs money, be sure
the organization is legitimate. Anyone who promises that you will be
published if you pay for their service is most likely a scam artist. Check out
the company or group online and ask around.
Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers of America has a whole
section on bogus agents,
vanity presses, and writer’s services
The second thing is that not all feedback is good feedback. If you are lucky, other writers in your critique group will give you their honest assessment of your work. But honest in this case just means they believe what they’re saying. I always listen carefully, and thank the critiquers, but I filter what they say through my own lens. Did they understand what I was trying to do in my story? Are their comments merely a reflection of their tastes, which are so different from my own that I shouldn’t worry about them? One advantage to a group is that you get multiple versions of feedback. If seven out of ten people make the same negative comment, then probably it’s important to do something about whatever they don’t like. But if it’s only one person, then it may be a purely personal reaction. And always, always, always, I listen to my gut. Does the comment ring a bell deep within me that says “Yes, this person is right”? Or does it fall flat and tell me that they just didn’t get it? I’m the writer, so I decide.
Closing the Loop
Once I figure out what needs to change in the story, I make those changes! The
next steps are to make sure the manuscript is in the proper format, proof every
page carefully, and submit the work! Short stories can be submitted to a
magazine or web-zine editor, but if you’re a new writer who writes novels,
you’re probably better off sending queries to agents. It's tough, but your
chance of getting published is zero if you don’t try.
For more musings on writing, see the link for my blog on the left.