Cat Rambo's Blog
Posted by Cat Rambo
Writers, artists, and fans in the SF community donate their work and
their time to the Susan C. Petrey Scholarship auction at Orycon,
Portland's annual regional SF convention. Each year, the Scholarship
Fund sends aspiring writers to the Clarion and Clarion West Writers
Workshops and sponsors an instructor at one of the workshops.
Writer and SFWA member Ellen Klages and Mainstream editor Jerry
Kaufman, renowned for their showmanship, will conduct the auction.
Posted by Cat Rambo
I'm headed off to World Fantasy Con tomorrow with my sweetie. We'll be rousing at 4:00 am, yikes, and arriving in the late afternoon. I'm really looking forward to seeing some Clarion West friends and Codex writers, along with a slew of old acquaintances and new friends yet to be made.
I regret not having been able to go early for the Robert E. Howard daytrip. I started reading Howard's work in high school when I ran across the Conan the Barbarian books, and I've always loved the majesty and mystery of those stories, which seem like the quintessential sword and sorcery novels.
I'll be reading on Saturday morning as part of the Broad Universe Rapidfire Reading - a dozen people each reading for three minutes. The last one I was at was at Wiscon and that was a ton of fun, so I fully expect this one to be the same. There's something about that approach that I particularly like - a smorgasbord of prose ranging from spicy to sweet, metaphors and similes like canapes scattered across the table.
Posted by Cat Rambo
Odyssey is now offering a new resource to writers, the Odyssey Critique Service.
The Odyssey Writing Workshop says that ever since it was established in 1996, "requests have poured in from writers unable to attend the intensive, six-week program. Some feel they aren't yet ready to attend Odyssey; some have applied but haven't been admitted; some are unable to attend due to work, family, or finances; some are searching for a taste of the Odyssey experience so they can decide whether it's right for them. People have asked for critiques on their application stories so they can improve them for next year; they've asked to come for part of the workshop; they've asked for a shorter workshop; they've asked to participate in the workshop via the Internet--in short, they've asked for some way to get help with their writing."
Workshop director Jeanne Cavelos says, "The mission of Odyssey is to help developing writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror improve their work. I've been searching for the best way to extend that help beyond the sixteen people who attend Odyssey each summer. To that end, we've created the Odyssey Critique Service."
Authors can submit several pieces of their writing. They will receive detailed feedback on each piece, plus an overall assessment of their writing, including strengths and weaknesses that appear repeatedly in their work, and specific suggestions for improving those weak areas.
Novelists may submit several chapters or even an entire novel.
For more details, visit http://www.sff.net/odyssey/crit.html, Be aware that the cost is $275. Worth it? Undoubtedly to some. Others may find it a little pricey, which is probably why I've seen a lot of mixed reactions to this announcement.
Posted by Cat Rambo
Broad plotlines are best saved for books rather than short stories. A short story usually deals with a single plotline along these lines: someone has a problem and then solve it (or not). Some examples:
A man loses his lover and then gets her back
A wounded elf tries to get back to her village
A half-breed comes to terms with his hatred of his human father
Sometimes two plotlines are strung together. For example, with the "A half-breed comes to terms with his hatred of his human father", perhaps there is a second plotline where he can help a human survive or not. It's not until he comes to terms with the hate that he can look past it and help the human. This is a structure that works well: an internal struggle and an external one. It is not the only one, obviously.
So perhaps instead of a grand war, there is an individual struggle played out against the backdrop of the war. While mercenaries gather, for example, two children try to find a lost older sibling. Or a strung out addict tries to figure out where his next fix is coming from. A prostitute tries to figure out how to save up the coins to get to a larger, safer city.
That's my suggestion for plotting, at any rate. One thing that is helpful is to think in terms of scenes. Figure out the smaller story and the scenes that are necessary to tell it. Returning to the halfbreed scenario, you might need the following scenes:
An opening that introduces the main character and states the problem. Perhaps it also shows the dying human. It needs to be located in a physical place that is conveyed to the reader with more than one sense.
A scene that heightens the tension. Perhaps the dying human slips a notch, healthwise.
A scene that introduces a possible solution and then fails. You may want to have a series of these - a possible solution, a failure of that solution, another solution, the second solution's failure, and so forth. More than two or these of these and you risk lapsing into tedium.
A scene that introduces the actual solution. Perhaps he has a flashback to some human that was nice to him. Perhaps he sees someone treat someone else well. Perhaps he remembers his dead sister and realizes the human resembles them. Whatever. Again, in all of these, you want some physicality and to create a world that is interesting and engaging to the reader.
An aftermath scene. This is always optional, in my opinion.
Posted by Cat Rambo
Four prominent science fiction and fantasy authors and editors, all
women of African descent, will appear at Smith College's Otelia
Cromwell Day celebration, which honors their first Black graduate.
Nalo Hopkinson, Sheree R. Thomas, Nisi Shawl, and Nnedi
Okorafor-Mbachu will participate in readings and lively panel
discussions on the topics of race and story, scheduled from Wednesday,
November 8 through Friday, November 10, 2006. Most events are open to
the public.
