The benefits of interacting with the blogosphere can be great. Not only can you pick up free writing advice from professional writers who speak from personal experience, but you can also become part of your favorite writing community by reading the posts, then reacting to them either by posting comments or writing blog posts of your own.

Diving headfirst into the blogosphere is not without perils, however. If you have the tendency to spout off without really thinking through what you’re saying, you can quickly develop a bad reputation as a troublemaker, or a troll as such folks are known online. Reading a lot of blogs can also be a huge time-waster–time that might be better spent actually writing–so it’s important to spend your blog-reading time wisely. Below is a list of some of the best blogs about writing and/or publishing, written by writers and other publishing professionals.

Authors

When you’re looking for advice about writing and how to get published, the obvious people to turn to are the ones who are making a living doing just that: published authors. Fortunately, these days many authors have active blogs on which they dispense valuable advice free of charge. Authors often talk about the process of writing, the pressure of deadlines, and the realities of life as a working writer. Additionally, most author blogs are at least in part an exercise in self-promotion; and while that’s not generally intended as an instructional enterprise, you can learn a lot about promoting your own work by observing what works (and doesn’t work) for them.

• John Scalzi (scalzi.com/whatever) — Author of several books, including several non-fiction titles–such as The Rough Guide to the Universe–as well as novels. Scalzi has been online "taunting the tauntable" since 1998. His blog, Whatever, covers numerous topics, treating them either humorously or seriously as the situation requires. His blog might be best known for his infamous "Bacon Cat" post, or for his moving essay on "Being Poor," but he writes about writing frequently enough that Subterranean Press published an entire book of his collected writings on writing, called You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffeeshop. Although it’s available in handy book form, all of his writing-related articles are still online. And Whatever is a blog worth checking out whether you’re interested in writing or not–it’s one of the best blogs period.
   
• Tess Gerritsen (tessgerritsen.com/blog) — Doctor and best-selling author of medical thrillers such as Harvest and Life Support. Posts cover such topics as getting over receiving a bad review, how to decide whether or not to kill off a character, and how you can have all the action sequences in the world, but they’re meaningless if there’s no suspense. Almost every post is relevant to writing, making this a blog no writer should miss.
   
• J. A. Konrath (jakonrath.blogspot.com) — Author of the Lt. Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels thriller series, along with more than 50 articles and short stories. The blog is titled "A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing," and it delivers what it promises. Konrath discusses subjects such as book promotion, publishing myths, the value of reviews, and the doubts associated with writing.
   
• David Louis Edelman (davidlouisedelman.com) — Author of the novels Infoquake and MultiReal. Informative blog on a variety of subjects. Of particular interest to writers are his posts on self-promotion. Starting with the sale of his first novel, you can follow Edelman’s publicity plan, see what works, and what didn’t.
   
• Tobias S. Buckell (tobiasbuckell.com/weblog) – Author of many short stories and the novels Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose. A Caribbean-born science fiction writer, Buckell often discusses the issues surrounding race and ethnicity in fiction. Other useful writing posts focus on the business side of writing, such as his massive survey to calculate the average author advance for a first novel.
   
• Jay Lake (jaylake.livejournal.com) — Author of Mainspring and other novels, as well as more than 200 short stories. Lake posts so many blog entries one might wonder when he finds the time to write his fiction, but many of his posts are quite informative. He writes openly about the writing process–thinking out loud about what works and what doesn’t, as well as discussing strategies for keeping yourself on track, such as his own decision to quit watching television.
   

Group Blogs

If a single author’s blog is good, then a blog by a group of authors is even better. Group blogs have the advantage of being more like a conversation between authors, rather than just one person’s opinion–sort of like getting free admission to a symposium on writing. The other plus side about group blogs is that with multiple authors participating, the blog is usually updated quite often and the comment threads tend to be rather lively, since everyone participating has to have their say.

• DeepGenre (deepgenre.com) — Features authors Carol Berg, Constance Ash, David Louis Edelman, Kate Elliott, Katharine Kerr, Kevin Andrew Murphy, Laura J. Mixon, Lois Tilton, Madeleine Robins, and Sherwood Smith. Always on topic, this blog delves into the definitions of genre, the business of writing, issues of craft (storytelling, characterization, style, etc.), as well as offering insights about why certain books do or don’t work, and a variety other writing and publishing topics.
   
• Writer Beware (accrispin.blogspot.com) — Blog of Science Fiction Writers of America watchdog group Writer Beware. Led by authors A.C. Crispin and Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware seeks out and puts an end to writing scams by exposing fraudulent agents, highlighting bad contract language, and otherwise sticking up for the rights of writers.
   

Editors

Editors are, of course, the people you’re trying to sell your work to, so an editorial blog would be one to watch. However, most editors have very little time to spend blogging (They all have lots of manuscripts to read, after all!), so real insight from acquiring editors in the blogosphere is a rare thing. While the following blogs are not written by acquiring editors, they provide insight into other aspects of publishing that, in the long run, can be equally as valuable.

• Deanna Hoak (deannahoak.com) — Professional copyeditor specializing in science fiction and fantasy. This is a personal blog, so Hoak often talks about subjects other than writing and editing, but if you’re looking for some insight into the copyediting process, look no farther.
   
• Rose Fox (Genreville @ Publishers Weekly.com) — Science fiction/fantasy/horror reviews editor for Publishers Weekly. Posts behind-the-scenes information about Publishers Weekly–the publishing industry’s top trade journal and review magazine–helping authors understand when a review of their book might appear, and just what exactly the value of a starred review is.
   

Literary Agents

Like editors, you’d think that literary agents wouldn’t really have time to blog, but there are several intrepid actual working agents who devote their time to helping out all you agent-seekers out there. Agents, of course, have to be a bit cautious what they write about, but agency blogs can be very helpful to writers because not only to they provide valuable advice about submission procedures, etiquette, and the like, they can also really help you learn what these agents in particular are looking for–above and beyond what their guidelines specify.

• The Knight Agency (knightagency.blogspot.com) — Agency specializes in romance and women’s fiction. Clients include best-selling authors Tommy Newberry, Don Piper & Cecil Murphey, and Karen Marie Monig. Also check out TKA agent Nephele Tempest’s personal blog (nephele.livejournal.com).
   
• Jennifer Jackson (arcaedia.livejournal.com) — An agent with the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Clients include best-selling fantasy writer Jim Butcher, Derringer-Award nominee C.M. Chan, and award-winning author Jo Ann Ferguson.
   
• Book Ends Literary Agency (bookendslitagency.blogspot.com) — Agency represents a wide variety of clients in the fields of spirituality, self-help, business, mystery, and romance. Clients include best-selling authors Elizabeth Joy Arnold and Sally MacKenzie.
   
• Rachel Vater (raleva31.livejournal.com) — An agent with Folio Literary Management. Clients include best-selling authors Melissa Marr and Jeaniene Frost.
   
• Janet Reid (jetreidliterary.blogspot.com) — An agent with FinePrint Literary Management. Specializes in crime fiction. Clients include authors Jeff Somers, Richard Gilbert, and Bill Cameron.
   
• Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (dglm.blogspot.com) — Agency represents everything from parenting and women’s health books to literary and commercial fiction. Clients include bestselling authors Cindy Adams, Jonathan Small, and David Morrell.
   
• Kristen Nelson (pubrants.blogspot.com) — Founding agent of the Nelson Literary Agency. Clients include authors Linnea Sinclair, Sherry Thomas, and Marianne Mancusi.
   

The Anonymous Professionals

Some agents and editors feel the need to blog, but prefer to do so anonymously–no doubt so that they can be brutally honest (and also perhaps so that their authors don’t complain that they’re spending their time blogging, when they could be working on their manuscripts). These blogs tend to be more snarky and a bit more informal than their eponymous counterparts, but are equally (if not more) valuable for learning the answers to questions you may not have even thought to ask.

• Miss Snark (misssnark.blogspot.com) — Anonymous literary agent. Perhaps the first (and best) of this type of blog, Miss Snark has ceased updating, but the "snarkives" (blog archives) remain accessible, and there you’ll find more than a whole book’s worth of invaluable advice, including specific answers to reader questions.
   
• Evil Editor (evileditor.blogspot.com) — Anonymous book editor. Regular features include "Face Lift," in which Evil Editor revises query letters submitted by readers, and "New Beginnings," in which authors post the first 150 words of their books and Evil Editor and "his minions" provide a brief continuation of the book and comment on the opening.
   
• Editorial Anonymous (editorialanonymous.blogspot.com) — Anonymous children’s book editor. Posts excerpts of real query letters and phone calls–changing the names to protect the ignorant–for educational purposes. Also posts insider essays about what really goes on in publishing. Most advice will apply in other realms of publishing as well, not just children’s books.
   
• The Rejecter (rejecter.blogspot.com) — Anonymous assistant at a literary agency. Claims to reject 95% of query letters immediately and puts the other 5% in the "maybe" pile. Also an author of books. Goes over basic advice and answers reader questions.
   

This list is a good place to start, but don’t stop here. Once you find some bloggers you like, check out the sidebars on their website to see if they have a blogroll–a list of other blogs they typically read and/or endorse and start exploring from there. You’ll have noticed that many of these writers and publishing professionals are in the science fiction/fantasy field. But writers of any genre should find these blogs useful, and if you look around, you should be able to find bloggers to learn from in whatever genre you prefer.

#

This article originally appeared in 2009 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market. Note: The article was written in January 2008, so if any of these blogs are no longer active, or no longer appear to be "elite" then that’s way (though you can always browse through their archives). If you have any suggestions for other blogs writers should be reading, please feel free to tell us about them in the comments.

Gordon Van Gelder is the editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He took over as editor of the magazine in January 1997, then took on the role of publisher as well in October 2000. As a teenager, Van Gelder published a number of short stories in anthologies such as 100 Great Fantasy Short-Short Stories and Bruce Coville’s Book Of Spine Tinglers, but put his writing career on hold to pursue his editing career, which started with a summer internship with Bluejay Books. Later, he worked for twelve years as an editor at St. Martin’s Press, and went on to edit several anthologies, including In Lands That Never Were and Fourth Planet From the Sun.

Sheila Williams is the editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction. She’s been with the magazine since the summer of 1982, starting as an editorial assistant and taking over as editor in April 2004. She received her Master’s degree in philosophy from Washington University, and moved to New York in 1981 to pursue a career in publishing. In addition to her experience at Asimov’s, she is also the editor of more than two dozen anthologies, such as A Woman’s Liberation and Intergalactic Mercenaries. She doesn’t write fiction, and has no plans to do so in the future, but her editorial experience allows her keen insight into what works and what doesn’t.

Susan Marie Groppi is the editor-in-chief of Strange Horizons. Groppi joined the staff as a fiction editor shortly after the magazine’s launch in September 2000, and took over as editor-in-chief in 2003. In addition to her editorial work, she has a Ph.D. in History and is a lecturer at UC Berkeley. She doesn’t write much fiction–she calls her one fiction publication in the magazine Flytrap an "aberration"–but she does often write critical non-fiction. Prior to joining Strange Horizons, Groppi worked as an editorial assistant at Circlet Press. She is the co-editor of the anthology 20 Epics (with David Moles), and is currently one of the resident editors for the Online Writing Workshop (sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com).

What plots are you sick to death of seeing, and/or what would you like to see more of? 

Van Gelder: Currently, the plot I’m seeing most often is: A previously unheard-of virus comes along, alters all of humanity in a way that has never before occurred, and one lucky person is immune.  We’ve run a couple of stories with this plot already and it’s quickly growing tiresome.  I’ve also been getting lots of alternate history stories about different outcomes to the Civil War or to World War II.

What would I like to see more of?  Well, if Santa got my list, this year I’ll be getting more science fiction stories like "Finisterra" and "The Merchant at the Alchemist’s Gate" that are really good and don’t seem to follow the same paths as most of the other science fiction stories I’m reading these days.

Williams:  I never know which plots I want to see more of until I see them, because they’re the plots that do something I’m not expecting to see.  I would definitely like to put a short-term moratorium on stories that lead off with exploding spaceships. Exploding spaceships that happen further into the story are currently okay, however.

Groppi: We’ve been seeing an awful lot of retold or reworked fairy tales.  Of course, we’ve also bought a fair number of them, so I can see why people keep sending them, but at this point we’re a little burnt out.  Retellings are difficult, because on the one hand they can leverage a lot of emotional and narrative power by tapping into these familiar images and plots, but authors really need to be thinking about whether they’re bringing anything really new or meaningful to the retelling. 

We also see a lot of what I’ve started calling the "foofy slipstreamy stories," pieces that are very lyrical, very image-driven, and sometimes very beautiful, but also kind of insubstantial, with no clear sense of what the dream-like magical images mean, or whether they’re even real.  Again, this is a type of story that we’ve developed a reputation for favoring, which is undoubtedly why we get so many of them, but I’m tired of them at this point. 

Speaking just for myself, and not necessarily for my co-editors, I would love to see more science fiction. Something with robots, or quantum physics, or alien contact. I’m really a science fiction reader at heart, and not a fantasy reader.

What’s the most common reason that a manuscript gets rejected?  

Van Gelder: Reason #1 is because the story wasn’t entertaining enough.

Williams: Exploding space ships and other predictable plot lines. Lazy plotting, i.e., the sense that the author isn’t really sure of where he or she is going. Boring jobs and boring employees. Grim, detestable worlds and grim, detestable characters. Please note, though, that I have been known to buy stories that contain one or all of these plot devices (exception does not apply to lazy plotting, though).

Groppi: It just doesn’t do anything special.  The single most common reaction we have to submitted stories is "eh, it’s fine, but it’s nothing special."  The special-ness can come from a number of different things–some really good use of language, a really great idea, or something in the pacing.  It has to light up a circuit somewhere in my head, or it isn’t going to stand out from the pack.

A new writer only has a few paragraphs to grab the editor’s interest. What’s the secret to writing strong beginnings? 

Van Gelder: I can make two suggestions: (1) Introduce us to a character who’s in an interesting situation and make us empathize with him/her/it.  Kate Wilhelm is a master at this—I often tell students they should get one of Kate’s collections or a handful of her novels and just read the opening pages of each one. (2) Cut the warm-ups.  A lot of stories come in that feel like the author needed a few pages to warm up before the story starts rolling.  That’s fine from a writing point of view, but the warm-ups should be cut in revisions.

Williams: Figure out what your story is about and put the whole thing in the first sentence, but don’t do it in such away that I can figure out what’s coming from the information. Just be sure that the beginning is intriguing.

Groppi: A strong beginning doesn’t have to be action-packed, and it doesn’t have to front-load whatever cool idea or concept is in the story, but I do think that the opening paragraphs of a story have to have something in them that makes me care. A hint that something cool is about to happen, or a sign that the character is interesting, or a feel for good language or good style.  One of the things that’s death for a manuscript is when I start reading it and there’s nothing in the first paragraphs that I care about.

What kind of reading should aspiring writers be doing? Do you have any specific books on writing, or sterling examples of fiction to recommend? 

Van Gelder: The usual advice is that an aspiring writer should read anything and everything.  And that’s true.  But it often pays to read in a more focused way.  For instance, if you’re aspiring to write science fiction, try reading an anthology like The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and study each of the stories to see what techniques they use.  I’ve heard several crime writers say they learned a lot by retyping an entire Elmore Leonard novel, start to finish. 

On writing itself, I always recommend Damon Knight’s Creating Short Fiction for studying the craft of the short story and Robin Wilson’s Those Who Can anthology for aspiring science fiction writers.  And Strunk and White’s Elements Of Style for everyone.

Williams: Read the magazines. Analyze the first paragraphs of stories that work. Read lots of stories in magazines and anthologies and analyze why they work.

Groppi: It all depends on what kind of writing you want to be doing.  I’m going to echo the commonly-given advice, though, that writers should be readers, and should read as widely as possible.  When you read something that makes you think "oh, I want to do that," then you should read it again, and maybe try to see if you can figure out what makes it tick.

What is it about a story that makes it right for your publication?

Van Gelder: I generally like to leave it to other people to try to answer this question because if I can ever answer it 100% correctly, that’s when I should pack it in as an editor.  One of the joys of editing F&SF is being able to surprise myself with stories we publish.

Williams: We run an eclectic assortment of stories at Asimov’s. Love to see good science in an SF story. Not much horror–although there are exceptions. Most of these are situational rather than occult. Almost no high fantasy, but lots of strange tales where the explanation is just weird or fantastic.

Groppi: It’s hard to say what makes something right for us, but it’s a little easier to pin down what makes it likely to work for us.  All three of us in the fiction department place a high priority on quality of prose, and a couple of us also have well-known weak spots for stories that deal with family dynamics or relationships. We’re very interested in changing things up, though, and stories that feel different in some way from our norm are likely to get a little boost in the editorial process.

In what ways has the genre fiction marketplace changed over the past several years that new writers should be aware of? 

Van Gelder: The biggest change in the last decade is the advent of electronic publications, but I don’t know that there’s much to say—in general, they’re the same as print magazines in that you should check them out before submitting to them, follow their guidelines, etc.  But one thing that has changed is that the internet has made it easier to get information (and misinformation) quickly.  There are more markets and more market guides than ever before and most of them are good, but it pays to do one’s homework before submitting anything.

Williams: Exploding spaceship stories were probably easier to publish before editors
started telling everyone that we had to be blown away by the opening paragraph. We still need to be blown away by the opening paragraph, but that doesn’t mean the spaceships have to be blown up.

Groppi: The obvious first thing that comes to mind is that online publications have finally more-or-less bridged the respectability gap.  Publishing in Intergalactic Medicine Show or Jim Baen’s Universe or (if I can say this) Strange Horizons is, I think, unambiguously a "real" publishing credit now, as opposed to six or seven years ago, when online publications would be looked at a little bit askance.  (Unless they were edited by Ellen Datlow.) Magazines like Clarkesworld or the new online version of Fantasy have been able to hit the ground running, without needing the long slow ramp-up period of convincing the community that they’re legit.

I also get the sense that the newer generation of writers, the ones who have entered into the short fiction market in the last five or ten years, are much more likely than the veterans to be resigned to the fact that you can’t make a living writing short fiction today. If you’re good, and prolific, and dedicated, short fiction can provide a nice additional income stream, but it’s not sustainable as a primary income stream, especially not if you’re talking about genre fiction.  This is mostly an effect of the marketplace, not an effect on the marketplace, but it’s not without market effect. There’s a rich and vibrant culture of small-press zines and anthologies, a culture that’s based around the idea that you’re never going to get paid a lot for this particular type of work, but you can be a part of something cool and creative.  I don’t want to overplay the benefits of this–I do think it’s a shame that short fiction writers don’t get paid more, and I see a lot of writers who have lowered their expectations and standards to a point that may be hurting their professional development.  But it’s fascinating to watch it happen, and I think we haven’t seen the full implications of it yet.

#

This article originally appeared in 2009 Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market.

• Flash Gordon: Flash’s Roots
• Flash Gordon: Have You Met Everybody?
• Flash Gordon: Very High Tech
• Flash Gordon: Mongo’s Just a Zoo
• Flash Gordon: Mongo Potpourri
• Flash Gordon: Flash in Hollywood, Part 1
• Flash Gordon: Flash in Hollywood, Part 2
• Flash Gordon: Flash in Hollywood, Part 3

So what drives people to create rather than just consume? And why is it that so many young people with said creative impulse wind up becoming fans of—and, subsequently, creators of—science fiction, fantasy, and horror instead of other genres?

Tor Books editor Liz Gorinsky says that one factor is that aside from a few major exceptions like Harry Potter, there’s still that unfortunate correlation between liking SF/F/H and being socially removed from one’s peers. "Maybe because young people who feel like weirdos are likelier to respond to the keening call of the literature of the weird, or maybe because SF&F really can claim some of the great escapist literature, which is bound to be attractive to adolescents who are bored and frustrated with trying to fit in in middle school," Gorinsky says. "So it seems pretty natural that a certain percentage of those kids would parlay that satisfaction with the literature into a drive to create escapist fantasies of their own. In recent years that phenomenon has been augmented by the droves of teenagers and twentysomethings … who have found resilient, fulfilling communities within fan fiction circles and have consequently taken up writing genre tropes as a form of social commerce, but it’s too soon to tell how many of them will ever try their hands at original fiction."

The most prominent example of a youngster who has tried his hand at original fiction is probably Eragon author Christopher Paolini. Though he wrote Eragon during his teenage years, and he is only now in his early twenties, his books have sold millions of copies worldwide–and have now even been made into successful films.

A more recent success story is Drew C. Bowling, whose novel The Tower of Shadows was published by Del Rey in December 2006. Bowling began writing his novel during his senior year of high school and had sold it (as part of a three book deal) during his freshman year of college.

Even younger than these two is Amelia Atwater-Rhodes; her first novel, In the Forests of the Night, was published in 1999 when she was just fifteen, and she has gone on to publish a new novel every year since then.

These three are among the more high profile young authors, but many others have and currently are achieving success at a young age in the field of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. There’s John W. Campbell Award nominee Brandon Sanderson, Stoker Award nominees Brian Freeman (a/k/a James Kidman) and Kealan Patrick Burke, Stephen Chambers, Anselm Audley, Catherynne M. Valente, and Scott Lynch, to name but a few.

So what is the reason for this? Is there something about these genres in particular that makes them more receptive to younger writers?

To get a better understanding of this phenomenon, I spoke with four young authors like those mentioned above, to find out how they managed their success and what’s responsible for it.

Cherie Priest, author of the critically-acclaimed Four and Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom, says that getting an early start helped her achieve writing success while still in her twenties. "I completed my first draft of my first novel when I was fifteen, and oh God help me it was terrible, but I finished it," she says. "I was sure it would make a million dollars, and I was convinced that people would be beating down my door to buy it and turn me into an overnight sensation. [But] I made all the standard etiquette mistakes, I committed every possible query error, and I shattered rules of writing that Strunk & White never even imagined."

Crystal Rain author Tobias S. Buckell says that his success came as a result of focus and goal setting, with lots of hard work and passion for writing. "I’ve seriously wanted to be a writer since I was 15, and certainly thought writing was interesting since even younger," he says. "I have a quote on my desk by H. Jackson Brown that says ‘Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.’ I try to remember that when I complain about not having enough time to work on the things I want to achieve in life."

Tim Pratt, the Hugo Award-winning author of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Blood Engines, says that starting young and perseverance is what led to his early success. "I started submitting stories in high school, though I didn’t sell anything until the end of college," he says. "You do something long enough, and keep trying to better yourself and expand your skills, and you’ll attain some facility. I really like writing … it’s cheap and easy recreation for me. I didn’t have any strategies, really, except to keep writing and sending stuff out, which is both basic and essential."

Author David Barr Kirtley hasn’t yet attempted a novel, but he achieved great success in the short story market in his teens, which has continued in his twenties. "I’ve been writing fiction regularly since my earliest childhood, so the success I’ve had is the result of two decades of hard work," he says. "First I submitted to contests for young writers. Success there was a strong hint that I possessed an unusual talent, and that made me more confident about taking risks and making sacrifices to nurture that talent. I also investigated the markets for short fiction. I read the magazines and studied their guidelines. I read dozens of books on writing. I took writing classes in college. I attended writers workshops, such as Clarion. I wrote and submitted regularly, and collected dozens of rejections, and didn’t give up. I got to know other young writers, and swapped info on writing techniques and the literary marketplace. I studied the writers I most admired, going so far as to copy out whole novels longhand to examine every detail. I attended author readings, [and] I devoted as much time as I could to reading and writing."

But their successes did not come without sacrifices. Every writer, no matter what age, must give up much of his or her free time in order to write, but for many young people the things they give up are the things they’re most drawn to: Television. Parties. Videogames. "I read and I wrote with most of my free time," Buckell says. "I’m a pretty social person; it was hard at times to pass up on all that fun to keep my eyes on the prize, but I don’t regret those sacrifices for a moment. It was hard at times to sit down and tell myself I had to work for several hours on a story when people were heading out to party …. But I believed in myself, and believed that it would be cool to have my novel sitting on a shelf in a bookstore. And it was every bit as cool as I’d hoped."

Priest struggled with the lack of leisure time as well. "For the last few years, it seems like I’ve had nothing of the sort — because I’m constantly operating under deadlines," she says. "It’s like being a permanent senior in college, with infinite term papers hanging over your head.   Every time I sit around and watch a movie, take a nap, lounge in front of the TV, or surf the internet, in the back of my head there’s a little voice saying — ‘You really ought to be working on the edits for that next book.’ … But there’s no such thing as a day off."

Priest and Buckell both used online writing to help with their fiction writing. "One of the things I did was create a blog to chronicle my attempt to become a writer in public back in 1998," Buckell says. "I felt that declaring something in public and trying to achieve it in front of an audience would light a fire under me, as well as keep me on task regarding my goals. And it did just that. And more. The blog spun out of control into becoming a way in which my readers found out about me, and a way for me to interact with them, as well as other authors around me."

"Writing online has done a lot to help hone my sense of audience," says Priest. "It’s one thing to sit at home and type on a laptop, hoarding your words and telling yourself that they’re beautiful; it’s another thing altogether to know with absolute certainty that people are reading and evaluating them.  It’s hard to do, at first.  It’s tough to put yourself out there and take whatever blows may come. But it’s something you have to get accustomed to — and writing for an internet audience is something of a crash course in finding out what works and what doesn’t."

Writing because you love the work is the only way to approach becoming a writer, Pratt says. "If you don’t get satisfaction from the act of writing — I’m not saying it has to always be fun, but it needs to be satisfying on some level — then quit," he says. "Try not to pay attention to awards, or how many stories your friends or enemies are selling, or any of that stuff. At least, don’t pay it as much attention as you pay the actual work of writing."

Kirtley adds: "No matter how good you are, don’t depend on ever making a cent from writing fiction. Have another source of income. [Also,] If a teacher ever tells you that writing has to be done a certain way, that teacher is wrong."

Speaking of teachers, one reason younger writers may be finding success in the genre is because over the years it has gained more credibility as a viable form of literature. As a result, academic institutions have become more open to including SF in their curriculum. Many colleges offer classes that focus on genre writing or literature. The University of Kansas even has a Center for the Study of Science Fiction, which was founded and is directed by SFWA Grand Master James Gunn–whose efforts are largely responsible for this newfound academic acceptance. Previously many would-be authors were discouraged from writing SF in college, and so gravitated toward other kinds of writing, such as mainstream lit, only to later to return to their first love: SF.

But high schools are now more receptive to genre literature as well, with many works being used as assigned reading. Most of us probably had to read Brave New World, 1984, and Flowers for Algernon in high school–three brilliant science fiction novels that are classified as Literature (with a capital L) rather than science fiction–but it was not until the last ten years or so that high schools have commonly taught modern, core-genre works such as Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, Neuromancer by William Gibson, and Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.

But is that all that’s responsible for this recent influx of new, young talent in the genre? Perhaps, perhaps not. Could it have something to do with the sheer amount of sophisticated SF that’s available to eager readers? Kirtley thinks so. "When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, the very concept was considered so shocking and grotesque that she was widely denounced," he says. "Obviously that society isn’t going to produce a tidal wave of young SF writers. Even my parents’ generation grew up with a relative scarcity of fantasy and science fiction. You could read or watch most of what there was, and it was still something of a fringe interest. By contrast, our generation has come of age in a pop culture landscape in which conceptual audacity is a given. The entire iconography of my childhood, from television (Transformers and Dungeons & Dragons) to movies (Back to the Future and Ghostbusters) to video games (King’s Quest and Metroid) to books (Narnia and Prydain) is that of fantasy and science fiction. Obviously young writers today are going to want to write fiction that reflects the world we grew up in."

Pratt isn’t so sure that the sophisticated SF being published is responsible (because today’s youths aren’t being exposed to it), but instead points to the way SF has flourished in other media. "I think SF is just part of the background noise of the culture now," he says. "The most popular multiplayer gaming sites are fantasy-related (a lot more kids play World of Warcraft than will ever read a book of fiction voluntarily!). Many of the most popular movies of all time are SF and Fantasy (and some of those movies are even based on books, which, as a writer, I find a bit heartening). There’s tons of SF and fantasy stuff on TV. … It’s even becoming more acceptable in college classes, among the intelligentsia; they just gave a MacArthur Genius Grant to a guy [Jonathan Lethem] who published stories in Asimov’s! It’s over, dude. Science fiction won."

Buckell says that a lot of writers in their 20s and 30s seem to have been heavily influenced –or at least tempted into the field–by Star Wars and Star Trek. "I think most of them then go on to find out the amazing breadth beyond those properties that the field has to offer," he says. "I meet a lot of younger writers who started out writing ‘fanfic’ [fan fiction] in those worlds, who then moved on to doing their own original work."

Priest, meanwhile, sees another revolution of sorts: the influx of female readers and writers of SF. "My genre writer buddies [and I have] been talking amongst ourselves about how many young women (in particular) have found their way into genre fiction — even into areas like hard science fiction that have been largely dominated by men, historically speaking," she says. "Our general conclusion is that this is due to the fact that we are the first generation of girls who were raised with strong, sophisticated female role models in genre fiction.  We grew up on Princess Leia, Sarah Connor, and Ellen Ripley — and we won’t settle for writing about brass-bra-babes in need of rescue. But … it’s more far-reaching than feminism.  Better genre fiction means more genre fiction.  More people want to read it so more people want to publish it, and therefore publishers are looking for more people who write it."

So what does this trend mean? It means that the field is in capable hands. Like the authors mentioned above, SFWA Grand Masters Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, and Harlan Ellison all got their publishing careers started at a young age. But will these young turks of today become the titans of tomorrow? It’s too early to say, but their successes show that it can be done, and that if you have the creativity, persistence, and proper work ethic–then you can do it too.

#

This article originally appeared in Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2008. Some minor updates/corrections were made when posting the article online in January 2008.

Starting to sound familiar yet? Or do you need some more?

I took out a rag and some polish and tried shining it up. Much to my surprise, a genie sprung from the lamp and offered me three wishes. Fed up after a long day of slushing, I blurted out, without thinking, “I wish I never had to listen to another slush writer complain about fast rejections! I wish that I never had to explain the “code” of my rejection letter! And I wish that I never had to see another poorly formatted manuscript ever again!” The genie said “Your wish is my command,” and struck me deaf, dumb, and blind.

Does it sound familiar now? Wait, here’s the kicker:

At just that moment I woke up and realized it was all a dream.

Groaning yet?

If you think that’s bad, you should see the slush pile some time. Cliches are the bane of slush readers and editors. They’re more likely to drive us out of the business than the poor wages, the long hours, or the incessant paper cuts.

Sure, the above example was exaggerated for effect, but that same kind of “reinvention” of genre clichés appears over and over in the slush. You might be asking yourself “What reinvention?” But that’s exactly the point.

Aside from genie-of-the-lamp stories, deal-with-the-devil stories are probably the most oft-”reinvented” cliché. Sadly, though this plot offers a great deal of promise for character development, no matter how good, most stories in this vein simply can’t overcome the fact that they are deal-with-the-devil stories. And there’s a special place in hell reserved for people who keep writing them.

But this special issue of Subterranean is focused specifically on science fiction clichés, so we won’t be seeing any clever reinvention of those tropes. So let’s talk about SF.

Two of the hoariest of all science fiction clichés revolve around twist endings. For example, stories in which (a) the alien planet being described by the protagonist turns out to be…Earth; and (b) the two people that crash land on the alien planet turn out to be…Adam and Eve. Cliched endings are what make us editors want to hurl the manuscript across the room, and/or run it through the shredder (or perhaps set it on fire). Assuming you’ve actually written a story that’s good enough to get us to the ending, for us to have wasted our time reading it only to find out it concludes with a cliché twist ending…it’s, as I said, a burn-worthy offense.

Robots turning against their creators is another popular theme, if only because without that conflict there’s not much story there. If the robots all behave, what fun is that? Sometimes I think that the writers themselves are robots—evil machines created by the vast conspiracy that’s out to get me (and other editors), monotonously typing out cliché after cliché.

Some clichés are harder to reinvent than others. The aforementioned Adam and Eve, and the planet-turning-out-to-be-Earth clichés are really tough, as is this one: going back in time to kill Hitler (varieties on this theme include going back in time to save Kennedy or Lincoln). This one’s become so difficult that most often writers will simply explore this theme through alternate history, since that’s what they wanted to play with in the first place—it’s not the time travel part that gets people to write these stories, it’s the great changes that could occur from one little tweak in the historical record. This cliché is so hoary that when the most recent incarnation of The Twilight Zone aired a temporal-kill-Hitler tale in one of their early episodes, it immediately jumped the shark for me (not that it was really any good to begin with, but at least before that they were trying to tell stories that were new).

The popularity of a certain theme can move it into cliché territory. For instance, lately, the slush pile has been inundated with memory wipe stories, probably courtesy of the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Likewise, The Matrix trilogy spawned its legions of virtual reality imitators (which itself was imitating work done more than twenty years ago in prose form), and all the recent zombie movies of late seem to have, ahem, given life to a flood of undead stories.

The mocking of clichés at this point has also become a cliche, so much so that editor Scalzi forbade such stories from being submitted for this issue. Mocking clichés can still work, but it requires a bit more work than most new writers are willing to put into it.

I guess the question editors and slush readers alike eventually come to ask themselves is: why? With all the breadth and scope of science fiction and fantasy, why would writers spend time writing yet another genie story, when they could be out inventing something totally new?

A lot of clueless newbies probably just don’t know any better, and they think the little tweak they gave the cliché transformed it into something new and wonderful. And since a lot of newbs get all or most of their SFnal knowledge from movies and TV, they really have no idea that the stories they’re writing have been done a million times already.

However, established pros—who know better—often cannot resist the lure of the cliché reinvention story either, and I think this is for the same reason that Mr. Scalzi wanted to focus this issue on this subject: Because everyone says you’re not supposed to.

Pros (and some novices too, I imagine) take that sort of thing as a challenge, which is all fine and good, but how receptive would you be to Yet Another Genie Story after reading several dozen (or hundred, or thousand) stories like “Deaf, Dumb, and Blind”?

But having said all that, despite all the negatives these kind of stories have going against them, every once and a while, someone manages to write a good one. So now that I’ve thoroughly bashed cliché-based stories, let me point you to some recent examples of good ones.

• “The Five Cigars of Abu Ali” by Eric Schaller (genie of the lamp)
• “Non-Disclosure Agreement” by Scott Westerfeld (deal-with-the-devil)
• “The Revivalist” by Albert Cowdrey (Rip Van Winkle)
• “Refried Clichés: A Five-Course Meal” by Mike Shultz (mocking clichés)
• “Undone” by James Patrick Kelly (Adam & Eve)
• “Born-Again” by K.D. Wentworth (Jesus clones)
• “Suicide Coast” by M. John Harrison (virtual reality)

Those are just a few that came readily to mind; there are others out there if you really look. And aside from these gems, I’m sure this issue is full of ‘em.

But. I’m guessing many stories submitted for publication in this issue will have been rejected. There’s only so much room, after all, and I’m sure Mr. Scalzi has impeccable taste (he did invite me to write an article, didn’t he?). Which means those cast-offs will be coming soon to a slush pile near me.

Nooooooooooooooooooo! Oh god, let this all have been a terrible, terrible dream!

[This article originally appeared in Subterranean Magazine, guest-edited by John Scalzi]

While examples of the former are fairly common, examples of the latter are harder to come by. But one such writer is David Marusek. He’s what you might call a poster child for workshopping success. “I attended Clarion West in Seattle in 1992 and sold two short stories that I wrote there. I sold one on the spot to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. I sold the other a month later to Playboy. These were my first ever fiction sales, and I have been publishing regularly, if not prolifically, ever since,” he said. Marusek’s stories have gone on to be lauded by both fans and critics alike, and in 1999, his story “The Wedding Album,” was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

Before attending Clarion West, Marusek says that he had been writing for about seven years on his own, with no writing classes under his belt and only a few week-long workshops. He was collecting personalized rejections from editors, but he couldn’t seem to break into print. “In retrospect,” he said, “I believe I had taught myself the basic elements of the craft–characterization, plotting, dialog, etc.–but I still lacked that certain ineffable something that makes them all jell into a story. And that’s what I picked up at Clarion West.”

But you don’t have to take Marusek’s word for it—ask just about any writer who has attended one of the workshops. SF/fantasy author David Barr Kirtley, who has published fiction in Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, and in several anthologies, got so much out of his first workshop experience that he went on to attend several more. “The first workshop I attended—Clarion—was a revelation, a truly life-changing experience,” he said. “I found the workshop so fascinating that I started signing up for more. Obviously a one-week workshop isn’t going to be as involving as a six-week one, and there is a point of diminishing returns after a while, but every workshop I’ve done has taught me new things and introduced me to great new people, and I’d endorse any of them.”

Clarion graduate Daryl Gregory, whose stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Amazing Stories, said that though some people would say that the worst thing you can do is go to a workshop looking for validation, that’s the most important thing it did for him. “I didn’t know how this writing thing worked. I didn’t have any friends who were published writers. … The idea of becoming a writer seemed far-fetched and vaguely delusional, like deciding to become an alligator wrestler,” he said. “Once I was accepted, I killed time waiting for the workshop to start by going through the archives in the Michigan State library. Every story written for or during Clarion was down there. Early work by dozens of the field’s famous names, but stripped of the glamour of typesetting and binding. And the best thing? Some of the stories by these famous names sucked. Big time. … I decided that if they could be this bad and get so much better, then so could I.”

Attending one of the following workshops is a huge investment of time and money, so choosing the right one is of the utmost importance. The information provided below will help you determine which workshop would be best for you.

Note: The information contained in this article is subject to change, so check the workshop websites for up-to-date information.

Clarion: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop (Last updated: December 2011 for 2012 workshop)

Clarion is the granddaddy of science fiction writing workshops, founded in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College (now Clarion University) in Pennsylvania. The structure of Clarion was based upon the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference, a professional writer’s workshop.

Science Fiction author and Clarion Foundation board member Kate Wilhelm says that the reason to go to Clarion is because of its long-standing tradition of success. “About one third of the alumni go on to become published writers, some with spectacular success,” she said. Vonda McIntyre, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepherd, Ted Chiang, and Bruce Sterling are just a few Clarion graduates who have gone on to wildly successful careers in the field.

Wilhelm also wanted to emphasize the talented variety of instructors Clarion provides. The first Clarion was taught by Wilhelm, Judith Merril, Fritz Leiber, Harlan Ellison, and Damon Knight. Those legendary writers were superstars in their day, and the superstars of today continue to participate in the workshop.

All the tools and techniques a writer needs to know can be acquired at Clarion, says Wilhelm. “[Students will develop] a solid awareness of what it takes to become a professional writer. … A honed critical approach to the written work, others’, and one’s own. A way to find an individual voice that is uniquely that writer’s own voice, not derivative, not overly filtered through fleeting outside influences that change without warning.”

Here’s a description of the Clarion experience, from Clarion Coordinator Jackie Kuhn: “In 2007 Clarion’s intensive six-week workshop relocated to the beautiful beachside campus of the University of California, San Diego. Each year 18 students, ranging in age from late teens to those in mid-career, are selected from applicants who have the potential for highly successful writing careers. Students are expected to write several new short stories during the six-week workshop, and to give and receive constructive criticism. Instructors and students reside together in campus apartments throughout the intensive six-week program. At UCSD, the workshop enjoys broad-based faculty, administrative support and opportunities for student interaction with eminent scientists engaged in cutting-edge work are unparalleled. Students are housed within walking distance of nature preserves and a great beach, and they are given free access to the university libraries. ComicCon International is held in San Diego in July, so not only do our students get to attend the con if they’re interested, but often distinguished writers, editors, and artists who come to the con stop by the workshop to talk with the students.”

2012 instructors: Jeffrey Ford, Marjorie Liu, Ted Chiang, Walter Jon Williams, Holly Black, and Cassandra Clare

Tuition: $4957.00
Housing: Single occupancy rooms & three meals/day are included w/ tuition
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: $50.00 (non-refundable)
Application Deadline: March 1
Workshop Schedule: June 24 – Aug 4
Location: San Diego, CA
Max. # of Participants: 18
Founded: 1968
URL: http://clarion.ucsd.edu 

Clarion West Writers Workshop (Last updated: December 2011 for 2012 workshop)

The Clarion West Writers Workshop was modeled after the original Clarion Workshop held in Clarion, Pennsylvania, which in turn was modeled on the Milford Writers Workshop.Clarion West was founded by Vonda N. McIntyre, who after graduating from the last of the original workshops in Clarion, PA, got permission from Robin Scott Wilson to bring the workshop to Seattle.The next year Clarion (East Lansing) was started in East Lansing, Michigan. After running three sessions in 1971, 1972, and 1973 with instructors such as Ursula Le Guin, the workshop closed until 1984, when JT Stewart and Marilyn Holt revived it for another two years.In 1986, a small group of Clarion West alumni restructured the workshop and have been running it as a non-profit educational organization ever since.

Clarion West Workshop Administrator Neile Graham said that “people decide to apply to Clarion West because of our reputation for excellence, our top-notch instructor line-up, and the allure of Seattle itself, not to mention the beauty of the surrounding mountains and water.”Administrator Leslie Howle says, “Our commitment to making the workshop welcoming to all is evident in the care we take in inviting instructors that reflect diversity.We want to speculative fiction to continue to attract and reflect the voices of writers of diverse cultural, racial, and gender backgrounds.”

Like Clarion, Clarion West offers a solid line-up of top quality instructors, but Graham says that West goes the extra mile for its students and faculty. “Clarion West staff are experienced, thoughtful, and professional, and the overall workshop environment creates a positive writing retreat atmosphere. Students compliment CW on the attention paid to details that facilitate the flow of the workshop and keep everything running smoothly so students can concentrate on writing. The sorority house we live in is homey, comfortable, and most meals are provided for,” she said. “The supportive Seattle SF community provides us with volunteers, welcoming hosts for our Friday night parties, and local authors visit the students as ‘mystery muse’ guest lecturers. Tuesday night instructor readings are held at the University Book Store a few blocks away.”

Here’s how Graham describes the workshop experience: “[It's] six wild, wonderful, intense, insane weeks where the most important thing is writing. Suddenly you have 17 new friends who are as passionate about writing science fiction/fantasy as you are. You get to know six professionals who are equally passionate, and who reveal hard truths about writing—your writing. It’s amazing and liberating, and you’ll work harder than you’ve ever worked in your life. There’s not enough time in the day. You need your sleep, you don’t dare sleep. You speak in code. Six weeks fly by, and the real world seems far away. You come out of it knowing more about yourself as a writer, as a person, and how to begin a writing career.”

Clarion West has produced some of science fiction and fantasy’s top writers and editors, including Gordon Van Gelder, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Andy Duncan, Justina Robson, Ben Rosenbaum, Margo Lanagan, Mary Rosenblum, Kathryn Cramer, David Marusek, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Sheree R. Thomas, Greg Cox, Daniel Abraham, David Levine, Andrea Hairston, and many others. Clarion West graduates have received every major form of recognition in the field, including the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards.

2012 Instructors:Mary Rosenblum, Hiromi Goto, George R.R. Martin, Connie Willis, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant, and Chuck Palahniuk

Tuition: $3600
Housing: included with tuition fee
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: $40.00 (non-refundable); $30 if application received by Feb. 10
Application Deadline: March 1
Workshop Schedule: June 17 — July 27
Location: Seattle, WA
Max # of Participants: 18
Founded: 1971
URL: clarionwest.org
Notes: Clarion West now runs a series of one-day workshops. Check their website for details.

Clarion South (Last updated: December 2010)

In addition to the two Clarion workshops mentioned above, there is now a third Clarion, this one located in Australia. Unlike the other Clarions, which are annual, the Clarion South workshop, after holding concurrent 2004 and 2005 workshops has decided to move to a biennial schedule.

Many of Clarion South’s previous students have gone on to success in professional markets for both short fiction and novels, including 2005 participant Ellen Klages who said this of her workshop experience: “I truly believe that six weeks at Clarion South has changed my life, for the better. I’ve met people on the other side of the world, had the opportunity to live in a culture that’s not the one I grew up in, acquired a lot of interesting new vocabulary. I’ve learned so much about myself — both strengths and weaknesses — as a person and as a writer. I’m a better writer, and a better reader. I would do it again, in a hot second.”

The next workshop is in January 2012. The 2012 tutors have not been announced yet.

Tuition: AUD$2800 (Australian currency)
Housing: included with tuition fee
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: AUD$35.00 (non-refundable)
Application Deadline: February 2011 (applications open in February, deadline unknown at this time)
Workshop Schedule: Six weeks starting in January
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Number of Participants: 17
Founded: 2004
URL: www.clarionsouth.org

Odyssey Writing Workshop (Last updated: December 2011 for 2012 workshop)

Odyssey is another well-respected six-week writing workshop, but one of the ways it differs from Clarion and Clarion West is that the entire learning process is overseen by one instructor, editor Jeanne Cavelos. “A single instructor guides you through the six weeks, gaining in-depth knowledge of your work, providing detailed assessments of your strengths and weaknesses, helping you target your weaknesses one by one, and charting your progress,” Cavelos said. “Some other workshops provide a series of instructors, which leaves you without any continuity of feedback to help you understand whether you are improving or not.” Also, where the Clarion workshops focus on short fiction, Odyssey allows students to work on both short fiction and novels, in the genre of science fiction, fantasy, or horror.

Workshop Director Cavelos is a former senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, and Odyssey is the only six-week workshop that has an editor’s guidance throughout. Cavelos says that her experienced editorial perspective is key to the learning process and enables her to help writers find the writing process that will best work for them.

But going to Odyssey doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on being tutored by genre luminaries. Each week of the program, a different guest writer or editor spends a period of 24 hours with the students, providing additional instruction, and Odyssey also features a writer-in-residence who teaches and works with students for an entire week. Past instructors include: Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, Ben Bova, George R. R. Martin, and Terry Brooks, among many others. The 2010 writer-in-residence is Laura Anne Gilman.

Fifty-six percent of Odyssey graduates have gone on to be published professionally, according to Cavelos. This is the highest percentage of post-workshop success reported by any of these programs. “I believe the journey to become the best writer you can be is a lifelong one,” Cavelos said. “At the end of Odyssey, your journey will not be done. Yet I’m constantly told by graduates that they learned more at Odyssey than they learned in years of workshopping and creative writing classes. The workshop helps you advance in your journey at a much accelerated rate.”

Cavelos notes that one of the big differences between Odyssey and some of the other workshops is that Odyssey offers an advanced, comprehensive curriculum covering the elements of fiction writing in depth. “With two hours of lecture/discussion each day (in addition to two hours of workshopping), Odyssey students learn the tools and techniques that make powerful writing,” Cavelos says. “While feedback can reveal a writer’s weaknesses, that writer can’t improve unless he has the tools to strengthen those weak areas.”

Published novelists who are Odyssey alumni include New York Times best-selling author Carrie Vaughn (eight books published by Warner/Grand Central, two from HarperTeen, four from Tor), Barbara Campbell (five books published by DAW), Lane Robins (sold two books to Del Rey and three to Ace), Elaine Isaak (two books sold to Harper and two to DAW), James Maxey (four books sold to Solaris Books), Rhiannon Held (three books to Tor), and Meagan Spooner (three books sold in an auction to Carolrhoda Lab and three books [co-written with Amie Kaufman] to Disney-Hyperion); in addition to this, Odyssey alumni have published over a thousand stories in a variety of anthologies and magazines, such as Asimov’s and Realms of Fantasy. Odyssey alumni have also won major writing awards, including the World Fantasy Award and the Nebula Award.

2012 Writer-in-Residence:  New York Times best-selling author Jeanne Kalogridis
2012 Guest Instructors: Paul Park, Elaine Isaak, Barbara Ashford, Craig Shaw Gardner, agent Jennifer Jackson

Tuition: $1920
Housing: $790 double room-$1580 single room
College Credit: Available ($450 processing fee)
Application Fee: $35.00 (non-refundable)
Application Deadline: April 7 (Jan. 31 for early admission)
Workshop Schedule: 6 weeks, June 11 – July 20
Location: Manchester, NH
Max # of Participants: 16
Founded: 1996
URL: http://www.odysseyworkshop.org

Uncle Orson’s Writing Class & Literary Boot Camp (Last updated: January 2011 for 2011 workshops)

Uncle Orson is none other than bestselling, multi-Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writer Orson Scott Card. He offers two options for prospective students: (1) attend the two-day writing class; or (2) attend the two-day writing class, then stay for the extended training provided by the boot camp.

“Uncle Orson’s Writing Class is a two-day combination of lectures and exercises for 50-100 writers, offering a total immersion in story structure, idea generation, and viewpoint—the most important yet least taught aspects of fiction writing,” Card said. “The Literary Boot Camp, for 10-15 writers, starts as part of the Writing Class; when all the others go home, the boot campers write a story in a single day, then read each other’s stories and workshop them with [me].”

Though Card is known for his science fiction writing, writers of any genre are welcome to attend. Boot Camp participants must provide a brief writing sample to be admitted to the course. For the Writing Workshop, no sample is necessary; anyone 18+ is welcome to attend.

Boot Camp success stories include author Mette Ivie Harrison, who sold two novels to Viking (a division of Penguin Putnam). Other graduates have sold fiction to Analog, Strange Horizons, and have been finalists in the Writers of the Future contest.

One of the workshop’s primary advantages is its short length and affordable pricing. “You don’t have to quit your job to attend,” Card said, “or get a second job in order to be able to pay for it.”

Due to increased interest in the bootcamp, Orson Scott card has decided to hold two different sessions in 2010. Details below.

Tuition (Writing Class): $175
Tuition (Boot Camp): $725 (includes cost of Writing Class)
Housing: varies
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: n/a
Application Deadline: May 27, 2011
Workshop Schedule: August 8-9 (Writing Class); August 8-13 (Boot Camp)
Location: Sheraton Four Seasons Hotel/Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, NC
Max # of Participants: 15 (for Boot Camp, unlimited for Writing Class)
Founded: 2001
URL: www.hatrack.com

Viable Paradise (Last updated: December 2010 for 2011 workshop)

Viable Paradise is a week-long residential SF/F workshop, set against the backdrop of Martha’s Vineyard. The workshop uses a rotating cycle of established professional writers and editors.

Instructor James D. Macdonald says that Viable Paradise fills the void between the one-day or one-weekend workshops and the six-week workshops. “The former can’t go into depth; the latter require more time than many people can take away from their jobs or home lives,” Macdonald said. “We are [also] one of the few workshops that deals with novels as well as short stories.”

Viable Paradise has a four to one student to instructor ratio, and the instructors and students both live in the same location. “Students get a great deal of individualized interaction with professional writers and acquiring editors, during and after formal class hours,” Macdonald said.

Viable Paradise graduates have been nominated for the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and have sold short fiction to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and have been reprinted in The Year’s Best Science Fiction (ed. Gardner Dozois). VP graduate Sandra McDonald recently received a two-book deal from Tor Books.

2011 instructors: James D. Macdonald, Debra Doyle, Sherwood Smith, Jay Lake, Elizabeth Bear, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Steven Gould

Tuition: $880
Housing: $175/night + tax or $155/night + tax
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: $25.00 (non-refundable)
Application Deadline: June 15, 2011
Workshop Schedule: October 9 – October 15
Location: Martha’s Vineyard, MA
Number of Participants: 24
Founded: 1995
URL: www.viableparadise.com

The Center for the Study of Science Fiction Workshops (Last updated: December 2009 for 2010 workshop)

The CSSF SF Writers Workshop is a two week workshop held annually at the University of Kansas. Students can expect to have three stories workshopped, and will revise one story for week two based on workshop feedback. Workshop directors James Gunn and Chris McKitterick critique student stories, along with contributions from a variety of authors and editors, which often includes luminaries such as Frederik Pohl and the winners of the Campbell and Sturgeon Awards (the awards are presented at The Campbell Conference, an academic forum that concludes the workshop).

McKitterick says that those who are just starting to publish or those who need that little bit extra to begin publishing will get the most out of the workshop, though all others are welcome to apply.

Gunn adds: “The rationale for our workshop, incidentally, has been that six weeks is a long time for many aspiring writers, particularly those with jobs or family responsibilities, and a weekend or a week is too short. Two weeks allows us to critique three already-written stories and revise one, and discuss craft or genre issues raised by the stories in hand, and even, when there is time, do an exercise or two in revision or focus on a particular aspect of writing or SF craft. Two things are essential to improvements in writing: feedback and revision.”

The Center also offers an SF Novel Writers Workshop, which runs concurrently with the short fiction workshop, and is led by Sturgeon Award-winning author Kij Johnson. Students can expect to have three-hours of manuscript critiquing each afternoon and the rest of the day for writing and/or recreation. All students are expected to revise at least one chapter and their novel’s outline during the course of the workshop.

About the novel workshop, Johnson says: ” The novel workshop is designed for beginning or newer novelists, though we have had several attendees with published novels. Writers submit three chapters and a working outline or synopsis for a novel in progress, and the workshop develops the materials through conventional workshopping, directed discussions, brainstorming sessions, and assignments. Most attendees leave with significant revisions or even new directions for their novels.”

The Campbell Conference, devoted to a single issue in science fiction, concludes the workshops, where the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award are presented. Gunn adds: “Some writers have stayed around to take our two-week intensive SF class that follows the Conference. This year we’re teaching the SF novel with a reading list of 25 novels.”

A number of writers who have studied under the tutelage of James Gunn have gone on not only to publish numerous stories and novels, but to win the field’s most prestigious awards. Among these are multiple award-winning authors Pat Cadigan, Bradley Denton, and John Kessel. Also, two graduates of the CSSF SF Writing Workshop won the grand prize in the Writers of the Future contest. Gunn notes that a story written for last summer’s workshop, K. C. Ball’s “Flotsam,” has been bought by Analog, and Kij Johnson’s “28 Monkeys, and the Abyss,” written for the workshop two years ago and published in Asimov’s, won the 2009 World Fantasy Award.

Tuition: $500
Housing: $266 – $532
College Credit: Available (to earn credit, add KU per-credit costs)
Application Fee: n/a
Application Deadline: June 1
Workshop Schedule: July 5-16 2010
Location: University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Number of Participants: 10-12
Founded: 1988 (with earlier incarnations going back to the mid ’70s)
URL: www.ku.edu/~sfcenter/courses.htm

Taos Toolbox (Last updated: December 2011 for 2012 workshop)

If Clarion or Odyssey is like a bachelor’s degree in writing science fiction and fantasy, then Taos Toolbox would be a master’s degree in the same. Author Walter Jon Williams–the administrator and primary instructor of the workshop, said of the program, “We’re looking for students who have already attended a major workshop, or who have sold a few stories and then stalled, or who want to reconnect with the workshop experience. We’re looking for students who have already learned the basics, and are ready to move to the next level.”

Taos Toolbox is almost unique in that it doesn’t deal exclusively with short stories, Williams said. “Though we’re happy to read short fiction, we welcome longer works as well. Much of our time is spent on teaching the students plotting and pacing, topics that most writing programs ignore completely. Students should leave the workshop with a better idea of how to structure fiction, to bring their characters into sharper focus, and to integrate the special subject matter of fantasy and SF into the narrative.”

Toolbox graduate Traci Castleberry said that writers who are near publishing but still missing something from their work, are ideal candidates for the workshop. “Or those that are perhaps post-Clarion or Odyssey that need a jump start to get going again, or those that have a novel or most of a novel and are stuck.”

Christopher Cevasco, another graduate of the inaugural class, said Taos Toolbox was everything he was hoping for and more. “In two weeks I acquired what felt like years’ worth of experience about the craft of novel writing,” he said. “Walter Jon Williams and Connie Willis were among the very best writing instructors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with–truly outstanding.”

Castleberry and Cevasco both also previously attended the Clarion Workshop. When asked to compare the two programs, Castleberry said, “Compared to Clarion, we worked equally hard, because our time was just as full with critiquing and coming up with something new to submit by the second week. The workshops themselves were similar, with lectures in the morning and critique circles in the afternoon.” Cevasco added: “Clarion [was] an invaluable experience focusing on short story writing. Taos was structured the same way and was every bit as valuable–basically it was like Clarion for novelists.”

2012 instructors: Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress, with special lecturer Daniel Abraham.

Tuition: $2900 (application received by Jan. 1); $3100 (application received by Feb. 1); $3300 (application received after Feb. 1)
Housing: included
Meals: included
College Credit: “We will do our best to cooperate, but you will have to arrange this with your university.”
Application Fee: $35
Application Deadline: “When the workshop fills, but the sooner the better.”
Workshop Schedule: July 10-23
Location: Taos Ski Valley, NM
Number of Participants: 18
Founded: 2007
URL: www.taostoolbox.com

Launch Pad (Last updated: January 2012, for the 2012 workshop)

Unlike Odyssey or Clarion, Launch Pad isn’t workshop for aspiring writers about writing, it’s a workshop for established writers about astronomy and science, says workshop director Mike Brotherton. “Clarion instructors are the applicant pool rather than those who would apply to Clarion,” he says. The workshop, which was funded by NASA for its first four years of existence, is now funded by The National Science Foundation. So the workshop is free, or nearly free, for attendees; Launch Pad even covers airfare for attendees who request it.

The workshop consists of a week-long crash course in modern astronomy that includes lecture, lab exercises, first-hand experiences with professional telescopes, and discussions about how to present scientific concepts effectively to general audiences. “Ideally we’re looking for writers with larger audiences who are looking to include more and more accurate astronomy in their work in the near future,” Brotherton says. “While science fiction writers are the majority of applicants, we’re also looking for writers/editors of all kinds who would benefit from this experience.”

Brotherton says that the workshop was sold to NASA based on the idea that it could help educate the public about space science and inspire future scientists by better educating the writers who reach the public.  “My background as both an astronomy professor and science fiction writer make this a natural marriage of my passions,” he says.

The workshop is held in Laramie, Wyoming. Most of the workshop activities will take place at a local university campus; lodging will be provided for students at university dorms.

2010 graduate Genevieve Valentine (author of Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti) says of the workshop experience: “Launch Pad is unique among SF writers’ workshops in that it doesn’t focus on writing—it’s more about pulsars, less about pacing. However, it’s an invaluable tool for SF writers: in addition to the academic benefits of an astronomy boot-camp, it helps to instill the same excitement and wonder about discovery that a good SF instills in the reader.”

The 2012 workshop will feature Geoffrey A. Landis as the guest instructor.

Brotherton says that Launch Pad is particularly interested in female and minority writers who have been historically under represented in the physical sciences and hard science fiction, though all are welcome to apply.

Tuition: Free
Housing: Provided
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: None
Application Deadline: March 31 (Applications open March 1)
Workshop Schedule: July 22-29
Location: Laramie, WY
Number of Participants: about 12-14
Founded: 2007
URL: www.launchpadworkshop.org

Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers (Last updated: December 2009 for 2010 workshop)

Alpha is a ten-day residency workshop restricted to young writers (ages 14 – 19). Workshop administrator Diane Turnshek says it’s designed to be a gentle introduction to workshopping. “It’s the only workshop of its kind in the world. Alpha is shorter than Clarion or Odyssey, just long enough to write a single new story,” she said.

Ideal for young beginners, Alpha takes the age of its participants into consideration, while still creating an intense learning experience. “We take a whole day for arrivals and getting to know each other and the campus. The obligatory manuscript format talk kicks off the ten-day workshop. Critiques of the submission story are done by email prior to the workshop,” Turnshek said. “Each student writes a new story and has it critiqued before they revise it, with step-by-step processes explained in small studio groups.” Four professional authors also participate in the workshop; they each attend for two days, and provide lectures and assist in the learning process.

The 2010 workshop will feature instructors Holly Black, Timothy Zahn, Tamora Pierce, and Mike Arnzen. Author Tamora Pierce has been at each workshop to date. Past instructors include Timothy Zahn, Harry Turtledove, Charles Coleman Finlay, Tobias S. Buckell, Catherine Asaro, Gregory Frost, Wen Spencer, Bruce Holland Rogers, Theodora Goss, Michael Arnzen, Leslie What, Christopher McKitterick, Lawrence C. Connolly, Timons Esaias, William Tenn, Carl Frederick, Michael Kandel, James Frenkel, and Sheila Williams.

Though all the participants are young, the extent of their experience—in both life and in writing—is quite varied. “We’ve had students who have never slept away from home before and ones who are summer camp junkies,” Turnshek said. “Some students have never been told their work is anything less than perfect; some have pro writer mentors and have been critiqued for years.”

After the workshop is concluded, the students attend Confluence, a small, literary science fiction convention of around three hundred people.

Alpha graduate Thomas Seay has sold to Realms of Fantasy and Boy’s Life. Fellow graduate Michail Velichansky won first place in the first quarter of the 2005 Writers of the Future contest, and was twice a finalist for the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Fantasy and Science Fiction Writing. Alpha students have sold to Fantasy Magazine, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Fantastic Stories, Corpse Blossoms, Aberrant Dreams, Clarkesworld, and Fantastical Visions and regularly sweep the Dell Magazine Awards.

Tuition: $995
Housing: Housing, Food, Local Transportation included with tuition
College Credit: n/a
Application Fee: $10
Application Deadline: March 1, 2010
Workshop Schedule: July 14-23, 2010
Location: University of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, PA (Branch Campus)
Founded: 2001
URL: alpha.spellcaster.org

Shared Worlds (Last updated: December 2010, for the 2011 workshop)

Shared Worlds is a two-week writing workshop for teen writers. Workshop director Jeremy L. C. Jones says that you could think of it as a “pre-Clarion.” “Clarion and Odyssey are pre-professional programs. Shared Worlds is as much about collaborative creativity as it is about creative writing. The program focuses on giving students the space and resources to work together, to build and create together. Sure, they have direct access to writers like Holly Black and Jeff VanderMeer, but I still think the thing that makes Shared Worlds unique is that we put creative, bright students together with other creative, bright students and we say, ‘All right folks, go build a world from the ground up.’ I’ve taught in a lot of classrooms – from elementary to college – and I’ve never seen a program that takes ‘student-centered’ and ‘interdisciplinary’ so much to heart. We have created an environment that encourages every student to bring his or her strengths to the table…and, at the same time, encourages students to test out and improve upon their weaknesses.”

One of the things Jones says he hears from parents time and time again is that the students feel like Shared Worlds offers them a chance to finally meet other young people just like them. “These are young people who think reading is cool. Who would rather go to the bookstore on a Saturday night than to a movie or the mall. These are kids who cheer when we take a field trip to a midnight book release,” Jones says. “I’ve taught in a high school, and I know how rare it is to be surrounded by people who get enthusiastic about reading and writing. (I wish that rarity weren’t so, but in my experiences it is true.) We wanted to create an environment where students felt like they could be themselves and bond with other students who were into the same stuff. I think we underestimated how powerful the experience would be for them. Students get a lot intellectual and creative freedom at Shared Worlds… Jeff VanderMeer calls this a ‘teen think tank’ and he is dead on! Shared Worlds is a place for students to get in a group and share ideas and negotiate and solve problems collaboratively. There’s a lot of room to experiment with idea in a safe and supportive environment. And the results really blow us away.”

Shared Worlds director Jeremy L. C. Jones says, “There really isn’t a camp like Shared Worlds anywhere. We compress a liberal arts education into two weeks, bring in professional writers, give the students the run of Wofford College’s educational resources, and… let the students take care of the grand business at hand: building an imaginary world and sharing it with their peers. I mean, come on! You get to build a whole world in two weeks! Your world, you and your peers. Pretty cool, no?”

Tuition: $2000 (early bird); $2,250 (paid after May 1)
Housing: included in tuition, on-campus housing in Wofford College residence halls
College Credit: N/A
Application Fee: N/A
Application Deadline: May 1, but will continue to admit afterward if space is available.
Workshop Schedule: July 17-30
Location: Spartanburg, SC @ Wofford College
Number of Participants: 30 (approximately)
Founded: 2008 by Jeremy L. C. Jones and Jeff VanderMeer
URL: http://www.wofford.edu/sharedworlds

______

This article originally appeared in Novel & Short Story Writer’s Market 2007. Entries are updated annually (with a notation indicating when updates are entered). If you are affiliated with one of these workshops, and you would like me to update the article, please contact me.

[Excerpt:] Writers choosing to specialize in writing science fiction, fantasy, and horror have a number of opportunities to study with luminaries in the field by participating in writers’ workshops. These workshops are in-depth examinations of a writer’s strengths and weaknesses, and force students to both write and critique the work of others a great deal. This provides for a rather intense experience, which is why this sort of workshop is often referred to as a “writer’s boot camp.”

In my role as assistant editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, I’ve seen the results of these workshops first hand. Some writers don’t show an appreciable increase in skill or craft right away (for some it takes a while for the lessons to sink in, and for some it never sinks in at all), but for others it’s as if their writing experienced a quantum leap–as if going to the workshop turned some key and unlocked their inner writer. While examples of the former are fairly common, examples of the latter are harder to come by.

But one such writer is David Marusek. He’s what you might call a poster child for workshopping success. “I attended Clarion West in Seattle in 1992 and sold two short stories that I wrote there. I sold one on the spot to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. I sold the other a month later to Playboy. These were my first ever fiction sales, and I have been publishing regularly, if not prolifically, ever since,” he said. Marusek’s stories have gone on to be lauded by both fans and critics alike, and in 1999, his story “The Wedding Album,” was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.

Before attending Clarion West, Marusek says that he had been writing for about seven years on his own, with no writing classes under his belt and only a few week-long workshops. He was collecting personalized rejections from editors, but he couldn’t seem to break into print. “In retrospect,” he said, “I believe I had taught myself the basic elements of the craft–characterization, plotting, dialog, etc.–but I still lacked that certain ineffable something that makes them all jell into a story. And that’s what I picked up at Clarion West.”

Read the whole article.
Tags: writing workshops science fiction fantasy

So, go to your local bookstore and check it out. Hell, buy a copy if you want to (though I don’t get royalties or anything, so I’m not going to beg).