Finally! It’s Out the Door

Posted on August 30, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

Whew!  I finally got a story I’ve been working on for the last month-and-a-half out the door.  For some reason, this story was particularly challenging to write.  I’m not sure why.  It was a “darkish” fantasy story, which is something I don’t normally write, but I don’t think that’s the reason.  I wrote it for a specific market—a themed anthology—but I’ve written for specific markets before, so I don’t think that’s it either. 

I think I simply didn’t have a good feel for where it was going or knew enough about the main character when I started.  I found myself meandering around as I searched for my way, which is not something I usually like to do when I write.  I find it a time-consuming way to construct a story (although I know several writers who can only write in this fashion).  I eventually found my way; the missing piece of the puzzle—a clearly-realized motivation for the main character—came in the next to last edit of the story.  From there it was all easy sailing…

I’m proud of the story, but happy it’s finished and finally out the door.  Hopefully the anthology I sent it to will also like it enough to buy it.  Now I can move on to other things, like the back log of stories in need of editing (at least two of them) and that in-progress time travel albatro…I mean story.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Killing Your Darlings

Posted on August 28, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

As part of my “training” to break into professional fiction writing, I routinely critique stories by other writers.  (I do this both when asked and when I read, but that’s fodder for another post.)  I recently critiqued a story in which the writer had included an anecdote from the main character’s past as back story.  The anecdote was based on a personal experience of the writer, which made it very important to him.  Yet, I couldn’t see the point of the anecdote in the story—it didn’t seem to advance the narrative arc, or develop the character or the setting, or provide any increased tension.  I suggested he cut it.  I could tell he was reluctant to do that.

I know exactly what he was going through.  Often I have pieces of stories that become personal favorites—nice turns-of-phrase, scenes that have more significance to me than they do to the story, characters I like.  It’s hard to cut these personal gems, even though as an author, I know they need to go if they don’t pull their weight.  Some people call it “killing your darlings.” 

What is especially difficult is I sometimes find myself in denial about them.  I rationalize their importance and find ways to justify their existence.  That’s where my fellow writers at Hopefull Monsters come in.  Coolly, coldly, they target my darlings for extermination unless I can justify their continued life.  If I can’t make them critical to the story, then they need to go, as hard as that may be.  Over the years, I’ve gotten better at cutting freeloading gems; in fact I can see the difference between the stories I published two years and the ones I’ve recently sold.  Ruthless vigilance is the key, along with a good writing group to call me out whenever I go soft.

Posted in Hopefull Monsters, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Elusiveness of Memory

Posted on August 25, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

Yesterday morning  my daughter asked me what I remembered about elementary school.  I hadn’t actually given it much thought before, but I was surprised how little I actually could remember.  I recall a few things that I can place in specific grades, like taking my nap under my desk in kindergarten, but mostly I remember disjointed things that could have happened anywhere and anytime.  I remember third grade the best, but even that is limited to three concrete memories: (1) Mrs. Forbes was my teacher, (2) she read us a book, which I think was called Ten Weeks With a Circus and the whole class cried when the monkey got shot out of a tree, and (3) I wrote my first short story as a class assignment, a mystery-thriller (of sorts) called “The Spooky House”.  That assignment is what hooked me for life on fiction writing.  I still have the story, which is amazing considering how much I’ve moved around in my life.

I know early childhood memories are fuzzy at best for most adults, but I find it amazing how elusive those memories have become for me.  It’s almost as if that part of my life never happened (how very Philip K. Dick).  I’m amazed how these forgotten, formative years, are what lay down the foundation for who we are as an adult.  While I may not remember much about my elementary school years, those things are what made me what I am today.  Actually, I find that incredibly interesting.

I wonder how much of what my daughter is experiencing now—all these things that are real and immediate to her—will she remember when she’s all grown up.  Which of these early childhood memories about school, friends, and me will she still have in thirty years?  Hmmm…I wish I had time machine; I don’t want to wait that long.

Posted in Inspiration, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ten Down and It’s Only August

Posted on August 23, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

Recently I hit the first of my annual writing targets when I made my fortieth story submission.  Over the weekend I hit a second of my goals by completing and submitting my tenth short story of the year, a piece called “Time Debt” (fingers crossed it sells quickly). 

While ten stories are not much output for eight-and-a-half months of writing, it’s more than I’ve managed to produce before.  I know I need to write and (more importantly) finish more stories if I’m ever going to succeed as a full-time writer.  Considering I only have an hour or so a day in which to write, I’m pleased with that output…for now.  Extrapolating out to the end of the year, I should finish around fifteen stories at my current writing pace.

This year has been a pleasant learning experience.  I really had no idea what would be good targets for my goals, so I took a stab in the dark and set targets that I thought were achievable.  I’m finding that I aimed a little low.  The optimist in me says this is a pleasant surprise: I’ve exceeded what I thought I could do.  The pessimist in me says I have a pretty low opinion of what I can do.  Good thing I’m an optimist.  At least I know that for next year I can increase the targets for all my goals, especially for the number of stories completed.  I’m thinking that twenty-five story challenge might just be in order…

Posted in Goals, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Three Cheers for Hitting Forty

Posted on August 21, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

I wanted to get serious about my writing this year, so I set writing goals back in January (I’m a goal-oriented person).  I developed four goals and what I thought were realistic targets for each:

  1. Write and/or edit at least 500 words per day
  2. Finish the novel I started last year
  3. Finish at least ten short stories
  4. Make at least forty story submissions or four sales

This week, I officially met one of my goals: on Wednesday, I mailed out my fortieth story submission.  In fact, I’m now sitting at  forty-two submissions for 2011.  While I’d much rather have reached my goal of four story sales—I’m holding steady at three sales so far this year—getting forty submissions is a nice accomplishment and good start.  After all, you can’t sell a piece if you don’t submit it.

I’ve still got time to make that fourth (and fifth and sixth…) sale.  At my current pace I should hit about sixty submissions this year.  Not bad.  Assuming I keep my current sales-rate (~7.5%), I should make about five sales this year.  That’s a bit of a sobering number (to say the least) for someone with aspirations to be a professional writer, but five sales would actually be the best publishing year of my life.  It will also give me something solid to build on for next year.

Posted in Goals, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Inspiration: “Memories of Childhood”

Posted on August 18, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

The podcast of “Memories of Childhood” recently went live at Nil Desperandum, but I wrote this story many years ago.  After it was published by OG’s Speculative Fiction in 2009, several people asked me how much of it was based on my past.  Certainly, some of Rob’s memories in the story are my own, but then again, part of me is in every character I create—how can it be any different?

“Memories of Childhood” wasn’t inspired by any single thing.  Instead, it was inspired by a general feeling of paranoia that seemed to grip the U.S. in the mid-aughts.  I had lived for many years outside the U.S. proper (effectively), so I must have been a little out of touch with the pulse of the country.  On a visit to the continental U.S. (the “Lower 48” as my mom likes to call it), I remember the palpable tension that seemed to run through…well, everything.  The country was mired in what seemed like a permanent orange/red Threat Level and many people seemed happy to trade away their individuals freedoms for any sense of security (even if that security seemed illusory to me).  The material support provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act were also in the forefront of the national consciousness. 

The purpose that trip was to go home—and yes, I spent part of my childhood in western New York.  It was surreal in many ways to travel through the landscape of my youth, now overlain with the tense…hysteria.  The contrast of the two—the happy memories of my childhood versus the present day fear—really struck me.  All of these things played a role in “Memories of Childhood”.

If you have the chance, head over to OG’s Speculative Fiction and read my story, or if you prefer to listen, check out the podcast at Nil Desperandum.  I hope you enjoy the trip down my Memory Avenue.

Posted in Inspiration, Science Fiction, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hearing My Own Words: “Memories of Childhood” Podcast

Posted on August 16, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

I was pleasantly surprised when I got an email yesterday from Jim Phillips, the editor at Nil Desperandum, telling me the podcast of my story “Memories of Childhood” was now available.  This story, which original appeared in OG’s Speculative Fiction waaaaaay back in 2009, is the first time I’ve had one of my pieces made into an audio production.

I must admit, I listened to the podcast last night with a some trepidation.  I simply didn’t know what to expect for two reason.  First, I’m used to seeing my words on the page, so I was curious how the “read” word would translate to the “heard” word.  I think some parts of “Memories of Childhood” translated well, whereas others did not.  I’ll have to keep that in mind in the future.  Second, when I write a story, it gets read over and over in my head (I even read it aloud to myself), so I have already heard the story aloud many times, but in my own “mental” voice.  I know I read in a certain way, and that’s the only way I’ve ever “heard” my stories, so I didn’t know what it would sound like read by someone else.  After listening to it—and ignoring my extremely out-of-date and cringe-worthy bio—I’m pleased with the job Nil Desperandum has done with my story.

While reader Riki Robinson’s voice doesn’t match my mental voice—Mr. Robinson reads much faster than I do and has different vocal inflections—I think he did a good job with the story.  It’s with no disrespect to him, however, that I confess to liking my own reading of it better, but I guess that’s to be expected. 

So head over to Nil Desperandum and give “Memories of Childhood” a listen, and if the inspiration strikes you, leave a comment.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Memories of Childhood” Hits the Airwaves

Posted on August 15, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

Jim Phillips, editor of Nil Desperandum, just dropped me an email to tell me that the podcast of “Memories of Childhood” is available.  I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I’m looking forward to checking it out later today.  If you have the time (even if you don’t), head over and check it out.

Posted in Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Title Me Thus, Sayeth Gomorrah

Posted on August 14, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

Titles fascinating me, partly because I find them extremely challenging to write—either a title comes to me in a shot of inspiration, or no amount of wringing the ol’ grey-matter brings one—but also because they come in so many forms, from the mundane to the bizarre. 

Colum Paget, a member of my writing group, Hopefull Monsters **subliminal message*go read his fiction*subliminal message** elegantly sums up story titles with what I’ll call the “C. J. Paget Title Classification Scheme” (What science nerd doesn’t love a good classification scheme!)  Colum breaks titles into two main types:

Type 1.  These titles state exactly what the story contains.  Sometimes they are direct—Snakes on a Plane would be the epitome of a direct Type 1 title, but so would “A Walk in the Sun”, “The Lottery”, and Ringworld—but other times they contain words that send well-established “signals” to the reader about the type of story that follows.  For example, many vampire stories have “blood” in the title.  If you’re interested, Tor.com published an interesting article about common words in novel titles; you can you read it here.

 Type 2.  Colum calls these “WTF Titles”.  These titles rarely give a clear signal about a story, but are so comical, lyrical or bizarre that they catch a reader’s attention.  Titles like “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones”, “‘Repent Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”, and “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” are good examples.  This type of title seemed to gain popularity with the New Wave writers of the 1960s.  They also seem more common in short fiction than in long.

Personally I think I favor Type 2 titles, as my publication list might suggest.  I’m not sure why, but these titles simply appeal to me.  Perhaps it’s because I grew up reading the New Wave writers of the 1960s, and I couldn’t resist reading a book called Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand or Left Hand of Darkness or a short story called “The Doors of his Face, the Lamps of His Mouth” or “I have No Mouth, and I Must Scream”.  Now, if only I could consistently come up with great titles like these…

Posted in Hopefull Monsters, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hot Mustard—I’m in There!

Posted on August 11, 2011 by D. Thomas Minton

I stumbled across the Internet Speculative Fiction Database recently while exploring the vast reaches of the interweb.  I hadn’t heard of it before, so I checked it out.  Like any moderately vain person, I typed my own name into it and—lo and behold!—I was in it.  (If you’re interested, which I know you are, here’s my page.)   

My entry is not much to look at—it’s missing some of my published fiction—but the fact that it lists anything for me absolutely blows my mind.  Curious about the site, I did some research (thank you, Wikipedia) and found that it has its foundations back in the days of usenet (anyone else remember that?).  It found its way to the internet in 1995, and Cory Doctrow gave it high praise when he called it “[t]he best all-round guide to things science-fictional” way back in 1998.  It contains over 70,000 authors and nearly half-a-million story titles and gets over 32,000 visitors a month.  I find it amazing that this site has been around for over fifteen years, yet I’ve never seen it before.  Just goes to show you how much I need to get out more. 

What amazes me even more is that it’s maintained by volunteers, so people are cruising the nebulous reaches of cyberspace compiling published spec-fic stories and regularly updating this database.  That must be remarkable time consuming, especially considering the number of semi-pro and token spec-fic markets it seems to include.  That might be made easier because it looks like just about anyone can do it.  I’ll have to look into it.  It would great to get my own information updated.  While it doesn’t get a lot of visitors realtively speaking, 32,000  hits a month is nothing to scoff at.  If it helps even a half-dozen potential readers find my fiction or my website, it can’t be a bad thing.

If you haven’t visited the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and you are science fiction, fantasy, or horror fan, I recommend you hop over there.  It looks like a great resource for tracking down those obscure stories by your favorite (or maybe new) authors.

Posted in Science Fiction, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment