I first learned of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series from my high school math teacher. She and her husband, both of them science fiction fans, had been thrilled when Ballantine Books began releasing new paperback versions of the books. I'd read Tarzan of the Apes and The Outlaw of Torn already, so I wasn't a complete stranger to Burroughs' stories. I was intrigued by what my teacher told me about the Mars series and readily accepted when she offered to let me borrow A Princess of Mars. The following weekend, with nothing better to do, I opened the book and began reading.
First published 100 years ago with the title Under the Moons of Mars, I'm absolutely positive Burroughs had teenage boys in mind when he wrote the book. First, the world is absolutely chock full of beautiful women. Beautiful, naked women. The stories are a mix of science fiction technology -- such as the wonderful flying ships all the human races of Mars use -- and the swashbuckling excitement of ringing steel as heroes and villains cross blades with the fate of a world or, equally as important, the fate of a lovely (naked!) woman hanging in the balance. Strange, alien races with strange, alien cultures aid and hinder John Carter, gentleman of Virginia, mighty warrior of Mars, and hero of the story. What more could a teenage boy ask for? I finished the book in one day.
As luck would have it, I discovered on Monday that one of the few fellow science fiction fans in my high school had brought his two-in-one Science Fiction Book Club edition of the second and third books in the Mars series. He ended up loaning me the next six books, none of which took me more than a day to devour. That's not a particularly impressive feat as the books are fairly short, but I'd never felt so compelled by any series of books prior to these.
Put simply, I love the John Carter books. Yes, they're formulaic and lacking in any kind of humor. But they're also exciting and imaginative and, along with The Lords of the Rings which I read a few months later, the first books I really, seriously wanted to be true. So you can imagine what I felt when I heard Disney was finally going to bring John Carter to the big screen.
Trepidation. Excitement. High hopes. Low expectations.
The movie opens on Mars, Barsoom as it is known to its native races, a place the book did not take readers for several chapters. In this case, the opening sets the conflict into which John Carter will be thrust when he arrives on the planet. The city of Zodanga is conquering the entire planet. For hundreds of years, only the mighty forces of Helium stood firm against Zodanga, keeping their power in check. But now the Jeddak (the king or ruler) of Zodanga has powerful allies; strange, bald men who control great power and place some of that power in the Zodangan Jeddak's hands. With this power -- and the advice of the lead bald guy -- Zodanga will be unstoppable.
I suppose that could be considered a spoiler, but it all comes out in the first few minutes of the movie, so it's not much of a spoiler. There are actual spoilers in the next few paragraphs. Skip ahead to the "End spoilers" line if you don't want to read them.
The movie follows the novel's storyline, at least in fairly broad strokes. John Carter heads out west looking for gold and stumbles across a strange cave from which he ends up being transported to Mars. He meets and is captured by the wild green Martian tribe, the Tharks. The princess Dejah Thoris is captured by the Tharks after her airship is attacked and destroyed. John Carter escapes with the princess and the young, female green Martian, Sola, who is one of the few among her race who feels compassion.
As John Carter and Dejah Thoris begin to fall in love, our hero battles Warhoons, a different tribe of green Martians, before ending up in a place of honor in the city of Zodanga. There, Carter learns that Dejah Thoris has agreed to marry the Jeddak of Zodanga, hoping it will bring peace and allow her beloved city of Helium to survive. Determined to stop the wedding, John Carter escapes from Zodanga, journeys back to the Tharks, and enlists their aid in his cause. The Tharks attack Zodanga then move on to Helium, arriving just in time to help defend Helium against the forces of Zodanga. After defeating the Zodangans, John Carter and Dejah Thoris are married. Alas, their happiness is not eternal, as John Carter is returned to Earth where he spends his days trying to get back to Mars and the woman he loves.
Within those broadly stroked events, there are significant differences in the details of the movie compared to the details of the novel.
John Carter is a straight-forward man of action. That's what he was in the books and it's what he is in the movie. I think the movie John Carter starts out a bit more dim than the one in the books, but he gets smarter as the movie goes on. As did Boroughs in the books, the movie makes great use of Carter's amazing jumping abilities (Mars has one third the gravity of Earth). The movie John Carter turns out to have been married prior to the Civil War. During the war, his wife and child were killed; something which is used solely to draw out Carter's willingness to commit himself to Dejah Thoris and her cause. That bit was totally superfluous and something I think should have been left out.
In a move that didn't surprise me one bit, Dejah Thoris is both a beautiful warrior woman and a brilliant woman of science. In fact, she's a Regent at the Helium Academy of Science or something like that. This is a particularly tiresome thing Hollywood does any time they have a female lead character created prior to the feminist movement. That's why the Fantastic Four had Dr. Susan Storm, the Avengers (the British spies, not the American superhero team) had Dr. Emma Peel, the X-Men had Dr. Jean Grey, and, I assume, if someone ever does a movie based on the TV series I Love Lucy, we will have Dr. Lucy Ricardo (surely soon to be followed by Dr. Mary Tyler Moore). It seems that it is no longer enough for a woman to be brave, intelligent, and heroic. She must also be a brilliant scientist or lawyer or some such (no pressure, there, ladies). So, we get the brilliant Dejah Thoris, who John Carter calls "Professor" several times during the movie. Other than this bit, though, I think the movie did a good job of capturing Dejah Thoris, even if she isn't called "incomparable" even once.
But the truly major change from the book to the movie is in the source of the conflict between Zodanga and Helium. Burroughs pretty specifically spells out that all the races of Mars live for war. It's like a sport or a hobby to them. One nation is always fighting another nation and no one seems to really need a reason other than this love of war. In the movie, there is no mention of this aggressive side of Martian culture. Instead, it is the city of Zodanga that wages a war of conquest all across Mars, crushing every presumably peace-loving Martian nation in its path. It is this centuries-long war which draws in the great difference between book and movie.
The great power wielded by the Jeddak of Zodanga has been given to him by a bunch of planet-hopping, shape-shifting bald guys. We never really learn exactly who these guys are, though they are referred to as "Holy Therns" at one point. Therns are the white race John Carter eventually discovers on Mars and they are bald, but the bald guys in the movie are not native to Mars. Still, I'm going to refer to them as "Therns" for simplicity.
The Therns not only provide great power to the enemy of Helium, they also provide the method for John Carter to get from Earth to Mars. This is one change I rather approve of. In the book, there is an unexplained, mystical something which allows Carter to break free of his mortal body while, somehow, still having a mortal body. In this strange state, Carter can travel to Mars simply by willing himself to do so. It's really rather silly, when you get down to it. In the movie, Carter stumbles across one of the Therns' secret transfer points, gets hold of the alien technology used by the Therns to travel between worlds, and next thing you know he's on Mars.
Once on Mars, the movie jumps -- usually on the strength of John Carter's legs -- from action scene to action scene. There is enough time taken between action scenes to explain more or less what's going on, but it's not like you really need any kind of deep explanation. John Carter originally just wants to go home and, being short a set of ruby slippers, needs "Professor" Dejah Thoris to figure out how to use the device which brought him to Mars in the first place. Along the way, the two begin to fall in love. With the growing love, Carter's goal changes from returning to Earth to stopping the princess from marrying the Jeddak of Zodanga. Dejah Thoris is doing this to save Helium from being destroyed by Zodanga.
The wedding, of course, turns out to be a ruse by the Zodangans. While all of Helium is distracted by the wedding, the Zodangan forces attack. John Carter arrives in the nick of time, followed by an army of green Martians led by Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of the Tharks. We get a nice, big, movie-ending battle from which the primary Thern escapes when it becomes obvious the good guys are going to win. John Carter and Dejah Thoris are married but everyone does not quite live happily ever after because the head Thern sends John Carter back to Earth on his wedding night (though not until after John and Dejah get some off-camera time in the sleeping furs). Still, though, the movie is not quite over. John Carter dedicates his life to finding another Thern planet-hopping device so he can return to Mars. His scheme for getting one turns out to be rather clever, in my opinion. The movie ends with Carter triggering the device. Roll credits.
End spoilers.
At the beginning of this review, I professed my love for the series of novels. So, what did a Burroughs fan such as myself think of the movie? Like many epic-scale action movies, I can find many faults with the movie. It has plot holes. It has things I wish had been done differently. But I can say that about many other movies, including the original Star Wars and the most recent Star Trek movie. The faults in those movies didn't stop me from thoroughly enjoying them, just as the faults in John Carter don't stop me from thoroughly enjoying it.
The action scenes in John Carter are well done and generally quite exciting. The characters are likable and the script brings a sense of humor to the story which had not a single humorous line within the pages of the original novel. I watched the movie with a friend who also has a love for the Mars series. He found the movie quite as enjoyable as I did. The Boy, who only knows about John Carter because I've told him about the series, liked the movie, as well. More importantly, at the end of the movie, there was actual applause from the audience. I wouldn't need all ten of my fingers to count the number of times I've heard actual applause after a movie ended. It's worth noting, most of those movies had Star Wars or Star Trek in their titles.
John Carter has its blemishes, including the poorly selected title (I think A Princess of Mars would have been a far superior title), but the sheer sense of fun I felt watching the movie more than made up for those blemishes. I wish the movie was bringing in more money, because this Barsoom is a place I'd like to visit again.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Slush Pile Survival Guide
The Cover Letter
I'm curious. Where do writers get their sometimes very peculiar notions about what makes a good cover letter?
After seeing somewhat more than a thousand cover letters, I must be honest: I no longer read them. The very first thing we do when we receive a new submission is separate the story from the cover letter. The cover letter gets filed, in case we need to refer to it later, and only the story goes on, naked and alone, to meet the first-readers and reviewers.
Frankly, considering most of the cover letters I've seen, this practice is very much to the story's advantage.
For the record, I have never bought a so-so story because it came behind a great cover letter, but I can readily imagine that there are a lot of really great stories floating around out there that have never been published, because they habitually arrive in editor's offices wearing truly godawful ugly cover letters.
Some things to avoid:
* Don't send me your entire c.v. I don't care where you went to school and I'm not buying your publishing history. I'm only interested in buying or not buying this story. In the case of flash fiction in particular, we've actually seen cover letters that were longer than the attached story.
If you have a publication history, great. List your two or three most significant—or most recent—publications. Anything more than five is overkill.
* Don't list an alphabet soup of writer's organizations to which you belong. Some are germane—i.e., SFWA, HWA, and a few others—but if you list everything down to the writer's group that meets at your local library every second Tuesday, this suggests to us that you're more interested in socializing and talking about being a writer than in actually writing.
* Don't presume a jocular familiarity. Don't assume that because the publication is named Stupefying Stories, that we're all a bunch of gonzo wild 'n' crazy kids. Using the insultingly humorous form of address, in particular, just makes us want to kick you. But since we can't get to you, we'll abuse your story instead.
* Don't send us a synopsis of the story we're about to read. All a synopsis can do is take away our interest in actually reading the story. More than anything else, you want the editor to read your story.
* Finally—and this one really baffles me, but someone out there must be saying that doing this is a good idea, because we see it so often—don't send me a paragraph of advertising copy telling me how exciting (or breathtaking, ground-breaking, intriguing, heart-warming, side-splitting, bone-chilling, or whatever) the story I am about to read is. Anything a writer writes about his or her own work in the third-person is apt to be pure marketing b.s., and we both know it, so just stop it right now. Capisce?
Hope this helps. Will write more next week.
~brb
Sunday, March 11, 2012
And the winner is...
...and we're back from MarsCon, where we had the pleasures of having lunch with old friend, Stupefying Stories author, and sometimes Friday Challenge contributor Guy Stewart; of finally getting to meet and have a good long chat with new friends Roy C. Booth and R. Thomas Riley, whose co-authored work will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Stupefying Stories; and the supremely weird experience of showing up for a reading by [NAME WITHHELD], only to find that he'd had to cancel out of attending the con but no one had thought to post the schedule change where any fans could see it. So there I was, in a room full of people eagerly expecting a reading by [NAME WITHHELD], and it just so happened I had the final copy-edited manuscript of his very latest next-to-be-published story right there in my hands...
It was a promotional opportunity not to be missed, and I didn't miss it. I am so shameless, sometimes.
Anyway, it was the usual fun but exhausting experience, and now we're back, and I'm ready to pick the winner in the long-delayed 2/17/12 Friday Challenge: "And now for something completely different...
Looking at the entries received:
Spambot!, The Slow Butcher, Diamonds Are for Ebert, and General Tso's Chicken, all by Anatoly Belilovsky
The Trouble with Zonde Begaan (or Voyage to Atlantis) by Nicholas Whitley
Let's be honest. Anatoly, all your entries are one-liners, and some of them (i.e., "The Slow Butcher") are even older than I am. Nicholas, on the other hand, has fulfilled the requirements for the original challenge and produced an actual outline for a possibly unwritable novel—but nonetheless an actual novel, complete with beginning, middle, and end, complete with gobs of impossible and confusing character and plot development. Therefore, I decree Nicholas Whitley to be the winner of the 2/17/12 Friday Challenge!
Thanks for participating, and now, on to the current challenge, which is already in progress.
Cheers,
~brb
It was a promotional opportunity not to be missed, and I didn't miss it. I am so shameless, sometimes.
Anyway, it was the usual fun but exhausting experience, and now we're back, and I'm ready to pick the winner in the long-delayed 2/17/12 Friday Challenge: "And now for something completely different...
Looking at the entries received:
Spambot!, The Slow Butcher, Diamonds Are for Ebert, and General Tso's Chicken, all by Anatoly Belilovsky
The Trouble with Zonde Begaan (or Voyage to Atlantis) by Nicholas Whitley
Let's be honest. Anatoly, all your entries are one-liners, and some of them (i.e., "The Slow Butcher") are even older than I am. Nicholas, on the other hand, has fulfilled the requirements for the original challenge and produced an actual outline for a possibly unwritable novel—but nonetheless an actual novel, complete with beginning, middle, and end, complete with gobs of impossible and confusing character and plot development. Therefore, I decree Nicholas Whitley to be the winner of the 2/17/12 Friday Challenge!
Thanks for participating, and now, on to the current challenge, which is already in progress.
Cheers,
~brb
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Open Mic Saturday
Good morning all, and welcome to Open Mic Saturday. This is the place to share your news and perhaps do a little bragging. If you're writing a novel: how much progress did you make this week? If you're writing short stories: did you finish anything or submit anything this week? If you've sold or published anything recently, when is it coming out and where can we find it? In short, as a writer, what kind of progress did you make this week?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Friday, March 9, 2012
The Friday Challenge - 3/9/2012
Hi, Bruce Bethke here, stepping in today to try to shake things up a little. This week we're going to lead off with a new and different kind of Friday Challenge, and it's one I call:
For the past few months I've been off working in another part of the Rampant Loon Press vineyard, putting most of my time and energy into getting STUPEFYING STORIES up and running. I couldn't have done it—we couldn't have done it—without an incredible amount of help given very generously by Marc, Henry, Beth, Vidad, Karen, and a whole lot of other people I'm not going to name right now for fear of turning this into an Academy Awards acceptance speech, but in the final analysis, the one thing that's really struck home in these past months is the realization that ultimately, the responsibility rests on me.
It is not always possible to reach a clear consensus. I can delegate to, enable, and empower other people all I want, but at the end of the day, I am the one who has to make the final decisions. Making decisions is not always fun, either, especially when you're doing the kind of hair-splitting sometimes needed to decide whether to accept or reject a story—but when you're the editor-in-chief, you are the judge, jury, appeals court of last resort, and executioner.
So for this week's Friday Challenge, I want you to try on my size-11 shoes for a change. There is a story posted at this link:
I want you to imagine that you are the editor-in-chief, and this story has just shown up in your in-basket.
What do you do with it? Accept it? Reject it? If it's a reject, can the story be salvaged with a rewrite, and if so, what would you want to see fixed? It's easy to give something a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down, but I'd rather you explained your reasons why this story should see one fate or the other.
You have one week. Put your response in the Comments thread on this post, and let's all meet back here next Friday to compare answers. Have fun!
And now, on to other business...
This Week in The Friday Challenge
It's been a slow week, here in The Friday Challenge.
Kersley Fitzgerald writes about the philosophy of ethics. Join the discussion...
Allan Davis celebrates a new job, while mourning the apparent death of his wife's laptop. Join the discussion...
And we still haven't picked a winner in the 2/17/12 Friday Challenge, "Moving Right Along / “And now for something completely different...”, so to reiterate:
As of this morning, we have received the following entries for our current challenge:
- The Trouble with Zonde Begaan (or Voyage to Atlantis) by Nicholas Whitley
- Spambot!, The Slow Butcher, Diamonds Are for Ebert, and General Tso's Chicken, all by Anatoly Belilovsky
Whither The Friday Challenge?
In response to the 3/2/12 rhetorical challenge, there's been some behind-the-scenes discussion, but not much overt action....yet. The most important development you'll find if you look around the site today isn't even here; it's over on the Yahoo file-sharing site. We finally found the keys to the fridge, and we've cleaned out all files older than January 2012. That alone should make the thing much easier to use. But on a related note: realistically, do we need a password-protected file-sharing site? The original reason why we set it up was because some participants were afraid that posting their Friday Challenge entries on publicly viewable web or blog sites would jeopardize their prospects for later selling stories developed from Friday Challenge entries.
Honestly, now: is this really a significant concern?
The lines are open. Your thoughts, comments, observations, and opinions are welcome.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Critical Thinking
The Philosophy of Ethics
So, I've been writing these articles for work on the philosophy of ethics. First of all, philosophers are nuts. How do they come up with some of this stuff?
Second of all, it's interesting the relationship sci fi has with ethics. Maybe it's because a whole new, made-up environment gives us the opportunity to go beyond setting and contemplate the human condition, as well.
In fact, I accidentally explored that in a story that may be coming out soon in Stupefying Stories. In it, humans have to learn how to get along with aliens who appear to have only superficial differences (they're giant frogs), but actually live based on an ethical philosophy that is just different enough that it drives the humans nuts.
Star Trek, of course, was a great one for contemplating ethical theories. Everyone knows the Vulcan basis for ethics, but some may not know it is the definition of egalitarian consequentialism. Most know the Ferengi's Rules of Acquisitions—deontology at its finest. Even the Borg display mohist consequentialism. And the Prime Directive is classic cultural relativism.
Coming up with basic theories of ethics for societies and individuals is a great way to add tension to a plot, but it can also inform the characters of plot-based writers. If you want your character to be more than someone who gets the plot from point A to point B, it helps to know how he would act in a situation. Back-story is great, but it doesn't necessarily determine reaction. Knowing the ethical theory of a minor character can also help know how they will aid or frustrate your protagonist.
How have you used ethical theories in writing? What schools of ethics have you seen in others' writing? How did it work?
Kersley Fitzgerald is a writer who thinks the coolest thing she found out about the philosophy of ethics is that The Matrix is based on Blaise Pascal.
So, I've been writing these articles for work on the philosophy of ethics. First of all, philosophers are nuts. How do they come up with some of this stuff?
Second of all, it's interesting the relationship sci fi has with ethics. Maybe it's because a whole new, made-up environment gives us the opportunity to go beyond setting and contemplate the human condition, as well.
In fact, I accidentally explored that in a story that may be coming out soon in Stupefying Stories. In it, humans have to learn how to get along with aliens who appear to have only superficial differences (they're giant frogs), but actually live based on an ethical philosophy that is just different enough that it drives the humans nuts.
Star Trek, of course, was a great one for contemplating ethical theories. Everyone knows the Vulcan basis for ethics, but some may not know it is the definition of egalitarian consequentialism. Most know the Ferengi's Rules of Acquisitions—deontology at its finest. Even the Borg display mohist consequentialism. And the Prime Directive is classic cultural relativism.
Coming up with basic theories of ethics for societies and individuals is a great way to add tension to a plot, but it can also inform the characters of plot-based writers. If you want your character to be more than someone who gets the plot from point A to point B, it helps to know how he would act in a situation. Back-story is great, but it doesn't necessarily determine reaction. Knowing the ethical theory of a minor character can also help know how they will aid or frustrate your protagonist.
How have you used ethical theories in writing? What schools of ethics have you seen in others' writing? How did it work?
Kersley Fitzgerald is a writer who thinks the coolest thing she found out about the philosophy of ethics is that The Matrix is based on Blaise Pascal.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Open Mic Saturday
Good morning all, and welcome to Open Mic Saturday. This is the place to share your news and perhaps do a little bragging. If you're writing a novel: how much progress did you make this week? If you're writing short stories: did you finish anything or submit anything this week? If you've sold or published anything recently, when is it coming out and where can we find it? In short, as a writer, what kind of progress did you make this week?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Friday, March 2, 2012
The Friday Challenge — 3/2/2012
This past two weeks in The Friday Challenge:
M receives a visit from his wife's family, and defers the action for a week. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke spreads rumors of a reboot, and ponders the necessity of such things. • Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald discusses the problematic “middle ground.” • Join the discussion...
Henry Vogel gives a flip answer... then follows it up with a completely serious, lengthy exposition. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke is uncomfortable laughing at televised stereotypes. Perhaps the secret involves picturing members of TFC in place of the cast members? • Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald discusses the impact of POV, and why sometimes a story is more powerful if you choose the “wrong” one. • Join the discussion...
Nicholas Whitley wins our “What a twit!” challenge, by default... and to the best of our knowledge, he is still at large. • Join the discussion...
All this and more, as Old Stuff Day prompts us to do something other than the “same old stuff,” and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
Moving Right Along / “And now for something completely different...”
As of this morning, we have received the following entries for our current challenge:
Given the delay, and the nature of their respective entries, we'll go with a previous suggestion: Both of them should walk the plank.
A Challenging Proposal
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, inflicted by M:
Participation has been dropping off. Early last year we started strong (pent up energy!) and rode the wave for a few months, until the summer slump was followed by an autumn malaise, and then a winter freeze.
Now, we all know that there will be an ebb and flow to your involvement. Frankly, we hope that the current diminished participation in the challenges is a sign that you are all busily sending out your material to paying markets.
But it is a little disappointing, week to week, to see an individual excitedly propose a challenge, only to be met with a “Thunderdome” scenario, or worse, a solitary response.
While our visible online numbers have been dwindling, the face-to-face writers' group in which I participate has been experiencing explosive growth! Some of the participants there have also entered — and even proposed — challenges here, so the lack of online involvement isn't from lack of interest in writing, or obtaining feedback.
That leads me to think that it might be the challenge process itself. Over the past few years, we've varied between a rotating challenge proposal mechanism, to a system of proposals administered by a governing body, and back again. Is it time to adjust the mechanism, or our expectations?
Your challenge this week is to explain what sort of challenges would grab your interest, and how you would like to see them delivered. Continue with a rotating catbird seat? Shift the burden to a few dedicated individuals? Institute a subscription list for challenges, and consider the entries as Stupefying Stories submissions? Stuff an extra seventy-two hours into each week, so you'll have time to write?
Anyone can enter, with no restrictions.
M receives a visit from his wife's family, and defers the action for a week. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke spreads rumors of a reboot, and ponders the necessity of such things. • Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald discusses the problematic “middle ground.” • Join the discussion...
Henry Vogel gives a flip answer... then follows it up with a completely serious, lengthy exposition. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke is uncomfortable laughing at televised stereotypes. Perhaps the secret involves picturing members of TFC in place of the cast members? • Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald discusses the impact of POV, and why sometimes a story is more powerful if you choose the “wrong” one. • Join the discussion...
Nicholas Whitley wins our “What a twit!” challenge, by default... and to the best of our knowledge, he is still at large. • Join the discussion...
All this and more, as Old Stuff Day prompts us to do something other than the “same old stuff,” and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
Moving Right Along / “And now for something completely different...”
As of this morning, we have received the following entries for our current challenge:
- The Trouble with Zonde Begaan (or Voyage to Atlantis) by Nicholas Whitley
- Spambot!, The Slow Butcher, Diamonds Are for Ebert, and General Tso's Chicken, all by Anatoly Belilovsky
Given the delay, and the nature of their respective entries, we'll go with a previous suggestion: Both of them should walk the plank.
A Challenging Proposal
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, inflicted by M:
Participation has been dropping off. Early last year we started strong (pent up energy!) and rode the wave for a few months, until the summer slump was followed by an autumn malaise, and then a winter freeze.
Now, we all know that there will be an ebb and flow to your involvement. Frankly, we hope that the current diminished participation in the challenges is a sign that you are all busily sending out your material to paying markets.
But it is a little disappointing, week to week, to see an individual excitedly propose a challenge, only to be met with a “Thunderdome” scenario, or worse, a solitary response.
While our visible online numbers have been dwindling, the face-to-face writers' group in which I participate has been experiencing explosive growth! Some of the participants there have also entered — and even proposed — challenges here, so the lack of online involvement isn't from lack of interest in writing, or obtaining feedback.
That leads me to think that it might be the challenge process itself. Over the past few years, we've varied between a rotating challenge proposal mechanism, to a system of proposals administered by a governing body, and back again. Is it time to adjust the mechanism, or our expectations?
Your challenge this week is to explain what sort of challenges would grab your interest, and how you would like to see them delivered. Continue with a rotating catbird seat? Shift the burden to a few dedicated individuals? Institute a subscription list for challenges, and consider the entries as Stupefying Stories submissions? Stuff an extra seventy-two hours into each week, so you'll have time to write?
Anyone can enter, with no restrictions.
[NOTE: Pay no mind to the Comment counter. There are comments. Disqus is just acting wonky again.]
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Critical Thinking
Help
Maj Tom and I were listening to NPR the other morning. They were interviewing Viola Davis, the amazing actress who played Aibileen on The Help. She's been getting some flack from the African American community for playing a maid. In fact, the movie has gotten criticism because of the focus on Skeeter, the white woman who is the driving force behind empowering the black maids. One thing I heard was that too much focus was on Skeeter when it should have been on Aibileen.
As a story-teller, I was wondering what would have happened had Skeeter been relegated to a smaller role and Aibileen been the bigger role. I think it was a delicate balance. Aibileen was so (justifiably) depressed and defeated. I think if the movie had been primarily from her point of view, it would have been more demeaning, in a way, because we would have seen her as she saw herself: a beaten nobody in a deep, dark hole until a young white hand reached down to pull her out. Instead, we see her as Skeeter sees her--a strong, abused, valuable woman with a story.
So twist it around. Take out Skeeter and make the young journalist one of the maids' daughters--Constantine's daughter, maybe, come down from Chicago to get the story of her mother. But from that point of view, the prevailing emotion would probably be resentment--of both the disrespect the women put up with and the fact that her mother raised white babies when she should have been raising her own daughter.
Instead, from Skeeter's point of view, we get affection and gratefulness mixed in with the righteous indignation. The problem with seeing only the bad in the maids' situation is that it marginalizes their lives and the value of their work. Skeeter, for all her naivety, adored, respected, and appreciated Constantine in a way that a resentful daughter might not have been able to.
Another role Skeeter played and was that of the audience-sympathetic dumb puppet. She allowed us to discover information that a more knowledgeable main character would have already known. She also gave us a sort of emotional compass, allowing us to put ourselves into the story in a way that was safe. It's nice to be able to sympathize with the hero.
One more thought, and that's about theme. Was this movie about civil rights? Because the rights of the women didn't change much. I say it was about marginalized women (Skeeter and the maids) finding their voice, realizing they had an important story to tell. Skeeter and Aibileen didn't change the culture; that wasn't their character arc. But they both because writers--tellers of stories. It was as writers that they realized they were kind, they were smart, and they were important.
Point of view's a tricky thing, especially when it deals with such a sensitive topic. What do you think?
In other news, Kersley Fitzgerald gets her first nephew this month! Just as soon as her sister, cheesentoast, stops hogging him all to herself and lets him out to see the world!
Maj Tom and I were listening to NPR the other morning. They were interviewing Viola Davis, the amazing actress who played Aibileen on The Help. She's been getting some flack from the African American community for playing a maid. In fact, the movie has gotten criticism because of the focus on Skeeter, the white woman who is the driving force behind empowering the black maids. One thing I heard was that too much focus was on Skeeter when it should have been on Aibileen.
As a story-teller, I was wondering what would have happened had Skeeter been relegated to a smaller role and Aibileen been the bigger role. I think it was a delicate balance. Aibileen was so (justifiably) depressed and defeated. I think if the movie had been primarily from her point of view, it would have been more demeaning, in a way, because we would have seen her as she saw herself: a beaten nobody in a deep, dark hole until a young white hand reached down to pull her out. Instead, we see her as Skeeter sees her--a strong, abused, valuable woman with a story.
So twist it around. Take out Skeeter and make the young journalist one of the maids' daughters--Constantine's daughter, maybe, come down from Chicago to get the story of her mother. But from that point of view, the prevailing emotion would probably be resentment--of both the disrespect the women put up with and the fact that her mother raised white babies when she should have been raising her own daughter.
Instead, from Skeeter's point of view, we get affection and gratefulness mixed in with the righteous indignation. The problem with seeing only the bad in the maids' situation is that it marginalizes their lives and the value of their work. Skeeter, for all her naivety, adored, respected, and appreciated Constantine in a way that a resentful daughter might not have been able to.
Another role Skeeter played and was that of the audience-sympathetic dumb puppet. She allowed us to discover information that a more knowledgeable main character would have already known. She also gave us a sort of emotional compass, allowing us to put ourselves into the story in a way that was safe. It's nice to be able to sympathize with the hero.
One more thought, and that's about theme. Was this movie about civil rights? Because the rights of the women didn't change much. I say it was about marginalized women (Skeeter and the maids) finding their voice, realizing they had an important story to tell. Skeeter and Aibileen didn't change the culture; that wasn't their character arc. But they both because writers--tellers of stories. It was as writers that they realized they were kind, they were smart, and they were important.
Point of view's a tricky thing, especially when it deals with such a sensitive topic. What do you think?
In other news, Kersley Fitzgerald gets her first nephew this month! Just as soon as her sister, cheesentoast, stops hogging him all to herself and lets him out to see the world!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Ultimate Geek Fu
Today's Ultimate Geek Fu question was precipitated by the arrival in the mail of a surprise gift, which in turn led to the following exchange. "Isn't it great? C'mon, let's watch another one!" "Er, ah, well, actually..."
Ergo and herewith, the topic we shall debate today:
The Big Bang Theory: Funniest sit-com in years or most insulting load of stereotypes since Diff'rent Strokes was cancelled?
Let the arguments begin.
ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Star This, Star That, Star Whatever, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, True Blood, The X-Files, The X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF- or fantasy-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.
Ergo and herewith, the topic we shall debate today:
The Big Bang Theory: Funniest sit-com in years or most insulting load of stereotypes since Diff'rent Strokes was cancelled?
Let the arguments begin.
ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Star This, Star That, Star Whatever, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, True Blood, The X-Files, The X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF- or fantasy-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Ruminations of an Old Goat
Finally, I'm back with the next column on storytelling. So far, I've discussed how storytelling might help you become a better writer. But now it's time to leave writing behind and discuss storytelling for storytellers.
A common question asked of professional storytellers (as well as of comic book writers, fiction writers, and magazine editors) is, "How did you become a professional storyteller?"
The flip answer is, "You start telling stories then find someone who will pay you to tell stories." The flip answer is also the bare bones of the correct answer. And, of course, there's more to it than that.
The first part -- you start telling stories -- is absolutely correct. It's the one, definite, required first step you must take before you can ever become a storyteller, professional or not. In this respect, storytelling is no different than writing. There are a lot more people who talk about the novel they're "going to write" than there are people who talk about the stories they're "going to tell," but you simply can't become any kind of a storyteller unless you start by telling someone, anyone, a story. All you need is one person who will listen to your stories and you can legitimately call yourself a storyteller. With many storytellers, myself included, the one person is a child.
Children love to hear stories. If the child is yours, they'll love to hear you tell them stories. The stories can be true stories, fairy tales, folk tales, or stories you make up on the spot for your child. Your child will enjoy the time the two of you spend together, exploring a world of imagination and wonder. You can still read books together, but you can also tell stories which are just for you and your child. The child can star in the story and offer suggestions for what should happen next. I have lots of stories which will never be told to an audience but which I treasure because I made them up with my son.
In case you think your child is an easy audience, think again. Just because your child will enjoy the stories you tell, don't think your child will let you get away with sloppy stories. No way, no how. Children have an amazing memory for stories. I can't tell you how many time my son called me down for changing the wording in a story from one telling to the next or forgetting a scene from a story. I eventually convinced him it was okay for the words to change a bit as long as the story stayed consistent.
If you aren't a parent but are an aunt or uncle, you can experiment on your nieces and nephews. Or perhaps the neighbors have children and won't mind you entertaining their children with stories. I'm not saying children are a requirement, but they do make it easier to get started. Plus, once they get into school, you can volunteer for reading and storytelling opportunities in your child's classroom. A class full of students make a perfect test audience for a storyteller. This was certainly an important part of my development as a storyteller.
Whether you have children you can tell to or not, you should also get online and search for local and statewide storytelling organizations in your area. Most states have a storytelling organization and those organizations are always interested in finding people interested in becoming storytellers. From a state organization, you can learn about storytelling events in your area, storytelling groups (which are the storytelling equivalent of a writing group), workshops, and other storytellers in your area. The people in these organizations are generally friendly and very interested in helping new people learn about storytelling.
Every organization will have someone designated as the contact person for information. Contact that person by email. If the group has an online listing of members, search it for other storytellers in your general area. Contact those people by email. Be polite, of course, but simply explain that you're new to storytelling and are looking for information. You can ask if they know of any storytelling groups which are open to the public (most are, in my experience) or of any local performances, workshops, or classes. Meanwhile, go ahead and join the state storytelling organization. It not only shows dedication, but you can get unanticipated benefits out of the membership.
What's an unanticipated benefit of membership? For me, it led directly to my first professional storytelling gig. A few months after joining the North Carolina Storytelling Guild, out of the blue I was invited to take part in a storytelling festival being held at a library in a small town about 30 miles north of me. The festival organizer had a small budget and couldn't afford to pay much to the storytellers she was inviting. As such, she specifically looked for members of the Guild who lived within reasonable driving distance. I happened to be within that range and happily accepted.
So, yes, I got my first storytelling gig by sheer luck. That happens. It probably even happens a lot. I'm confident I would have managed to land a spot at some other local library system festival. Had I not been invited to that festival, I would have still answered a call for tellers from another local library system a few months later. I already had significant volunteer time at my son's school and would likely have been welcomed based on that. But having a festival under my belt made it much easier for me to get the second gig. The second gig made it easier to land the third. After that, the whole thing just sort of stated snowballing. As other storytellers learned who I was, they were happy to recommend me for other festivals or for individual performances which they couldn't accept. In other words, success breeds success.
I realize this column is probably short on practical advice, but this is the path I followed when I set out to become a professional storyteller. As with any artistic endeavor, success is a combination of talent, perseverance, and luck. I'll aim for advice more readily applicable to everyone next time out.
A common question asked of professional storytellers (as well as of comic book writers, fiction writers, and magazine editors) is, "How did you become a professional storyteller?"
The flip answer is, "You start telling stories then find someone who will pay you to tell stories." The flip answer is also the bare bones of the correct answer. And, of course, there's more to it than that.
The first part -- you start telling stories -- is absolutely correct. It's the one, definite, required first step you must take before you can ever become a storyteller, professional or not. In this respect, storytelling is no different than writing. There are a lot more people who talk about the novel they're "going to write" than there are people who talk about the stories they're "going to tell," but you simply can't become any kind of a storyteller unless you start by telling someone, anyone, a story. All you need is one person who will listen to your stories and you can legitimately call yourself a storyteller. With many storytellers, myself included, the one person is a child.
Children love to hear stories. If the child is yours, they'll love to hear you tell them stories. The stories can be true stories, fairy tales, folk tales, or stories you make up on the spot for your child. Your child will enjoy the time the two of you spend together, exploring a world of imagination and wonder. You can still read books together, but you can also tell stories which are just for you and your child. The child can star in the story and offer suggestions for what should happen next. I have lots of stories which will never be told to an audience but which I treasure because I made them up with my son.
In case you think your child is an easy audience, think again. Just because your child will enjoy the stories you tell, don't think your child will let you get away with sloppy stories. No way, no how. Children have an amazing memory for stories. I can't tell you how many time my son called me down for changing the wording in a story from one telling to the next or forgetting a scene from a story. I eventually convinced him it was okay for the words to change a bit as long as the story stayed consistent.
If you aren't a parent but are an aunt or uncle, you can experiment on your nieces and nephews. Or perhaps the neighbors have children and won't mind you entertaining their children with stories. I'm not saying children are a requirement, but they do make it easier to get started. Plus, once they get into school, you can volunteer for reading and storytelling opportunities in your child's classroom. A class full of students make a perfect test audience for a storyteller. This was certainly an important part of my development as a storyteller.
Whether you have children you can tell to or not, you should also get online and search for local and statewide storytelling organizations in your area. Most states have a storytelling organization and those organizations are always interested in finding people interested in becoming storytellers. From a state organization, you can learn about storytelling events in your area, storytelling groups (which are the storytelling equivalent of a writing group), workshops, and other storytellers in your area. The people in these organizations are generally friendly and very interested in helping new people learn about storytelling.
Every organization will have someone designated as the contact person for information. Contact that person by email. If the group has an online listing of members, search it for other storytellers in your general area. Contact those people by email. Be polite, of course, but simply explain that you're new to storytelling and are looking for information. You can ask if they know of any storytelling groups which are open to the public (most are, in my experience) or of any local performances, workshops, or classes. Meanwhile, go ahead and join the state storytelling organization. It not only shows dedication, but you can get unanticipated benefits out of the membership.
What's an unanticipated benefit of membership? For me, it led directly to my first professional storytelling gig. A few months after joining the North Carolina Storytelling Guild, out of the blue I was invited to take part in a storytelling festival being held at a library in a small town about 30 miles north of me. The festival organizer had a small budget and couldn't afford to pay much to the storytellers she was inviting. As such, she specifically looked for members of the Guild who lived within reasonable driving distance. I happened to be within that range and happily accepted.
So, yes, I got my first storytelling gig by sheer luck. That happens. It probably even happens a lot. I'm confident I would have managed to land a spot at some other local library system festival. Had I not been invited to that festival, I would have still answered a call for tellers from another local library system a few months later. I already had significant volunteer time at my son's school and would likely have been welcomed based on that. But having a festival under my belt made it much easier for me to get the second gig. The second gig made it easier to land the third. After that, the whole thing just sort of stated snowballing. As other storytellers learned who I was, they were happy to recommend me for other festivals or for individual performances which they couldn't accept. In other words, success breeds success.
I realize this column is probably short on practical advice, but this is the path I followed when I set out to become a professional storyteller. As with any artistic endeavor, success is a combination of talent, perseverance, and luck. I'll aim for advice more readily applicable to everyone next time out.
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Saturday—Sunday—Monday deferred to Friday Challenge
One of these days I'll learn that when relatives (in this case, in-laws) come to visit, I don't get anything accomplished around here. After a weekend of unfulfilled good intentions, I am officially deferring posts, results, and any content originally scheduled for The Friday Challenge — 2/24/2012 until 3/2/2012
And in other news, no one noticed I'd been typing the wrong year for the past two months?
And in other news, no one noticed I'd been typing the wrong year for the past two months?
Ruminations of an Old Goat
I know it's been three weeks since I promised a column about becoming a storyteller. Unfortunately, a combination of family emergencies and personal illness have kept me away from the keyboard just at the time I need to writing a new column. I'm afraid the same thing is happening now, so I won't have anything but this brief explanation up on Monday morning. I hope to get the column written Monday afternoon or evening, with it posting Tuesday morning.
Sorry for the delay, folks. Trust me, I'd much rather be writing columns.
Sorry for the delay, folks. Trust me, I'd much rather be writing columns.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Open Mic Saturday
Good morning all, and welcome to Open Mic Saturday. This is the place to share your news and perhaps do a little bragging. If you're writing a novel: how much progress did you make this week? If you're writing short stories: did you finish anything or submit anything this week? If you've sold or published anything recently, when is it coming out and where can we find it? In short, as a writer, what kind of progress did you make this week?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Friday, February 24, 2012
The Friday Challenge — 2/24/2011
... will be posted a little later in the morning! In-laws are coming for a visit, so I'm busy cleaning the house.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Deadline Reminder
The deadline for the current Friday Challenge — Moving Right Along / “And now for something completely different...” — is 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 24 February 2012... less than twenty-four hours away.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
A winners for the challenge will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 26 February 2012.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
A winners for the challenge will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 26 February 2012.
Critical Thinking
The Middle Ground
We are getting more and more story submissions every day, and we're beginning to have the luxury of only accepting the very best. But, oddly enough, that doesn't mean we always get to choose our favorites. Because very often, the most creative, original, and even technically able writers have issues with the middle ground.
Okay, I'm sure there's a real term for that, but I don't know what it is. At one end, there's the grammar—punctuation, spelling, knowing how to write a complete sentence. That's actually the easiest to fix. At the other end is the story—originality, intro-buildup-climax-denouement, pacing. Frankly, if this is no good, it's the easiest to reject. And then there's that stuff in the middle. There are stories out there that are technically great; little to no copyediting needed. They have real originality. Pacing is great—real page-turners. Characters are well thought out.
But there's something missing in the middle—the story telling, perhaps. It's nearly impossible to edit. Often the stories are so good we don't want to reject them, either. But writing's more than spelling and action. It's also about the nitnoid stuff you don't want to do. It's the dove-tail joints or mortise and tenons that take time and no one notices if done well. Maybe it's boring, and maybe the writer didn't know how or doesn't have the ear. It's really hard to explain what's wrong, as well, because it could be any number of things. Here are a few I've seen lately.
One particular story had one of the more original plotlines I'd personally seen. The pacing was fast, too—I really wanted to see what happened next. It had a handful of characters with specific professions who had joined together to solve a problem. The character development was done by the book. The men were described, distinctive personality or physical traits were given, and the work they did was appropriate to their roles in the adventure. But something about the fast pace made it impossible for me to keep them straight. It might have been better if one had been called by his profession (for example, "Coach"). Definitely, with a short story, consider giving each character only one moniker; don't switch between Mr. Hammon, Bert, and "the Adonis-like godling." Short stories don't give the luxury of a slow, thorough introduction—especially if they're as exciting as this one.
Speaking of characters, another faux pas I saw recently: new characters showing up at the very end of the story. This is a little too deux-ex-machina for the writer. Perhaps the character(s) fills a role the author needs filled. But they should at least be mentioned someone earlier in the story. Just popping up out of nowhere feels contrived.
I imagine you've heard of the sacred need for motivation. The main character must have a reason for doing what she does. But that goes for support characters, as well. A story crossed my Kindle recently wherein a monster attacked a visitor. Absolutely no motivation was given as to why this visitor was so desirable when the owners of the house had lived there, unmolested, for generations. Even more puzzling, the monster followed the hero after he left the house—without a clue as to why.
This was a running problem with this particular story—the lack of explanation. Now, when "Borrowed Feathers" came around, I stood on top of a very tall soap box and yelled, "This one, now!" So I don't believe that every single detail needs to be spelled out. But I was that child who, when reading James and the Giant Peach for the first time, dismissed it in disgust because surely no one would live in such a sticky place. There is a place where mystery is part of the magic of a story, and there's a place where it's distracting enough to pull the reader out of the spell.
One more little oddity. I received a story with a main character who was childlike in personality. The writing style was appropriately childlike, as well. But I'm not sure this was intentional, because the POV was too wide to warrant such a close correlation between character and story voice. It could be that the writer's voice is immature (or that the writer often tells stories to children). But this particular issue could have been easily fixed had the point of view been very tight on the main character.
There are other things writers know, but may not realize they're doing—telling instead of showing, repeating words too often—things that would probably have been fixed had the author found a good writers' group. It is a particular frustration of mine to find a fun, exciting, original story but reject it because, as I too often say, "the writing's rough." I hope this will help.
(I should make it clear that if my writing ever reaches above the "rough" stage, it's because I have received a great deal of help from people who write more elegantly than I ever will.)
***
Oh, and oops! Ha, ha, ha!
Kersley Fitzgerald is awaiting tomorrow when she will be the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
We are getting more and more story submissions every day, and we're beginning to have the luxury of only accepting the very best. But, oddly enough, that doesn't mean we always get to choose our favorites. Because very often, the most creative, original, and even technically able writers have issues with the middle ground.
Okay, I'm sure there's a real term for that, but I don't know what it is. At one end, there's the grammar—punctuation, spelling, knowing how to write a complete sentence. That's actually the easiest to fix. At the other end is the story—originality, intro-buildup-climax-denouement, pacing. Frankly, if this is no good, it's the easiest to reject. And then there's that stuff in the middle. There are stories out there that are technically great; little to no copyediting needed. They have real originality. Pacing is great—real page-turners. Characters are well thought out.
But there's something missing in the middle—the story telling, perhaps. It's nearly impossible to edit. Often the stories are so good we don't want to reject them, either. But writing's more than spelling and action. It's also about the nitnoid stuff you don't want to do. It's the dove-tail joints or mortise and tenons that take time and no one notices if done well. Maybe it's boring, and maybe the writer didn't know how or doesn't have the ear. It's really hard to explain what's wrong, as well, because it could be any number of things. Here are a few I've seen lately.
One particular story had one of the more original plotlines I'd personally seen. The pacing was fast, too—I really wanted to see what happened next. It had a handful of characters with specific professions who had joined together to solve a problem. The character development was done by the book. The men were described, distinctive personality or physical traits were given, and the work they did was appropriate to their roles in the adventure. But something about the fast pace made it impossible for me to keep them straight. It might have been better if one had been called by his profession (for example, "Coach"). Definitely, with a short story, consider giving each character only one moniker; don't switch between Mr. Hammon, Bert, and "the Adonis-like godling." Short stories don't give the luxury of a slow, thorough introduction—especially if they're as exciting as this one.
Speaking of characters, another faux pas I saw recently: new characters showing up at the very end of the story. This is a little too deux-ex-machina for the writer. Perhaps the character(s) fills a role the author needs filled. But they should at least be mentioned someone earlier in the story. Just popping up out of nowhere feels contrived.
I imagine you've heard of the sacred need for motivation. The main character must have a reason for doing what she does. But that goes for support characters, as well. A story crossed my Kindle recently wherein a monster attacked a visitor. Absolutely no motivation was given as to why this visitor was so desirable when the owners of the house had lived there, unmolested, for generations. Even more puzzling, the monster followed the hero after he left the house—without a clue as to why.
This was a running problem with this particular story—the lack of explanation. Now, when "Borrowed Feathers" came around, I stood on top of a very tall soap box and yelled, "This one, now!" So I don't believe that every single detail needs to be spelled out. But I was that child who, when reading James and the Giant Peach for the first time, dismissed it in disgust because surely no one would live in such a sticky place. There is a place where mystery is part of the magic of a story, and there's a place where it's distracting enough to pull the reader out of the spell.
One more little oddity. I received a story with a main character who was childlike in personality. The writing style was appropriately childlike, as well. But I'm not sure this was intentional, because the POV was too wide to warrant such a close correlation between character and story voice. It could be that the writer's voice is immature (or that the writer often tells stories to children). But this particular issue could have been easily fixed had the point of view been very tight on the main character.
There are other things writers know, but may not realize they're doing—telling instead of showing, repeating words too often—things that would probably have been fixed had the author found a good writers' group. It is a particular frustration of mine to find a fun, exciting, original story but reject it because, as I too often say, "the writing's rough." I hope this will help.
(I should make it clear that if my writing ever reaches above the "rough" stage, it's because I have received a great deal of help from people who write more elegantly than I ever will.)
***
Oh, and oops! Ha, ha, ha!
Kersley Fitzgerald is awaiting tomorrow when she will be the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Ultimate Geek Fu
A Rumour of Reboot
At first it was merely a terrible rumor swirling around deep in the fever-swamps of geekdom, but now, tragically, we know it to be true: Space: 1999 is being rebooted.
Admittedly the original title no longer works, so this time around this peculiar 1970s semi-spinoff from the equally peculiar series UFO will be retitled Space: 2099. No word yet as to whether they'll be bringing back those wonderful unisex uniforms that made the women look so butch and the men so gay, or those peculiar laser guns that for a brief time had every 10-year-old kid in the country running around zapping aliens with his dad's staple gun.
But... Space: 1999: The Reboot? Could there possibly be a more unnecessary TV series?
Let the arguments begin.
ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Star This, Star That, Star Whatever, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, True Blood, The X-Files, The X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF- or fantasy-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.
At first it was merely a terrible rumor swirling around deep in the fever-swamps of geekdom, but now, tragically, we know it to be true: Space: 1999 is being rebooted.
Admittedly the original title no longer works, so this time around this peculiar 1970s semi-spinoff from the equally peculiar series UFO will be retitled Space: 2099. No word yet as to whether they'll be bringing back those wonderful unisex uniforms that made the women look so butch and the men so gay, or those peculiar laser guns that for a brief time had every 10-year-old kid in the country running around zapping aliens with his dad's staple gun.
But... Space: 1999: The Reboot? Could there possibly be a more unnecessary TV series?
Let the arguments begin.
ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Star This, Star That, Star Whatever, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, True Blood, The X-Files, The X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF- or fantasy-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Open Mic Saturday
Good morning all, and welcome to Open Mic Saturday. This is the place to share your news and perhaps do a little bragging. If you're writing a novel: how much progress did you make this week? If you're writing short stories: did you finish anything or submit anything this week? If you've sold or published anything recently, when is it coming out and where can we find it? In short, as a writer, what kind of progress did you make this week?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Friday, February 17, 2012
The Friday Challenge — 2/17/2011
This week in The Friday Challenge:
It's been a quiet week inLake Wobegon The Friday Challenge. Too quiet. But what, if anything, does the silence signify? A bit of behind-the-scenes OTOGU-wrestling, the obligatory Valentine's googley-eyes, and hobbyist-level lessons in juggling flaming chainsaws. In other words, business as usual.
Still, we did see one column this week:
Guy Stewart (remember him?) revisits the Planet of the Apes! • Join the discussion...
NM Whitley and Anatoly Belilovsky tie with 10 points apiece, in our "Call me Ishmael." challenge! (Yes, really. The only people who gave numeric votes were Guy Stewart and Jack Calverley, and since Jack proposed the challenge, he was allowed the HTM spread.) • Join the discussion...
All this and more, ... and that's pretty much it for the past week, as Random Acts of Kindness Day encourages us to stop traffic in order to give that stuck motorist an opportunity for a left turn, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
“What a twit!”
As of this morning, we have received the followingentries entry for our current challenge:
Rather than draw this one out (and possibly risk a federal investigation), we'll go ahead and declare you this week's winner. Congratulations?
Moving Right Along / “And now for something completely different...”
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, courtesy of Bruce Bethke:
One of the unfortunate side-effects of a 30-year writing career is that you collect a sizable pile of false starts, rough drafts, and great ideas you honestly intend to get back to “later.” In the early days, when I wrote on a Smith-Corona typewriter, this collection fit into one bulging file folder. Later, it expanded to fill an entire bankers archive box.
These days I have many, many gigabytes of false starts cluttering up the place, mostly in forms that are useless to me. Some are on floppy disks readable only by computers and programs long since defunct. Others are on now-unreadable CDs — who knew that burned CDs wouldn't last forever? — while still others are on backup tapes, from back in the days when hard drives were small, expensive, and unreliable, and I backed up mine religiously. Some even take the form of dot-matrix printouts, which at least are human-readable, but I've got filing cabinets full of the stuff.
For example, here's one of my all-time favorites:
RedWorld!
How about you? What's your pitch for that great novel that, deep in your heart, you know you're never really going to write?
Anyone can enter, with no restrictions.
Everyone is asked to vote, and to say a few words about what they liked, and why. Or to say a few words about what they disliked, as the case may be; by submitting an entry, you implicitly agree to accept criticism, because there will probably be some handed out, and no one is immune. When voting, please rank a work as either “0” (not so good), “1” (not as bad), “2” (could have been better) or “3” (pretty good stuff!). If you give either a “0” or “3” vote, feel free to argue in support of your reasoning.
Don't like the negativity? Feel free to think of the levels as “0” (Not bad for a first attempt), “1” (Right on!), “2” (Holy cow, I wanna buy this now...) or “3” (Sweet mother of God, how did you write something this awesome?!!). The point is to clearly differentiate, and rank according to your own preference.
For the purposes of this challenge, Bruce Bethke will be serving as Ye Olde High Marker, Voluntarily Walking th' Plank.
As of now, we are playing by the loosely enforced and slightly modified rules of The Friday Challenge. All entries are due by 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 24 February 2012. A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 26 February 2012.
Oh, there is one more thing... but it is the most important! Have fun. Always have fun.
It's been a quiet week in
Still, we did see one column this week:
Guy Stewart (remember him?) revisits the Planet of the Apes! • Join the discussion...
NM Whitley and Anatoly Belilovsky tie with 10 points apiece, in our "Call me Ishmael." challenge! (Yes, really. The only people who gave numeric votes were Guy Stewart and Jack Calverley, and since Jack proposed the challenge, he was allowed the HTM spread.) • Join the discussion...
“What a twit!”
As of this morning, we have received the following
Rather than draw this one out (and possibly risk a federal investigation), we'll go ahead and declare you this week's winner. Congratulations?
Moving Right Along / “And now for something completely different...”
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, courtesy of Bruce Bethke:
One of the unfortunate side-effects of a 30-year writing career is that you collect a sizable pile of false starts, rough drafts, and great ideas you honestly intend to get back to “later.” In the early days, when I wrote on a Smith-Corona typewriter, this collection fit into one bulging file folder. Later, it expanded to fill an entire bankers archive box.
These days I have many, many gigabytes of false starts cluttering up the place, mostly in forms that are useless to me. Some are on floppy disks readable only by computers and programs long since defunct. Others are on now-unreadable CDs — who knew that burned CDs wouldn't last forever? — while still others are on backup tapes, from back in the days when hard drives were small, expensive, and unreliable, and I backed up mine religiously. Some even take the form of dot-matrix printouts, which at least are human-readable, but I've got filing cabinets full of the stuff.
For example, here's one of my all-time favorites:
RedWorld!
June, 1943: Acting in defiance of Hitler's orders, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein launches his attack against the Kursk salient two weeks early, catching the Red Army unprepared and unreinforced. While this action does not change the eventual outcome of events on the Eastern Front, it delays the Soviet advance just long enough for the Germans to get the Arado 234B jet bomber into full production. This in turn means the bomb racks are left off the Me-262 and it gets used as the air superiority fighter it was clearly meant to be, which in turn changes the entire complexion of the 1944 air war over Europe. D-Day is delayed by two months; the American B-29 Superfortresses are deployed to England, not Okinawa; the first atomic bomb is dropped on Berlin, not Hiroshima; and the Russian and Western Allied armies meet at the Rhine, not the Elbe.
Fast forward: June 26, 1963. President John F. Kennedy stands up before the Frankfurt wall, and in a strong, resolute voice, declares, “Ich bin ein Frankfurter!”
Western civilization collapses overnight...
How about you? What's your pitch for that great novel that, deep in your heart, you know you're never really going to write?
Anyone can enter, with no restrictions.
Everyone is asked to vote, and to say a few words about what they liked, and why. Or to say a few words about what they disliked, as the case may be; by submitting an entry, you implicitly agree to accept criticism, because there will probably be some handed out, and no one is immune. When voting, please rank a work as either “0” (not so good), “1” (not as bad), “2” (could have been better) or “3” (pretty good stuff!). If you give either a “0” or “3” vote, feel free to argue in support of your reasoning.
Don't like the negativity? Feel free to think of the levels as “0” (Not bad for a first attempt), “1” (Right on!), “2” (Holy cow, I wanna buy this now...) or “3” (Sweet mother of God, how did you write something this awesome?!!). The point is to clearly differentiate, and rank according to your own preference.
For the purposes of this challenge, Bruce Bethke will be serving as Ye Olde High Marker, Voluntarily Walking th' Plank.
As of now, we are playing by the loosely enforced and slightly modified rules of The Friday Challenge. All entries are due by 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 24 February 2012. A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 26 February 2012.
Oh, there is one more thing... but it is the most important! Have fun. Always have fun.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Deadline Reminder
The deadline for the current Friday Challenge — "What a twit!" — is 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 17 February 2012... less than twenty-four hours away.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
A winners for the challenge will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 19 February 2012.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
A winners for the challenge will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 19 February 2012.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Ultimate Geek Fu: Again, PLANET OF THE APES...
As a long-time fan of Planet of the Apes, I was horrified when my daughter watched and fell in love with the 2011 “reboot” of the movie franchise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes. She begged me to watch the 2011 movie with her, but I heroically resisted. When she asked several more times if I’d “PLEASE” watch it with her, my resistance became stoic rather than heroic. Finally, over the Christmas Holidays, I relented and watched it with her, my wife and a friend of my daughter’s.
Before I tell you what I thought, a bit of history:
The original Planet of the Apes movie came out in theaters in 1968 and was based on a 1963 novel by French novelist, Pierre Boulle that had been translated into English as Monkey Planet in 1964 by someone named Xan Fielding (a former secret agent who did in Crete what Boulle did in China, Burma and French Indochina during WWII). I was 11 years old and my mom and dad didn't let me see movies by myself yet.
After cutting my science fiction reading teeth on Spaceship Under the Apple Tree and Wonderful Trip to the Mushroom Planet, I moved on to Red Planet, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, The Zero Stone and thence to JG Ballard’s Vermillion Sands, Brave New World, a REAL novel by Michael Crichton called The Andromeda Strain (I read it just before Dad dropped me off at the theater to see the movie in 1971) and finally, sometime not long after that, Boulle’s Planet of the Apes. The book had such a profound effect on me that I recognized the cover of the edition I read as a kid in a line-up of some sixteen other covers, including one with a picture of Zira on it. I read the one with the black cover, red lettered title and white author’s name along with AUTHOR OF BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI (which I may have seen by that point, but maybe not). I had NOT seen Planet of the Apes and I wouldn’t see it until some years later in a drive in theater.
All of this I tell you to let you know that Planet of the Apes is deeply rooted in my adolescence and holds a well-nigh to iconic spot in my mind. I have never forgotten the final scene in the movie (which Boulle repudiated by saying, “I disliked somewhat, the ending that was used - the Statue of Liberty - which the critics seemed to like, but personally, I prefer my own. [Had I been in charge of the production,] I could have provided ideas. If I had been free to make them I would have done them differently...”). It lodged itself as firmly in my mind as the science fiction magazine ANALOG being the “only” place I ever wanted to get published.
After seeing the movie, I watched all the others (though I only went to the theater to see Battle for the Planet of the Apes) “on video tape” and hated them. None of them was true to Boulle’s intent which seemed to me to be “making fun of adults”. I didn’t become one until 1975 (didn’t become a REAL one until 1978). I loved the original movie for (as I saw it) making monkeys out of authority figures. As I wasn’t much of a rebel as a teen, this was a powerful release for me…
Along comes the Twenty-first Century and I refused to go to Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes; I refused to go see Rise of the Planet of the Apes in the theater despite being urged to do so by friends.
It took my daughter’s gently finagling to bring me to the screen and watch it. A few days later, after hearing my harangue about the first movie, she appeared at home with an unopened copy of that selfsame movie – she’d picked it up at the second-hand story she works at! It didn’t require as much work for me to prevail upon her to watch MY version; though that’s more because she’s got her mother’s gracious character rather than my heroic stoicism.
Coupled together, I strongly suggest that Rise is the true ancestor of Planet. Really.
Where the others, including Burton’s “reimaging” which intended to make the original “better”, and the franchise following Boulle’s Planet of the Apes (Beneath, Escape, Conquest and Battle) had as their only intent the turning of the movies into a milk cow of cash; Rise and Planet are clearly and intimately linked.
The movie review website Rotten Tomatoes lends some evidence to this: ranked from best (50% or more good reviews) to worst (less than 50% good reviews), we find:
Planet of the Apes (1968) (#1 in the franchise) RT = 89% (as well, it has been accorded several accolades: selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"; selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time; “widely regarded as a classic film and one of the best films of 1968”; won one honorary Oscar and was nominated for two others; and is on various Top 100 lists of the American Film Institute.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) RT = 83%
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) (#3 in the franchise) RT = 78%
_______________________________________SPLAT!
Planet of the Apes (2001) (the “reimaging”) RT = 45%
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) (#4 in the franchise) RT = 44%
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) (#2 in the franchise) RT = 41%
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) (#5 in the franchise) RT = 38%
Planet never really explained how Humans fell to animals and Apes rose to intelligence – as a science teacher this always bothered me. The supposed 2000 years between Taylor et al’s space trip and their return to Earth give nowhere near enough time for apes to evolve and man to devolve.
Rise gives a clear explanation that makes perfect sense to the 21st Century mentality: genetic engineering. It also makes good scientific sense and fits in neatly with the other movies of its ilk: Contagion, I Am Legend and Greenpeace’s maniacal attack on genetically engineered WHEAT in Australia.
We’re scared. But we want to live forever, so we’re tortured by our desire for immortality and our fear of science messing things up to a point of causing (or preventing) world-wide plague that ends up being an extinction event for us.
Rise meshes so cleanly with Planet that they might have been written, directed, acted and filmed by one hand; yet they weren’t.
The only thing they had in common was our human fear of apocalypse. In Boulle’s time, it was human engineered nuclear annihilation. In our time, it is human engineered genetic annihilation. Maybe that’s why the two movies resonate so clearly – and unconsciously – in my mind and reviewer’s minds. It’s certainly food for thought. It might also be cause for hope. Thus far we have dodged the nuclear annihilation bullet and are gradually both increasing our knowledge of the atom and turning it to peaceful uses. Perhaps the message is that if we can learn fast enough, we might very well dodge the genetic annihilation bullet and gradually increase our knowledge of genetics and turn it to peaceful uses.
Pause. Think. Consider. Then tell me what YOU think; no, what do you REALLY think...
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Open Mic Saturday
Good morning all, and welcome to Open Mic Saturday. This is the place to share your news and perhaps do a little bragging. If you're writing a novel: how much progress did you make this week? If you're writing short stories: did you finish anything or submit anything this week? If you've sold or published anything recently, when is it coming out and where can we find it? In short, as a writer, what kind of progress did you make this week?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Friday Challenge — 2/10/2011
This week in The Friday Challenge:
John Christopher enters the long winter. • Join the discussion...
Henry Vogel discusses feedback, immediacy, and spontaneous evolution. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke bows to the wisdom of The Kid, who spotted something we'd all missed.. • Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald offers a practical view into the future-is-now. • Join the discussion...
All this and more, as Send a Card to a Friend Day is overshadowed by the awesomeness of A Month of Letters, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar
As of this morning, we have still only received the followingentries entry for our previous challenge:
Jack, it looks like you are the winner, by default! (And thank you for having the foresight to submit a new challenge, just in case.) Since one of the primary reasons we participate in any writing challenge is the desire for feedback, everyone is encouraged to read Jack's story, and offer comments.
"Call me Ishmael."
As of this morning, we have received the following entries for our current challenge:
An enthusiastic “Huzzah” to all who have entered! The judges are considering your submissions, and a winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012.
"What a twit!"
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, courtesy of Jack Calverley:
On Wednesday 8th February the BBC reported that:
Your challenge this week is to compose a Twitter message which you might send to the service [non]provider of you choice, incorporating the most vile and outrageous (diabolical even) threat you can conjure up — and yet not feel at any risk from the authorities.
Anyone can enter, with no restrictions.
Everyone is asked to vote, and to say a few words about what they liked, and why. Or to say a few words about what they disliked, as the case may be; by submitting an entry, you implicitly agree to accept criticism, because there will probably be some handed out, and no one is immune. When voting, please rank a work as either “0” (not so good), “1” (not as bad), “2” (could have been better) or “3” (pretty good stuff!). If you give either a “0” or “3” vote, feel free to argue in support of your reasoning.
Don't like the negativity? Feel free to think of the levels as “0” (Not bad for a first attempt), “1” (Right on!), “2” (Holy cow, I wanna buy this now...) or “3” (Sweet mother of God, how did you write something this awesome?!!). The point is to clearly differentiate, and rank according to your own preference.
For the purposes of this challenge, Jack Calverley will be serving as Ye Olde High Marker, Voluntarily Walking th' Plank.
As of now, we are playing by the loosely enforced and slightly modified rules of The Friday Challenge. All entries are due by 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 17 February 2012. A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 19 February 2012.
Oh, there is one more thing... but it is the most important! Have fun. Always have fun.
John Christopher enters the long winter. • Join the discussion...
Henry Vogel discusses feedback, immediacy, and spontaneous evolution. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke bows to the wisdom of The Kid, who spotted something we'd all missed.. • Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald offers a practical view into the future-is-now. • Join the discussion...
All this and more, as Send a Card to a Friend Day is overshadowed by the awesomeness of A Month of Letters, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar
As of this morning, we have still only received the following
Jack, it looks like you are the winner, by default! (And thank you for having the foresight to submit a new challenge, just in case.) Since one of the primary reasons we participate in any writing challenge is the desire for feedback, everyone is encouraged to read Jack's story, and offer comments.
"Call me Ishmael."
As of this morning, we have received the following entries for our current challenge:
An enthusiastic “Huzzah” to all who have entered! The judges are considering your submissions, and a winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012.
"What a twit!"
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, courtesy of Jack Calverley:
On Wednesday 8th February the BBC reported that:
Stephen Fry has said that British judges don't understand Twitter.
The author and actor was speaking in response to the appeal of Paul Chambers at the High Court. The 27-year-old was convicted and fined in May 2010 for posting a message threatening to blow up Robin Hood Airport in South Yorkshire.
He said the tweet was a joke and he was frustrated because snow had closed the airport. A judgement on whether to quash his conviction has been reserved.
Full piece here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/16945540
Your challenge this week is to compose a Twitter message which you might send to the service [non]provider of you choice, incorporating the most vile and outrageous (diabolical even) threat you can conjure up — and yet not feel at any risk from the authorities.
Anyone can enter, with no restrictions.
Everyone is asked to vote, and to say a few words about what they liked, and why. Or to say a few words about what they disliked, as the case may be; by submitting an entry, you implicitly agree to accept criticism, because there will probably be some handed out, and no one is immune. When voting, please rank a work as either “0” (not so good), “1” (not as bad), “2” (could have been better) or “3” (pretty good stuff!). If you give either a “0” or “3” vote, feel free to argue in support of your reasoning.
Don't like the negativity? Feel free to think of the levels as “0” (Not bad for a first attempt), “1” (Right on!), “2” (Holy cow, I wanna buy this now...) or “3” (Sweet mother of God, how did you write something this awesome?!!). The point is to clearly differentiate, and rank according to your own preference.
For the purposes of this challenge, Jack Calverley will be serving as Ye Olde High Marker, Voluntarily Walking th' Plank.
As of now, we are playing by the loosely enforced and slightly modified rules of The Friday Challenge. All entries are due by 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 17 February 2012. A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 19 February 2012.
Oh, there is one more thing... but it is the most important! Have fun. Always have fun.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Deadline Reminder(s)
The deadline for the current Friday Challenge — "Call me Ishmael." — is 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 10 February 2012... less than twenty-four hours away.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
ALSO, the deadline for the previous Friday Challenge — Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar — has been extended to 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 10 February 2012... (still)less than twenty-four hours away.
Entries for that one may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section, because it uses a different directory from the current challenge!), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
Winners for both challenges will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
ALSO, the deadline for the previous Friday Challenge — Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar — has been extended to 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 10 February 2012... (still)less than twenty-four hours away.
Entries for that one may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section, because it uses a different directory from the current challenge!), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
Winners for both challenges will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012.
Critical Thinking
From: "Neuroscience the new face of warfare"
What's the difference between mind-controlled drones and telepathy?
**Edit**
Ooh, this is interesting, too...
What's the difference between mind-controlled drones and telepathy?
**Edit**
Ooh, this is interesting, too...
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Ultimate Geek Fu
Compare and Contrast
We were watching Watchmen the other night. Don't ask me why; I'm not exactly certain how it happened and don't know that I could explain if I tried. Just suffice to say: we were watching Watchmen, when suddenly The Kid piped up with one of those amazingly trenchant observations he sometimes blurts out that makes me wonder why his teachers always say he's so quiet in school.
"Oh," he said, nodding at the TV. "I get it. Watchmen is just like The Incredibles, only with everything exciting, funny, or interesting sucked out of it."
You know, he's right. The Incredibles is right up there with Captain America as being a movie that's pure joy to watch, while Watchmen is right down there with... Superman Returns? Swamp Thing? That Batman movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger?
Hence today's UGF question, and it's a simple one. One idea. Two movies. What makes one fun and a good story to boot, while the other is a tedious plod?
Let the arguments begin.
ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Star This, Star That, Star Whatever, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, True Blood, The X-Files, The X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF- or fantasy-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Ruminations of an Old Goat
Better late than never, the Old Goat is back for another column. Last time out, I discussed the immediacy of feedback a storyteller receives compared to the glacial speed with which a writer typically receives feedback. I also promised to discuss other benefits storytelling can provide to writers.
I'm going to touch on that in just a moment, but I want to offer up a quick clarification to the word "audience." It dawned on me that some of you readers might be thinking in terms of a fairly large audience -- dozens of people, at least -- when I use that word. If we were discussing professional performances, yes, we'd be talking about audiences ranging anywhere from 15 people on up. I've performed in front of a few hundred before, though my typical audience usually ranged from 20 to 60 people. But in this instance, where you're using storytelling techniques to gauge an audience reaction to your story, your audience could be as small as a single person. I'm not expecting everyone to become a professional storyteller, seek out professional gigs, and then tell their story in such a setting. Honestly, you'd get faster feedback from an editor whose lips move when he reads. But a small group of friends, family, or fellow writers will give you the same benefit you'd get from a larger audience.
Years ago, when I was just getting started writing comic books, I'd get together with my wife and my partner in the comic book (we were originally self-published) and tell them the story I was planning to write for the up-coming issue. They'd listen to what I had to say while I gauged their reactions. Once I was finished, we'd compare notes. I was quickly able to figure out problem spots in the story based on how my audience of two reacted. They were able to give me more details on why they didn't like certain parts of the story and why they did like other parts. Those early stories rarely turned out like I had originally planned but they always turned out better because of the storytelling session.
That brings me to another benefit of telling a story before writing the story. Have you ever started working on a story you thought you had fully planned only to discover, usually somewhere past the halfway point, that your original plan for that part of the story just wouldn't work? Unless you're very new to writing, the answer to that question is bound to be, "Yes." So, what do you do? You can sit there and think on the story for a while, try to figure out some way to fix the problem. If you don't think of something, you just put the story aside and plan to come back to it sometime later. Maybe you'll come back to it, maybe the story will fall by the wayside, never to be completed.
You can't really do that when you're telling the story. Sure, if your audience is just a small group of friends, you can just stop and tell them your idea isn't working. They won't be mad at you, but they will be disappointed because they'll have invested time and attention in your story and will want to know how it ends. If you decide, before you even begin telling the story, that you're going to complete it no matter what, you can learn a lot about the story and, very possibly, find a better way to move the story forward.
Within my storytelling group, I will tell stories I've never told before and which exist as little more than an outline in my head. I warn my fellow storytellers in advance, but then I plow into the story. I do this for two reasons. First, it forces me to finish the story. I may not like the ending or the middle or whatever, but the first step to fixing a story is to have a complete story to fix. Fortunately, it's much easier to edit a story in your head than it is to edit it in a word processor. But it's possible the story may not need very much editing at all.
That brings me to the second benefit. It's entirely possible that a way to fix the story will occur to you as you're telling the story. When you're telling your story, your conscious brain is working on keeping the story going along as planned. Meanwhile, your subconscious is listening to what you're saying and churning out words and ideas. I'll admit it gets easier with practice, but whenever I tell a new, partially completed story, I always find the words I need to convey my story and the ideas I need to complete my story. There's still work to be done on the story, polishing and pruning, but it is no longer a collection of half-formed ideas. It's an actual, complete story.
Further more, once you've got your completed story, you can both polish and prune it by telling the story again. Any storyteller can tell you that stories tend to edit themselves in the telling. You'll be telling a story you've told before and suddenly find yourself leaving out some parts of the story and expanding other parts of the story. It's not usually something you do consciously, but it happens all the same. If you tell a completed story three or four more times (not all in the same sitting, of course), you'll find the story becoming leaner and more focused naturally. I can have real trouble pruning and polishing a written story. I worry about how the change will affect the preceding and following parts of the story. I even end up deciding that a change in one paragraph will force me to do such a serious rewrite of the next few paragraphs that it's not worth making the change. When I'm telling the story, the rewriting all happens on the fly and, since it all just exists in my head, there's no real effort performing a "rewrite" of the next several paragraphs.
I know some of you are out there thinking you can't think fast enough to do any of the things I've discussed in this column. It may not be easy the first time you try to do it, but editing a story as you tell it is something you can teach yourself to do. And, really, you're already doing it when you're sitting at the keyboard typing a story. If you're a fast enough typist, it's entirely possible you type almost as fast as you talk. But when you talk, you don't have to worry about misspelled words.
I hope I've given you some ideas to help you use storytelling to improve your writing. Please post questions if you have any.
Next time out, I'll discuss how I got my start as a storyteller and offer up some suggestions for how you can get started, too.
I'm going to touch on that in just a moment, but I want to offer up a quick clarification to the word "audience." It dawned on me that some of you readers might be thinking in terms of a fairly large audience -- dozens of people, at least -- when I use that word. If we were discussing professional performances, yes, we'd be talking about audiences ranging anywhere from 15 people on up. I've performed in front of a few hundred before, though my typical audience usually ranged from 20 to 60 people. But in this instance, where you're using storytelling techniques to gauge an audience reaction to your story, your audience could be as small as a single person. I'm not expecting everyone to become a professional storyteller, seek out professional gigs, and then tell their story in such a setting. Honestly, you'd get faster feedback from an editor whose lips move when he reads. But a small group of friends, family, or fellow writers will give you the same benefit you'd get from a larger audience.
Years ago, when I was just getting started writing comic books, I'd get together with my wife and my partner in the comic book (we were originally self-published) and tell them the story I was planning to write for the up-coming issue. They'd listen to what I had to say while I gauged their reactions. Once I was finished, we'd compare notes. I was quickly able to figure out problem spots in the story based on how my audience of two reacted. They were able to give me more details on why they didn't like certain parts of the story and why they did like other parts. Those early stories rarely turned out like I had originally planned but they always turned out better because of the storytelling session.
That brings me to another benefit of telling a story before writing the story. Have you ever started working on a story you thought you had fully planned only to discover, usually somewhere past the halfway point, that your original plan for that part of the story just wouldn't work? Unless you're very new to writing, the answer to that question is bound to be, "Yes." So, what do you do? You can sit there and think on the story for a while, try to figure out some way to fix the problem. If you don't think of something, you just put the story aside and plan to come back to it sometime later. Maybe you'll come back to it, maybe the story will fall by the wayside, never to be completed.
You can't really do that when you're telling the story. Sure, if your audience is just a small group of friends, you can just stop and tell them your idea isn't working. They won't be mad at you, but they will be disappointed because they'll have invested time and attention in your story and will want to know how it ends. If you decide, before you even begin telling the story, that you're going to complete it no matter what, you can learn a lot about the story and, very possibly, find a better way to move the story forward.
Within my storytelling group, I will tell stories I've never told before and which exist as little more than an outline in my head. I warn my fellow storytellers in advance, but then I plow into the story. I do this for two reasons. First, it forces me to finish the story. I may not like the ending or the middle or whatever, but the first step to fixing a story is to have a complete story to fix. Fortunately, it's much easier to edit a story in your head than it is to edit it in a word processor. But it's possible the story may not need very much editing at all.
That brings me to the second benefit. It's entirely possible that a way to fix the story will occur to you as you're telling the story. When you're telling your story, your conscious brain is working on keeping the story going along as planned. Meanwhile, your subconscious is listening to what you're saying and churning out words and ideas. I'll admit it gets easier with practice, but whenever I tell a new, partially completed story, I always find the words I need to convey my story and the ideas I need to complete my story. There's still work to be done on the story, polishing and pruning, but it is no longer a collection of half-formed ideas. It's an actual, complete story.
Further more, once you've got your completed story, you can both polish and prune it by telling the story again. Any storyteller can tell you that stories tend to edit themselves in the telling. You'll be telling a story you've told before and suddenly find yourself leaving out some parts of the story and expanding other parts of the story. It's not usually something you do consciously, but it happens all the same. If you tell a completed story three or four more times (not all in the same sitting, of course), you'll find the story becoming leaner and more focused naturally. I can have real trouble pruning and polishing a written story. I worry about how the change will affect the preceding and following parts of the story. I even end up deciding that a change in one paragraph will force me to do such a serious rewrite of the next few paragraphs that it's not worth making the change. When I'm telling the story, the rewriting all happens on the fly and, since it all just exists in my head, there's no real effort performing a "rewrite" of the next several paragraphs.
I know some of you are out there thinking you can't think fast enough to do any of the things I've discussed in this column. It may not be easy the first time you try to do it, but editing a story as you tell it is something you can teach yourself to do. And, really, you're already doing it when you're sitting at the keyboard typing a story. If you're a fast enough typist, it's entirely possible you type almost as fast as you talk. But when you talk, you don't have to worry about misspelled words.
I hope I've given you some ideas to help you use storytelling to improve your writing. Please post questions if you have any.
Next time out, I'll discuss how I got my start as a storyteller and offer up some suggestions for how you can get started, too.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
RIP, Samuel Youd/John Christopher...
I just learned, via Locus Online, that Samuel Youd/John Christopher (author of The Tripods trilogy, and many, many others) passed away on Friday. A thumbnail obituary was posted yesterday, with the promise to expand it shortly, and to include a full obituary in the March issue.
Click on the photo below to read an interview from April 2009...
Click on the photo below to read an interview from April 2009...
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Open Mic Saturday
Good morning all, and welcome to Open Mic Saturday. This is the place to share your news and perhaps do a little bragging. If you're writing a novel: how much progress did you make this week? If you're writing short stories: did you finish anything or submit anything this week? If you've sold or published anything recently, when is it coming out and where can we find it? In short, as a writer, what kind of progress did you make this week?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Or what else is on your mind, that you feel like sharing with the group here?
Friday, February 3, 2012
The Friday Challenge — 2/3/2011
This week in The Friday Challenge:
The Silver Princess is recalled. Requiescat in pace. • Join the discussion...
Allan Davis asks where your ideas come from. Some of you give serious answers. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke is unnerved by a culturally-correct film oddity. • Join the discussion...
M gets around to setting up a web thingy. • Join the discussion...
Jack Calverley wins our It's something in the water... challenge, and his victory is announced in the comments. (Oops!) • Join the discussion...
All this and more, as anyone who didn't feel empty enough after The Day the Music Died continues with Create a Vacuum Day, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar
As of this morning, we have received the followingentries entry for our current challenge:
Jack, would you prefer we leave the challenge open for another week (in which case a winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012), or give feedback now (in which case you would be the only participant, and opinions rendered by the evening of Sunday, 5 February 2012)? And to sway the vote, is there anyone else who wanted to enter this challenge, but ran out of time?
"Call me Ishmael."
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, courtesy of Jack Calverley:
There is a story which starts thus:
And another which starts thus:
(The two stories are Moby Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville, and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.)
The challenge this week is to select your own allegorical name, drawing suitable parallels to your own life, or that of your fictional character, and craft a new opening, with the promise of a hook.
Anyone can enter, except for Jack Calverley. You may enter as many times as you wish, but each entry must be independent of the others, and you may not build on anyone else's work.
Everyone is asked to vote, and to say a few words about what they liked, and why. Or to say a few words about what they disliked, as the case may be; by submitting an entry, you implicitly agree to accept criticism, because there will probably be some handed out, and no one is immune. When voting, please rank a work as either “0” (not so good), “1” (not as bad), “2” (could have been better) or “3” (pretty good stuff!). If you give either a “0” or “3” vote, feel free to argue in support of your reasoning.
Don't like the negativity? Feel free to think of the levels as “0” (Not bad for a first attempt), “1” (Right on!), “2” (Holy cow, I wanna buy this now...) or “3” (Sweet mother of God, how did you write something this awesome?!!). The point is to clearly differentiate, and rank according to your own preference.
For the purposes of this challenge, Jack Calverley will be serving as Ye Olde High Marker, Voluntarily Walking th' Plank.
As of now, we are playing by the loosely enforced and slightly modified rules of The Friday Challenge. All entries are due by 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 10 February 2012. A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012.
Oh, there is one more thing... but it is the most important! Have fun. Always have fun.
The Silver Princess is recalled. Requiescat in pace. • Join the discussion...
Allan Davis asks where your ideas come from. Some of you give serious answers. • Join the discussion...
Bruce Bethke is unnerved by a culturally-correct film oddity. • Join the discussion...
M gets around to setting up a web thingy. • Join the discussion...
Jack Calverley wins our It's something in the water... challenge, and his victory is announced in the comments. (Oops!) • Join the discussion...
All this and more, as anyone who didn't feel empty enough after The Day the Music Died continues with Create a Vacuum Day, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum.
Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar
As of this morning, we have received the following
Jack, would you prefer we leave the challenge open for another week (in which case a winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012), or give feedback now (in which case you would be the only participant, and opinions rendered by the evening of Sunday, 5 February 2012)? And to sway the vote, is there anyone else who wanted to enter this challenge, but ran out of time?
"Call me Ishmael."
And now it is time for this week's Friday Challenge, courtesy of Jack Calverley:
There is a story which starts thus:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.
And another which starts thus:
Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.
Jonah—John—if I had been a Sam, I would have been a Jonah still—not because I have been unlucky for others, but because somebody or something has compelled me to be certain places at certain times, without fail. Conveyances and motives, both conventional and bizarre, have been provided. And, according to plan, at each appointed second, at each appointed place this Jonah was there.
(The two stories are Moby Dick; or, The Whale by Herman Melville, and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.)
The challenge this week is to select your own allegorical name, drawing suitable parallels to your own life, or that of your fictional character, and craft a new opening, with the promise of a hook.
Anyone can enter, except for Jack Calverley. You may enter as many times as you wish, but each entry must be independent of the others, and you may not build on anyone else's work.
Everyone is asked to vote, and to say a few words about what they liked, and why. Or to say a few words about what they disliked, as the case may be; by submitting an entry, you implicitly agree to accept criticism, because there will probably be some handed out, and no one is immune. When voting, please rank a work as either “0” (not so good), “1” (not as bad), “2” (could have been better) or “3” (pretty good stuff!). If you give either a “0” or “3” vote, feel free to argue in support of your reasoning.
Don't like the negativity? Feel free to think of the levels as “0” (Not bad for a first attempt), “1” (Right on!), “2” (Holy cow, I wanna buy this now...) or “3” (Sweet mother of God, how did you write something this awesome?!!). The point is to clearly differentiate, and rank according to your own preference.
For the purposes of this challenge, Jack Calverley will be serving as Ye Olde High Marker, Voluntarily Walking th' Plank.
As of now, we are playing by the loosely enforced and slightly modified rules of The Friday Challenge. All entries are due by 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 10 February 2012. A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 12 February 2012.
Oh, there is one more thing... but it is the most important! Have fun. Always have fun.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Deadline Reminder
The deadline for the current Friday Challenge — Conan, Icehawk, and Vidad Walk Into a Bar — is 6 AM Eastern time on the morning of Friday, 3 February 2012... less than twenty-four hours away.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 5 February 2012.
Entries may be added to The Friday Challenge Yahoo Group (see the appropriate directory within the "Files" section), hosted on your personal blog(s) and linked within the comments for the challenge, or copied directly into the comments section as a post.
In previous challenges, we have accommodated late entries. This time, we have no such luxury; if you post an entry much later than 6 AM Eastern time, there is a chance the judges will not be able to properly consider your work. Should you anticipate a need to snowdog, please mentally back the deadline up as much as necessary. If the deadline hits and you are very, very close, please publicly announce your intention to enter.
A winner will be declared by the evening of Sunday, 5 February 2012.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Ultimate Geek Fu
"Great Moments in WTF?"
So we're watching a movie the other night. No, I won't tell you the name—partly out of simple embarrassment, but mostly out of my rarely seen and deeply latent sense of public service. Every single minute of life is precious, and I'd hate for my words to be the reason why anyone else wastes a single minute of theirs watching this unrelenting bucket of sludge.
It has often been said that Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space is the single worst movie ever made. People who say that really need to get out more and take in a larger view of the world's cinematic offerings. For example, there are things excreted from the low-budget film factories of Hong Kong that make Ed Wood look like Cecil B DeMille, Ridley Scott, and Stanley Kubrick all stitched and grafted together into one huge, hideous, and Frankensteinian monstrosity—
Which description begins to approach capturing the spirit of this...movie...we were watching the other night.
I won't try to explain the plot to you. Even the parts of it that almost made sense didn't make much. Nor will I excuse the so-called acting. Some things are simply inexcusable. But the reason why I bring this movie up today is because, in the first scene where he makes his appearance, the vampire—
Karen nudged me. "Did he just hop?"
Yes. Unmistakably. And then he hopped again. And again. In fact, it seems that in China, vampires only get around by hopping. (Or sometimes turning into a cloud of mist.) Of course, with all that hopping, they also develop kick-ass martial arts skills. But...
They hop.
This so baffled me that I had to go look it up later, and eventually came to realize, that's right. In China, vampires hop.
Strictly speaking, they are not vampires in the nosferatu sense. They're properly termed jiang shi, and better described as revenants that hunger for and feed upon the chi of the living. Still, the term "vampire" adequately describes them.
And because they are buried standing up, usually with their feet bound together, they hop.
How about you? Fellini aside, what's the weirdest thing that you have ever seen in a foreign film that, on further examination, was absolutely correct for the culture in which the film was made?
Let the arguments begin.
ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Star This, Star That, Star Whatever, The Starlost, Battlestar Galactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, True Blood, The X-Files, The X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF- or fantasy-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.
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