Zachary Ricks's Blog, page 6

Market Devolution, and Brie

The other day, as I was tootling around the internets, I happened upon a very quick exchange between one of my favorite authors and some random dude. They were talking about Kickstarter.

Kickstarter, said the author, isn’t charity. It’s an open market. Open to everyone. If you like something, kick in and contribute. Promote. And if you don’t? Stay away. No skin off your nose, no burr under your saddle. Move on, nothing to see here.

The second guy jumped in and said something that I thought was interesting. He said, in essence, “Sure. And like all other open markets, it will devolve to the most average, most generic, most commercial products possible.”

And of course, after I stopped laughing, I picked myself up off the floor, and had to respond. Because that idea was so easily shown false, so… laughable… that I had to jump in there and put a stake in it.

This is such an obviously inane argument. And it's refuted by a trip to the local grocery store. Not even the whole store. We just need to go to the dairy section. And not even the dairy section. Just the cheese.

See, if what our poor, misinformed critic of free markets (and that brings to mind the question – if he's not down with free markets, what is he a fan of? central planning? generics? is all commercial activity inherently evil in his eyes? Who knows?) fails to grasp is this. If he were correct, all cheese would be Velveeta ™. Or squeezed from a can.

And yet, upon a trip to the grocery store a couple of blocks from the house, we find a rich, varied panoply of cheesy goodness.

Maybe it's just me, but if your argument can be refuted by the mere existence of brie, it's not a very good argument.

But it got me thinking about the nature of free markets and what I'm doing as a writer (when I do write, which has been shockingly lacking since the turn of the new year) or as a publisher (did I mention that Flying Island Press has a new issue of Flagship available at flyingislandpress.com/flagship? No? Did I mention that it's free? Three science fiction stories that I thought were good enough to pay for and am now passing on to you? No? Well, shucks. That seems like a real oversight to me… but now it's fixed).

One of the things that's been keeping me from the keyboard is this thought – and that's all it is – that what I write has to be… really big. It has to be beautiful, and important, and has to bring tears to the eyes. That's what I'm really aiming for (and is one reason that Lamentation is as yet unfinished – that ending has to really BURN. And it's got to be set up just right.)

I'm trying to make brie.

But there's a market out there for all kinds of cheese. Even the squeezy kind. Even the Velveeta (again ™). There's a market out there for science fiction and fantasy stories that have positive things to say about humanity in general (see that link up there to Flying Island Press). And it's a matter of finding them. And making more cheese. Or bread. Or donuts. Or whatever your metaphor for writing / creating / productive work is.

After all, it's not enough to complain about pop culture if that's bothering us. We have to seek out good culture as much as we can. And if we have the time, discipline, a little talent, and the disposition, then it's up to us to MAKE good culture. (Cheese comes from cultures! Ha! Get it!? I just… ah, never mind.)

What’s scary about this?

Reading David Farland’s Million Dollar Outlines, and liked the first exercise so much I thought I’d post it here.

It’s easy enough.

Sit down for ten minutes.

Think of five things you most like in your fiction. Then identify what you think is the biggest potential danger in trying to create that effect.

1.a sense of wonder and excitement.

I worry that it won’t translate, or that I will come across as a rube or a hick.

2. I like seeing a hero win against impossible odds.

This is tricky, because the temptation is twofold. Maybe I will make things too easy for my heroes, and they’ll never have to struggle or be in real peril. Or maybe I will make things too hard, and he either won’t win, or the ending will be contrived and unauthentic.

3.I like seeing a good love story.

But with today’s culture being what it is, I worry that people will think of my stories as being too prudish. And being able to separate love and sex is growing increasingly difficult for this culture.

4. I like big battles, explosions, and action.

It’s hard to keep track of what’s going on, and to convey the appropriate amount of peril. See 2.

5. I like big ideas in my fiction – I love Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and The War Against the Chtorr books specifically because of the super-interesting ideas in them. But it’s hard to do that without coming across as preachy and didactic. And those same ideas may alienate potential audience members.

What are you scared of?

Breadcrumbs

I wrote Battlehymn with a vague inkling of where it might be headed. I borrowed from a number of places including LDS scriptures, the works of John Ringo, Macross Frontier, etc. And I wrote it pretty quick – it was a NaNoWriMo novel, after all, and the whole think clocks in just north of 60k words.

I finally sat down and wrote a good chunk of what’s left in book 2 – Lamentations tonight. (Yeah, I know, the goal was 3k a day, I’m a week behind, I know. That’s still what I’m shooting for. Which will get harder starting Monday when I start a new contract job for a few months.)

But there was one scene I knew I needed in Battlehymn. I wasn’t 100% sure why I needed it, it was just a cool thing. And a not-insignificant portion of Lamentation is one character trying to figure out how to deal with the implications of it, while everyone around that character is sort of pooh-poohing the idea that there was any real effect at all.

Then I wrote tonight’s piece. I’ve heard Holly Lisle talk about how your muse will leave breadcrumbs around for you as you’re writing. Call it the muse, call it inspiration, call it your own subconscious playing with shiny bits and pieces. And suddenly, things in the first book that I thought were just interesting filler or characterization have taken on very real significance. Writing pieces like that – being able to play with that kind of thing… it’s why I love doing this so much.

I’ve got a lot of writing to do between now and February, when I said I wanted to have Lamentation started in broadcast.

Addendum: And by talk of breadcrumbs and muses, I don’t want anyone to think that maybe I believe that something in me planned it. Writing is a lot like playing with blocks. LEGOs maybe. You’re putting together something, and you see this fiddly bit sticking out, and then you grab another fiddly bit, and things go together. You didn’t plan it, but you grab it and use it because it looks cool, feels right, makes it more interesting. That’s me – a kid with some LEGOs.

Happy 2013 – A Year for Writing

It’s day one. Yes, it’s an arbitrary distinction, but it’s one I am wholeheartedly embracing.

After taking a look at my writing goals for this year, here’s what I’m doing. I’m erasing the Google Docs tracker that you see in the sidebar, and re-assessing my goals. As for a bare word count goal for the year, I’m setting that at 750,000 (which including my NaNo books I’ve done in years past, will put me at 1,000,000 words). And if I allow for Sundays off and a two week vacation, that means that starting today, I should be writing 2,500 words per work day. (There’s a very slight buffer there, but 2500 becomes the new baseline. Which after reading Michael Moorcock’s “Death is No Obstacle” is pretty small potatoes. Moorcock’s normal writing day is 15,000 words. (I’m hoping by the end of the year to be able to put up 5k on a regular basis.)

But there’s more than just numbers involved in this year’s writing. This year, I aim to write things that support, defend, and promote my values. And yeah, I know everyone does that. I aim to do it on purpose and with malice aforethought. 

And that starts with a sense of religion and values. It’s already in everything I write, going all the way back to Frosty’s Deposit, which features a father wanting to get to his son on time for a camping trip. Cost of Miracles and Cost of Duty feature moral choices, loyalty, etc. The Sinner stories are explicitly about religious issues, with a wandering gunman trying to buy his soul back from the Devil. There’s discussion of faith and its role, good vs. evil, and in Perdition’s Posse, there’s very explicit language about how some evil cannot be reasoned with, cannot be bargained with, cannot be countenanced, and when the cup of wrath is full, well, then it may just be fire and brimstone time. Which is not a completely inaccurate description of gunpowder.

And you get into the NaNoWriMo novels I’ve written, and all bets are off. They are all about family, religion, morality. Battlehymn has explicitly religious characters, though no one can say they’re all in your face about it.

Anyway, it’s safe to say I’ve been thinking and writing about these issues for a long time without realizing it until a few weeks ago, when I started looking at the themes of my stories and started seeing all the places where I was talking about issues of faith and morality.

So, my aim is to do two things, I suppose – first, I aim to explore issues of faith and morality and traditional Judeo-Christian values in my writing with malice aforethought. And second, I hope to write well enough that you read it anyway. I won’t always succeed. But that’s the writing goal I’m setting for myself.

Boo-yah

Hobbit thoughts

Saw it again last night. Had a crazy idea that maybe I could record the audio, because there were some good lines in there that aren’t in the original, at least I don’t remember them in there – the bit about small acts being what holds back the darkness, for an example – but in the end I decided not to do that. After all, it’s just not cricket.

BUT, after I saw it the first time, I did have some thoughts, mostly about how people want science fiction to be more “challenging”. And how “challenging” always seems to mean “destructive / derisive of traditional western civilization and all it holds dear without necessarily offering any kind of constructive alternative – just a funhouse mirror that shows how awful it is, and how everyone who is a part of it should feel super guilty.” Or something like that.

So I recorded a little something in soundcloud. Here it is.

Annual Planning – 2013

In Which I Speak Of The Year Soon Over (And There is Much Rejoicing at its Demise)

The less said about 2012, the better. It’s been one of the hardest, most difficult, most disappointing, frustrating, miserable years I have had the misfortune to suffer through. On both a professional and a personal level, 2012 has been challenging.

That’s not to say it’s been without bright spots. Most notably as far as anyone reading this is concerned, this is the year I finally let one of my novels out into the wild, and everyone who’s heard it / read it seems to like it and seems to want more. So there’s that.

And more Sinner got written this year, culminating in a story I was particularly happy with – Perdition’s Posse, which I wrote using Lester Dent’s Master Plot Structure (big time props to Brand Gamblin for turning me on to that).

And I’ve learned more about writing and structure in a short form at least. Got a copy of Michael Moorcock: Death is No Obstacle for less than $30.00. And I didn’t have to club a little old lady over the head or anything.

But aside from that, on a host of issues, 2012 is dead to me. Let us not speak of it again.

In Which I Speak Of The Year To Come (And Hereby Doom Any Of The Things Mentioned From Actually Coming to Fruition)

So, 2013. Here’s what I’m thinking.

Four new books in text format. At least two of which will be released in audiobook / podcast /serialized form. That’s three months per book. They aren’t going to be long, and at least two of them aren’t plotted yet. One of them isn’t even an idea yet. But four books. Novels. Which means anything over 50,000 words. And a stretch goal of six books.

PLUS – At least one short story a month. Which gets three professional rejections before coming up on the site. What the heck, right?

Four books is doable. Six is pushing it, but still in the realm of possibility. And the good thing is, two of them have at least a good start on them. So, here’s what’s going to be coming in 2013 from me.

1. Crown of Exiles Book 2: Lamentation. I’m having a ball writing the sequel to CoE: Battlehymn, but I need to set a hard date – a deadline – to get the thing finished, edited, and out. So look for that to kick off in podcast / serialized form on February 4th. That isn’t a lot of time to get the thing finished and edited, but editing CAN happen as I’m recording (it’s what happened with Battlehymn), even though that’s not ideal. Those of you who have been worried about spoilers that may or may not have been revealed during recent Galley Table episodes… the ending has already shifted from what I had originally come up with when a something unexpected happened at the end of the second act, and Haven is about to become an even bigger target – which means a) I have to go back through Lamentation and lay the groundwork for that so it becomes the “sudden but inevitable” event it needs to be, and b) the final battle of CoE: Requiem is going to be absolutely crazy. Bigger stakes, bigger themes, and bigger prices to be paid for everyone involved – especially Cassie and Shem.

2. Kumite Mage. I’ll freely admit, this came out of a story brainstorming session with the Austin NaNoWriMo authors, and when someone mentioned “Magic + Tournament”, the whole thing just sort of appeared in my head. In a way, it’s a return to what I was doing in my first NaNo book, which I always describe as “Science Fiction + Shaw Bros. Kung Fu Movie”. (Of course, what I really wanted to write there was “Science Fiction Enter the Dragon”, but I had to build the world.) This should be a lot of fun to write, and I’m thinking it’ll go fast. Really fast. And it’ll be fun to introduce a comic-relief sidekick, which I’ve never done in any of my fiction to date. I’m already building the playlist, which is pulling from places like Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Mortal Kombat, as well as Florence and the Machine.

3. Norris Tilney and the Western Wild. This already has about 50,000 words on it, but I put it down as we approached November, because a) NaNoWriMo, and b) it was dragging, and needed some more percolation. This one looks to be LONG.

4. Untitled Unplotted To-be-determined Fourth Book. Which May Be A Rewrite Of An Earlier NaNo Novel. This one is hard. I could go back and re-write / edit / polish / release one of my prior NaNo novels. My first one, Eyes of the Marauder is the Shaw Bros/Kung Fu one, #2, Prodigals is the start of a different space-opera series I came up with years ago, #3, Scions is a heroic fantasy which heavily features ghost bears. All of those need a new title and significant re-writing. Scions needs a real ending. Prodigals has a surprising thing that happens in act 3 which requires some major rewrites in the rest of the book to appropriately explain the relationship between this kid and his pseudo-Russian AI sidekick. (A purple silicon cube named “Nikolai”) But it could also be something I’ve been messing around with for a while – a post-apocalyptic tale featuring a kung-fu monk wandering the southwest fighting demons who are passing through a dimensional rift accidentally opened by the Chinese. You never know.

So that’s for the novel writing. Some of which may lead to an indiegogo or kickstarter campaign for cover art / editing. And pushing into the paper publishing aspect as well through creativespace or something else.

I am also considering launching a new weekly podcast above and beyond the podiobooking / short story writing. Put that out on Wednesdays so I can rant about writing, popular culture, and whatever else. With a weekly survival tip for fans of GSG. Call it “The Hump”, but I’m still thinking about what kind of ‘cast it will be, what format I want to use, solo/interview? time? politics?

That one is still up in the air. But anyway, four novels. Stretch to six. Two audiobooks at least, with one of them definitely being CoE: Lamentations. In short, this year, I take Der Wendigmeister’s advice to heart. Write as much as you can, as fast as you can. Finish your stuff. Hit your deadlines. Try very hard not to suck.

Amen.

GSG Gaiden 2012 Podcast – Ep 30

Seriously, I have no idea why you’re even listening to this today. You should be writing.

Ahead or behind, this is your last day to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo. So, two last pieces of advice.

#1. Don’t submit this first draft anyplace. Seriously, ANY PLACE. Take some time, then re-write the heck out of it, polish it as much as you know how… THEN submit it. Seriously. That’s what I’m going to do.

#2. Don’t end suddenly with the climactic battle’s resolution. Star Wars needed the award ceremony and showing that R2 was repaired. Raiders of the Lost Ark needed that last scene about “Top Men”. And your book needs that last scene that shows the new normal. Don’t just drop your character after the climax, or they won’t have the full emotional impact. Which is what they’re here for.

GSG Gaiden 2012 Podcast – Ep 29

Two days left.

You know the drill. It’s serious business.

But first, be entertaining! (or no one will pay attention to your sooper serious stuff!)

Taking a Trip

Earlier today, I posted this GSG NaNo Gaiden Podcast episode that references Travis S. Taylor, and some of the things he said at a recent Huntsville TEDx conference regarding quantum mechanics, perception, the way the brain works, and the possibility that your thoughts could have an impact on the universe around you. And when you combine that with some things that have been going on in my personal church service, my work search, my writing, and what I’ve been reading from Michael Moorcock, hearing from Merlin Mann podcasts, etc… well, let’s just say that I seem to be picking up a lot of the same vibe coming from several disparate sources. It has me tripping out a little bit.

And, yeah, Taylor’s speech could be interpreted as total vindication for Battlehymn being harder science fiction than I may have originally thought, but that’s a little beside the point. I’m going to take the space here to work through this for my own edification, though I heartily expect everyone else to kind of skip this.

RAMBLING DISCOURSE BEGINS… NOW!

How to start this out? I picture a hand of cards. I’ve been dealt a number of cards this week, and I’m going to go through them each in turn.

The first card is that old saw from The Phantom Menace that Taylor references in his TEDx talk – “Your focus determines your reality.” I’ve always kind of agreed that was true, but in a very subjective “how you interpret your inputs helps you change your outputs” sort of way. I’ve never thought that was true in the way that people refer to the “law of attraction” from The Secret or whatever. It’s there, and I’ve always sort of given it the nod and move on treatment. Sure, it’s true in a certain way. Next…

Next card – I’ve always believed that the role of a storyteller was an important one in society. Quoting Andrew Breitbart (yeah, that’s right, Breitbart), “Hollywood is more important than Washington. It can’t be overstated how important this message is: pop culture matters.”1 Because pop culture reflects, influences, and can change the culture’s attitudes about things.

Moorcock says the following in “Death is No Obstacle”:

MM: You put your villain in a  black hat, in some way or another. You put a sign on him. Because you’re dealing in traditional liberal virtues like honesty and charity, the villain is always representative of specific vices: greed, selfishness, racism, refusal to play fair. For me, when I was writing these, they were very much like mediaeval morality tales. Virtue defeats vice.
CG: Was there a professional code, like the American Comics Code, that prescribed that?
MM: No, it’s simple optimism. I believe that that is the point of writing popular fiction. My job as a mythologist in fiction of this kind was to affirm liberal democratic virtues. I couldn’t write today’s violent, cynical comics. These little moral fables are absorbed by millions of children, and it’s important to be careful what sort of ideas you’re giving them. The myth of cynicism is much more dangerous that the slightly more humanistic myth of liberalism, but cynicism is easy, much easier to produce. And so often passes for realism.
I believe morality and structure are very closely linked. The moral of a story is implicit in the structure. The choices of the characters make that move the plot along are the choices of the moral fable, for good or bad. 2

Right, got it? Pop culture matters. Cynicism is easy but dangerous. And your focus determines your reality.

Third card – faith and hope. This last Sunday, we went to a special fireside at the church – a youth standards night where we talk about the importance of holding to certain standards of personal behavior and righteousness. And the last talk was from our local Stake President (In Catholic terms, I suppose this is equivalent to a Bishop? Responsible for a number of local congregations? Is that right?). He didn’t talk a lot about the standards, that was covered by earlier speakers. Instead, he talked about hope, and how hope was necessary, and how we needed to practice being hopeful. Which was interesting, because hope has always been a really difficult concept for me. Faith? Sure. Got a good understanding of what that is , what’s required, how to develop it, etc. Hope? Uhhhhhh… I guess so? Maybe? Why is this separate from faith again? There’s confluence there, some overlap, but if they weren’t separate concepts, and separately important, they wouldn’t be separated in the scriptures the way they are. It’s always those three – faith, hope, and charity. Faith – I have a clear idea of what that’s supposed to look like. Charity – I know what that’s supposed to look like. Hope? Buh? But it’s one that’s been sort of knocking around in my head for months not a few. So… the importance of not just having hope, but of practicing having hope.

Fourth card – it’s ALL matter. Taylor says that we’re all energy – quantum vibrations, etc. IF Einstein is correct, and matter = energy, then it’s all matter as well. And that’s something my own church has been teaching for over 100 years. In May 1843, Joseph Smith said the following, now recorded as LDS canon in Doctrine and Covenants 131 7-8.

There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;

We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter.

Incidentally, the first time I heard about “dark matter” – something that had to be there, was provable because of the way gravity works, but we were unable to see, my mind went straight to that snippet from the D&C.

Last card – the quantum entanglement of your mental and emotional state. IF what Taylor is saying about your mind being a quantum computer is correct, and IF what he’s saying about quantum entanglement is true… if it’s all matter or energy (and the two terms are probably interchangeable), then what you think LITERALLY does change your reality. Your focus, your thinking LITERALLY has an impact on things, and it becomes possible through a combination of mental / spiritual practice and actual physical effort in the real world to have an impact on the universe around you that should result in your predictions about your self and your life coming true. More to the point, the impact that a writer has on the culture, and therefore the individuals in it, and therefore their perception of reality, and therefore REALITY ITSELF… And that’s the point where I just tilt my head a little and assume the confused puppy expression.

Change your mind, change the world. That’s what I’m hearing. Think better, live better. And yes, it sounds like it’s super-trippy, new-agey, and I should be really into crystals or something. But it’s been a consistent message coming for the last few weeks, and especially the last few days. I read a rather annoying article about how science fiction was supposed to be “challenging”, which I interpreted from the tone of the piece as “challenging to all the idiots out there who enjoy things like traditional western civilization” on Saturday. I heard this from my Stake President on Sunday. I got the Michael Moorcock book in the mail on Monday. I heard the Travis S. Taylor talk late last night on a Tuesday.

Eventually, the message gets through. But you still have to go write / work / lay pipe.

1. Andrew Breitbart, Righteous Indignation 97(2nd ebook edition, Grand Central Publishing, April 2012)

2. Colin Greenland, Michael Moorcock: Death is No Obstacle 48-49 (Savoy, 1992)

GSG Gaiden 2012 Podcast – Ep 28

Your focus determines your reality. And what a storyteller does may have more impact than I had previously imagined.

The TEDx talk I mention here is at Doc Taylor’s website: http://doctravis.com.

Maybe it’s the combination of reading a LOT of Michael Moorcock’s views, but coupled with this talk, my mind was a bit blown last night.

Moorcock says “The medium is, to an important extent, the message, so if you’re trying to change the message you are sometimes forced to change the medium.” Breitbart (yeah, THAT Breitbart) says Hollywood is more important than Washington. And now this whole brain / quantum computer / entanglement stuff… it’s a lot to noodle.

But the bottom line is: go write.