Sable Aradia's Blog, page 60

Why Flash Fiction is a Scam

It’s the latest trend in all the spec fic magazines.  Flash fiction!  Write a short story that’s anywhere from a hundred words to the upper limit of a thousand words or less.  Check it out!  More stories in one issue!  Isn’t that spectacular?

Except that it isn’t.  It’s really a scam by magazine publishers.  It’s an excuse to pay writers less.  It’s the literary equivalent of part-time split shifts with no benefits.

Let me explain.

I’m actually a great admirer of the art form.  It’s challenging to write a complete story in that few words!  It’s a bit like haiku, really.  You have a set format, and somehow, with as much brevity as possible, you have to tell a story with a plot, a beginning, a middle, and an end.  It should somehow be interesting enough that it holds the full attention of the reader, too.  Lois McMaster Bujold finished her outstanding novel in the Vorkosigan Saga, Diplomatic Immunity, with a series of one hundred word flash fiction bits that, in knowing the context, made me weep.

The thing is, I don’t think it’s any less challenging for a writer than a good five thousand word short.  It’s hard work.  And I think it takes about the same amount of time that the five thousand word short did.

Here’s where the problem comes in.  The magazine market — the real market, the one that actually pays more than a token, if you can break into it — pays anywhere from five to seven cents a word.

Do you see the problem?  No?  Okay, let me lay it out.

If I write a five thousand word short and submit it to a magazine that pays five cents a word, I get paid $250.  Not bad for a couple of weeks’ worth of work!

If I write a one thousand word flash fiction piece and submit it to a magazine that pays five cents a word, I get paid $50.

Did the thousand-word story take me less time?  Probably not!  I had to come up with the idea, write it while choosing my words even more carefully than I did the short story, edit it, and send it in, just like I did with the short.

It gets better.  Did you ever hear of any flash fiction story winning a Nebula?  No?  How about a Pulitzer or a Giller?  No?  Hmm, me neither.

No one makes a name in flash fiction!  The only time flash fiction gets you any attention, which increases the value of your writing “brand,” is when it’s by somebody who’s already known, or when it’s for a contest; which you probably had to pay to enter.

All the experts will tell you that the way to break into fiction writing as a full-time career is to write for magazines.  When you’ve got some acclaim behind you, you can market your book to a publisher more effectively.  But they’ll all tell you that it doesn’t make any real money, either.  It’s like an apprenticeship.  You get paid less than you’re worth so that you can move up and become a journeyman and maybe, eventually, a master, and that’s the only way you really make money at writing.

Since flash fiction takes as much time to do as a short story, and carries no weight in building up my brand, tell me why I should waste my time working on it again?

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t keep writing it if you like it and if you’re good at it.  Why not?  It’s fun, and the truth is that even those of us who want to make a living at this write for fun.  If we didn’t, we wouldn’t do it, and no one would buy it if we did.  As I’ve said, I really admire the art form!

But the problem is that more and more magazines are turning almost exclusively to this form to try to save costs.  Once again, the desire of the company to make a profit is passed on to the worker, and their labour is farmed with little or no benefit to them.

I think we should rebel against this trend.  Readers, if you value the work of writers and want them to keep doing it, you need to make it into a career that pays reasonably.  Support magazines that pay market value for full short stories!

43 Must-Visit Sci-fi Websites for Writers

The imagining of possible worlds is the staple of science fiction. As expert Bruce Sterling puts it, science fiction (or SF or sci-fi for short) is ‘a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals’. In speculative fiction this impact can be strictly technological (as in novels featuring robots or degrees of space exploration not yet possible) or it may be environmental (as in Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood). Here are 43 must-visit sci-fi websites for writers.

Read the full article at NowNovel.com.

The 21 Best Space Opera Books

I have not read all of these yet, but the ones I have read were astounding!

Like many popular terms, “space opera” was coined as an insult. It’s based on “soap opera” (nothing to do with music) and its original meaning was a “hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn.”

For the purposes of this list, I’m defining “space opera” as a dramatic adventure science fiction story, with bonus points for occurring mostly in outer space and involving spaceships of some sort. Extra bonus points awarded if someone points to a viewscreen and says, “What the hell is that?”

Despite their poor beginning, space operas have become wildly popular. For example, Amazon lists over 10,000 books in the Space Opera category. In fact, this list could easily be, “The 210 Best Space Opera Books,” but there are only so many hours in the day.

If you find an author you like, check out the rest of their books! Most authors that write space opera write a LOT of space opera.

Read the full article at Best-Sci-fi-Books.com.

Experience Dystopia!

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What Playing D&D Taught Me About Writing

I didn’t write this article, but I could have!

By Ricardo Victoria

I was planning to write this post a while ago, but work got in the middle (it still does, but I just ignored it for a bit). Then, that dastardly Leo McBride got his take out first at his blog Altered Instinct *shakes fist*. I recommend reading his entry as well *shakes fist once more*.

Unlike Leo, I have played fewer systems, basically just D&D 3erd Ed. BESM, Bureau 13 and Exalted. Of those, most of my gaming hours were dedicated to D&D or a homebrew modification my best friend, our local GM, concocted before passing away a few years ago. It was actually his main D&D campaign that taught me how to play and in a fun twist of fate, taught me a few lessons on writing, lessons I’m sharing now, in no order of importance. For context, my friend had the patience of a saint as most of the party was composed of unruly players (we came to blows at least once) and liked to bounce ideas with me as it was around the time I wrote my first story ‘Silver Horn’ (that, *shameless plug* you can read here) and I was plotting the first iterations of Tempest Blades.

Said that and without further ado, here is my take.

Read the full article at Ricardo Victoria.

Cooking During the Apocalypse

What a great article! Are your cooking skills up to the Apocalypse?

Good Morning / Evening / Afternoon, wherever you are in the world I hope it’s good.

In Book 1 of “Welcome to the Apocalypse – Pandora”, there are two game presenters who instruct the players on items to hunt and gather in order to survive each apocalypse. Most of the items are self-explanatory, dried foods, tinned foods, packaged foods, but what sort of meals would you likely be eating during any sort of apocalypse? I thought I’d put together a simple meal planner for the typical apocalyptic week. Most of these techniques were passed down from my mother and passed down to her from her mother. And it might be because I go camping, that I still rely on many of these techniques, because I just can’t take everything in the kitchen with me.

It also makes me wonder that if humans lose the practice of handing down practical tips, and the skills of bare essential cooking who will be the survivors of the apocalypse?

Read the full article at DLRichardsonWrites.

5 Differences Between British and American Writing

When writing, especially in a scientific journal, it is prudent to check which version of English should be used. There are not many differences between American and British writing. However, they are reflected not only in the spelling of some common words but also affect the usage of certain expressions and grammatical rules. As the differences in spelling will automatically be picked up by the Word processor (assuming that you selected “Check spelling and grammar,” of course), some finer differences in the use of grammar and style will not.

So, here are a few tips to help you deal with this issue…

Read the full article at FirstEditing.com.

What’s Current in Sci-Fi?

I got into a discussion with a friend on Facebook who wanted to know what was current in Sci-fi.  This is what I said at the time.  Understand that this is an excerpt from a casual discussion, not a researched article, and as such should be looked at as a blurb of general interest only, spouted off from the cuff about the general ferment that has stuck in my mind.  What do you think of when you consider this question?

Check the Hugo and Nebula award-winners for the past few years.  There’s a push to bring back a lot of the old tropes but corrected for their biases. A space opera called Binti was really huge a couple of years ago, for example, and women swept the Nebulas last year. So space opera and other pulp genres are making a comeback if you can avoid falling into racist/sexist/homophobic stereotypes (so I think you’re good!)

People are also reading a lot of slipstream, dystopia, military sci-fi and alternate history. Robert Sawyer and Margaret Atwood are kind of the big Canadian authors right now. David Weber and Eric Flint are still the reigning champions of military sci-fi and alternate history respectively, but they’re considered the pulp guys (they have yet to win an award and I doubt they will, but they’re selling more books than everyone else, if you see what I’m saying.)

Countercultural stuff is in a Renaissance. But they’re also reinventing the wheel. A big hit recently was Ancillary Justice, which won ALL the major sci-fi awards, but Jamie (my partner & editor) read it and he says it’s just a cross between space opera, The Ship Who Sang and I, Robot, with some gender blending and psychological weirdness. But I haven’t read it yet so I’m just taking his word for it.

And there’s a trend to market anything that can “pass” as a different genre as that genre, rather than sci-fi (like Cormac McCarthy‘s The Road, which is classic post-apocalyptic dystopia).

Hope this helps somewhat!

10 Things Writers Don’t Know About the Woods

By Dan Koboldt

It’s hard to put a number on how many books I’ve read that feature characters in the woods. Sometimes they’re fleeing, sometimes chasing, sometimes just looking for something to eat.

As someone who spends a lot of time in the woods, I should tell you that most authors get it wrong. Here are ten realities about the woods that every writer should know.

Read the full article on Dan Koboldt.

Transforming the Landscape

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