As most of you know, I recently rearranged my writing studio. Okay, full disclosure time: I’m still actively working on it, after nearly 3 weeks of mostly dedicated effort. It may look lovely to the casual observer but, lurking beneath the neat surface, is my hideous secret: it’s really a mess. Tucked inside of the cabinets and chests and drawers is a dark, sloppy, sordid underbelly of….paper. Continue reading
I’m very particular when it comes to the ordering of my writing room. I’ve been back in my studio for nearly two weeks, and have been spending a lot of my spare-and not so spare-time tweaking the hell out of my surroundings. I’m not interested in perfection, which is too bad; that would be remarkably easier to achieve! Oh, I have all of the big basics in place-modern IKEA desk, vintage chair, shelves, design and storage space. What I’m looking for is more along the lines of the “I’ll know it when I see it/feel it” school of aesthetic and psychological satisfaction. I’m creeping closer to that amorphous goal by the day, one kooky tchotchke or inspirational magazine clipping at a time. Anything more committal and I feel like I’m slogging through molasses. My goal? To see a strange, beautiful and rotating array of images and words, books and art whenever I glance up from my keyboard, fingers fleetingly paused mid-stroke before they fall, deftly yet heavily, in service to another sentence. To be cocooned by creativity. That’s happiness.
I’ve nearly forgotten that I’m a fiction writer. Oh, don’t misunderstand me: I’m as faithless as they come. I could never hold steady or true to that vocation, even though I get so taken up with a story that the world without disappears. I still stray. Every single time, satisfaction be damned. Continue reading
The qualities that make me a great employee also ensure that I am a fine boss; I am well-organized, dedicated, hard-working, compassionate, honest and, when necessary, quite plain-spoken. I have no problem filling either role, with gusto and something approaching finesse. The clarity of these cut-and-dried positions is comforting. I’m the boss at ‘A Small Press Life’, an employee at my very part-time day job. Knowing my place, wherever it falls on the workaday spectrum, goes a long way in making bad days tolerable. Under these easy circumstances, motivation is effortless. Then there’s the flip-side to my professional life, where everything is a bit murky and unsafe. Where I am equal parts employee AND boss, one of the worst combinations of anything in the world. Freelancing. Oh, the humanity.
Sometimes, it seems as if all of the stellar attributes listed above melt away as soon as I am in charge of myself in a freelance capacity. Once I have a commission, or have placed a piece, the situation reverts to normal. It’s the leg-work and networking that is tricky and unpalatable. I devote hours to those onerous tasks on behalf of ‘A Small Press Life’ but for my freelance work? Not a chance. I’d rather shoot a nail gun at my right knee. I’ll admit that this entire issue is complicated by a hardened combination of ego and ethical philosophy.
I’m not a journalist for a good reason: although I could, I won’t write about just any assigned topic. I need to be passionate about a subject, or at least find it intriguing or disturbing. You can call it a weakness, and I’m okay with that. When it comes to creativity, I’m also a first-rate, straight-to-the-head-of-the-class control freak. I accept criticism well and appreciate feedback, truly. Artistic growth is otherwise impossible. I just like to do what I like to do, which includes writing on strange niche topics and only working for small press publications- both involving rather narrow (and self-imposed) parameters that don’t make a freelance career a cakewalk. (This is, incidentally, how ‘A Small Press Life‘ was born.)
I spend a lot of time ferreting out forums that meet my criteria, to find publications that are a correct fit. This detailed vetting is frustrating, which is probably why my freelance career goes through wildly divergent phases. Stabilizing it is one of my goals for 2012. I’ll need access to as many resources as I can find, resources that will aid me in my efforts to stay organized and on top of the always-changing market (because even a wordsmith specializing in silent movies, dead writers, the literary life, old books and flappers has a market).
I know that you face your own set of professional challenges. We likely have in common a cross-section of concerns, annoyances and problems. There’s always a universality to this kind of career; it matters not that the details differ. I’m going to start sharing my own resources with you as they come my way. Feel free to reciprocate.
C. Hope Clark-Funds for Writers/FWW Small Markets Newsletters:
C. Hope Clark presides over a mini-empire of (mostly free) ‘Writer’s Digest’ approved e-newsletters. I subscribe to the weekly ‘Funds for Writers’ and ‘FWW Small Markets’. Although she acts as a sort of pep rally leader with words of encouragement, inspirational quotes and feel-good stories, I usually skip right to the meat: the up-to-the-minute resources. You’ll find a list of grants, awards, contests, jobs and markets, with all of the time-saving details in one tidy place. The rest is up to you.
Every time these weekly reminders arrive, I become a little more disciplined, focused and determined. That’s a start.
Doing the impossible is a lot harder than it sounds.
Being a science-fiction or fantasy writer is hard. Wrestling with the hassle of plot, theme, character, setting, transition, voice, and deeply rooted psycho-sexual subtext is hard enough without having to deal with the added challenge of hanging the threads of your story from the rafters of disbelief in order to satisfy the demands of the genre. As if these hurdles weren’t high enough, the problem of inspiration when it comes to thinking up a memorable and appropriately science-fictiony or fantastical-without-being-embarrassingly-flamboyant name for characters and exotic lands becomes even more frustrating when writer’s block insists on being a squatter in the house of ideas.
Fortunately, the Internet hosts a series of solutions to this problem in the form of name generators. Name generators are applications that are programed to combine a number of different elements of vowel sounds, consonant constructions and a slew of other linguistic elements into new configurations that give you just the unearthly quality you need to sound authentic.
One of the first and best experiences I’ve had is with seventhsanctum.com, a website by Steven Savage featuring a particularly robust set of generators. Not content to focus on names alone, the site enables the visitor to play with a number of different subjects, from character names to planet names, story ideas, character skills and even ideas for when good old cousin Writer’s Block stops in for a few days.
A quick click on Elf Names – described as “Names for both Tolkeinesque elves, Wild Elves, and general fantasy,” – opens up a page that requests the number of names desired (up to 25), a category field offering the choices of High Elves, Wild Elves or Full Names, and a generate button. A selection of ten High Elf names renders thus:
Aderlusn Hammerfinder
Adsaar Smilefollower
Atagear Firewand
Atleid Lakemaker
Goglaal Prayerstealer
Ilburb Mercyblade
Ilolain Rainvoyager
Lorhaeg Dreamfletcher
Naratg Featherfollower
Otibnadr Hawkbrewer
Somewhere in there is my future pen name. Or hotel-check-in alias.
The names don’t always have to be exotic. Utilizing information from the US Census, seventhsanctum.com’s Quick Name Generator can supply you with garden-variety appellations that can also be frustratingly difficult to come up with without sounding bland. Kristina Scott, Lily Cash, and Stefanie Hatfield would agree – were they real people.
The site is a blessing for anyone looking for humor or inspiration in writing their story or bringing their role-playing game setting and characters to life. It was put together with an obvious love for writing and creativity. Not content to simply kitbash the English language and leave it at that, there are several links to other sites and features meant to aid the artist’s mind in advancing technique and even suggestions as to how to make forays into the world of getting paid to do what you love.
So the next time you seethe with frustration when you find that somebody else preemptively stole your idea to name the dashing hero Han Solo or Aragorn, head on over to seventhsanctum.com to kick-start your creative slump, and find a doorway into a great community as well.
KMS
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January, although frigid and dreary, has a few compensatory gifts up its wintry sleeve that no other month can offer: a chance to rewind the clock to start, a vague idea that anything is possible, and a sense of euphoria that can only be found when the year is in its first blush. Although these feelings naturally fade as the temperature rises, you should be able to use this energy all year-long. The goals I have in mind aren’t tauntingly out of reach, nor must they be broken down into a dozen discouraging steps; they could just as easily be called Life Skills for Writers. Continue reading
My fascination with words is no secret, even to the most casual ASPL reader. It is as readily apparent as my eye or hair colour, and even more essential to my sense of self.Although I would feel less fiery,I could pop in brown contacts and dye my hair blonde and still be at home.A life cut off from words is as unthinkable,scary and black as death:it would be no life at all.My strongest connection to anything this world has to offer,other than the hermetic bond that seals me to my mother,is an unbreakable tie to the English language.
Words are glorious;when the perfect one rolls off of the tongue it is,in a small way,an act of reverence,never more so than for writers. Any true wordsmith has their own voice,developed through a combination of nature and practice,that is as unique and resplendent as a snowflake or a soul.I have been writing since the age of seven.The journey from there to here has been full of much sweat,obsessiveness,passion and self-nurturing.At the end of the day, I am proud to state that my voice is recognizably my own, and cannot be mistaken for another’s.If ,when time has ceased to shelter me and my journey is no more,this is the sum total of my artistic achievement I will be satisfied.
My creative voice is thorny.It is not for everyone,nor does it need to be.If my overriding desire was to place a number of books on the Best seller’s lists,or to publish articles in the big glossies,this would certainly be an issue of gigantic proportions.I would probably have to dull my words to broaden my appeal.I admire anyone with the guts to go after the kind of career that they desire,for whatever reasons:I extend this respect to myself.I refuse to walk a path that I know would be littered with nothing but compromise and misery and recrimination.
Language is not merely a means to an end, the verbal equivalent of putting one foot in front of the other.At its best,its richest,it is hypnotic and commanding:it arrests you,distilling and then fragmenting your notion of what words can do.Moms are not always your best critic,as they want terribly for you to succeed.Mine is savvier and more realistic than most,nor am I a youth in need of coddling. She also has a preternatural understanding of what it is my voice is trying to say,why I arrange my words to suit a very specific rhythm.This comes as much from being a hard-core reader as from being my mom.
There are people who find my writing style exhausting (I say,”so be it”),not worth the effort to ponder,savour or turn around in their head or on their tongue.They want brevity,simplicity, writing un-enhanced, taken to the bone.They are entitled to that,but must go elsewhere for it. My mother has tried to explain to some of these people the nature and appeal of my style,what sets it apart,why it is worth the few seconds of extra effort . She says that I love words,revere words–that my writing is meant to be read slowly,with thought given to the flow and the meaning behind them. She is correct,at least, about the former:she has been witness to my life-long love affair with language,which gives full expression to my obsessive nature.
One of the main thrills that I find in reading is how happening across a stunning turn-of-phrase halts everything.Time stops,outside considerations cease to matter:the only focus is re-reading those words,pondering them,letting them fly or slink off of the tongue.Any writing worth a damn is enhanced,heightened,sharpened when read aloud.The words that I read two or three or four times in a row demand to be spoken.That is what I wish to accomplish with my writing:it is a tall order that I mercilessly task myself with filling.
Perhaps only James Joyce could get away unscathed with writing words for the sake of words,in homage to their sound,their meaning,their chameleon-like quality when grouped in unusual and unexpected combinations.The rest of us,even when equally in awe of language,must find a more solid ground to erect our combinations on.We must learn to do so–train ourselves to do so–without sacrificing our passion,our individuality,our peculiar patterns.In the end,if we fail–if I fail,for,in trying to speak for others like me,I must first learn to speak for myself–at least we do so knowing that we wrote with honesty and unfailing dedication to ourselves and our craft.
How did you develop your voice,your style,your own writer’s vision of things?
A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea. 