Reading, Writing, and Publishing Links: 3/14/13

Random song of the week:

Steve Earle: "Copperhead Road"

This song came on the radio a few days ago, and I realized it was one of the first songs I ever  remembered hearing. My mom confirms that my dad bought it a few days after it came out (I would have been about five). If I were to make a playlist of songs illustrating important aspects of American culture, this one would be on it.

Links:

1. "SFWA De-Lists Hydra; Random House Responds." Drama! The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have decided that Random House's new e-imprint, Hydra, will not count as a qualifying market for SFWA membership. Random House feels they're being unfair. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware reports at SFWA's website.

2. "Losing interest." Fantasy writer Patricia Wrede discusses some things that can make a writer want to abandon a story halfway through.

3. "Query Letter FAQs (Part II): 10 More Questions Answered." Chuck Sambuchino of Writer Unboxed gives some tips to writers approaching the dreaded query process.

4. "Omniscient." An interesting post by Ann Leckie on the rarely-discussed subject of third-person omniscient point of view. Worth reading!

5. "Why Not to Register Copyright for Unpublished Work." By Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware. Basically: it's probably a waste of time and money, and it might get you spammed by vanity presses. Those self-publishing, or publishing with small presses, on the other hand, should at least look into it. (Thanks as always, Ms. Strauss!)

6. "Publisher as Prestige Brand?" Wendy Lawton of Books & Such has an interesting speculation: that publishers are going to focus more and more on branding, creating recognizable consumer experiences like big design houses now do for fashion. Which I guess would put authors in the position of in-house designers? I don't know. It's odd to think about, but makes a certain amount of sense.

Reading, Writing, and Publishing Links: 2/20/13

Oh, hey, you guys! I got distracted--here are yesterday's links. Sorry for the delay!

Your random song of the week: I've come across this as an auto-play background song on a couple of different blogs, and though I hate auto-play media, I really like the song.

Half Moon Run, "Full Circle."

1. "Where your time is." Fantasy author Patricia Wrede points out that a writing career takes time, and often comes at the sacrifice of other appealing things (TV, money, a social life...)

 2. "The Dreaded Synopsis." Sean Cummings of Oasis for YA says the secret is to write it from your outline, not your manuscript.

3. "What to Do When Our Families Don't Support Our Writing." I'm lucky enough to have a very supportive family (thanks, Mom! I love you!) However, if you have trouble getting your loved ones to support your need for writing time, Jody Hedlund has some suggestions. I especially like the one about considering the first couple of years of unpaid writing a sort of professional education--that's how I've been thinking of it. : )

4. "Bad advice from best-selling authors." By Janet Koboel Grant of Books & Such. It's an interesting read. However, at the risk of sounding snotty, I'd like to see a post extolling the value of literary agents that was not written by a literary agent. Nothing personal against Ms. Grant--it's just that a lot of agents have written posts about how much writers need them, and it comes across as... less than objective.

5. "Too much talent." Patricia Wrede on how talent can actually be a disadvantage on how you don't have the diligence to go with it. This is the same thing that happens to bright high-schoolers who are used to coasting once they get to college and are expected to work. (Not that I speak from experience...)

6. "MFA Programs and You."  This... actually sounds amazingly good. I wonder if they'd take my almost-finished novel as an application? Thanks, SFWA!

7. "An Introduction to Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, Part 1: Definitions." Another SFWA post, this one by Malinda Lo. I think this is actually a few weeks old, but I don't remember posting it before; if I did, I'm sorry. (WOODS, if you're curious, is definitely on the edgier side of YA. : ))

Short Stories

I have made a new rule for myself: until I'm done with my 2000 words, I'm not allowed to do anything online but check my email and look at writing-related sites. No Facebook. No Stewart. No Colbert. I thought it would improve my productivity dramatically, but I'm lagging a bit today.


One of the writing-related websites I've been looking at is sfwa.org. (Joining SFWA is one of my most concrete career goals.) They just put up a post about the Odyssey Fantasy Writing Workshop, which is held in New Hampshire in early summer. It looks thrilling, and I wish I could go. Maybe some year. 


While I was poking around the Odyssey website, I read the following on the Syllabus page: 


"You are strongly encouraged to work on short stories while at Odyssey, because most writers improve their skills more quickly when writing short stories."


I'd never thought about that before, but it certainly sounds as if it might be true. I've never really thought seriously about short stories as anything but side projects, but of course they'd be good writing exercises-- you can see the results of new techniques immediately, and rewrites aren't too traumatic if something doesn't work out. It's a great medium for experimentation. As it happens, I just started notes for a new short story today. I think I might try to keep one going on the side-- something to do after the word count is done for the day.