January 2007
Dear Writers of the Future Subscriber,
This new issue includes the following:
1) An article for writers by Anne McCaffrey (one of the distinguished judges of the contest), giving valuable advice to the new writer. The article is appropriately called "VALUABLE ADVICE."
2) Writers of the Future Volume XXII appears on more bestseller lists and has become one of the top-selling science fiction anthologies in the U.S.!
3) What are the Writers of the Future winners doing? Read about the successes and activities of our latest winners as well as earlier winners of the contest.
4) Writers of the Future Volume XXII now being distributed through Walmart stores across the country!
5) Visit the Writers of the Future Blog.
6) Tell us what you think!
1) VALUABLE ADVICE by Hugo and Nebula award-winning writer and Writers of the Future judge, Anne McCaffrey.
READ! is my first dictum for those who wish to write. You must know what others have written and how they put the book together.
DON'T GIVE UP THE DAY JOB to concentrate on writing until you earn as much from your backlist as you do from new contracts.
BUY A DICTIONARY and check your spelling. Albeit many computers include a spell checker, but I'm always arguing with mine about the words I invent that are needed in a science fiction story. I also argue the spelling, since I work with the English-Irish, the English-English and the English-American conventions as well as grammar and snytax. And if you think that's funny, it is, but it's true. My American editor once said wistfully, "Anne, your English is too Irish to be American."
LEARN TO USE A THESAURUS to improve your command of synonyms and antonyms. (Some computer programs have them online. Use it.)
Except for the word said. There is a sort of virus that affects new writers as they try to prove what a command of the English language they have. They use a new verb for the word said each time a character speaks. James Blish, one of the top SF writers of all time, slapped my wrists for "said-bookism" by showing that my character could not have "hissed" that phrase, as it contained no sibilants. Nor could he have growled out a sentence that had no r's or other fricatives. Said, answered, replied, asked (a few queried's, maybe even a stated if your character is prosaic) are all the speaking verbs you need. Unless you have special need for emphasis. Use the other speaking words sparingly. People can even use whispers, and you can write "he said in a whisper." Any but those four speaking verbs interfere with the reader's progress through your story. You don't want anything to keep him/her from reading on.
When you face that blank sheet of paper or the screen, remember the first and most important task is to TELL A STORY. (By then, of course, you will have had the necessary tools of your trade: grammar, spelling, syntax and an idea for your story.) So, TELL IT!
Over the forty-four years since I sold my first story to the late Sam Moskowitz for his magazine Science Fiction+, I used that maxim to guide me. I don't do summaries or outlines—because, then, however brief the summary, I have already told that story. (There are three outlines in the Del Rey files that have never been written...another story took their place when the contract was signed and I was ready to write. Poor Pam Strickler has never forgiven me for not writing the story that was in the outline.) But my perceptions of what would happen, and the emergence of the characters as real "people," took precedence over the sketch I had done to secure the advance. However, most writers don't get away with that. Betty Ballentine, my first editor, understood—she had the outlines for the first two that were never written.
I'll give you another very important tip that I acquired from reading The Firedrake by Cecilia Holland. In the sixties when she published her first novel at a mere twenty-one years of age, there was a great revival of thick tomes of historical fiction by Thomas Costain and Sam Shellabarger. Excellent reading, but they went on and on about the details of their historical periods—so that you'd know they did their research—until you might start flipping pages to get back to the plot and the interesting parts. Cecilia Holland used only those details that would appear noteworthy or strange to a man living in those times, 1065 in The Firedrake. However, because she had been a history major and knew her facts, somehow the reader did, too, without all that overwhelming and minute detail.
I thought to myself, what a wonderful way to get a reader into an alien ambience and a strange planet. My deathless first words, using this technique, were "Lessa woke cold." And some two million words later, I haven't stopped writing the Pern Series®.
Gordon R. Dickson, one of my writer role models, said that if the author knew what was in the drawers of the chests in the room he was writing about, what hung in the closest, or lodged in pockets and on shelves, the reader would know too, without having to be told.
I used that technique as well as another I discovered myself when I wrote The Ship Who Sang. If the writer is involved in an emotion, that, too, will be transferred through all the steps it takes to get a story from the mind, through the typescript, to page proofs, to finished edition, to the reader. I have made BBC cameramen weep to hear me read the last four paragraphs of that story. Of course, I'm weeping, too, and barely able to speak. That story came out in 1961: I wrote it as therapy for the grief I felt for the death of my father in 1954.
When readers weep because Moreta, the Dragonlady of Pern, went between on a borrowed dragon, they are not weeping for her. They are actually crying because I was so bereft when I had to put down my gallant grey hunter, Mr. Ed. I gave Master Robinton the kind of death that my brother died in 1988. I've used the anger I've felt, the frustration, the terror, and the humiliation as valid tactics to make my readers feel the emotions of the characters I invent and care what happens to them.
There is no secret way to get published. There is only one way—which is hard work, and baring parts of your own soul and life in the process—to get a novel or story published. You believe in what you're saying and you TELL THE STORY!
—Anne McCaffrey
This article appeared in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume XIV. You can get other insider tips and helpful advice for new writers in each of the Writers of the Future volumes. For more information go to www.writersofthefuture.com.
2) WRITERS OF THE FUTURE VOLUME XXII CLIMBS THE CHARTS!
Writers of the Future Volume XXII has climbed a multitude of bestseller lists across the country!
The anthology has appeared on 26 different internet bestseller lists, and for the sixth week, was #1 on the Amazon.com science fiction and fantasy anthology list!
You can get copies of the latest volume at www.writersofthefuture.com, at Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Borders and your local independent bookstore.
3) WRITERS & ILLUSTRATOR OF THE FUTURE WINNER SUCCESSES:
MIGUEL ROJAS: 2005 Illustrators of the Future winner Miguel Rojas, has used the self-confidence he gained from the materials he learned at the exclusive week-long Illustrators of the Future workshop (where top industry professionals gave their hard-won advice on the business of art and design) to land a job as a graphics designer for JINX, a clothing manufacturer for gaming attire located in San Diego (now just launching their World of Warcraft clothing line).
Rojas is now giving a helping hand to other aspiring artists, just recently giving a presentation of the Writers and Illustrators of the Future program to 40 graphic design students at the Coleman IT College in San Diego. The college is running a program to help provide viable avenues to students to a successful career, and the Deputy Director, Dr. CJ Fuller invited Miguel to speak, recognizing the important role both the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests play in helping launch the careers of tomorrow's bright new stars.
JEFF CARLSON: Jeff Carlson, whose story, "The Frozen Sky" won first place in the 2006 opening quarter of the Writers of the Future contest has a new story in print, a quirky action-adventure piece in the January 2007 issue of Asimov's magazine.
His also received kudos from Tangent Online for his story, "Gunfight at the Sugarloaf Pet Food & Taxidermy".
BRANDON SIGRIST: Writers of the Future Volume XXII Gold Award writer winner, Brandon Sigrist, was featured in the December issue of the Twin Cities Metro magazine.
