Sunday, June 18 Clarion: Bye Suzy, Hello Sean

People seemed to be generally relaxed at last night's barbecue, no doubt a well deserved breather after a busy week. Chris and Derek mainly organized the thing (thanks, guys), but they had plenty of help from the rest of us. We presented Suzy with some of her favorite chocolate as a token of our appreciation. And most of us met Sean Stewart, the incoming instructor. Classmate Stuart has become the unofficial class photographer, and hopefully he'll post some pictures some place. I may try and snag one or two of them to post here.

As darkness began to fall and the swarms of mosquitos grew just too thick, some of us moved into Van Hoosen to horse around and have a few more beers or Cokes inside, making new use of the room where we all so seriously present our critiques during the day. Sean joined us, and the discussions ranged from serious to silly.

I ran into Sean this morning in the cafeteria and we chatted briefly. It seemed like he was still settling into the idea of being a Clarion instructor, but by the time our 11:00 introductory session rolled around, he had things well in hand. He had us all write on pieces of paper what we thought we were best at in our writing. Then he collected the papers and told us that while he had the strengths we listed, we couldn't have them back until we'd turned in a completed story without them. This is the taking-a-risk week, the it's-okay-to-fail (as long as you tried something) week. Judging by some of the looks on people's faces, I think some were jazzed about this, others maybe a little lost. There should be some interesting stuff popping up soon in the critique pile. However, we're going to have to get through a backlog first. My second story will be one of about ten turned in tomorrow morning. Which means the take-a-risk stories may not show up in the queue until Wednesday or Thursday.

I could have written any number of things on that slip of paper: dialogue, characters, whatever. Unfortunately I wrote pacing. Strictly speaking that means I should write a story with no pacing and make it work. I'm not sure what that would even be. But I do have an idea that has to do with an unusual story structure. That's sort of a pacing issue. I'll have to see if I can make something of it.

Monday, June 19 Clarion: What's So Funny?

Twelve stories were turned in this morning (including one of mine), and about seven more are expected tomorrow. Handling the flow of these things has become such a concern that we as a group spent about an hour in this morning's session trying to figure out what to do about it. Some people don't feel able to give thorough critiques to so many of them, or even just to keep up. Several ideas were tossed around, but we reached a compromise that will prioritize submissions so that those who are slower don't end up penalized, and so everyone has the opportunity to have at least one critique by each instructor. A procedure will also be put in place that makes it clear what's being reviewed each day, so we avoid putting anyone in the embarrassing situation of having to admit that he or she didn't read the correct submissions (this has already happened once or twice). I'm just happy to know that I wasn't the only one struggling. For instance, on two of the stories critiqued this morning I said next to nothing at all, either verbally or on the manuscripts. And in another I had one of those "Doh!" moments where I realized that I'd seen the obvious but missed the point. I couldn't even fake it because I'd had to speak up first. Not too helpful, were they? Oh well, the struggle goes on.

So I'm a funny guy, apparently. Kelly said this journal made her laugh out loud. Hmm, that's a whole lot of pressure to put on someone as humor impaired as I am. But then again, I've also been called a puppet master. I don't know what that was all about. There's only so much you can overhear in a crowded restaurant, alas.

Tuesday, June 20 Clarion: Inspirations

My story "Saving the Orkney Beast" was critiqued this morning. Again I had a generally favorable review, with people wanting certain things explained, clarified, or changed. The group seemed to be about evenly divided on whether they liked head-butting monks, and those with a closer connection to the real Orkney didn't seem to care for my use of the name. Overall, I am again pleased with the level of feedback, especially that Sean Stewart found my prose similar enough to his that he felt compelled to line edit the same kinds of mechanical mistakes he makes in first drafts. Pretty cool.

After the morning session I had my one-on-one with Sean. We talked as we strolled along the path by the woods behind Owen Hall, then back again and a little way down the river, and finally back to his apartment as it began to rain. I asked him about what means to "write what you're passionate about" and about how to "take risks." We also talked a bit about the idea I had in response to his "write without your strength" exercise, and about what makes a story great. I like Sean. In certain ways he seems like a more intense version of myself. And a much more successful one, of course. :)

Yesterday we had a peek at some of the science fiction materials in the Special Collections department of the MSU library. What an amazing variety of things, from old pulp magazines to rare books, to SF erotica (including an uncatalogued collection of slash fanzines), and of course every story ever submitted to Clarion. If only there were more time to peruse the collection. But it's odd to know that even if I never wrote another word in my life, something of mine will be in the library collection here from now on. It's rather inspiring too.

Wednesday, June 21 Clarion: Same Old Same Old

Yet another day of reading and critiquing. Same old same old. Except that I've pretty much finished my third story, "Voyage of the Destiny" and I'll turn it in tomorrow. At 2,600 hundred words, I'm fairly please with the way it turned out. It's a prose version of a pantoum, a poetic structure wherein certain lines from one stanza are repeated in the next, and the poem finishes with the same lines it started with. It's been a fun stretch doing this with prose, and I can imagine trying to use this form again.

Let's see, what else is going on? Last night was pizza courtesy of Sean, accompanied by more insights into the workings of the publishing industy: contracts, royalties, print runs, etc. The nutshell version is, of course, the outlook sucks, but some people still manage to make it.

News from back home: I received a story reject from Mr. Van Gelder in which he pointed out a typo. I don't know if that's progress or not, but at least I know he read as far as page four.

Friday, June 23 Clarion: Week Two Draws to a Close

I thought it somehow apropos that a spider crawled around our feet and a dragonfly flitted about the room during our last regular critique session with Sean Stewart.

It's been interesting to see how in the last two or three sessions some people have loosened up to the point where they can say stuff like "This story is just boring; I know you've got great passion in you but it isn't on the page," or "Please don't ever write something like this again." Part of the trouble is that the exercise from the beginning of the week, where we gave up our strengths in order to stretch ourselves, resulted in at least two people just absolutely hating the stories they created. What kind of story can you write if you can't use "originality," as one writer put on his slip of paper? You see? The strength I gave up was "pacing," which I was fortunate enough to find a way around. Too bad my story won't get reviewed until next week.

So what was this week's lesson, you may ask? Even if you didn't, I'm going to share a few snippets of writerly advice from Sean I picked up on this week:

Writing genre is like making a kit, one made up of easily recognizable components (iconic elements). Over time these elements become cliches, and so genre stories lack depth and complexity. You've got to remove the elements in order to restore the newness or sense of wonder that genre stories lack.

Although the general wisdom is to minimize or eliminate speech tags, in genre writing elaborate speech tags are often stage directions for less-experienced readers.

Follow the energy. The parts of the story that are fun to write, the parts that have tension, should be expanded upon, even if that means abandoning an outline. The parts that are boring to write or that you have doubts about will suck, so ignore them, even if they seem like crucial, inevitable scenes.

Always start with a highly motivated character. Always write about characters with energy (active characters).

Novel writing choke points: At around 80-100 pages, the initial enthusiasm for the project wears off; and at about 75 percent complete, the writer will have grave doubts about the novel. Beginning the second novel also will leave the writer with many doubts. The answer at each stage is to recognize these points as part of the process and keep on writing.

Just as every writer needs a few readers who will provide honest critical feedback, every writer also needs, for morale purposes, a few sycophants to proclaim everything he or she writes as fantastic.

A few small, real details provide credibility for all the stuff you make up; then the reader fills in the rest.

Favor short, old words—Anglo-Saxon over Latinate.

I understand that some of this stuff is on Sean Stewart's web site; I don't know, I'll have to check some other time.

It's been a very profitable week. If I can put some of these things in practice in the next story, maybe I'll actually see some progress in my writing skills.

Saturday, June 24 Clarion: Flashbacks

I'm 2,300 words into the next story. I'm struggling a bit with this one. I had a false start. I've had to do some research. Writing this story has been different in certain respects. But am I really doing something differently? Has something changed? I'm not certain. I have no sense of "Ah, this is so much better than what I used to do."

I missed a day in the journal this week, so I should go back to a couple of things that I haven't mentioned. First, welcome back Mark, who had to leave us for about a week to deal with family business. And he returns with some good news: a sale to Electric Wine. Way to go Mark!

Sean had his public reading Thursday evening, and he read a passage from Galveston that included cannibals in deep Texas. It was a hoot, dark but funny. Besides being a fidgetter and a pacer, Sean is also a funny voice guy. If you ever get a chance to hear him read, do it. You'll be glad you did.

We finally rounded up enough people last night to play Mafia, that game so beloved at conventions. It is fun, and I could imagine it becoming intense with people who played seriously. We didn't. There was much laughter last night, lots of impulsive choices. Of course discovering who among us is not a good liar was interesting, and who can be devious as all get out underneath a sweet and harmless demeanor.

Sunday, June 25 Clarion: Rest for the Weary?

And again this week Sunday is no day of rest. I've finished off the first draft of my fourth story, thus far untitled. It's about 4,500 words at the moment, but I have concerns about the ending. I've written stories where the character arc concludes but the external action doesn't, the idea being that the ultimate outcome is clear—except not everyone seems to see it that way. I may have that problem again. I'll think about it. This should be ready to turn over tomorrow or Tuesday, the day my previous submission, "The Voyage of the Destiny," is reviewed. But I received an encouraging e-mail from Sean Stewart. He read the story and several others on the plane ride home, and apparently my story was a spot of comic relief among the grim stuff. I'm glad I could oblige, and happy that the experiment worked as far as he's concerned.

Also this morning I went to Meijers with Kelly, Linda, and Joe to pick up goodies and supplies for this evening's shindig, including a birthday cake for Stuart and Adam. So, I guess I better not post this until later, just in case one of them peeks in here.

When I ran up against a wall working on the story last night, I took a break and went with follow Clarionites Jeff, Jim, Susannah, Gavin, Derek, and Kelly to a blues bar in Lansing. So there were were, sharing pitchers of some tasty reddish brew and some nachos and mushrooms, listening to a pretty good band, surrounded by folks dancing or playing pool, and what do we do? A writing exercise! It was one of those add a line to the poem and pass it to the next person things. We writers can be such geeks at times, you know? Yet, a good time was had by all.

On the way back from the blues bar last night, Jeff, Susannah, and I saw an opossum in the parking garage. I'm guessing neither of them had seen one before. I see them all the time back home, just about anytime I drive through our alley at night, so it didn't seem like that big a deal to me. Some of folks here are amazed by chipmunks, too. But the intriguing wildlife for me are the woodchucks (they're so cute) and the black squirrels, which are very cool in my book.