24 October 2005

Lessons from a Pro
by Carol Emshwiller

Carol Emshwiller is one of America's best sf/f authors. Among her remarkable works are: The Mount, Carmen Dog, and Report to the Men's Club. For her various novels and short stories, she's been the recipient of the Nebula award, the Philip K. Dick award, the Pushcart prize, and the World Fantasy award, among other honors. Her latest collection of short stories, I Live With You, was published in April 2005 by Tachyon Publishers. Upon being asked to describe what she's learned about writing and marketing as she's garnered experience through the years, she gave us the following comments, beginning with this bio, which sets the tone for her piece:

"I grew up in France and Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was a dreadful student, just squeaking by with Cs and a few Ds. That was because of (well, partly) going back and forth from France to here, I was hopelessly confused. At age eleven I gave up.

I was a housewife with three children through all the big middle part of my life. I had to struggle for every little moment of writing time I could get. Thank goodness I lived long enough to have all the time I want now.

My new short story collection is out from Tachyon Publications. My young adult novel, Mr Boots, has just come out from Viking. The Mount is to be reissued as a young adult novel from Firebird at Putnam/Penguin. Small Beer Press has reissued Carmen Dog."

People always say, write the best you can, well, of course... I guess... but what's your best? Everybody has a different idea of what that is. The first readers at magazines and book publishers are often students, student interns, writers less experienced than you are. Here are some examples of different editors and different ideas of what's good.

I have a student that sent a story out to four places... multiple submissions. She got one answer back with a lot of suggestions about how she should change the story and then they might take it. She did work on it, brought it to class and we all made suggestions, too. Then, before she sent it back, it sold, as is, to one of the other places. There's all sorts of opinions out there.

The first time that same student heard about multiple submissions, she sent one story out forty times all at the same time. All of us in the class were horrified. We said that was many too many times. (This is my advanced class where the students are mostly experienced.) But it did work. One place took it. It was rejected at all the other places. That was her first sale. It pays to be gung ho. She's sold more stories than most more experienced writers in the class just because she sends out all over the place and doesn't sit around thinking about it or noodling on her stories. I was never like that.

I once sent a story out forty times, too, though it took me a couple of years to do it. On the forty-first time it sold. This was a literary story and sold to a literary magazine... of course. There aren't forty science fiction places. Then it was reprinted in a couple of anthologies.

There's another problem concerning various opinions on the worth of a story. This is a problem in science fiction. I had a student doing an sf novel. In almost every chapter, he introduced a new setting, new characters, new odd science fictiony things. I never told him not to do this. I never said I didn't like it and that I didn't think it was good writing. I've read so many famous sf novels in which this is the usual. I didn't think it was my job to... well, I might teach him right out of being a "good" sf writer.

I know people who noodle and noodle at their stories. They never stop. I don't believe in that, partly because, as I said above, you can never anticipate other's opinions, but also you can work over something so much you lose sight of it. Not that it isn't good to put a story aside for a month or two so as to get a fresh view of it, but I think you have to let go eventually and take the noodling time for writing new things.

I'm a firm believer in... at least at first, when trying to make a reputation for yourself... in concentrating on finding your particular niche. I have a friend who comes from West Virginia and writes stories of that area. Now the University of West Virginia invites her down there to give readings and workshops and talks, and gave her a special advanced degree.

I've been the exact opposite. I've gone from science fiction to literary to western and back to science fiction. That's exactly the wrong thing to do if you want to build a reputation. Everybody told me that, and they were right.

On that same point, a few years ago I decided to write nothing but science fiction. That's partly because of my age. A few years ago I had sent out five short stories, multiple submissions, each to five different literary magazines. I sent them in September when the literary magazines read. A year later the rejections started to trickle in. They were all rejected and it took well over a year and a half for all of them to come back. If I was twenty years younger—as I was back when I placed a lot of my stories in literary magazines—I'd go on sending to those magazines, but I'm too old now. I decided to stick where I was known, so now everything I write has, if sometimes only slightly, a science fiction/fantasy slant. After I decided this, I sold everything I wrote quite quickly and my reputation in the field took off.

It's much easier to make a reputation in science fiction than in literary writing. It's a small, cozy field. People knew me after I published about three stories. If you do one really good story and publish it in one of the larger sf magazines, you're noticed right away. Though I read very little science fiction, most science fiction writers keep up with the field. They know what's going on. I suppose other genres: mystery, romance, and such, would be the same. And like my friend, regional lit seems to work also.

Another good thing about starting in science fiction (or some other genre) is you can write yourself out the other side if you want to. It's a great place to begin your reputation. I have two friends who have become well known who began as science fiction writers: Karen Joy Fowler and Jonathan Letham. Now you see Jonathan in the New Yorker all the time, and Karen has a best seller.

I write the first idea that comes to mind. I can't say that those first ideas come out any worse than ideas I wait and slave and puzzle over a long time in order to write the very best idea. Besides, once I start, I slave and puzzle over all of them as I go along. There's not a story where I haven't been stuck several times. And especially when I get a new idea in the middle of the story that changes its direction. Then I have to stop and regroup. I'm always writing myself into a hole and struggling to get out. That's because I'm following where the story leads, not where I want it to go. My stories come out plotted but I plot as I go along, never ahead of time. Lots of writers disapprove of that. I'd never write if I had to outline my story first. I'd be too bored. I don't recommend that for everybody. By now, I know a lot about plotting. When my character comes to a crossroad usually I have them take the direction that would be the worst for them. Though, on the other hand, I take the route that will move the story forward.

In science fiction you can make a reputation in short stories. That's not true with literary writing. There, it doesn't matter how many short stories you publish. Unless you're Alice Monro or can place several stories in the New Yorker, your reputation will only come with a novel. And in both sf and literary stories, collections of previously published short stories never sell as well as novels.

Don't expect to make any money except with novels, though that's not quite true either. It's a joke some of us sf writers tell each other... that we make more from selling a short story to Ellen Datlow at scifi.com than we do for a whole novel. Of course YOU may be one of those few who write a blockbuster.

And please, please, please work on short stories before you try a novel. It's so sad to see three or four hundred pages of a completely useless novel. Sometimes two or three novels by somebody who never learned the basics.

I think there's a lot more to fiction writing than most people realize. People think: After all, we all write. But in fiction you have to control the emotions of the reader in a way no other writing does. Get the techniques in your head and fingers and subconscious before you invest years in a novel. For instance the ways of summarizing dialogue and moving in and out from direct dialogue to summary to squeezed. For some beginning writers there's only just plain dialogue, as if it was a play, and no other way. Also when to lay it on, and write a lot, and when to shorten up and summarize so that sections have different weights and speeds. To me, that's one of the hardest things to learn.

Also I've had students and even writer friends who say, Oh, you can be a lot looser when writing a novel. You can let yourself go. Put in anything. That's not true. You CAN put more things into a novel but, in it's own way, it's just as precise and structured as a short story. I've had students who tell me they can learn on the chapters just as well as on a short story. They never seem to, though. There's the rhythm to fiction that isn't in non-fiction. The writer should have complete control over the emotions of the reader.

People are finding it easier to "sell" to on-line magazines these days. Don't belittle that. Any place is better than none.

I wish I had spent more time and effort at publicizing myself. I wish I hadn't been so shy. It pays to push yourself forward. But I don't think I'm good at that even now. I do like giving readings though. I'm still shy about pushing myself forward but I know readings are good to do.

Since this is a woman's group, maybe you'd like to hear about me writing in a playpen. When my kids were small I put my desk in the corner of the room, took apart a playpen and attached it to the walls on each side of the desk. The space inside was three times again as large as a playpen. I could step over it, but the kids couldn't. They would hang over the sides but couldn't reach my papers and typewriter. (In those days it was a typewrite.) They were noisy and distracting a lot of the time, but not always. I got some writing done.