Stories of the future - science fiction, foresight and the future

The same applies as I wrote in the Clarion South: Week 1 Learnings:

Ok, so these are some of the general learnings I took away from all of our sessions with this week. Though this doesn’t include the handouts, these are the observations I made during the crit sessions which resulted from some of the general discussions. I wrote these in my notebook as things I would try to reference in my own writing:

• Info-Dump: An info-dump is where the author intervenes to tell the reader something that is important to the story (eg. the history of the world that led to the story’s conflict), but for one reason or another it comes across as a contrivance. After four to five weeks of critting, it’s easy to become way too eager and see any back-story or back-flash as an ‘info-dump’. So, this week we spoke about this a bit. The rule we came to is, as long as the ‘info-dumpish text’ is of reasonable length, is relevant to the character’s current action (ie. the info-dump might be expressed as a character’s thoughts) and is in some way is important to moving the plot forward or building tension, it’s okay. I know, I know, this doesn’t give absolutely clear guidance, but it’s as resolved as our discussion got. For more info on info-dumps (sorry about the phrasing), see the Turkey City Lexicon Page on the SFWA website.
• Banned Words: this week we focused on getting our words to work for us. At the line level, authors can’t be sloppy or choose words that are convenient or cliched or hackneyed. Writers have to make words work. We began the week (and continued) with Margo highlighting the words (derived from readings of this week’s work) that we were not to use in our story’s. They included: heft, cacophony, munch (and variants), appraise (unless we were referring to professional appraisers), jasmine, ran a hand over (to give sense of texture or feel), maw, akimbo, skittering, rictus, eat with relish. Of course, there were others, but the general idea is to think about words and push them hard to do their job. A Google Search will reveal that getting writers to think about their words is a fav for Margo. And, with us this week, we certainly all came away pushing ourselves to be more rigorous with our writing and to great benefit, I think.
• Metaphor: when using a character’s Point-Of-View, author’s should use metaphors that are relevant to that character’s outlook. It might sound self-explanatory, but I had one of those ‘Ah-Ha’ moments this week when we looked at this. Metaphors tell us about a character. So, if we’re re writing from the perspective of girl looking at the sky, are we better to use: i) she looked at the stars which sparkled like city lights; or ii) she looked at the stars which sparkled like doll’s eyes in a moonlit window. A bit clumsy, as an example, but I think it illustrates how metaphors help tell the reader learn about a character.
• Emotional Hammers: beware of using ‘emotional hammers’ in stories. Things that scream to the reader ‘hey you, look at this, take sympathy for my character!’. For example, starting a story with ‘Johnny was an orphan. All, all alone. No mother and no father and he was always hungry. And he didn’t have a friend in the world. Did I mention his only pair of shoes were mangled by a dog and it just started raining’. As authors we need to work more subtly.
• Clichés & First Thoughts: in first drafts it’s okay to use clichés as placeholders in a story. One technique to signal to yourself to revisit something that you want to work on is to put it in square brackets, so you know to revisit it. Eventually, the aim should be to reach beyond the cliché, maybe to the third or forth thing (whether at a line, paragraph, or character level) that is truly unique and represents the heart of what the story’s trying to say.
• Common Figures: as authors we need to be careful when using fictional elements that are common. Werewolves, angels, vampires and so on. The reader brings to such things their own preconceptions, pushed into them through many years of reading and movies. If the story is to do something different with these things, the writer has to stretch these figures in ways that make them unique and interesting
• Character Description: there’s no need to provide a full description of a character as soon as they enter the stage of the story. Sometimes only the smallest of details is required or, where a character is important, small details may be worked into the story’s pages progressively, over paragraphs. Often, the best details are those which are specific but give a vague impression. Sounds contradictory, I know. For example, when trying to draw a creepy nurse, rather than say ‘the nurse is white and ghost-like and when she’s near, the walls grow thick with slime’, a description might be ‘the nurse’s face is all made up, making it difficult to know where the makeup stops and her skin starts, and her cheeks shine in the light like wax’
• Smirk: avoid the word ’smirk’ for a characters with which we want our reader to sympathise. ‘Smirk’ is for the baddies only.

Science fiction writer Robert Heinlan conceived six rules for writing. These were introduced to the students at the Clarion South workshop during Week 4.

Rule One: You Must Write
Rule Two: Finish What Your Start
Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order
Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market
Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold
Rule Six: Start Working on Something Else

The source of the above is the article by Robert Sawyer - On Writing: Heinlan’s Rules - available at this link http://www.sfwriter.com/ow05.htm

I’m reading this fantastic collection of bizarre and fabulous short stories by Ray Vukcevich. Some of them are flash fiction pieces, and they’re just perfect to dip into to stimulate ideas.

The book is published by Small Beer press and more information is available at this link.

If you’re stuck in your writing and looking for a way to come up with new ideas, give this a try.

Within ten minutes write as many opening sentences to different stories as you can. Don’t get too hung up on them, the idea is to ‘free write’ and get down as many as possible. Say, for example, you write 50. Then go through for another ten or twenty minutes and continue each sentence until you have a series of first paragraphs. Hopefully, you’ll end up with about 20 to 25, which is a great hit rate.

This is a great idea. I’ve heard of it through various workshops, but it was Kelly Link who brought this to my attention again.

Here’s a first paragraph that came to me when I did the exercise.

Trent wiped sleep from his eyes, stretched and looked out the window. The world was gone. In its place was the darkness of space. A planet rolled by. That’s impossible, he thought. Just then he heard the glass in the window crack. He ran to it and checked the lock.

The same applies as I wrote in the Clarion South: Week 1 Learnings:

Ok, so these are some of the general learnings I took away from all of our sessions with this week. Though this doesn’t include the handouts, these are the observations I made during the crit sessions which resulted from some of the general discussions. I wrote these in my notebook as things I would try to reference in my own writing:

• Dialogue: don’t make dialogue too ‘on the nose’. In other words, adults usually never say what they’re thinking. So don’t have your main characters be so transparent that they: i) say exactly what they mean, or ii) say things so obviously that are really the narrator wanting to move the plot forward.

• Scene: if you start to write scenes that you feel are tedious to you as a writer, they’ll probably be tedious for the reader to. Sometimes the fact that they’re tedious to you as a good reason to take them out.
• Editors: keep in mind that editors are very interested in: i) finding a great piece of work from an unknown author, ii) finding out very quickly if a piece is good enough to continue reading (editors have so much to read, they use the first few pages of a story to gauge if it’s worth reading on). Also, keep in mind that though editors might really enjoy your story, they may not choose it because of their specific taste or the style and audience of the magazine they’re editing. Be prepared to send your story out widely to get it into print.
• Sentences & Conveying Info: every sentence has to work to move your story forward. Sentences which are transitional only can usually be cut and replaced with something that conveys information to the reader. For example, ‘Jane snapped out of her reverie when she got to the front door’ (transitional) could be replaced with ‘When Jane got home there was no car in the driveway’ (transitional/information). The latter sentence tells us that someone in her family is not home.
• Endings: there are two types of story endings. In the first, endings are open and leave questions for the reader. In the second, endings are neatly tied up and self-contained. In the first, the actions of the story before the ending have to have been used effectively enough to convey to the reader several logical steps that the story may take following its conclusion.
• World setting/building: in science fiction and fantasy story editors look for ‘world building’. One of the best methods of world building is to show the style of work that the characters do in their daily lives. Work can be a fantastic way to create believable characters and editors.
• Power shifts: it’s great to show ‘power shifts’ between characters. It shows us that they live in complex worlds, are complex themselves and that the world of the story mirrors what we expect in life (as nothing is ever straight forward). Stories with power shifts are often the most enjoyable for people to read. For example: i) James meets cool boy Richard at bus stop when he has no friends (power is with Richard, as he’s the cool one); ii) James tells Richard that he has access to his dad’s car (power shifts to James because he has something of value); iii) Richard buys a car (no longer needs James, who is a little nerdy); and so on. Power shifts create narrative tension which enthrals the reader.
• Reversals: like with ‘Power Shifts’, narrative tension comes from ‘reversals’ too. For example, if you have a car that has a mind of its own and wants to destroy things, it’s far more interesting if your main character loves the car and doesn’t want to sell it. Maybe the car was given to him by his father, for example, and has sentimental value.
• Making scary: (I know, ‘making scary’ doesn’t make sense, but it sounds so cool) sometimes the most scary aspects of a horror story are the things which are subtly said. Rather than describing something gruesome in amazing detail (eg. his face looked like a skeleton and his face dripped with blood), say other things that imply that the character is odd/weird. This is much more scary. When things are specifically describe as gory, they become like pantomimes, and like Hollywood horror films pantomimes are not scary.
• Frames: Frames are those paragraphs at the start of a story that provide readers with an additional beginning. They may be quotes from outside the story or refer to something that happens inside in the story (sometimes exact text from further on) . Frames can work but they have to be used extremely well. Most of the time, they indicate a weakness in the story, in that the writer has had to use a ‘frame’ because the story is not complete in itself. Definitely worth thinking about this if you’re planning to use a ‘frame’.

The same applies as I wrote in the Clarion South: Week 1 Learnings:

Ok, so these are some of the general learnings I took away from all of our sessions with this week. Though this doesn’t include the handouts, these are the observations I made during the crit sessions which resulted from some of the general discussions. I wrote these in my notebook as things I would try to reference in my own writing:

• Trust: the greatest trust you can have as a writer is to trust that your reader will keep up with you. In other words, leave gaps in the story for the reader to fill in, make the plot move at a pace that assumes everyone will keep up.
• Authoritative Mouthpiece: be weary of using the ‘authoritative mouthpiece’ in stories (eg. the old man in the park that suddenly appears to give your main character the information they need to solve the puzzle). Such things can be way too convenient. Unless other characters have a logical reason to be in the story, don’t use them.
• The ‘Rule of Threes’: say you’re writing a story where a storm has a role to play. See if you can work it in three times. First at the start of the story, in a small way. Second, near the middle of the story, in a larger way. And finally, where it has most dramatic impact at the end, in the most significant way. For some reason, ‘three’ is the magic number. For a better explanation, take a look at the WikiPedia Reference
• Similes: similes are always weaker than direct statements. For example, instead of saying “if a Ferrari was built in a Volkswagen body, it would act like me” (passive), try “I am a Ferrari in a Volkswagen body” (active).
• Keeping the reader: if the reader is pulled out of the story, then you lose. They’ve flicked to another story or are making a coffee. If there’s something in your story that will pull them out, get rid of it.
• Turkey City Lexicon: this reference on the SFWA website will give you some great new language to help critique SF stories. Visit Turkey City Lexicon page.
• Info Dumps: where you have ‘info dumps’ in your story (ie. where a character suddenly thinks about all the history relating to that piece of action…which can seem flat and lifeless), consider writing it into a separate and active scene.
• Senses: in every scene aim to use at least three senses (eg. sight, sound, smell, taste, touch)

This didn’t come out of the Clarion South workshop. I discovered it when doing some web research. This article from Marion Zimmer Bradley provides the reasons why stories get rejected. It’s a great checklist against which we may ‘road test’ our stories.

Here’s a snippet from the article and for complete details click through to the link below:

1. THE PACE OF THE STORY WAS WRONG
2. THE STORY WAS NOT COMPLETE IN ITSELF
3. YOUR MAIN CHARACTER WAS NOT IDENTIFIABLE
4. THE EDITOR COULD NOT GET INTERESTED ENOUGH IN THE CHARACTERS
5. NOTHING MUCH HAPPENED IN THE STORY
6. THE CHARACTER DID NOT HAVE A SERIOUS ENOUGH PROBLEM
7. THE STORY WAS JUST TOO GRIM OR DOWNBEAT
8. THE STORY WAS OFFENSIVE, OR THE EDITOR THOUGHT IT WAS OFFENSIVE

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s ‘Why Did my Story Get Rejected?’
http://mzbworks.home.att.net/why.htm

Ok, so these are some of the general learnings I took away from all of our sessions with this week. Though this doesn’t include the handouts, these are the observations I made during the crit sessions which resulted from some of the general discussions. I wrote these in my notebook as things I would try to reference in my own writing:

• Rhythm in Sentences: if the rhythms of all the sentences are all the same, the reader will start to feel flat, even when they don’t realise it. Read your sentences out loud and see if they sound too much like a ’shopping list’.
• Titles: Titles that directly refer to the story in an obvious way are always suspect. Try to build titles for your story that relate to the theme which it explores, but that work when connected with the content. Don’t make them too obvious or too removed from the story. Some authors have had stories that were not published for years and then, when they changed the title, they sold instantly.
• Phrasing: phrasing like “Perilously beautiful” sound awkward. You can hear the writing become suddenly self-conscious. Watch out for these things and axe them on sight.
• Commas: if they help the meaning of the sentence and/or there is supposed to be a pause where the comma exists, use them. Otherwise, in most cases you can take them out.
• Dialogue: The basic rule of dialogue is that it must never do one thing. If it does, chances are it will be lifeless.
• Public Lending Rights (PLR): to make up from the loss of income from libraries lending books, the Labour Government introduced a PLR scheme. Each year a random count of books is conducted in libraries. Authors are then paid from a pool of funds according to the number of their books that are held in Australian libraries. This also includes ‘Educational Libraries’ (I gather this is schools, unis, etc). The amount for well-known authors can often be larger than the royalties received from book sales and it is paid every single year. Now there’s something I had no idea about!
• Story Resolutions: resolutions at the end of novice short stories often come from a conversation. They need to come from both action and conversation and the resolution must be well connected to all of the preceding action that has taken place between the characters. (This is really a note to guard against those neat endings where Character 1 chats with Character 2 and they walk away happily….it’s way too convenient)
• Virtual Reality as a Device: if you’re going to use Virtual Reality (VR), make sure you explain to the reader what the characters outside the game have at stake. Otherwise, your reader will disbelieve or pay no heed to the action of the VR. It’s like having three pages and then having the character wake up and say ‘Oh, well, that was just a dream’ (in other words the reader thinks - ‘well, if that was a dream, why are you making me read it!)
• Internal Dialogue: internal dialogue can be useful to giving us a sense of character. In those instances where it is connected with the action, and has a logical link with what the character might be thinking about, use it. But where it is used for exposition, to simply tell the reader something important to the plot, that doesn’t relate to the previous action, get rid of it. For example, if you have two characters talking about going to the shops, don’t have one character suddenly start thinking about how they embarrassed themselves on a date ten years ago. You could though, have them think about a shopping list. Simple example, I know, but hey, it works.
• Metaphor: If you know the metaphor of the story (the most powerful stories deal with myth and metaphor), don’t bring it to the explicit attention of the reader. Have it work subtly, if you can, through abstract images. For example, in Thelma & Louise they apparently have water in some shape in the background during every scene where Thelma & Louise are facing adversity. But at the end of the film, they’re driving on a hot day in the desert, with the words blaring ‘I can see clearly now the rain is gone’. What they don’t have is them say ‘oh no, we’re facing adversity again, what shall we do’. I know, I know, I’m still figuring this one out, but there’s some sense in it. Metaphor/myth is also something a lot of writers never think about consciously, they just let it come, because if you think about it too hard, it will show too prominently in the story and its effect is lost.
  Detail: Originality often lies in the detail of the story. Especially with Science Fiction, as so many ideas have been done before. But if you can tell a story that’s similar to something else, but make it unique and alive through its detail, you’ll have a good shot at a good story. For example, ‘The Unforgiven’ with Clint Eastwood used things common to other Westerns, but the way that film dealt with unique detail (ie. the character coming back from years of a ’straight life’) were unique. Actually, I might be wrong, I’m no huge western fan, but you get my drift.

It’s always dangerous terrain to look at the different forms of story. Someone said (I’ve no idea who) that there are six basic story ideas. I put them in the same basket as those that think computers can test songs for the likelihood whether they’ll be hits (and there are machines that claim to do this now!).

I don’t think there’s any basic story idea, no universal premise that can’t be twisted into something else. There are themes though which permeate some science fiction stories, which might be generalised to help us understand possible directions for science fiction writers.

I’ve been thinking about such themes for some time. And, have even seen some writings on the subject. Most of what follows is a synthesis of some of the things I’ve read and personal observations. I hope they’re helpful for writers looking for creative outlooks that will help them approach their work:

Distant Future
A story of a distant future (eg. a man caught inside a ship on the edge of the galaxy that has to cope with a rogue robot).

Extrapolation
Where a current trend is extrapolated to such an extreme that it gives a dramatic base for a story (eg. Philip K Dick’s short story ‘Sales Pitch’, about a robot that is it’s own salesman).

World Ending
A story about the end of the world, usually through some scientific or unexplained means. Usually such a story involves the presentation of something previously perceived as valuable (eg. money, cash) to have no more value to the character who knows the world is coming to and end.

The Dimensional Portal
Where a portal has been opened to another dimension and the characters have to contend with cross-dimensional circumstances (Greg Egan’s story in Axiomatic about an S-junkie).

The Time Portal
Through some narrative device the characters can travel through time (eg. Orson Scott Card’s ‘Time Lid’ or Margo Lanagan’s ‘White Time’).

Glimpse of The Future
Where a character glimpses the future through some means which causes them to react differently to present circumstances (like the ‘Time Portal’ method above, but the means of finding out about the future might not be a device, but a dream or something else).

The New Invention / Special Power
Where a character has unique capabilities that cause a struggle for power / source of conflict for the story, which have been introduced by: i) a novel invention, ii) a new character (eg. a group of aliens arrive that are psychic and are exploited for this purpose), or iii) an event (a character falls and hits his head and suddenly can solve any problem ever created).

Extremes
Where a theme of the story is taken to such an extreme that it becomes different than what has been done before. Often, these become humorous. For example, a woman who has the power to turn everything to gold by touch (even a pizza).

Two Themes Clashing
When two themes common to a genre are clashed together to produce something new. (eg. Zombies and Aliens = Zombie Alien Story)

Of course, any of the above can be used together as the ingredients to make a ripping story.

Exploring futures studies and reading science fiction, the idea of ‘world creation’ fascinates me. How do writers dream up these worlds, then paint them with such conviction and detail that, to the reader, they appear real.

In a second hand bookstore I stumbled across ‘Medea: Harlan’s World’ (you guessed it, a strong connection with Harlan Ellison). The book details a process that was run back in 1985, when in one night a bunch of SF authors and a crowd went about creating a world into which they could spin a series of stories.

It’s an excellent example of how to consciously approach this process. Though some might question the stories that resulted, it’s a seriously good book for those looking to gain understandings from writers for their own work.

You can read more at: Medea: Harlan’s World