Apprentice Chefs, Trying to Impress Pizza Eaters?
Writer’s Digest strikes again, with this popular fiction report.
Love this quote from Crawford Kilian, author of Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy:
Kilian notes the rise of traditional (hard) science-fiction writers like Neil Gaiman and Rudy Rucker, but worries that the days of mind-stretching tales are dwindling. “No doubt some agents and editors really are looking for brilliant and innovative newcomers,†he says. “But they’ll be like apprentice chefs, trying to create superb meals for customers who want Domino’s Pizza.â€
To which I can only say…”you idiot!” (unless this is a misquote). Such things become self-fulfilling prophesies and are the kinds of generalizations that, over time, can really hurt “brilliant and innovative newcomers”, if you’re really worried about them. Not to mention…Gaiman’s a (hard) SF writer?
Note also this quote:
Among the many distinct sub-genres, however, the most prevalent trend is the return of “urban fantasy,†which Harper Collins Voyager Publishing Director Jane Johnson describes as “the supernatural erupting into the everyday—sexy, tongue-in-cheek, post-modern.†The best example of this resurging genre, says Johnson (aka Jude Fisher), is the work of Kim Harrison.
I hope that’s a misquote, because Harrison is many things, but post-modern is not one of them. That’s not a slam–just a fact.
Jeff
Note: The publisher of Kilian’s book on writing SF/F is sending me a copy. It’s worth noting that a quote in an article doth not a separate book damn…
April 8, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Neil Gaiman is Hard Sci-Fi?
Since when?
April 8, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Wait,wait… I found it!
One single work of science fiction!
http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/Books/Don%27t+Panic/
Amazing how an introduction garners such high praise.
April 8, 2008 at 1:04 pm
I had always categorized Gaiman as more of a nice Camembert. It is because of articles like this that I wouldn’t use Writer’s Digest to start a fire.
April 8, 2008 at 2:01 pm
A machine wrote this, right? Or maybe someone did it with Mad Libs?
April 8, 2008 at 2:24 pm
What’s news about any of that? I was in B&N yesterday and got better information from walking the shelves. Jeebus. As to the Gaiman thing… uh… wow. Just wow.
April 8, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Having caused such consternation here, perhaps I should explain that the (hard) was the editor’s translation of “traditional.”
As for self-fulfilling prophecies, mass-market SF and fantasy have long been industries, not literatures. Way back in the 1980s, when I pitched my editor on a new book idea, his response was: “Well, it’s not very original…” To which I replied, “If it was really original, would you buy it?” “No,” he said without hesitation.
Events since then have shown he wasn’t alone. And I’m not putting him down–he was a brilliant editor, and he helped some wonderful writers get into print. But the trend was set, and wonderful writers these days tend to be those who write wonderfully well within the formulas.
April 8, 2008 at 4:18 pm
So what is the difference between Industry and Literature?
One of them you can’t read under a pear tree?
April 8, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Sweet Mithras, talk about an alternate reality.
And Gaiman’s “traditional”?
April 8, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I suppose, if anything, this is why some writers choose a less successful career path, when the “wonderful” path seems so boring and unsatisfying.
April 8, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Crawford: I’d say you create your own realities, and that it may have been somewhat cynical to make the remark. I am glad the other bit is a mistake on the article writer’s end.
Jeff
April 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm
I’ve noticed about writing, just from meeting and talking to lots of writers who graciously provide me – a total Newb – career advice, which I absorb gladly.
I’ve noticed that everyone knows their own tiny place in the business extremely well, but often get lost and tongue-tied and confused when trying to expand their skills and preconceived notions beyond that little place.
If you pitched that way to my fantasy editor, I suspect that it probably wouldn’t work.
What you describe may be true to your experiences. Mine, thus far, have been completely different.
Why, then, do you provide a blanket stereotyping statement forcing your own experiences across a very large, and very eclectic field like Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Any genre blanket that includes both John Ringo and Kelly Link is going to exceed your own experiences, just as it will mine. Placing the rules of one end of the spectrum upon the other is, as Jeff has suggested, a source of rumors that can hinder everyone on the other edges of things.
April 8, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Yeah, “hard” SF is when the actual science drives the plot rather than the characters.
April 8, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Crawford:
This advice on your own site might be the source of struggles to get published, rather than the possibility of being too original–i.e., this advice would ensure a middle-of-the-road writer never aspired for anything greater:
“3. Writers never rewrite, except to editorial order. What a slap in the face to every teacher of English and creative writing! But carpenters don’t rebuild a house over and over again; they make sure they have a good plan and build it right the first time. Outlining may seem boring compared to banging out page after page, but it’s critical. For a professional writer, this is especially important: Spend too much time rewriting, and your income drops to pennies per hour. But for apprentices, I admit that rewriting can be helpful. It forces you to pay more attention to what your manuscript is trying to tell you, and you may learn a lot. The hazard is that you can edit your story to death.â€
Although other advice in that post is useful.
Jeff
April 8, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Thanks for your comments, Jeff, though I think you may have misunderstood my gloss on Heinlein’s Rule #3. Originality lies first in literacy: knowing the genre so well that you know when you’ve crossed its boundaries or challenged its conventions. The outline of an original novel can be perfectly sound, and lead to the prompt completion of a good manuscript. But that doesn’t mean the editor will buy it.
Just as fast-food fans understand and enjoy the conventions of a Domino’s pizza, mass-market fiction fans understand and enjoy what they understand and enjoy. So if the cook proposes a pizza with raw tuna and broccoli, and no tomato sauce, the manager is going to tell him to stick to the original recipe.
All is not lost. Sometimes an established writer can create a whole new genre, as Heinlein did with Starship Troopers and Tolkien did with Lord of the Rings. The sad part comes when other writers say: “I too can write military SF! I too can write Tolkienesque fantasy!”–instead of saying: “I too can create my own damn genre!”
Alternatively, a wild and crazy publisher may take a chance on an original newcomer, flying in the face of reader preference for brand-name authors, and score a huge success. I hope we see more wild and crazy publishers in the near future.
My publisher is sending you a copy of Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, with my compliments. I look forward to your comments about it.
Cheers,
Crawford
April 8, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Thanks, Crawford. And for being a good sport, considering my post. I have real respect for that.
JV
April 8, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I wish I could have worked up more outrage over the first quote, but after yet another round on a couple of epic fantasy forums where some seem to think it’s a criticism to point out that I do not “like what’s popular” (whatever that’s supposed to mean), I fear that part of the self-fulfilling part can be found on some of the larger fansite forums.
April 9, 2008 at 11:43 am
These types of “genre red alerts” that inevitably come back to food metaphors always ring a little false to me. Personally, I’d be disappointed if the genre didn’t have room for both Shriek: An Afterword and Jordan’s Lord of Chaos, for instance. I’ve read and enjoyed both. Having done so, I’m not worried that my literary taste as it pertains to these two Tor titles is contributing to the demise of young and innovative newcomers.