"Write Every Day"

Last week's post was on motivation, and this might seem like more of the same, but it isn't.  It's too important to find a place in our little cycle, so I must simply stick it here at the beginning:  this message pertains vitally to all three elements of writing.

On my first seminar on the MA, I sat with fellow students around three of the four large desks that made a square.  The walls were blank, everything smelled of carpet freshener, and the whiteboard was blank.  I eagerly awaited Scott Bradfield.  I'd already read his most famous novel, The History of Luminous Motion, and it blew me away, and this was the first time I'd see the man up close.

He burst into the room, seeming quite annoyed at having to take this hour away from his keyboard and his next novel. He turned his back on the class, grabbed the black pen under the whiteboard and scrawled: "Write a little every day, without hope and without despair." He turned back to us, sat and placed his wrists on the table. "I'm quoting Karen Blixen, here," he said. "If there's one piece of writing advice you need to take with you, this is it. If there's one sentence into which all writing advice boils down, this is it."

He stared at each of us in turn--that honest, emphatic stare he always gives. I was both glad and confused, because I'd been writing every day for years. So I'd been doing the right thing, but it hadn't gotten me anywhere yet.

I said, genuinely wondering regardless of how it might sound, "What if I want to write a lot every day?"

Scott turned to the whiteboard, one hand on his chin, stood up and began erasing the first half, "I've used this quote for years, but I think I'll change it. Okay." He turned back. "Write every day, without hope and without despair."

I mainly left that seminar full of beans because I'd changed the favoured paraphrase of a master of the craft. Me! I was special! Perhaps I'd make it after all! And I got back to writing every day. The reason I include this annecdote is to make clear:  write as much as you want.  It's actually a good skill to be able to write when you're fed up.  You'll probably have to from time to time if you become a professional.

To this day whenever I speak with Scott the conversation ends with him saying, "Keep on writing and reading and you'll get it."

The point? Writing is something you have to figure out for yourself. There's much good advice to help along the way (and far more terrible advice) but ultimately, you've got to figure this out. This is art, not math. There are no formulas here, only broad, human concepts.  I'll help point you in the right direction, and we'll return to this theme many times. This really is the most important writing advice you will ever hear or read.

Another Win for Paul McAuley

Paul McAuley, one of two amazing men who taught me during my MFA, just won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award.  It's for a brilliant short story called "The Choice", which is the cover story of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine's February 2011 issue.  Paul's a terrific writer who deserves every accolade around.  I still think his "Rocket Boy" is the best smegging "Little Tailor" story ever, including "The Little Tailor" by Charles Dickens. 

Rocket boy can be read for free here:  http://www.omegacom.demon.co.uk/rocket.htm, and "The Choice" is available in all the Year's Best SF 2012 anthologies that I'm aware of.  Here's a great one:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Years-Best-Science-Fiction/dp/1250003555/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341254642&sr=1-1&keywords=dozois.

Every time I see Paul's success, I'm reminded of how lucky I was to apprentice under him.  Over three months I learned a tremendous amount, and I've carried his advice with me, gradually further comprehending the depth of meaning within even the smallest pieces, every time I write.

Congratulations, Paul, and, as always, best of luck from here!

Spiritual Zoology

There are four great proofs of spirit in my opinion: 1) Looking into a baby's eyes and seeing such vital personality there before any accumulation of experience, 2) Looking into an animal's eyes and seeing pure love, 3) If mere words on a page can connect with so many others, sentience must mean something, and 4) The fact that I've experienced being tired spiritually after too much work without play. That said, the former two proofs are, in essence I believe, far more important.

I got half-way through writing this mini-speech when I realised that everything in life is proof of spirit! Why would love exist if mere biological programming? It would obviously be inefficient. Why would we dream? Why would we have dreams to chase? Why passion for things other than the biological (to put it in gentlemanly fashion...)? Now if you'll excuse me, I must be getting upstairs as I told my fiancé I'd only be down in my office for five minutes and it's now been thirty! Why does time move so much slower when I'm tired!? (And there's one with an obvious, bio/neurological answer for ya'.)

Ray Bradbury has passed on (the author of Fahrenheit 451, among other classics).  His work has enriched the world, and he deserves to live on in memory, human to human and heart to heart just as his messages protest, for generations.  He is (and forever will be) the kind of science fiction writer who reminds us that to write of the future is to write about the present.

You can follow this link to learn more:  http://ttapress.com/1327/ray-bradbury-rip/0/4/

Readers of the Future Now

Scott Bradfield, a friend and mentor, once said to me that he hates "every book ever written on how to write."

At the time I found this disturbing, but ever since I acquired a sense for a story's overall form, I've begun to see what Scott meant. Hate is a strong word, and I find many of Robert Silverberg's and Thomas H. Uzzell's essays and books fascinating, but I do find myself arguing with what I read far more.

It really is something one, ultimately at least, must figure out for oneself. I require a human approach.  In my stories, I want to use subtlety and direct narrative to make my readers want to imagine the setting, the character's humanity and the action's vividness.  Insinuation for imagination, I like to say.

How well I accomplish this isn't for me to decide. It's for the readers. All any artist can do is offer his or her conception of the truth, and all I can promise whilst writing is my mind and heart on the humanity of a thing. We are, after all, writing for the readers.

From now on, I'll post where and when my stories publish.  I can't acquire readers without writing.  And I can't write without thinking of you.

Thanks for reading!

Wm. Luke Everest

A brief message to Terry Pratchet

If you ever read this, sir, please know that I'm privileged to have read your work.

I'm going to work so hard to make you guys proud. I'd give anything to stand in your notice and deserve for my name to live amongst yours, which will live forever.

I'm going to work so hard to honour you. Discovering your novels was a rediscovery of modern fiction, to fall in love all over again. Your name lives in my heart today, and will continue for what I humbly name forever.

Thank you, sir, for your time, your devotion to the art, and your excellence.

Story Research and Awesome Discoveries

Hello to my one blog follower!

At times, I wish I could include sound and perhaps video in my stories. "Perhaps you should write for film," you say? That isn't quite what I mean. I suppose I just want to show people what I'm trying to get at in my story, and to show the inspiration for the story would make that easier. I suppose, really, what I'm trying to do in writing is bring something to life through another person's imagination, which means I'm trying to make them feel what I feel when I watch this:





Where Historical and Fantasy fiction meet, one starts writing about the spirit of an age, rather than the age itself. I suspect, in trying to capture the truth of anything, the spirit becomes everything. Though in all honesty, you'd have to ask a wiser person than myself.

Theme for a terrific comedy sci-fi

I've joined the Clarion Write-a-thon! To be honest, at first I thought I shouldn't bother. I'd write anyway, so affiliating my summer progress with Clarion seemed pointless. But that was a selfish attitude, and that which has no impact upon me, but might help others, might as well be done.

There's nothing wrong with joining the write-a-thon. It might compell some people towards my blog, and it might generate some money for Clarion. To anyone who reads this, know that I'll be working my buns off. Know also that I'd work equally hard if the write-a-thon didn't exist. If you'd like to give Clarion some money in my name, I'd be honoured. I'm sure next year's scholarship students will appreciate it, too.

Good luck to all this year's Clarion students, and to all write-a-thon writers!

You can find my profile here.

Science Fiction rules

I just watched Doctor Who push an old lady off a roof. Now, how many genres other than Sci-fi can you see that happen without being horrified? God.... Science Fiction rules.

The ONLY writing advice I can give.

There's a lot of advice out there.

That's it.

That's my point. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to writing.

Oh, fine. I'll yap in this black hole a little longer. You see, you have to read and write a whole lot, and there really is tonnes of advice out there. Mine? Read the advice by the writers whose FICTION you like, and would like to understand. It's probably not my fiction, which is why I'm not saying what I think. You may have seen my work around. I find I can get most of what I write published these days. It's just that there isn't much out there yet, and it isn't in the highest-profile places.

My favourite book on writing is "I Can't Accept Not Trying" by Michael Jordan. It's nice to remind myself that a human can accomplish anything, provided they are willing to fight hard enough. Einstein once said, "There's nothing special about me. I'm just passionately curious." If that's true, then talent is a matter of love.

If talent is a matter of love, success is a matter of persistence.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I really must get back to writing. Even though it's Easter, I'm writing a short story today. I can't control how many agents read this blog and decide I'm the next big thing, but I can control my time, my effort, my patience, and I can't accept not trying.

Comments on the modern Star Trek movie

Amazing how many people "loved this movie". It was trash. Many people are saying it "moved fast enough" that the problems occured to them later... Really? Is it possible for a human being to be that dim? Part of being sentient is that things occur to you AS THEY HAPPEN, so when someone stumbles into a hole and happens to find Spock, it just doesn't make sense.

To anyone who doubts the awesomeness of the original series, I challenge you to re-watch seasons 1 & 2 (3 was trash, as was every odd numbered movie... or is that even numbered? Whichever one didn't include Wrath of Khan). Seasons 1 & 2 were excellent, and small wonder. They were written by some of the best script writers of all time, including Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison.

There is a difference between revitalising a series and smearing over-egged crap all over its face. This movie accomplished the latter, and did so hiding behind the idea that "Rebooting lets us do anything!" While technically true, Star Trek deserved at least one decent writer behind the project, and any decent writer would have made use of the strengths already present in firmly established characters and in the relationships that made the first two seasons great. Good writers also tend to care whether their plots make sense, and good writers tend to write for the smartest, most attentive reader/viewer possible, not the people too slow to realise that Spock can't be down every hole simply because it serves the plot.

Also, please would every moron look up the word "reboot" in a f**king dictionary? It doesn't mean what you think. Film magazine writers don't get to alter language just because they don't respect the vocabulary of their average readers.

Sorry to rant, but as a lover of Science Fiction, this movie offended me on a personal level.

Regarding Google and Ursula K. Le Guin

On behalf of all aspiring writers, I would like to thank Ursula K. Le Guin for standing up for authors' rights.

Young writers should be considered, here. What Google proposes is nothing less than robbing people of the ability to make a living from writing, thus taking a dream I've held since I was a little boy and crushing it before its reality can begin.

In my twenties, I presently can sell everything I write--just not to pro markets. I keep practising, striving, yearning, selling fiction for peanuts. Luckily, I'm as fast as a young Silverberg, so I make enough money to survive on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, tap water, and the occassional piece of fruit. Why do this to myself? Because I NEED to be a writer. I would rather die than be anything else.

If Google robs me of this dream, I don't know how I'll live. I'll find another way, I suppose, but it will be quiet, pathetic life, and one I'll always deem a failure.

I'm not successful enough to fight with you. Not yet. Not as I'd like to. Indeed, I'm mouthing off in a forum full of personal heroes. I will merely sit at my desk, writing everyday, as Isak Dinesen said, without hope and without despair. But while my fingers are busy I'll keep my toes crossed for you, because if Google succeeds in their strikingly evil ambition of robbing humankind of literature, then no matter what happens with my dream of writing, I'll still need a crummy part time job.

See you at a future worldcon, or perhaps next time one of you visits McDonald's, depending on how this goes, because I have no other lucrative skills, nor do I want any. I said I'm fast, but I'm nowhere near as good as an old Silverberg, yet. Let's see what happens. In the meantime, I'm here to tell Ursula K. Le Guin that she's a hero. On behalf of all aspiring writers, I salute you.

Yours eventually,

Wm. Luke Everest


P.S.

A thought:

Our predecessors fought hard for the right to vote politically, essentially to fetter the wild urges of power, to make those in power answer to the people. Now we live in a world where, as of 1970, twelve corporations held more economic power, and thus more global influence, than the world's most powerful nation. This trend has only gotten worse. We need the vote on economic issues.

Older people often wonder why more young people don't vote. It is because a political vote lacks the significance one human voice deserves.

Google's business model seems to be the eventual ownership of the internet. So much for the free exchange of information. So much for the ideology that unfettered capitalism is freedom. By this ideology, feudalism is political freedom. The purpose of modern governments is to TAKE freedom from the powerful and make them answer to the people. This is no longer possible, because there are no infrastructures in place to allow people to vote on the actions of corporations, even when those corporations have more global influence than any political body. Google proposes to rob humankind of literature, thus slowing the progress of all humankind. If only I could trust my government to crush such an obviously destructive scheme. But no...

A sad day, by Crom...

Flashing Swords Magazine is dead.

It was the closest thing around to the 1930s Golden Age markets. It valued excitement and adventure over sentimentality, which meant real characters, whom the readers could identify with and love, overcoming the type of obstacles we don't often face in the modern world, such as Viking raids and attempted mastery of the sword.

At its best, Sword and Sorcery isn't mere escape fiction. It's a writer's attempt to awaken the primal urges modernity too often neglects. What was the socio-cultural significance of the Shaolin? What made a person wish to devote their lives to combative arts? What ignited the souls of Spartan warriors? What were the human truths behind ancient myths?

Modernity colours modern writing, for obvious reasons, but reasons we creative types should rise above. There are many markets for sentimental fiction, and few places to show the beauty of a warrior's heart. Expertly written S&S might still find a home, but where can its exponents grow? We've just lost the only market devoted to publishing S&S. Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber would be crestfallen. In the same blow, we lost a magazine that stood among the best places in the world for a writer to develop his skills. Whenever that happens, the entire art suffers.

So lift a glass to Flashing Swords Magazine. Presently, I believe if I ever achieve half the success I'm after, I will restart FSM from my own pocket. The world deserves a Sword & Sorcery market. It is the oldest genre in existence, and the wisdom of the ancient world is far from redundant. Besides, Sword & Sorcery is good fun. Where else can a writer let loose with blood and thunder? I had hoped to nurture those urges well into my career.

Blogging for Santa

Dear Santa,

Been thinking about what I'd really like for Christmas. You see, it's normal to wish for things that we can't control. Essentially, one usually wishes for luck. But I wanted to break that norm. I decided that I would wish for the strength to persevere, the energy to work extraordinary hours and the passion and the insight to craft great stories that resonate in people's hearts.

I've decided not to wish for any of that, but to do it instead. I can control all of that. As a writer, it's very important to focus on what I can control. I can't put an editor in the right mood when he picks up my submission from the slush. I can't make myself lucky. I CAN fight my hardest, and I can make my hardest extremely freakin' hard. I can put my heart and soul into the study of the craft. I can be compassionate and empathic in my views of humanity, and I can write with compassion and empathy.

So instead of wishing for things, I decided to make promises to myself. I never break a promise. Here goes:

1) I will work ludicrously hard to get into Clarion. This is a dream of mine, and I will do everything in my power to make that dream come true.

2) Regardless of my Clarion application's outcome, I will not miss a beat. I will work as hard on the day I receive that fateful letter as on the day previous.

3) I will work to make each story all it can be. I'm lucky to be prolific, but if one focuses on such things, then one isn't focused on the creation of art. Each story, I will slave over, striving with all my heart to create a masterpiece of emotional and psychological acumen. That way, one day, I might succeed.

No one can guarantee success, but I can control every facet of a herculean attempt. For a herculean goal, to use the other sense of the word, nothing else would suffice. It's as Michael Jordan says, 'I can't accept not trying.'

Given all that, luck is the only thing left to wish for.

Dear Santa,

Please let the powers that be throw a little luck my way. I promise to always work hard enough to deserve it.

Merry Christmas,

Wm. Luke Everest

Sleepers with our hearts on fire, aren't we all?

Some words on the present economic/political state of the world: our ancestors worked very hard to force governments into being democratic, which is basically enforcing humanist regulations upon the wild urges of power.

But the market remained wild and unregulated, and now we live in a world where the MARKET HAS MORE POWER THAN THE GOVERNMENTS! What do you think that means?

Strictly speaking, we have never lived in a democracy. We have never discussed or voted upon specific issues. Rather, we vote upon which cossetted shit-bag gets to sit in the big chair. This was, at first, justifiable due to technological limitations and a high population. But now we have the technology to live in something much closer to democracy, and we shouldn't be complacent. Governments will not alter themselves, for they are ruled by cossetted shit-bags. More importantly, governments are no longer the greatest power in the world.

The secret no one wants you to know is, the corporations aren't the greatest power either. We are. Why make art? Because art has the capacity to wake people up.





As a writer I can never hope to achieve the monetary hoard of the new-world kings, but I can make them fear me. One day, one day. Imagine if everyone in the world suddenly became compassionate and intelligent, if everyone woke up and became suddenly unsatisfied with the opiates we're given to swallow. Tomorrow would be chaos, and the day after would be paradise. Make it happen.