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It was back at Windycon, in the Green Room before a panel, that I ran into Kerrie Hughes and John Helfers. Kerrie mentioned that she was going to edit a theme anthology called GAMER FANTASTIC, and gee, had I ever been a gamer? Of course I had, I told her. Heck, I'd run a fantasy RPG for several years for a bunch of local people... In that case, Kerrie asked, would you want to write a story for the anthology?
Sure, I answered, especially since the deadline was June 1st of 2008 and it was at that time November of 2007. It's always easy to say "Sure" when the deadline's next year sometime.
I like doing the occasional short story; it's a nice break from the novels, a chance to start and finish something within a few weeks rather than a year and a half. And given how relatively quickly one can write a short story, when I put the invite reminder in my calendar, I had it pop up on May 1...
A month should be twice as much time as I needed. Maybe three times.
For the last several years, I've had, oh, maybe one or two such invitations a year. I rarely turn them down if the anthology's theme is something that interests me. Only once have I failed to come up with something I like as a result -- I was working on a tight deadline for a novel at the time, and if a story idea had arisen that I could have written in a few days, I'd have put aside the novel long enough to write it.... but nothing was coming, and nothing was coming, and the deadline for the anthology kept creeping closer and closer, and I finally had to admit that it wasn't going to happen. That one failure still embarrasses me, since I hated having to bail on the editor at the last moment, although knowing that she had a couple writers waiting in the wings in case helped. I'm fairly sure, though, that she'll never again ask me to be in something she's editing. Can't say I blame her, actually.
I also like to 'push the envelope' of the theme a bit, find a direction that seems a little left of what I expect the 'mainstream' of the stories will be. For the most part, I've been really pleased with the stories I've produced for these anthologies.
So sure, I told Kerrie. I'll get something to you. I put the note on my calendar, and promptly forgot about it while I was finishing up A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL. Until May 1st, when my calendar reminded me.
Of course, that was the last week of the semester, and I had a TON of work to do grading the final papers and stories from my classes. So I really didn't start thinking about it until the second week of May. I had an idea of what I wanted to do though. I'll avoid spoilers here, but it felt sufficiently sidewise to the theme, and hey, it was going to be a light, humorous piece, something I don't often do.
Humor is hard.
I realized that quickly after drafting the first scene, which didn't seem all that humorous when I finished writing it. But hey, I thought, it's just the first draft, so what does it matter? I can always go back and fix it later. So I kept plugging away, occasionally trying to brush up the preceding sections as I drafted new ones. It was a long, hard slog, though. I kept resisting writing it -- which is usually an indication that my subconscious is telling me "Hey, asshole! This really sucks!"
But I kept writing. Because I had to. Because the deadline marched closer every day. Because I didn't want to fail again. By the time I'd hit 6,000 words or so, though, I had to admit that this wasn't a good piece. In fact, it wasn't even close. I was despairing. The humor was mediocre and sometimes just plain lame. I was just moving the characters around. I didn't really care about any of them. I knew how it had to end, given what I'd set up, but the ending didn't inspire and I didn't want to write it. Sure, I could finish the story, but I wasn't sure that this was something that 1) Kerrie would even accept, and 2) that I'd want my name on it even if she held her nose and took the piece. It was late in May now, and June 1st loomed terribly close, and it was appearing likely that I was going to have to write Kerrie, apologize profusely, and tell her that I wasn't going to be giving her a story and she should go to Plan B with one of her back-up writers. A second humiliating failure.
That's where I was the other night. I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning, trying to puzzle out why the story was such an abject failure and why I couldn't manage to find the story in it. And it hit me...
Sure, I was trying to get outside the theme somewhat. But the problem was that I hadn't let myself get far enough outside it. I was still clinging to the 'story' with my fingernails, trying to make the narrative about the characters. And it wasn't. I was putting all these restrictions on myself instead of just going as far as I could with the concept and enjoying the process. I was being safe instead of daring to fail spectacularly. The story's suckiness wasn't with the characters or the story. It was with me.
That was the revelation I needed. The Muse, who had been whistling in the corner, twiddling her thumbs and rolling her eyes while I'd been slaving over pages of crap, yanked the covers from me and pointed ominously toward the office. I went, because when the Muse calls that strongly, you'd better answer. Even when it's midnight. Especially when it's midnight.
I opened up the old draft because I was going to use bits and pieces of it. But the rest of the framework would be something entirely different. I opened up a new document and started writing, occasionally cutting and pasting bits from the old story in between the new sections.
By 2:45 in the morning, I had a draft. I had a hard time falling back to sleep, too energized by the writing. When Denise went off to work at 7:30 the next morning, I got up with her and started in on revisions. By 10:00, I'd sent it off to Kerrie. Then I waited, not certain how Kerrie was going to react to this very strange piece.
I got e-mail this morning. Here's what she said: "You read too much, you write too much and you game too much...clearly. Bloody good, I'll get the contracts out ASAP."
So YAY!! I don't yet know when GAMER FANTASTIC will appear, but my story "The Gods of Every Other Wednesday Night" will be in it. I'll let you know when to start looking.
Sure, I answered, especially since the deadline was June 1st of 2008 and it was at that time November of 2007. It's always easy to say "Sure" when the deadline's next year sometime.
I like doing the occasional short story; it's a nice break from the novels, a chance to start and finish something within a few weeks rather than a year and a half. And given how relatively quickly one can write a short story, when I put the invite reminder in my calendar, I had it pop up on May 1...
A month should be twice as much time as I needed. Maybe three times.
For the last several years, I've had, oh, maybe one or two such invitations a year. I rarely turn them down if the anthology's theme is something that interests me. Only once have I failed to come up with something I like as a result -- I was working on a tight deadline for a novel at the time, and if a story idea had arisen that I could have written in a few days, I'd have put aside the novel long enough to write it.... but nothing was coming, and nothing was coming, and the deadline for the anthology kept creeping closer and closer, and I finally had to admit that it wasn't going to happen. That one failure still embarrasses me, since I hated having to bail on the editor at the last moment, although knowing that she had a couple writers waiting in the wings in case helped. I'm fairly sure, though, that she'll never again ask me to be in something she's editing. Can't say I blame her, actually.
I also like to 'push the envelope' of the theme a bit, find a direction that seems a little left of what I expect the 'mainstream' of the stories will be. For the most part, I've been really pleased with the stories I've produced for these anthologies.
So sure, I told Kerrie. I'll get something to you. I put the note on my calendar, and promptly forgot about it while I was finishing up A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL. Until May 1st, when my calendar reminded me.
Of course, that was the last week of the semester, and I had a TON of work to do grading the final papers and stories from my classes. So I really didn't start thinking about it until the second week of May. I had an idea of what I wanted to do though. I'll avoid spoilers here, but it felt sufficiently sidewise to the theme, and hey, it was going to be a light, humorous piece, something I don't often do.
Humor is hard.
I realized that quickly after drafting the first scene, which didn't seem all that humorous when I finished writing it. But hey, I thought, it's just the first draft, so what does it matter? I can always go back and fix it later. So I kept plugging away, occasionally trying to brush up the preceding sections as I drafted new ones. It was a long, hard slog, though. I kept resisting writing it -- which is usually an indication that my subconscious is telling me "Hey, asshole! This really sucks!"
But I kept writing. Because I had to. Because the deadline marched closer every day. Because I didn't want to fail again. By the time I'd hit 6,000 words or so, though, I had to admit that this wasn't a good piece. In fact, it wasn't even close. I was despairing. The humor was mediocre and sometimes just plain lame. I was just moving the characters around. I didn't really care about any of them. I knew how it had to end, given what I'd set up, but the ending didn't inspire and I didn't want to write it. Sure, I could finish the story, but I wasn't sure that this was something that 1) Kerrie would even accept, and 2) that I'd want my name on it even if she held her nose and took the piece. It was late in May now, and June 1st loomed terribly close, and it was appearing likely that I was going to have to write Kerrie, apologize profusely, and tell her that I wasn't going to be giving her a story and she should go to Plan B with one of her back-up writers. A second humiliating failure.
That's where I was the other night. I couldn't sleep. I was tossing and turning, trying to puzzle out why the story was such an abject failure and why I couldn't manage to find the story in it. And it hit me...
Sure, I was trying to get outside the theme somewhat. But the problem was that I hadn't let myself get far enough outside it. I was still clinging to the 'story' with my fingernails, trying to make the narrative about the characters. And it wasn't. I was putting all these restrictions on myself instead of just going as far as I could with the concept and enjoying the process. I was being safe instead of daring to fail spectacularly. The story's suckiness wasn't with the characters or the story. It was with me.
That was the revelation I needed. The Muse, who had been whistling in the corner, twiddling her thumbs and rolling her eyes while I'd been slaving over pages of crap, yanked the covers from me and pointed ominously toward the office. I went, because when the Muse calls that strongly, you'd better answer. Even when it's midnight. Especially when it's midnight.
I opened up the old draft because I was going to use bits and pieces of it. But the rest of the framework would be something entirely different. I opened up a new document and started writing, occasionally cutting and pasting bits from the old story in between the new sections.
By 2:45 in the morning, I had a draft. I had a hard time falling back to sleep, too energized by the writing. When Denise went off to work at 7:30 the next morning, I got up with her and started in on revisions. By 10:00, I'd sent it off to Kerrie. Then I waited, not certain how Kerrie was going to react to this very strange piece.
I got e-mail this morning. Here's what she said: "You read too much, you write too much and you game too much...clearly. Bloody good, I'll get the contracts out ASAP."
So YAY!! I don't yet know when GAMER FANTASTIC will appear, but my story "The Gods of Every Other Wednesday Night" will be in it. I'll let you know when to start looking.