magistrate (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magistrate) wrote2015-08-07 10:41 am
magistrate) wrote2015-08-07 10:41 am
What I've been up to
Most of my time has been taken up by big personal things which, being personal, I'm not really discussing in an open post. (They're not bad things at all! Just time-consuming. If you can see this post, you can learn more about them... in fits and starts.) But in the cracks of those big time-consuming things, I've gotten a few stories out into the world, and a few stories picked up as reprints.
New Stuff Not Already Announced On This Journal
My sociological SF story "Three Points Masculine" is forthcoming in Lightspeed – not sure when it's scheduled yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It's a story about the legislation of gender and gender fitness for job roles.
My far-future hard SF piece "Outsider" is coming out in Meeting Infinity. This one is about human social hierarchies, eugenics, adaptation, and individualism.
My SF novelette(!!!) "The Charge and the Storm" is forthcoming from Asimov's. No publication date on this one either, yet, but I've signed the contract, so huzzah! This one is about insectoid aliens with minimal individualistic tendencies and rigid hierarchies (...I'm beginning to sense a pattern in my recent writing), and the humans who have to live with them. And poor emotional problem-solving capacities and systems of justice that really don't work well for anyone. And lightning magic. (Er, sufficiently advanced genetic engineering and smart nanomaterials.)
My SUPER SECRET HORROR COLLABORATION with RACHEL SWIRSKY is coming out sometime next year in an anthology yet to be announced. (Likewise, I've signed the contract, and I have permission from the editor to say it's forthcoming in an as-yet-unannounced anthology. Fan the flames of hype and speculation.) This one does not inolve rigid social hierarchies! It involves identity, and predation, and vast unspeakable presences from beyond.
Stuff Wot's Getting Reprinted In Places
I feel like I may miss something here. My email is exceedingly disorganized at present.
And Wash Out by Tides of War, originally published in Clarkesworld, will be coming out in the next Warrior Women anthology. (Check out the cover!) If you want a physical copy of this tale about emotionally maladjusted freerunners and ladies who turn into aliens to go to war, grab it when it comes out.
Water Rights, originally in the Edge of Infinity anthology, will be coming out in Lightspeed. If you want to read this story about, well, water rights (in space! with hydroponics! and explosions! and unsubtle digs at the state of water managment in the southwestern US!), then soon, you'll be able to feast your eyes on it in pixels.
Frozen Voice, originally in Clarkesworld, will be reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Kaiju. I... have to admit, I never thought of this one as a Kaiju story, but I suppose it does have the giant-inhuman-creature-destroying-things thing going on.
...if there are more reprints to announce, I'll probably remember them sometime this weekend when I have no access to a computer, and then forget them all by Tuesday when I'll be back at my computer again.
What I'm Working On Now
This should not be taken as a list of "things you're likely to see," as what generally happens is that I'll start something and either:
1. Get bored of it and wander on to a different project, wandering back months or years later to finish the thing, or
2. Finish the thing, and then toss it to the side in a fit of frustration, wandering back months or years later to revise it and send it out.
But at the moment, I'm working on some things that I'm rather excited about. Including: a sequel to "The Charge and the Storm" (which will probably be even longer than TCATS's 17,200-word length, ahahahahaaaaaa why); a story that takes place in the same world as Undermarket Data; an industrial fantasy story about, um, water management (I HAVE A THING, OKAY); and an urban fantasy YA-ish university adventure story which, I have to admit, I'm partially writing to see if I can write to an outline developed to a formula, and if doing so will teach me anything about the mechanics of plot.
I've been publishing for almost a decade, editing for a couple of years, and writing for just about as long as I can remember, and I still feel like I don't actually know how plots work and that anything I've written which has managed to include a plot has been all down to lucky rolls and serendipity. I probably have some array of subconscious knowledge, but every time I try to sit down and consciously generate a plot, it feels like a very strange and foreign exercise. And, you know, I write stuff that I enjoy and that stuff does sell, so there's probably no dire need for me to figure it out on a conscious level, but if I could, I'd have a powerful tool in my toolbox that I could pull out and apply whenever I wanted to.
Considering that half the reason my writing is so slow is that I tend to get 40-80% of the way into a story and realize that I don't know how the plot's going to wrap itself up (or, in some cases, happen), this could mean that I'd get a lot more done.
Anyway, that's more or less the writing state of the An.
New Stuff Not Already Announced On This Journal
My sociological SF story "Three Points Masculine" is forthcoming in Lightspeed – not sure when it's scheduled yet, but I'm looking forward to it. It's a story about the legislation of gender and gender fitness for job roles.
My far-future hard SF piece "Outsider" is coming out in Meeting Infinity. This one is about human social hierarchies, eugenics, adaptation, and individualism.
My SF novelette(!!!) "The Charge and the Storm" is forthcoming from Asimov's. No publication date on this one either, yet, but I've signed the contract, so huzzah! This one is about insectoid aliens with minimal individualistic tendencies and rigid hierarchies (...I'm beginning to sense a pattern in my recent writing), and the humans who have to live with them. And poor emotional problem-solving capacities and systems of justice that really don't work well for anyone. And lightning magic. (Er, sufficiently advanced genetic engineering and smart nanomaterials.)
My SUPER SECRET HORROR COLLABORATION with RACHEL SWIRSKY is coming out sometime next year in an anthology yet to be announced. (Likewise, I've signed the contract, and I have permission from the editor to say it's forthcoming in an as-yet-unannounced anthology. Fan the flames of hype and speculation.) This one does not inolve rigid social hierarchies! It involves identity, and predation, and vast unspeakable presences from beyond.
Stuff Wot's Getting Reprinted In Places
I feel like I may miss something here. My email is exceedingly disorganized at present.
And Wash Out by Tides of War, originally published in Clarkesworld, will be coming out in the next Warrior Women anthology. (Check out the cover!) If you want a physical copy of this tale about emotionally maladjusted freerunners and ladies who turn into aliens to go to war, grab it when it comes out.
Water Rights, originally in the Edge of Infinity anthology, will be coming out in Lightspeed. If you want to read this story about, well, water rights (in space! with hydroponics! and explosions! and unsubtle digs at the state of water managment in the southwestern US!), then soon, you'll be able to feast your eyes on it in pixels.
Frozen Voice, originally in Clarkesworld, will be reprinted in the Mammoth Book of Kaiju. I... have to admit, I never thought of this one as a Kaiju story, but I suppose it does have the giant-inhuman-creature-destroying-things thing going on.
...if there are more reprints to announce, I'll probably remember them sometime this weekend when I have no access to a computer, and then forget them all by Tuesday when I'll be back at my computer again.
What I'm Working On Now
This should not be taken as a list of "things you're likely to see," as what generally happens is that I'll start something and either:
1. Get bored of it and wander on to a different project, wandering back months or years later to finish the thing, or
2. Finish the thing, and then toss it to the side in a fit of frustration, wandering back months or years later to revise it and send it out.
But at the moment, I'm working on some things that I'm rather excited about. Including: a sequel to "The Charge and the Storm" (which will probably be even longer than TCATS's 17,200-word length, ahahahahaaaaaa why); a story that takes place in the same world as Undermarket Data; an industrial fantasy story about, um, water management (I HAVE A THING, OKAY); and an urban fantasy YA-ish university adventure story which, I have to admit, I'm partially writing to see if I can write to an outline developed to a formula, and if doing so will teach me anything about the mechanics of plot.
I've been publishing for almost a decade, editing for a couple of years, and writing for just about as long as I can remember, and I still feel like I don't actually know how plots work and that anything I've written which has managed to include a plot has been all down to lucky rolls and serendipity. I probably have some array of subconscious knowledge, but every time I try to sit down and consciously generate a plot, it feels like a very strange and foreign exercise. And, you know, I write stuff that I enjoy and that stuff does sell, so there's probably no dire need for me to figure it out on a conscious level, but if I could, I'd have a powerful tool in my toolbox that I could pull out and apply whenever I wanted to.
Considering that half the reason my writing is so slow is that I tend to get 40-80% of the way into a story and realize that I don't know how the plot's going to wrap itself up (or, in some cases, happen), this could mean that I'd get a lot more done.
Anyway, that's more or less the writing state of the An.
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Also plots are terrible. I still feel like I should have a better grasp of what to do with them. I mean, I know when they go wrong in someone else's stories and even say what I would have liked instead, but actually creating and molding my own? Forget it.
If you do discover the secret to plots, let us know.
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Plots, man! What's especially annoying is that I know a lot of tips and tricks and rules and principles, and yet when it comes to constructing a plot that I can scaffold my ideas on, the ideas are too amorphous or something and resist that scaffolding whenever possible. I don't know how it works. But I wish it would figure itself out.
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Also, I am going to join in the pile of people who are just staring at plots with confused expressions.
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I feel like someone needs to go find the secret to plotting well and carry it back down to us like Prometheus with the flame. Except that I also feel like plenty of people have, and I'm doing the fiction equivalent of staring at the flame and looking for the on/off switch.
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It's funny, I feel like I know the answers to plotting. I have read enough that I know I should be aware of how to do the thing ut it's like....Okay, It's like it's right in front of me but I'm looking to the right of it and I can't quite focus on what the hell is right there staring me in the face.
(Also hi. pouncechew It's been a while and I am always glad to know you are alive.)
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(Hello! It is good to be alive, even if life is exceptionally busy. It's good to know you're alive, too. ♥)
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Esssentially this yes. sigh
(Is it at least a good sort of busy/ It seems to be a little bit.)
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a sequel to "The Charge and the Storm" (which will probably be even longer than TCATS's 17,200-word length, ahahahahaaaaaa why
:D :D :D :D
and an urban fantasy YA-ish university adventure story which, I have to admit, I'm partially writing to see if I can write to an outline developed to a formula, and if doing so will teach me anything about the mechanics of plot.
You ARE doing the thing! :D Or brainstorming on it, anyway. YAY! \o/
I'm fascinated by how much I learned about plot by writing murder mysteries last year. I'm not entirely sure how much of what I learned is applicable to anything OTHER than murder mysteries, however ...
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A mostly off-topic comment
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I'M SO EXCITED FOR YOU
AS EXPRESSED BY THE VOLUME OF MY ALLCAPS
Plot can be so rough! Half the time I'm just. C'mon. Let me show you these cool people and places and things. Why does stuff have to HAPPEN. Bleagh.
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