And so it begins...

[cdeb]

The title of the thread is a statement of intent rather than a reality

Half a lifetime ago, literally, I wrote SF/fantasy stories. Nothing was published professionally but several appeared in University fanzines. I was very ambitious, but also driven by the need to be accepted and prove myself, Jeff’s writing tip “writing for an audience of one” is very apt in my case. In the end I had a clear call from God to pursue a scientific career which I have done. When I surrendered writing fiction to God he gave it back to me in another form and via being a runner up in an SF criticism competition, I was invited and became a book reviewer for the British Science Fiction Association’s critical journal. I served there for a number of years before I started dating my now wife, and then time disappeared…(you know, marriage, baby carriage etc )

Over the last couple of years several things have changed. Firstly, several blocks have come in my scientific career that made me think about my long-term future. Secondly, the death of a parent at comparatively young age has made me realize I might not have as long to go as I might have expected…and thirdly, stories keep coming into my head all the time. I have made notes but not pursued writing anything. Then on holiday last year I had lots of spare time and wrote the beginning of a story on my smart phone. Finally, I attended a Christian Arts conference and the main speaker was a Christian fiction writer.

At this point I was waiting for a thunderbolt from heaven to say I could write again, having felt I would use this ability at some point but without any clear indication I could go against what I had previously felt. The conference speaker did not provide me with a thunderbolt, but her challenge was simple “If God has given you a gift to write, you should use it”. She related the story of a friend who was still waiting for a thunderbolt from heaven before she started writing—more than a decade has passed and the thunderbolt has not happened—and neither has the writing! During the conference we had lots of discussion and I wrestled (and still am wrestling) with 2 basic questions: can I write and should I write? I then remembered I had some objective measurement from all those years ago which could help me with the first question. I had entered a Christian Writers short story competition and the MS had been returned with a “Highly commended” attached to it.

Encouraged by the speaker I have decided push some doors to test the second question. I have found I have half an hour each day I can set aside which doesn’t compromise other things I need to do and I am writing. The conference speaker, after finding my area of interest, pointed me to “Where the map ends” and I have been greatly helped by Jeff’s writers´ tips and one of the books he recommended. I have also got several SF-reading friends to go over my drafts.

The practical upshot is that my first attempt to publish in a professional magazine (Asimov’s) bounced a month ago, but 1st draft of stories 2 and 3 are completed and story 4 is being written. I don’t think I am writing for a particular market (Christian vs. Secular) but I do come to my fiction with a Christian world view. Novels are not on my agenda at the moment.
I will update as things unfold…

[raregem]

Welcome to our lil' corner of the world. I'm glad you found at least a little time to devote to your writing--that time adds up!

[birdnerd]

Howdy! Story writing is fun ... but all of mine end up running longer than "stories."

[cdeb]

Thx for the welcome: I read a long time ago that u can achieve quite a lot with half an hour a day -but not of course novels

[Andy]

Hey cdeb, great to have you with us! Half an hour is super, keep it up! I love short story SFF! Most of it seems to be going online these days. But it's free reading, and I'm not complaining.

Keep those ideas coming. Looking forward to your posts! What's your science background?

[E.J. Apostrophe]

Great to have you here! Don't be a stranger!

[cdeb]

Hi Andy to answer your question: I am a biochemist, though the borderline between biology and biochemistry has all but disappeared...

Update on stories: I put the story bounced by Asimov's into a Christian writing contest in the US (which I think I got a link from on this website) and another one (Fantasy) into a Christian writing contest across the pond in the UK, the same organization that liked my story half my lifetime ago...we will see what happens...

I have a website but have vowed not to develop or at least release it to the wider world until I am published ;D, so no pressure there then

[morganlbusse]

Welcome cdeb

[pixydust]

Welcome! Great to have you here!

[cdeb]

I promised to update as I went along, so here goes.

I have still be struggling whether I should be doing this writing or not, then last Sunday at church we had a really challenging sermon which was a message for us as a whole congregation, but spoke to me directly on an individual basis.

The setting was the time after the incident with the golden calf when, God promised that the people would get the land that He had promised them, but He would not go with them. Moses intercedes and says, and I paraphrase "If your presence does not go with us, we will not move from this place".

This is exactly how I was feeling about the writing, so although I had gone forward at the end of the service to pray for others, the guy who came to me ended up praying for me as well! I felt I didn't want to go forward unless God really confirmed it was right.

The next day I accessed my electronic bible on my phone. It usually remembers where it left off, but it went somewhere "at random" instead. And this was to Isaiah 54, and the place it started was "Enlarge the place of your tent...do not hold back...and later Do not be afraid you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace , you will not be humiliated...

Now I feel I have answered the question "Should I write´?" but almost the next day I got the sense, confirmed by the final announcement, that I hadn't won anything in the writing competition I had entered. I guess many here also entered .

But I continue...

And at the end of the week I went (for the first time in 25 years!) to an SF convention I had previously booked into. And much to my surprise I ended chatting quite a lot to a Hugo award winning author and even got his input on how to move forward with a story I was writing, as well as other advice. There was also many other seminars and talks on writing.

So I am on my way...

The take home message from the writing discussion at the Con was if you want to improve to a publishable level you need to be in a writers crit group and if you want to publish a novel, you need an agent.

I think there are such groups (or at least links to such groups) on the anomaly, so I will check them out. Local crit groups are not so easy to find...

Will continue the updates .

[newburydave]

Hey Chris;

(with apologies to B5 I see)

True Science / Sf, sounds like a good mix to me. I try to do the same thing with Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (my background). I'm the infamous Dave from the Anomalous Sandbox. Welcome, Welcome on both counts.

Just a quick suggestion, Amazon has a new category for short stories in it's ebook section called 'Shorts'. They encourage independent publishing (indie-pub). Check it out under thier "Publish with us" link from thier main website.

It seems that they are a likely replacement for the old midlist (new and developing authors) publishing that used to be served by the pulp magazines. A word of caution, look at the excellent blogs and books on indie-publishing, there's a lot to doing it successfully.

I too try to write for the secular market with Christian themed Sf.

Welcome to the family.

SGD
dave

[cdeb]

Thanks Dave for the welcome and helpful comments.

Actually, your post was rather prophetic, for this, my next one. I had planned with my next update to say that I had applied for and been accepted by the Anomalous Sandbox!

I think actually B5's MJS stole the phrase which begins this thread, from Lord of the Rings...maybe it was even Gandalf who said it, but now I am stretching my memory beyond its current tolerance levels...the original phrase in LOTR was "so it begins", I believe. There were several other nod's to LOTR in B5, as I am sure everybody is aware.

Thinking of your comments about your science background, several others have challenged me to use my science background more directly (at the moment I am writing some "space opera" stories with not even high school physics under my belt ;D, go figure!). Part of the problem is that it is harder to suspend disbelief in an area you know something about, but much easier in areas you don't. But I will bear it in mind, as a lot of current hard SF space opera authors, when venturing into biochemistry, are not so convincing...

Re. your indication about short story outlets at amazon, this is interesting and I will look into it.

I have given (and received) my first critique at the Sandbox and it was wonderful to at last get some feedback from my peers rather than my SF reading friends, especially as it was positive. So thank you again Dave for taking the initiative with this arena.

The next update will be how I fared in the short story competition I entered. Results are out sometime in September.
Meanwhile, I am going to have some fun posting a little mystery elsewhere on the Anomaly...about an author who I have never heard discussed in Christian circles before (but maybe that is because my circles are too small

CdeB

[pixydust]

Sounds like things are going good, CdeB! That's wonderful. And yes, a crit group is vital, so good job! Just get your work out there as much as possible, but mostly: read, read, read, and write, write, write--then read and write some more. Go to conferences and talk to other writers and make connections and have fun! It's a long and exciting road.

Looking forward to more updates!

[cdeb]

Thanks Pixiedust.

While I am still waiting for Competition results, l'll give another update.
A good tip by a professional SF writer sent me to the writing program called Scrivener. It's available for Mac, but there is a beta version in windows. Since I am only writing short stories at the moment, I thought it would be of most help when or if I.progress to novels. However...its statistics feature now tells me my current short story has just passed the 10,000 word mark and far from.completed . Scrivener has been a great tool for organizing my many scenes. I would recommend it.

I would count myself as a plot-driven writer, but the extended length is due to the characters developing a life of their own which is fun!
CdeB

[newburydave]

Chris;

My experience is that most venues consider 10k words to be about the limit for short stories; and you have to be really good to justify this much ink in a magazine or that many electrons in an online e-zine. For new authors I've been told that 4k-7k are more likely to be used.

Since most of my shorts run hard up against the 10k limit and higher, that factoid was discouraging to me when I read it. But when I saw that the Amazon shorts category was allowing up to 30k (Novella's) I gained new hope.

The experience of some who have made it big with Indie-Publishing is that the more (good) titles you have up in the e-Book marketplace the more likely you are to sell more books. No amount of social media schmoozing is as effective in generating word of mouth buzz as people buying some of your $0.99, $1.99 or $2.99 shorts and deciding they like your voice and style.

One guy (an established special ops author) sells nothing but low priced novels in this price range as e-books. He writes one of the blogs I follow on the topic of indie-publishing and e-publishing. He ramped his sales on Amazon from a few hundred dollars a month in Sept 2010 to $10,000 a month, steady state, in July 2011.

The paradigm you mentioned about needing an agent is one of the old publishing norms that may be changing. It appears that publishing has become an uncharted frontier and it is evolving rapidly.

RE: the Character vs. Plot issue;

Our own Jeff Gerke just published a book "Plot vs. Character". I bought it on my Kindle and I'm reading it. I recommend it if you want a practical treatment of how to people you bang up plots with well developed characters. Jeff does a good job.

I'd be interested in how you make out long term with Scrivener, vs. MSWord. I've looked at a few of those special purpose "writers writing programs" and haven't seen the value add in them. But then I'm the guy who abandoned specialty databases in favor of MS Excel spreadsheets for data analysis when I was doing statistical analysis in industry.

Write on Bro.

SGD
dave