Writing

Guest post on writing conflict at The Fictorians

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I was invited by Mary Pletsch (with whom I have the honour of sharing a table of contents with in Kneeling in the Silver Light and Wrestling With Gods) to write a guest post at The Fictorians, on the subject of writing conflict in fiction.

Here’s a little bit of what I had to say:

Don’t say what you mean: writing conflict through dialogue

There are a lot of ways to express conflict through dialogue in a scene, but it can be very effective – and a lot of fun – if it isn’t done openly.

People (and characters) hate conflict. They usually do everything they can to avoid it, unless they’re devoid of empathy. But readers… they love conflict. It makes for great dialogue, exciting scenes, and a plot that keeps moving.

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On writing, envy, rejection and persistence

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There is a mental trap writers seem to be prone to, if conversations I have on Twitter are any indication. (And I realize they may not be.) That is, that other writers are doing better than you somehow, and that this matters.

I’ve felt it! If you write, I suspect you have, too.

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Story on board: Accessing the Future

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Accessing the FutureIn case you haven’t heard about this book, Accessing the Future is a new SFF anthology that explores “issues of disability (invisible and visible, physical and mental), and the intersectionality of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, and class—in both physical and virtual spaces.” The table of contents has just been announced, and I’m thrilled my short story “In Open Air” will be included.

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Wolves of the Muddy Waters — a chronology

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For those interested in lycanthropic continuity, I decided to write a short post about the linked werewolf stories I’ve been working on.  I’d started focusing on short fiction between the last two drafts of my novel, which is now in the query trenches, and started building up a lot of tales about other characters in the world I’ve been working on.

I’m not sure what to call it as a series yet — though I’m leaning toward “Wolves of the Muddy Waters “ — but here’s the timeline for any readers interested in getting the whole picture. (This is not including finished stories that are out there on submission but haven’t found a home yet.)

If you prefer to avoid SPOILERS, then skip this and look at my writing credits here instead.

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Wrestling With Gods on sale Feb. 2, TOC reveal

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If you like speculative fiction that grapples with faith, religion and spirituality, and want to get it for a steal, there’s a sale on right now for Tesseracts 18: Wrestling With Gods. On Feb. 2 on Amazon, you can get it for 99 cents for the Kindle edition, readable on a Kindle or through the Kindle app.

Tesseracts 18 event

Feb. 2 is also the date of the online table of contents reveal via Facebook. Janice Shoults from EDGE Publishing explains: “This is a very informal event where you can drop by and post a question, and learn more about the stories that are in this anthology. Authors will be there on and off during the day to take your questions about their stories, and about faith in science fiction. Everyone who posts will be entered into a draw.”

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Writing  the way forward: speculative fiction and inclusion

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There are a lot of ways to look at storytelling, but one of the crucial ways to look at it, in my view, is by who it includes. I think this is true of any genre, but since I write speculative fiction, that’s how I’m going to consider it here.

Some very talented writers have addressed this already. If you haven’t read what they have had to say, I’d highly recommend you read:

Daniel José Older: 12 Fundamentals of Writing “The Other”

N.K. Jemisin on Why I Think RaceFail Was The Bestest Thing Evar for SFF and more recently Your groundbreaking is not my groundbreaking

Malinda Lo: On Self-Rejection and Writing From a Marginalized Perspective

Derek Newman-Stille on SFF fandom, ableism and homophobia and transphobia: My Cane is Not a Costume, and an interview with Kathryn Allan on disability in science fiction

These are just a few of the people writing on these issues.

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