I'm going to make a comment here I would not on an open social media platform.
When WorldCon was in DV several years, I read the Hugo nominees. Seanan McGuire had a Wayward Children novella nominated. I felt it read like an early draft, precisely because of issues with intersection. The early part of the story deals heavily with the MC learning she's intersex -- and then that point completely drops out of the rest of the book.
When I brought up this criticism, her rabid fans screamed REPRESENTATION. My problem had nothing to with representation, which I'm all for. It was a technical issue about the way structure, not some regressive political nonsense.
When you're putting out that much material, corners get cut. I have no desire to try to support myself with my writing. Part of it is that my work is too odd and cerebral for mass appeal, and another part is, I make almost $130k at Metro, and the numbers, and that number (along with benefits) is well beyond what even most commercial writers make. But it's also a matter of something that Gene Wolfe once said, which is that having a stable, sufficient income allows you to make your art to your standards.
At my day job as a technical writer, I do professional work, but it's in service of an organization and their prerogatives. The compromise I've made between my ASD/OSD and the world is that I do that to survive, but my art is done to my standards.
Hey Lincoln this was great, thanks! I’m thinking a lot about plot this semester for my MFA and may use some of your posts to frame my craft essays. I was wondering what you thinking of adding a fifth element— Acceleration? I guess you could think of it as escalation of escalation, but I could see it equally in terms of quickening oscillations, variations, or the interaction between all forms of plot movement. Basically what I’m trying to figure out is what stories do to achieve that teetering off the rails feeling toward the end. The School is a great example of what I’m after. Or “No Other Choice” directed by Park Chan-wook for a movie example.
The reminder that completing a storyline is only step one has been sitting with me. It's easy to mistake tying a thread off for the harder job, which is making the threads collide so that pulling one would untangle the rest. That's the trap I fall into in revision every time. What's kept me on the whole series is that it hands you something to think with instead of a formula to obey, and the framing of the principles as diagnostics for a scene that's gone flat is the part I keep stealing. Thanks for sharing.
I'm going to make a comment here I would not on an open social media platform.
When WorldCon was in DV several years, I read the Hugo nominees. Seanan McGuire had a Wayward Children novella nominated. I felt it read like an early draft, precisely because of issues with intersection. The early part of the story deals heavily with the MC learning she's intersex -- and then that point completely drops out of the rest of the book.
When I brought up this criticism, her rabid fans screamed REPRESENTATION. My problem had nothing to with representation, which I'm all for. It was a technical issue about the way structure, not some regressive political nonsense.
When you're putting out that much material, corners get cut. I have no desire to try to support myself with my writing. Part of it is that my work is too odd and cerebral for mass appeal, and another part is, I make almost $130k at Metro, and the numbers, and that number (along with benefits) is well beyond what even most commercial writers make. But it's also a matter of something that Gene Wolfe once said, which is that having a stable, sufficient income allows you to make your art to your standards.
At my day job as a technical writer, I do professional work, but it's in service of an organization and their prerogatives. The compromise I've made between my ASD/OSD and the world is that I do that to survive, but my art is done to my standards.
Oh, intriguing words…
This was excellent.
Again with the perfect timing! One of the tiniest of notes- I think it's Cousin Charles in We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Hey Lincoln this was great, thanks! I’m thinking a lot about plot this semester for my MFA and may use some of your posts to frame my craft essays. I was wondering what you thinking of adding a fifth element— Acceleration? I guess you could think of it as escalation of escalation, but I could see it equally in terms of quickening oscillations, variations, or the interaction between all forms of plot movement. Basically what I’m trying to figure out is what stories do to achieve that teetering off the rails feeling toward the end. The School is a great example of what I’m after. Or “No Other Choice” directed by Park Chan-wook for a movie example.
The reminder that completing a storyline is only step one has been sitting with me. It's easy to mistake tying a thread off for the harder job, which is making the threads collide so that pulling one would untangle the rest. That's the trap I fall into in revision every time. What's kept me on the whole series is that it hands you something to think with instead of a formula to obey, and the framing of the principles as diagnostics for a scene that's gone flat is the part I keep stealing. Thanks for sharing.