How Writing has Changed (For Me) Since the 1970s--Part Two

These are two covers I actually remember from when I was a child.

Science Fiction Fans, Science Fiction Writing Class, and Dirty Purple

From the time I was six years old, I read science fiction and fantasy without knowing anyone besides my dad and my aunt (his sister) who also read books in those genres.  My dad had boxes of magazines with colorful, fascinating covers--robots and spaceships and aliens--in the basement.  So I devoured Galaxy and Astounding Science Fiction magazines from the 1950s, not really understanding a lot of what happened in the stories, but captivated by them nonetheless.  My dad read A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, to me at bed time.  Then my aunt gave me some paperback novels--a few of the Witch World series by Andre Norton.  I wanted more!  I searched the school library and found books by Robert Heinlein and the Narnia books by C. S. Lewis.

How Writing has Changed (For Me) Since the 1970s--Part One

1970s:  Handwriting a Novel and Typing it on a Manual Typewriter

Throughout my childhood I was a voracious reader, and also loved playing make believe and making up stories.  I remember lying on my bed one day (I was probably in my early teens) reading a book I was dissatisfied with.  I thought, "I could write better than this!"  Shortly after that, I started brainstorming stories I could write.  I carried a small writing notebook around with me, and wrote down ideas and scenes.

Then, as now, I loved science fiction and fantasy, so my first novel was science fiction.  I brainstormed it after dark with my younger sister (who slept in the lower bunk bed while I slept in the upper bunk).  When I started writing it, I was in high school.  Since I used lined paper in a three-ring binder at school, that's how I wrote my novel:  in pencil, double-spaced, on college-rule binder paper.

Micro Short Short Stories

For nearly two decades, I’ve helped judge a writing contest at CONduit, the science fiction/fantasy convention in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It’s called “Micro Short Short Stories.”

The rules are simple.

1.  Each story can have no more than three sentences.
2.  It should be a complete story, with beginning, middle, and end.
3.  It should be grammatically correct, and have correct punctuation (we take off points if we have to fix punctuation and grammar to make the story work).
4. The title can help tell the story.
5.  We give a story extra points if it contains foreshadowing, characterization, and/or subplots. (Amazingly, this can be done in only three sentences, although it's difficult.)

There Is No Such Thing as an Original Idea in Art

There is no such thing as an original idea in art. Or so my husband keeps telling me (he is an artist). He tells me this when I struggle to come up with a new story, a new world, even a new name for an unknown cousin of the main character. This got me thinking, where do I draw inspiration from? And how original, really, are the elements of my story?

 Many ideas are reused over time. There are a huge number of stories involving the main character coming of age, the epic journey, the predestined hero, basic human emotion stories (love, revenge), and the telling of fairy tales and fables. These stories pop up all the time, not because they are easy to tell, but because they are easy to relate to. A story is a success when the readers identify with the events and/or characters. One example is the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, a coming of age story with a hero that was chosen by events outside of his control, and over the course of the story he grows into his role. Or another series (which shall not be named) where both vampires and werewolves have been tamed and sexualized to appeal to young readers. Many stories are also retold in new ways, such as Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, a retelling of The Odyssey.

So. Is there such a thing as originality in writing? Yes! But there is a caveat: your story needs to draw from reality, and that necessitates a bit of borrowing.

CONduit 22: Time-Lords of CONduit

CONduit is Salt Lake City's annual science-fiction/fantasy convention, and it's something I look forward to every year. This year was especially dear to my heart, as a Doctor Who fan: the plethora of Doctor Who costumed people (I was dressed as Amy Pond, companion to the 11th Doctor), props (like the plywood TARDIS for photo-ops), panels (my favorite being the Kid Con Sonic Screwdriver Panel), etc., made me very happy.

Beyond that, what made this year special to me was Tamora Pierce as Guest of Honor, and the profusion of YA panels, both for readers and for writers. Last year, on my own blog, I did a three-post series, discussing the panels I went to on each of the three days. I'll do a shorter version of that here that I think I'll call The Good, The Bad & The Awesome*.

How to Play Headlines

 Clarification

We'd like to clear up some possible confusion.  For nearly twenty years, there has been a science fiction and fantasy writing critique group in the Salt Lake City area called CALLIHOO.  There are various versions of what the letters in CALLIHOO mean.  Someday, we might tell you. . . .  When Callihoo Publishing was born, it was staffed by so many members of CALLIHOO, that we decided to use the writers' group's name for the company.  However, the two entities are completely separate.  Yes, Callihoo Publishing publishes stories by members of CALLIHOO.  But being a member of CALLIHOO doesn't automatically mean your stories will be published, nor does Callihoo Publishing only use work (stories and art) by members of the writers' group.  The publishing company did adopt the CALLIHOO gosling when it was first formed and needed a logo.  This might change . . . or it might not.  The Logo Contest, coming soon, will establish that!

With that taken care of, we come to the fun part of this blog post.

Why a Gosling?

When you visit our blog or our website, you might find yourself curious about the omnipresence of a single figure. It's the Callihoo gosling. He's hanging out on our wallpaper, he's nabbed the title of the blog, and he's
even filling in as logo until our upcoming logo contest in June. When not online, the gosling is generally to be found displayed near someone's writing space, a box of commas strung helpfully around his neck. All of which begs the question: how did a bunch of writers wind up adopting a gosling as their mascot?