Finally, some writing
Posted by bencooper | Filed under News
I actually sat down and did some writing today. In fact I did two separate sessions. This is the first time I’ve done any fiction writing since starting work at Acoustic. I’ve been doing copy for the magazine when time allows, but just haven’t had the energy to undertake any fiction, which is always a mentally draining task.
I’ve started work on what I hope will turn into a novel. It’s a post-apocalyptic one, set in the distant future and has something of an odyssey/quest nature to it. I’ve always had a thing for apocalyptic or post-apocalytpic material. Mad Max 2 and Z for Zachariah are what sparked it off in me as a wee nipper. Not sure I should’ve watched The Road Warrior at such young age, but it doesn’t seem to have done any lasting damage.
Now, any book with an apocalyptic theme will guarantee a read through. The Genocides by Thomas Disch, Day of the Triffids, Hothouse and Greybeard by Aldiss. There’s just something about it that strikes a chord in me, and other people I think.
I’ve made a decision recently, spurred on by Kate, to write for myself. Write what I want to write, and not worry about whether I can sell it or not. So if the novel ends up being a slim 150 pager that no publishing house will buy, who cares. Kate always tries to drum into me that I should write for the pleasure of writing, and selling or placing my work should be a separate pursuit. Obviously I want to be published and see a book with my name on it – sci-fi or otherwise, but perhaps that shouldn’t be the be all and end all of writing.
I’ve also made a commitment now to write at least two pages a day. If I feel on a role and manage more, great, if not then each day I’ll rack up approx. 500-600 words and it all adds up. Although two pages a day seems like a low target, it’s definitely an achievable one and should spur me on as I manage it each day.
Here’s to the two-a-day plan!
Am I going off sci fi?
Posted by bencooper | Filed under General
Blasphemy!
I don’t really think I’m going off sci-fi, but I have to say that of late I’m finding it very hard to become enthused about the genre.
Whenever I pick up a novel by one of the new(er) generation of SF, and by that I mean from the 80s onwards, I’m left cold. I read a hundred pages and struggle hard to get through what is often pretentious, self-consciously literary prose. Then I take a break. I leave it for a few days, maybe a week and nothing makes me want to finish said novel.
One of the criticisms leveled at SF (and many genres of fiction/music etc.) is that it hasn’t moved on, indeed that due to the inherent restrictions of genre conventions it cannot. That maybe (though I happen to disagree, and have good reasons for defending genre conventions and their use) but why doesn’t any of the new stuff I read grab me in the way Philip K. Dick’s work does. Dick was no stylist when it came to his writing, in fact he tended to write novels on amphetamine binges in a matter of weeks, but his books (even the lesser ones) are compulsively readable.
Authors like Dick, Clarke and Asimov were all story tellers with ideas. Their prose is generally plain, Dick’s verges on hard-boiled at times, and the narrative pushes forward. I feel it’s this narrative drive that is missing from a lot of modern SF. Who cares if the plot is a little cliché, the characters not quite three dimensional if it rattles along and entertains you? I’m not saying authors shouldn’t strive for the best quality prose, and wonderful characters…but sometimes it seems they get a little bit lost in their literariness.
Another thing that seems to have disappeared with narrative drive, and perhaps is intrinsically intertwined, is the concision of those “classic era” novels. When I look in the SF section of Waterstones or Smith’s all I see are brick sized books, 600 pages long or more, and quite often one of several in a series. Again, I’m not against length – a story is as long as you need to tell it, no? But I very rarely see those 200-300 page novels, unless they are re-prints of classics. Some would argue it’s the scope of the long novels, it requires so many pages. So are the novels of Dick, Clarke et al lacking in scope? I think not.
All this has been sparked by my flick through the latest copy of Interzone (223). Since subscribing to the magazine I’ve read very little short fiction that did it for me. There’s been a few but not much. And I’m in no way criticising the authors from a writers perspective, as I’m hardly a writer with a fine pedigree of published work. I’m simply stating that most of the fiction Interzone publishes leaves me cold, as a reader. I really wish it didn’t.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m just crabby because DHL still haven’t delivered my new notebook!
Later.