Being Unintentionally Offensive is Bad Writing

Carrie Cuinn put up a blog post today reviewing the last three months' of flash fictions from Nature Magazine's Futures feature. My story "An Alien Named Tim" was one of the stories reviewed. Carrie gave it a rating of 3 out of 5, saying it was "funny" and that she "Would have rated it higher except for the space hookers."

[Edited 7/9/13 to add] Carrie wrote to me on twitter saying: "By quoting only part of that sentence, you put the focus on 'women' instead of 'aliens', when it was the alien part I objected to. Either you didn't understand what I was saying, or misrepresented it--but the issues wasn't women, or even hookers in space. It was the specific trope of 'alien space hookers'/the racism of classic examples; your 'look I've learned' statement ignores that." I had not intended to misrepresent and apologize for doing so. The full sentence from the review was:

"Would have rated it higher except for the space hookers; suggesting one catches diseases from sex with alien women is based on the classic SF method of hiding racism by attaching negative stereotypes to 'aliens' instead."

The reference in question came near the beginning of the story in what was essentially a throwaway joke as the reference isn't in any way relevant to the rest of the action.

"We weren't armed; the trade routes had been peaceful for decades. The biggest risk to cargo haulers was catching something from one of the alien women at the waystations. A raygun wasn't much good against that sort of trouble."

I'm a bit embarrassed to say that my initial reaction was "But I didn't saaaaaaay they were hookers!" Which, if I'd been foolish enough to actually say that should've earned me a "not impressed" look and a "Really?" 'Cause... Yeah... That was pretty clearly the inference I was going for there. Fortunately, I didn't stop at that first reaction, and I also didn't linger around "But I didn't mean for it to be offensive" either.

300th Post: The Next Big Thing

First of all, this is going to be my 300th published post on this blog. Wow! When I started blogging some of my thoughts about writing I had no idea where it was all going to take me and I can only say that it's been a great ride!

There's a blog hop going around called The Next Big Thing where writers talk about their current projects. It appears to have originated mostly with novelists, but there's nothing that says that other folks can't play, too. Sarah Hans, a member of my local writing workshop and the editor of Sidekicks! (in which I have a story) released her own The Next Big Thing blog post last week (focused on, wouldn't you know, Sidekicks!) and as part of it she tagged me to be one of the next people for the hop.

So, I present to you... The Next Big Thing

FYI: I have adjusted the original questions somewhat since my projects are all short fiction and, as usual, I have multiple ones in flight. I chose a story I feel particularly fond of which is still a work in progress for this post.

1: What is the working title of one of your current stories?


"Written on the Skin". I suspect it will end up being a 1,750-3,000 word long story after I take it through further drafts.

2: Where did the idea come from for the story?

There's a writers' site called Liberty Hall that runs a weekly contest where people are provided two prompts and then have ninety minutes to write a story based on one or both of the prompts. One week recently there was an image of a fingernail painted with music notes. I looked at that and thought for a bit and had the idea of a woman with music tattooed over much of her body. Then I had to figure out why.

3: What genre does "Written on the Skin" fall under?

Post-apocalyptic science fiction.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I've been fond of Jennifer Lawrence since I saw her in "Winter's Bone." I think she'd be a good fit for the main character in "Written on the Skin" though I doubt her agent would want her showing up in another post-apocalyptic thing on the heels of The Hunger Games.

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your story?

A young woman whose parents and siblings have all died and is about to become a mother herself works to keep alive the memory of the family members she has lost.

6: Will your story be self-published or represented by an agency?

Short fiction is almost never represented by an agency. There are, to be sure, some exceptions but generally speaking authors are "on their own" to market their short fiction. Once I have a final draft of this in hand, I'll start it out to the periodicals and/or anthologies which seem like a good fit for it.

7: How long has the editing taken you?

I wrote the first draft in 90 minutes. The basic story arc is there but there are some aspects which probably require expansion and at least one element I think I need to change.

8: What other stories would you compare "Written on the Skin" to within your genre?

I'm struggling to think of a specific story that I would compare it to. What I will say is that I hope it will -- like many of the stories I have most enjoyed reading -- depict a person working to navigate the often-difficult paths of relationships with their fellow humans.

9: Who or What inspired you to write this story?

The person who provided the prompt described above.

10: What else about your story might pique the reader’s interest?

I hope that it ends up in a publication which readers know they can rely on for consistently high-quality fiction. That, to me, is the best way for a new SF/F short fiction writer to interest potential readers.

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Thanks for reading! Now for the people I am tagging as part of the blog hop; many of them are primarily short fiction writers as well. I made an attempt to check that they hadn't participated in the hop yet, but if I missed their post, I'll update this to reflect their previous Next Big Thing posting.

Alex Shvartsman – Alex is the editor of Unidentified Funny Objects and he has had dozens of short stories published in recent years. He's also been a great mentor to me in the world of writing and I am happy to call him a friend.

Alexis A. Hunter  – Alexis and I have talked some online and met briefly during the Context convention here in Columbus last fall. She's young and, like Alex, has had dozens of short stories published in recent years.

Robert Lowell Russell – Robert is in the same writing group that Sarah Hans and I are in; in fact, he's the person who recommended I look into the group. He's written a number of stories that I've felt have a really solid emotional core and which I expect I'll see published in the not-too-distant future. He also has the ability to write humorous stories and was one of only a handful of recipients of a three-star rating (the highest rating awarded) for 2012 short stories by Tangent Online in their Recommended Reading List for his very funny story "The Flittiest Catch" in an issue of Intergalactic Medicine Show.

Beth Cato – Beth is the only one on this list I haven't met. She lives in Arizona and I live in Ohio. Amusingly, though, she lives in Buckeye, Arizona and Ohio is The Buckeye State. She's had numerous short stories published in recent years and also is an avid writer of poetry. Additionally, she enjoys baking and blogging her recipes; around Christmas I made a batch of her snickerdoodles which turned out wonderfully!

All four of these authors are ones I can imagine doing great things in the years and decades to come. I hope that all of them can be... The Next Big Thing!

Letting Go Of The Chain

"Will I give up the chain someday even while continuing a daily writing routine? I suppose it's possible. But I know that if I did give it up and then realized I was having trouble keeping to a routine, I'd want to return to using the chain to help myself get back into a groove.

In the end, the chain is just another tool to help you reach your goals. Like any tool, you can use it when it's helpful and leave it in its toolbox when it's not."

- A Time to Let Go of the Chain? (Chapter 11, Write Every Day)

I've been considering this for a while, off and on. But I've decided to make it official with the start of 2013. I'm no longer going to be formally maintaining a Daily Writing Chain.

Sunday Links: December 16, 2012 Edition

I had let myself get horribly behind on short story submissions. This is normally something I'm very good about, however over the last couple of months in particular, as I got rejections I wasn't getting around to sending stories back out to another market. I've made a major push to that end this week and I'm basically caught up now. The only things not currently out the door are stories which I'm considering making revisions to before submitting them again. As of tonight I have 36 submissions out, five reprints and 31 originals. It feels good to be back to where I've got a lot of stories on on submission and I'm going to make a concerted effort to not fall behind again.

As a side note, with this week's efforts I've crossed the 300 mark for 2012 submissions. There was a point where I thought I might have 366, which would have been neat, but my slacking off in recent months ensured that wouldn't happen. Still, 300 submissions is a lot and I'm quite pleased with what I have accomplished.

Something in early 2013 I'll do a Year-in-Review for 2012 with all kinds of statistics. For now, though, let's move on to the writing-related links I've come across this week which I want to share:

Sunday Links: November 25, 2012 Edition

I'll be posting my December goal list tomorrow and November goal results Thursday. The results aren't going to look terribly impressive, I'm afraid as November has not been the most productive month for me.  Being out of town for nearly an entire week did more to disrupt my schedule than I had realized it would. Couple that with a major holiday and some other family members traveling during the month and I've struggled to get as much done as I would like. But as I've commented before, a bad month or two here or there isn't going to be a huge obstacle in the grand scheme of things for a potentially decades-long writing "career."

On the plus side, I feel very good about the time I spent at Philcon and visiting writing friends before and after the convention. I also feel good about the fact that I've been able to pick back up with writing even after having taken some days explicitly away from doing actual writing. Having not taken a single day away from writing for over a year, I had a bit of (perhaps irrational) concern that I would have trouble getting back into a routine. So far, so good.

Only a couple of links for this holiday week along with a link to my own one blog post from this week:

Sunday Links: November 18, 2012 Edition

Sixty percent of the way through November and Thanksgiving is just days away. Since I just took a blogging hiatus in the past ten days for Philcon, I'm not going to take an extended hiatus for Thanksgiving. However, I will forgo a post on Thanksgiving itself. So, the only post between this one and next week's Sunday Links will be one on Monday.

While plenty of writers are deep into writing a first draft of a novel for NaNoWriMo, I'm tentatively re-exploring last year's NaNo project, both by re-reading it myself and getting feedback from a reader. This is both exciting ("Yay! It's no longer just sitting gathering electronic dust on my hard drive!") and a bit daunting ("Ugh! It's kind of a mess with little bits and pieces hanging off here and there which need either fully integrated or lopped off."). I think the only way it's going to turn into something truly readable is for me to re-outline it. Large chunks will end up getting completely rewritten, I'm sure. On the bright side, as I was reading it there were moments here and there where I thought to myself: "Hey, that works rather well!" So, even though it was written by someone newly back to writing who had never written a novel before, there's that, I suppose.

If you're doing NaNo this year, I hope that you're enjoying yourself. I'm glad I'm not doing it again this year, but I think I may plan on having a novel-length project ready to tackle during November 2013.

For now, here are this week's writing-related links as well as a link to my own blog post from this week:

Sunday Links: November 4, 2012 Edition

I hope that people who are doing NaNoWriMo this year are off to a good start. Even if you're not, don't fret too much; there's a lot of November left to write in and it's not too hard to catch up from a few slow days.

Meanwhile, a quick blogging update. I'll be attending Philcon next weekend (If you're there, please feel free to say "hello"!) so I'm going to take a short blogging hiatus. I'll have a post on Monday 11/5 but then won't run anything scheduled again until Thursday 11/15. I'll most likely put up a trip report from Philcon sometime before the 15th and I'll also report on any interesting news, but otherwise things will be quiet around the blog during that week and a half.

Below are this week's writing-related links as well as links to my own blog posts from this week.

Sunday Links: October 28, 2012 Edition

A surprising warm spell passed through here earlier this week but is well and truly gone now. There are hints that snow might show its face in the upcoming few days. I think it's safe to say that we're now well in the grip of Autumn here in Ohio with Winter not too far behind.

Monday will be my last blog post for October, so it will include my wrap-up of results on my October goals as well as a look-ahead to November. Thursday will most likely bring the second of my 2013 goal planning posts.

Below are this week's writing-related links as well as links to my own blog posts from this week.

How Do Writers Measure Success?

I've had what feels like an insanely successful year in a lot of ways. I've sold more than 20 stories this year, I've gotten very nice feedback on some of the stories which have been published, I've made it 2/3 of the way to full SFWA membership, etc.

However, there are still lots and lots (and lots) of milestones which I haven't even come particularly close to reaching. So, looked at against the backdrop of those other milestones, it would be easy for me to say (were I so inclined) "Well, I really haven't accomplished much yet." And, looking at it purely objectively, there's truth to that. If I stopped writing today and published nothing besides what's already in the pipeline then twenty years from now I'd almost certainly have left functionally no mark on the word of speculative fiction literature.

So how do I look at this? Have I had wild success or am I still down on the lower rungs?

Sunday Links: October 21st, 2012 Edition

Are we really two-thirds of the way through October? Apparently we must be, but how that happened, I certainly couldn't tell you!

If you're gearing up for NaNoWriMo, you might like to look through my posts related to that topic before the first of the month rolls around. I don't plan to do NaNo this year, though I am planning on tackling a novella-length project during the month of November if all goes well.

Below are this week's writing-related links as well as links to my own blog posts from this week.

Sunday Links: October 14, 2012 Edition

A calmer week on the writing front. I had one piece of good news that isn't public yet but I hope to be able to announce it before the end of the month.

Tomorrow I'll look at how I'm doing in terms of making progress toward my October goals. For now, though, on to this week's links!

Sunday Links: October 7, 2012 Edition

Well, I said it would be a busy week, and indeed it was.

It's also been a very good week. I met one of my goals for the month by getting a story into the Codex Halloween contest before the deadline. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't make time to do a second draft; I think the story has some major flaws as-is. But I wanted to be a part of the contest and I did achieve that.

I also had four stories release this week. I'm particularly pleased by the reactions to "Scraps" (at Daily Science Fiction, will be on the web next week) and "ReFormed" (at Buzzy Mag). I feel like those are among two of my best stories so far and the reaction to them has been in line with those feelings. I was a bit worried that they would show up and vanish without a trace. I'm very pleased that this didn't happen.

Sunday Links: September 30, 2012

The calm before the storm...

I have three stories coming out later this week. Web-based stories at Interstellar Fiction and Buzzy Mag and the email pre-release of my story at Daily Science Fiction. (The latter will go live on their website next week.)

There's also the October issue of Kazka Press going live on Monday; the stories I selected as guest editor for their flash fiction contest will all be up on that day.

So I'm going to be blogging and tweeting quite a bit about these stories as they come out this week. I hope that you enjoy any which you end up reading.

Before I get to this week's links, here's a quick rundown of my writing goal progress for the month. I don't have my October goals fleshed out yet. I'll aim to have those up soon, quite possibly Monday.

1) Keep my Daily Writing Chain going. - Done.
2) Decide on and publish revisions to my blogging schedule once my hiatus is complete. - Done.
3) Submit at least six of my previously-completed stories for the first time. - Didn't happen. I'm somewhat disappointed about my lack of progress on this one.
4) Write a story and submit it to Criminal Element. - Done.
5) Write the first draft of my story for the Codex Halloween contest. - This didn't end up happening. It's going to be a close thing at this point to see if I get something submitted.
6) Get a revised version of my novelette out to beta readers. - Done.

I'm calling this "fair." I did get some good work done this month but I've also let some things slip and for one of them (the Codex contest) I'm running out of time.

But that's the month that's passed. For now, let's move on to this week's writing-related links; I hope that some of them are useful to you.

Sunday Links: September 16, 2012 Edition

It's been a while since we've done one of these. With my blogging hiatus in early September, this is the first Links post in three weeks.

Before I get to the links, a quick reminder that I'm guest-editing this month's Kazka Press flash fiction contest with the theme of "Love Beyond Death." Submissions are open for several more days, through the 20th of the month. So, if you have a story of 713-1,000 words on that theme that you'd like for me to consider, now's the time to be submitting it. The stories I select will be part of the Kazka's October issue and I'll put a link up to them once they have been published on the first of the month.

Here are this week's links; I hope that some of them are useful to you. If you've come across an interesting link about writing recently, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Feel free to post it in the comments below.

Sunday Links: August 26, 2012 Edition

We're down to under a week before the end of the Kickstarter campaign for Unidentified Funny Objects. This is the speculative fiction humor anthology which I've been working on as one of the Associate Editors. We're also down to under a week before the end of the submission period, so if you've got something you want to get in for consideration, please don't delay!

As I mentioned last week, I'm going to be taking a short blogging hiatus in early September. After looking at the calendar and making various plans, I've decided that the hiatus will run from September 1st through 9th. So there will be regular Monday and Thursday posts here on the 27th and 30th of August and then the next post after that will come on September 10th. So, this will be the last Sunday Links post before September 16th. By then, I should have quite a few links which I want to share.

I'll still be writing during that hiatus. In fact, September 1st will mark the first day of a second year of writing every day (Barring anything unexpected happening in the next several days, of course; though, considering all the unexpected things I've dealt with in the past year and still managed to keep to my writing routine, it would have to be a real doozy!)

Related to coming up on this one year anniversary, I'll have an announcement on Thursday. That will be my 365th day of writing every day. Friday, August 31st will be the 366th, given the leap day earlier this year in February. The announcement will be related to my book "Write Every Day."

But that's for Thursday. For now, here are this week's links; I hope that some of them are useful to you.

Sunday Links: August 12, 2012 Edition

The weeks feel like they're going by faster than ever. Here it is (late) Sunday night again. I've got links to share but first I want to remind everyone about the Kickstarter for Unidentified Funny Objects. As one of the Associate Editors, I've read most of the stories under consideration so far for the final Table of Contents. I think it's going to be a very fun anthology and I hope that people who are interested in humorous science fiction and fantasy will take a few moments to check out the Kickstarter and consider backing the project.

Here are this week's writing-related links:

"Audition Your Cast of Characters" (Julie Musil) - Julie talks about ways to understand the characters you are going to write about. One of the things that struck me as interesting in this piece was her differentiation between "stayers" and "changers." (Both have their place.)

"How to Succeed as a Writer" (David L. Day) - David jumps off from a blog post by Jeff VanderMeer and combines that with his own experience in the corporate world to build a set of principles for succeeding as a writer.

"All Work and No Play is No Fun and No Good" (Kristen Lamb) - Kristen talks about work ethic and balancing work with other activities.

Along with those links, here are the items I posted on my blog this week. It's been a busy week!

"Interview with Scott Bartlett: Author of Royal Flush" - Monday, I posted an interview with Scott Bartlett.

"'Ars Gratia Artis' is Live at Sorcerous Signals" - Wednesday, I linked to my most-recently published short story on the webzine Sorcerous Signals.

"Three Signs Your Writing Process Might Not Be Working" - Wednesday, I cross-posted this article from my "Write Every Day" blog about ways to identify if your approach to writing might not be working as well as it could.

"Short Story Sale: 'Other Kinds' to Nine" - Saturday, I announced a short story sale to the semi-pro ezine Nine.

"Pulpfest 2012 Day One" , "Pulpfest 2012 Day Two", "Pulpfest 2012 Day Three" -Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I wrote about my experiences at this year's Pulpfest convention.

Have a great week everyone!

Three Signs Your Writing Process Might Not Be Working

"Three Signs Your Process Might Not Be Working" is my Wednesday List post on the Write Every Day blog for this week. Since writing process-related items are the sort of thing I've talked about often on this blog in the past, I thought it was a good one to crosspost here.

Sunday Links: August 5, 2012 Edition

Wow...

I'm absolutely drained tonight. Our oldest just finished up her fourth experience with the All-Ohio State Fair Youth Choir. The final concert lasted for two and a half hours and that didn't include the slideshow afterwards or the extended period where 200 high school kids who have spent 18 days living and singing together hug and cry and say goodbye. So if my links descriptions tonight are a bit shorter than usual, please excuse me.

But I will share with you one of my favorite songs that the AOSFYC did this summer, "Let the River Run." This isn't my video, but I'm glad to be able to share it all the same. Consider it a special link for this week!

With the fair and everything, I've had an especially hectic go of things this week, so my writing time each day has been fairly limited. Still, I've made progress on several things, getting critique feedback from two people on a story I wrote recently, and keeping busy with a variety of other writing activities. I also managed to write a relatively-lengthy story (for the time allotted) for this weekend's Liberty Hall flash fiction challenge. I'm happy with the story arc, though I suspect it's still rather rough around the edges. I'll look forward to hearing from the other competitors as to what their thoughts are on how I can improve it.

One last thing I'd like to draw my readers' attention to before I get to the rest of the links is the Kickstarter for Unidentified Funny Objects. In my position as one of the Associate Editors for this project, I've read most of the stories which are under consideration so far for the final Table of Contents. I think it's going to be a very fun anthology and I hope that people who are interested in humorous science fiction and fantasy will take a few moments to check out the Kickstarter and consider backing the project.

Now, without any more preliminaries, here are this week's writing-related links that I wanted to share with my readers:

Sunday Links: July 29, 2012 Edition

July is almost over, can you believe it? Tomorrow I'll post my month-end goal status and also write up my planned goals for August. It's been basically a year to the day since I returned to writing last summer and I'm very pleased with how the past year has gone writing-wise. I'm excited to see where the next 12 months take me.

If you missed it earlier this week my mystery story "Present Company" ran on Every Day Fiction on July 24th.

Also, as a reminder, there's still over a month until the August 31st deadline for submissions for Unidentified Funny Objects.

Below are this week's writing-related links that I wanted to share with my readers. Also, if you're so inclined, Kasia James has a guest post up today on my Write Every Day blog where she talks about, well, about NOT writing every day.

Coping with Criticism

There's been a lot of talk recently in various writerly circles about how writers handle criticism, particularly in the form of negative reviews.

I've been unreasonably fortunate so far -- unless I've suppressed a memory, I haven't gotten any truly negative comments/reviews on my published work so far. I'm well aware that a large part of this track record, though, is that my readership is rather small. I'm certain that I'll end up facing negative comments on future stories in one form or another. And though I can imagine it might cause me a bit of angst, particularly the first few times I encounter that, I intend to do my best to not let negative reviews get me down.

Here are some of the things that I'll try to remember when the day arrives where I first am faced with someone who publicly says they really didn't care for something I had written.

1. Everyone likes different things in fiction. There simply aren't going to be any universally-liked stories. Different people take different things from each story that is published. For that matter, even a single individual might react differently to a story on one day than they would if they read the same story on a different day, in a different mood, having read a different set of other stories recently.
2. It's not personal. This one's a bit harder, especially since there are times when -- for a writer -- a story is very personal to them. There are certainly some stories of mine that I have more of an emotional investment in than others. I suspect that it will be harder to read negative comments of those stories than of others. But as far as the criticism being given, that is not personal. The reviewer isn't saying that they don't like you; just that they didn't like the story which you had written. And if the comments that they leave are personal -- calling you, the writer, out rather than your story -- then I think it's somewhat reasonable to presume that they weren't made with good intentions. The best thing I can think of there is to put it out of your mind. While a negative comment about a story would have the potential to help you improve your craft for future stories, a negative comment about you can't do any good.
3. If you have to vent about it, do so privately. I don't think much looks worse for a writer than to complain about negative reviews. If you really have to grumble and get it off your chest, do so in a private conversation with friends, not in a public forum. And remember, that just about everywhere on the Internet is a public forum.

I'll close with this thought which, in fact, was the origin for this post. I recently got the following fortune in a cookie after a meal: "If you have no critics you'll likely have no success." You can interpret that two ways -- that everyone needs constructive criticism to do their best or that the only way to avoid criticism is to be so "under the radar" that you're probably not meeting most definitions of "success." Both seem valid, though it was the second interpretation that I first keyed in on when reading the slip.

I hope that everyone has a great writing weekend and that all your reviews are positive!