The Sweet Spot – How Much Detail Does A Character Need?

This topic jumped at me after thinking about a post I replied to in Facebook. Bear with me with some background information.

The posting was about the revelation that JRR Tolkien was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature by C.S. Lewis in 1961, and poor Tolkien was discounted early in the selection process – apparently for poor storytelling, or something similar. This article was topical because of the fame of LOTR, and in particular by Peter Jackson's screen adaptations. Many people 'ooed and ahhed' because they viewed him as a master writer, but a friend of mine, John Hughes, pointed out that Tolkien was far from being a literary genius. Nuances apply here. Setting aside whether a reader likes LOTR or not (or Tolkien or not), a successful storyteller he is, and given the generations and multitudes of people who read, and reread LOTR, he is in my mind a master storyteller. There is a distinction between master writer versus master storyteller, when it comes to the assessment of literary excellence. While I'm not saying the Nobel Committee are the doyens of literary assessment, I think they got it right with Tolkien, from a literary point of view, and especially in 1961.

Now, to the thoughts I really wanted to share with you. If LOTR isn't a literary masterpiece, by some high standards, why is it so successful, including in pre-Jackson days? I think it's because it is a darn good yarn. Tolkien himself stated that his objective was to write a really long tale and sustain interest – he scoffed all his life at efforts to dissect his work, to find meaningful allegory. He most certainly did succeed in writing a sustained yarn. But are his characters written well – with depth and insight? More importantly, did they need to be?

I think we come to an area of fiction writing that applies universally, but in different ways depending on the writer, the genre/style, and the audience: even the most 'literary' writers don't spell everything out when it comes to character portrayal. The most difficult, and rewarding part of writing, in my experience, is being able not just to describe what needs to be described, but in a way use absence of information to enable readers to fill in the gaps. The art of illusion. Some writers spend a lot of time on character description – by show and tell, preferably more by show. These works are often centrally concerned with characters – this is what these writer's readers want – and is often motivated to draw out emotions, states of mind, etc, that simply cannot be invoked by pure, plot-driven narrative. This is goodness. On the other hand, there are works of literature that might want to emphasize theme, or, like Tolkien, plot (a tale, a yarn). Needless to say the permutations of what lies between are virtually limitless.

Regardless of how much characterization a writer wants to drive, in combination with the many other elements of what makes a piece of fiction, there is nevertheless a balance required, and good craftsmanship. LOTR wasn't devoid of characterization, and there certainly are many characters who come across vividly. But a lot of it comes from Tolkien's skill as a writer who knows how to craft 'absence' of information. Tolkien liked the narrative style (hey, have a go at the Silmarillion), and he stuck to his brand of voice. The key here, is that he found, within his voice, the sweet point – the balance, in LOTR (and the Hobbit, and fragments of work he did not publish).

Does this mean Tolkien should have won the Nobel Prize? No. I don't believe so. I think the Nobel Prize isn't geared toward the type of fiction Tolkien wrote – it represents, ideally, a lifetime's work in experimentation and exercising of skills in virtually all facets of fiction. It is also, quite frankly, a literary award in the most pure, snobbish sense. The Hugos, Nebulas, Bram Stokers, etc etc cater for genre fiction, and where there is a little (and I emphasize, little) more flexibility with regard to where along the literary spectrum the sweet spot is required (I think of Paulo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, as a perfect example of all the ideals of 'literary' fiction in genre fiction).

So, how much detail does a character need? Answer, it depends. But to achieve the 'sweet spot', there is just as much effort in determining what is written, from what can be drawn from what is not.
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2012 New Year’s Resolutions

Well, back to the resolutions. They are essentially the same as last year's and I can do a mini assessment of 2011's goals.

10 goals:

Be a great dad and husband. I can't judge this – others have to, but I feel I can do better. This is especially important with a 6 year old daughter with autism.
Lose weight. I have never been heavier, and so my goal for the year is to lose 20kgs. That's a tough one. I failed in 2011 – I must succeed in 2012. I have never been unhealthier.
Read more. As a writer I need to read – one of the cornerstones of being good at the craft (target: 24 books). Succeeded in 2011, and intend to succeed again.
Outline Bitter Creek by December 2011 (or perhaps do much more). This went nowhere. Must do in 2012.
Revise The Scepter and the Orb by September 2011 (first Evyntyde novel). Half done in 2011. I want this done by March 2012.
Write 3 additional short stories and finalize/publish my Evyntyde anthology, Tales from the Chronicles of Evyntyde – by June 2011. This is done, but I'm holding back on publishing at this stage. I will revise this at half year mark.
Complete first draft of my second Evyntyde novel, Crystal Peak. Not a word done in 2011. I want to do this by end 2012.
Write at least 12 short stories in 2011. I wrote 17 stories (in fact, one was rewritten into a novella, so you could say I did 18). My goal for 2012 is 12 pieces of short fiction again.
Qualify for membership of the SFWA. Not a single qualified story. However, my stories are just getting better each year. Let's try again for 2012!

2011 Addendum – write and complete YA Dystopian novela, The Comfort of Beanbags. This was done.

So, as a summary for 2011, it truly was a mixed bag. From a writing perspective, my short fiction has performed well (I published 11 pieces), but I haven't hit those high marks quite yet. From my larger work point of view, I have just been too busy to progress, and I have to do something about it. On a personal level – again mixed. I'm a good dad and husband I think, but my weight/health is a major concern.

Detour: my market performance for 2011:

25 submissions, including nominated awards, were carried over from 2010 to 2011.

Counting the carry-overs,

165 submissions were collated.
122 were rejected,
11 were accepted
32 were unfinalized.

8 of the 11 acceptances were for anthologies.

In total percentage terms:

10% of finalized horror submissions were successful
8.7% of finalized scifi subs were successful
6.38% of finalized fantasy subs were successful
8.27% of all finalized subs were successful.

Discounting carried over subs:

140 submissions were collated.
98 were rejected,
11 were accepted
31 were unfinalized.

8 of the 11 acceptances were anthologies.

In total percentage terms:

12.12% of finalized horror submissions were successful
10.53% of finalized scifi subs were successful
7.89% of finalized fantasy subs were successful
10.09% of all finalized subs were successful.

Now to tracking my Resolutions (the ones that can be):

2. Lose 20 kgs. I will report regularly here.
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3. Read 24 books. Slow.

4. Outline Bitter Creek novel. I want to do this by July 2012.

5. Revise The Scepter and the Orb by March 2012. A bit slow here.

6. Make a decision about Tales From The Chronicles of Evyntyde anthology by July 2012.

7. Complete first draft of Crystal Peak (sequel to The Scepter and the Orb) by December 2012.

8. Write 12 short fiction pieces in 2012. Ahead of schedule – written 3 by end of February.

9. Publish/Have Accepted 15 short fiction pieces in 2012. OK – 2 acceptances in January. None published yet.

10. Qualify for SFWA. Here is my status (amber means currently going for it, red means not even going for it, and green is a success – 3 stories must be published by recognized mags/publishers):

These are my New Year's resolutions – good luck with yours!
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Book Review: Tales From The Fathomless Abyss, Edited by Philip Athans

It was with no small amount of glee that I downloaded Tales From The Fathomless Abyss, as I was instantly caught up in the idea of a shared world project, via a posting on Jay Lake's blog. He advertised it because he was one of the authors, one of the world-builders. Basically there is a wondrous core concept of this world (so to speak) – there is this whopping great big vertical shaft that appears to have no bottom. It always exists, but periodically the top of it opens in some random where and when. Including alien planets – not just Earth. Stuff fall down – not everything all the way. Creatures, people, plants, you name it, can live on the inner face of the Abyss, or in tunnels, ledges etc. A fantastic tableaux for writers to spin stories on.

And so Philip Athans, the central control in this project, gathers a stellar collection of writers, including himself, and spin six stories: aside from Philip, we have J.M McDermott, Mel Odom, Mike Resnick/Brad R. Torgersen (co-writers), Cat Rambo, and Jay Lake. This was another reason to purchase this e-tome. These are 'tales' and what will follow will be longer works, published as single monographs – my understanding is that they will be roughly novellas in size. I will certainly partake of some of them.

Before I get into a qualitative spiel regarding the tales themselves, I want to mention two things about the ebook that annoyed me. Firstly, being an ebook as a sole platform (as opposed to print), the quality of the formatting was terrible. While they got the hyperlinks right, the centering of stuff needing centering, and the full justification – why in hell didn't they indent the first lines of the paragraphs? It amazes me they didn't. It really was distracting and in places even lowered the impact of some of the passages. Secondly, only the last two stories in my estimation (Rambo and Lake) were truly self-contained tales. The others were preambles to bigger stories. While this, on the surface, is not necessarily a bad thing, I felt mildly cheated that four of the six stories didn't quite have endings. I think this should have been made more clear to the reading public.

Having said what I said about 'incompleteness' of the first four stories, I should state for the record that all the stories were well written. I didn't expect any less from seasoned and talented writers. However, it does rankle me that the first four stories were prologues to other stories. Another thing that rankled me a bit, in terms of the plots, was that such a large percentage of the writers chose to write with alien races as the protagonists. Each were done admirably – in the case of Cat Rambo, stupendously well – but from an editorial point of view I just felt that it was a bit lop-sided, out of balance in terms of overall content. This was an editorial weakness, not a writing failing.

To some extent, by lack of coincidence, I'm sure, the two stories that were complete stories: Rambo's A Querulous Flute of Bone, and Lake's That Which Rises Ever Upward (I can spot a Lake title anywhere!), were also the best tales in the anthology by far. They were SHORT STORIES, by any decent definition, and had a lot to say, and to entertain. Rambo's take on the world, the microcosm of the protagonists and antagonists (in fact, showing there is a blurry line there), is nothing short of uber-unique, and her command of descriptive narrative was an absolute pleasure to read. Jay's story is also quite unique (on a par with the other four stories) but he constructs a wondrous short-epic journey through a man's life, spinning all manner of emotions in such a short number of words. These two authors were worth the purchase.

I don't want to belittle completely the other authors. Each story had me captured in their prose and the quality of their writing. But I…well, I've already said it. I have also deliberately left the detail out of each story so the reader can read them sans spoilers.

All in all, this work is good, within a growing world-building project that really is already great. Rambo and Lake's stories are gold.

Four stars.
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Book Review: Dark Is Light Enough For Me by John Claude Smith

I am, apart from several other roles, a speculative fiction writer. And 'horror' is an equally important element of the super-category for me. I like to call my horror pieces 'dark fantasy' – as I like the subtle, and I don't necessarily want to go heavy on gore, nor do I like to dabble in standard motifs, like zombies and vampires. And yet I will dabble in the more extreme on occasion. The term 'dark fantasy' is not a clearly defined concept, but one that I'm more comfortable with than most. John Claude Smith's Dark is Light Enough For Me is an anthology of dark fantasy, interspersed with horror, but none of the stories consist of recurring popular motifs – internally or within the genre. Each story is original, and in most cases, very dark indeed – coal black.

Smith's anthology isn't for the sensitive or the faint-hearted. Many of the stories are edgy, working on concepts and thoughts that all us adults are familiar with, but rarely talk about. Smith isn't being quirky, or finding satisfaction in the gory, sexually perverse or the profane. No, he is writing this stuff because it unbalances the reader. Disturbs. Sometimes frightens – the essence of what quality horror/dark fantasy is all about. And he does it admirably, especially for a debut title.

You will find stories of high craftsmanship, but not all of his pieces are equal. I have found a few that could have been tighter, better polished, but never lacking in originality and perceptiveness. There are places in some stories that could have been better edited and proofed as well – but these are few and far between, and do not materially affect the overall quality of the piece. (I'm also an editor, and stuff like that rarely avoids my notice).

The remainder of this review is a blow-by-blow review of Smith's stories in the anthology.

** Black Wings

A very good story of guilt – and with a most interesting set of occurrences that lie at the root of the protagonist's guilt, as well as the way it manifested at the end of the piece.

The protagonist is, right from the beginning, a ruined man, and he is visited by crows, and in particular a big one. Smith skillfully reveals their meaning, as well as the protagonist's past. The flashback is finally revealed and it was surprising, and horrific.

The ending is appropriate and quite surreal.

** The Dark Is Light Enough For Me

This is a particularly good short story. We have the protagonist, James, with a disturbing life history (a pattern in many of Smith's stories), being drawn into a writer's group, discovering not only that the entire group have written the same complex work, but that there is a strange story associated with why he uniquely joined the group. This short is extremely well written – with a highly mature, insightful narrative, and without resorting to the more blatant tropes of horror, is in fact very horrifying. A dark piece worthy of wide readership.

** I Wish I Was A Pretty Little Girl

A powerful piece. It's hard to be original as a writer, writing from the POV of a serial killer. Smith succeeded. Again, the protagonist had a horrendous, nightmarish life leading to the current events. An explanation as to why this particular person became a monster – and convincingly. This story set me in uneasiness from the first few sentences. A child being led somewhere by a clearly disturbed adult – one of the hardest things to read about if Smith chose to follow the path of describing murder in gory detail. And yet he didn't. This story isn't about love of violence, rape, sex, or some bizarre blood letting. This is about the man who wants to be something else. The uneasiness generated from the start was a masterful stroke, allowing the reader to be unbalanced from the beginning, and then throughout the story. The ending was apt and horrifying, and almost makes one feel sorry for the killer.

** Gladiatrix

Again, a powerful piece, delving deep into the psyche of an exploited woman, and how she was turned into, a gladiatrix of sorts. The descriptions and language are superb, but I do have a slight reservation – it almost seems that the long (and quality) descriptions of the woman and her background in the first half of the story, seem too disjointed from the narrative revelations later. They seem more disconnected than what I would have appreciated.

Nevertheless, well worth the read.

** I Want To Take You Higher

A very good pastiche of drug and sex underlife, mixed with obscene, edgy satanic-like religion. With all the hard core imagery and descriptions, Smith was able to find moments for flippancy and humor. This is a well constructed story, sending up many elements of our society. A nice twist is constructed at the end.

** Not Breathing

A very powerful story about the degredation of a man's soul, woven into a most interesting plot. The use of second person is very efective here. Don't want to reveal much, but this is one of my favorites.

** Make Pretty

This is different from the past stories thus far, because it is more like a traditional horror piece – and yet masterfully crafted. Without giving too much away, the story is about vanity, and how it can bite you back if you choose to dabble in the spurious. Smith proves he is as much a traditional horror writer, as an innovator.

** Strange Trees

Another piece that has a traditional structure, but with unique undercurrents. The concept that malevolent trees awaken by the onset of menstruation with one of the protagonists, is effective. I also found the language and the POV more tradional than any other of Smith's stories in the anthology, almost (in a modern sense) like H.P. Lovecraft – clinical language – longer sentences, with
evocative descriptions.

** The Perceptive One

I like the premise of the story – the egotistical, shallow sociopath, teams up with an almost seer-like young girl, and their lives are inextricably crossed with an old tramp who has something dark, powerful, to impart. The egotist, Travis, becomes ruined, when in fact he was already broken, and the story ends with promise of a continuation of the cycle. Destiny is a strong theme in the story.

This is good – but, I think Smith works too hard at it, and there are scenes that seem to me too filled with repetitive descriptive sentences, and probably are 3 to 4 times longer than they should be. The intention, perhaps planning, is good, but the execution is slightly flawed. I feel this is a less mature work of Smith's, and I saw evidence of lack of polish here and there (not to mention editing/proofing). This is, despite some good points, one of Smith's weaker pieces.

** Plastic

A very good story that is superficially a classic scifi trope, but excellently meshes with the hunger of a man who hasn't attained his soul's desire. While the ending is in purest form something that a reader can guess at, the details aren't. This was also one of my favorites.

** The Sunglasses Girl

Another powerful, edgy, and raw piece, juxtaposing the seedier aspects of a man's depravity, with the stuff that matters more – the ability to make decisions on a higher plane. And in failing, suffers the consequences of what emerges from the lower plane (so to speak). This is another example of Smith's prime motif throughout the anthology.

** Things That Crawl in Hollywood

The final story is a wonderful comedic horror piece, sending up Hollywood, the 'plastic celebrity' phenomenon, and the shlock of zombie flix. A funny, and yet thoughtful piece – fast paced. Amazingly clever.

All in all I give Smith's work 4 stars – I would give 4 and a half, but most systems don't cope with fractions. 5 is on or near perfection, and this anthology isn't quite there – but I bow and acclaim a wonderful work nevertheless, and stand in awe at this debut piece. As a writer, I have learned much from Smith, in terms of the power of descriptive narrative.
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Review: Brumbies by Paula Boer (& Illustrator, Rowena Evans)

Brumbies, a children's adventure set in the Australian Snowy Mountains, and the first of a five part series, is a wonderful read for the 8 to 12 year old set, but certainly enjoyable for all ages. This is IFWG Publishing's first venture in publishing a book written in Australian English, in part to retain the authenticity of the characters and setting, as well as recognizing that Australian children – especially those who love horses – will be the primary readers. But don't misunderstand me – this book is a classic horse adventure and could very well turn into a classic, much like "The Silver Brumby".

The story is about a horse-loving city girl moving into the country – the highlands of Australia where, surprisingly for those who aren't Australian, can get cold and even snow in winter. A hardy wild horse, the Brumbies, roam the diminishing countryside, and have, to some extent, become a 'pest' to local farmers and parks. There is an annual mustering of Brumbies for the purpose of putting them down, and this shocks Louise, one of our protagonists. She and Ben, a local boy she befriends, work hard to find a way to save some of these beautiful creatures. This is the basis of the story for the first book.

I love reading children's titles as they take me back to when I was a child and enjoyed reading. My taste was quite eclectic, but I certainly can remember reading every single one of WIllard Price's 'Adventure' series. Reading Paula Boer's Brumbies rekindled those enjoyable years, and I certainly can thank her (and illustrator Rowena Evans) for that. While not a horse story reader, I can only imagine how wonderful stories will be for those with an equine bent.

Five deserved stars.

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Market News: Raindrops In His Eyes

Very pleased to have an Evyntyde story, Raindrops In His Eyes, accepted in Static Movement's anthology, Dark Dispatches.

Also pleased because this is the second story accepted for the same anthology – also because this story is going to be quite a contrast in the anthology because it is fantasy, with a dark twist, while most stories (including my first acceptance, They Never Can Find Out), are horror war pieces.

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The Road To Heaven Is Paved With Crass Commercialism

I’ve raved before about my views on publishing, and particularly self-published work. The bottom line of my past ranting is that those who are good are being swamped and disadvantaged by the vocal majority—who are simply poor writers and poorly supported from a polished end product point of view. What’s more, there is no easily accessible way to reality check such unfortunate individuals.

What I want to focus on in this essay is the social network layer that is utilized (read: abused) by such individuals, as well as those who provide a ‘service’ to them.

Social Networks are SOCIAL

This seems self-evident, but a lot of people don’t get it. To pay for many of these social networks, there’s advertising, but in most cases the advertising is self-evident—every element has its place. Many writers, and those who want to make money ‘helping’ authors, hit the social network hustings in a big way. Why do they do it? Well, I can think of a few notable dynamics: firstly, because it is there; it is so tempting to say, ‘buy my book’, or ‘visit my interesting site because you know and I know I’m flogging my book, but you must appreciate my thin veneer of social networkese in this post/twitter’. Another reason people do this is because there is a very small fraction of people who have actually succeeded in getting some semblance of fame and/or income from using social networks to sell their products—of course, those who succeed, get more successful because they become celebrities for their archetypal standing, which feed more hopefuls who look to them, and the spiral continues to rise, but unfortunately still for those few.

I don’t, personally, disagree with advertising one’s book on Facebook, Twitter etc, and I have certainly done it as an author, as well as a publisher, but I draw a well-defined line. For me, it is more important to join a social network socially, and only announce the other stuff on a minority basis. I can guarantee you that you gain more respect from those who count more effectively, and quickly.

I will provide you with an example. There is an option in Facebook to seek ‘friendship’ with another member. What motivates you to ask a stranger to be a friend? Perhaps the litmus test is what you do once friendship is first obtained—do you say 'hi!' on their Wall or do you add a link to your book site? The latter is a classic example of sheer hypocrisy—there is no friendship, not even an attempt at it, only crass commercialism. I personally increase my friendships in FB quite actively and rapidly, and I never ask my new-found friends to see my commercial/marketing web pages or the like. They can choose to do so if they wish, but I’m not even going to give them a hint. Will I get sales from this type of activity? I suspect few, but hey, are other authors the best people to market to, even if I wanted to? No. That’s probably the most ironic aspect of commercialism in the literary field in social networks, because most authors are spending too much time in the wrong target areas.

I especially dislike those who have sites on how to make it in the publishing field, and how to produce the best erotic novel covers, etc etc. The majority of these people are failures themselves, or at best, are big fish in diminutive ponds. Of those who are successful to some degree or another, are simply adding social networks to their regime of blatant commercial marketing.

My advice is this, and it does in part stand on ethical high ground—as an author, use the social network if you can because it makes people aware that you exist. Don’t push your products to the max because you are in the wrong space—this is a social networking arena, not a friggin’ marketplace. Socialize, and do interesting things where no-one has to invest in them other than their time. If you have had literary successes, rave about them, along with your interesting pieces. If you have a new product for sale, or want people to know about what you have got on your shelf, do it—just don’t do it a lot. I look at some of the better companies that have presence on Facebook and Twitter, such as Simon and Schuster, and also my company, IFWG Publishing, and you will see that even they don’t hit you all the time with products. Not at all. They’re smart, and ethical.

I ask you authors out there to challenge yourself to be smart and ethical.
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Little One riding for the first time

Had to post this – Erin like most little girls, loves ponies. And she has been talking about wanting to ride. So…today we started this journey for her and boy did she light up! Sent tears to my eyes. I firmly believe now how therapeutic horses are for children with autism.

Forgot the camera (sheesh), but here are two Blackberry photos showing her in her first ride. This will be a regular event, I can assure you.

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Review: The Sixth Precept by Larry Ivkovitch

This is an amazing book. Larry Ivkovich describes The Sixth Precept as an urban fantasy – and it certainly is in the sense that it is a fantasy and quite a bit of the adventure is set in a modern day US city – but a lot of the adventure is also set in medieval Japan. And stuff happens there. Yes, it is an urban fantasy, but it doesn't deserve simple labeling. For example, it has a neat, convincing detective story feel about it as well.

I'm raving – and probably because this fantasy adventure has everything, all in the right proportions.

I wont give too much away of the plot, as it would be a spoiler indeed, but I can say that the key storyline is about a woman in
medieval Japan with an amazing psychic gift, who is playing a key part in a great cosmic 'game', who sends the young girl she is protecting, through a rift into the future. That's just the beginning, when it comes to time travel as well as strange and miraculous people and creatures. I simplify this, because the most powerful feature of Larry's writing is the smoothness of the plot and the sustaining of adventure and entertainment. It is complex, but not distracting.

I normally am not a fan of time travel stories (although I should point out that time travel is not necessarily the sole, core element of
this novel), as I often find authors handling paradox particularly badly. For me, the best time travel stories enable travel into the
future, but impossible to travel backwards. However, there are a select few authors for me who handle forward and backward time journeying with flair – beautifully enabling the reader to suspend disbelief. Larry is one such author.

Another feature of the book that I liked was the treatment of some of the antagonists. They are complex. They are not necessarily black and white in the depiction of evil (with one deserved exception). The bestial creature who is supposed to hunt down the protagonists in modern day is an example of such a complex figure – while hated and dreadful in many ways, there are moments of sympathy as well. It makes the book memorable.

Larry Ivkovich's debut novel is way more polished and mature than a typical first work. I would strongly advise any fantasy reader –
especially paranormal and urban fantasy readers – to buy and enjoy this 5 star piece.
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Market News: David Rorshach’s Dream Comes True

My scifi short story, David Rorshach's Dream Comes True, originally published in Silverthorn Press eZine, is now available in the For The Oceans anthology, by Sonar4. Very slightly toned down for general consumption.