Tag Archives: Mike Reeves-McMillan

Feb 04

I hadn’t thought about it before, but now that she points it out, I think KKR has a point here.

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I hadn’t thought about it before, but now that she points it out, I think KKR has a point here. There is a blanding of voice going on in today’s publishing landscape. You can pick up books by half a dozen different authors and have difficulty telling them apart. (Not only because of voice, either. A lot of people are trying to write the same books, because those books sell.)

She calls out the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in particular. I’ve heard from other sources that Clarion graduates do tend to write similar stories (which become part of the expectation of what a pro story is like, so even people who haven’t been to Clarion start writing that way).

I disagree with Rusch about head-hopping – I think it is a fault, and disorienting to the reader, unless you’re in omniscient POV (at which point it isn’t head-hopping) – but her main point is valid. I’ve experienced several critiques which seem to be aimed at flattening out my style and voice into the way the critiquer would express things, and generally that comes from a critiquer who is not as well-read as I am – who has mainly read recent books which are written in the bland, generic “Serious Writer Voice”. 

Originally shared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Today’s Business Blog looks at a weird phenomenon I call “Serious Writer Voice.” 

http://kriswrites.com/2016/02/03/business-musings-serious-writer-voice/
Feb 04

Lisa Cohen Mike Reeves-McMillan you guys might find this opinion piece interesting re: the article you shared…

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Lisa Cohen Mike Reeves-McMillan you guys might find this opinion piece interesting re: the article you shared earlier. An excerpt:

“Last year, I went to a writing conference in Boston. One of the first panel discussions was about how a writer claims authority, how it is that a writer asserts that he or she possesses the expertise to write about a topic, and how concomitantly the editor reading through the submission slush pile can determine whether the writer is someone who can claim authority as a writer.

One of the panelists, an editor, offered that the first thing he looked for when skimming through the cover letter was whether the writer possessed an MFA. He did this, he hastened to qualify, not because it guaranteed that the submitter would be a better writer, but because taking a year or two off out of one’s life to dedicate oneself to writing proved that one was serious as a writer. I came off my chair in anger—how could he assert such a thing? My friend pulled me back down, but I continued to fume. Who has more dedication: the person who has the financial wherewithal to spend time in a writing program, or the writer who writes despite having to work full-time, early in the morning, with absolutely no one but themselves for motivation? As another panel member offered their method for detecting “dedication,” I flashed back to sitting with Fred Busch as he recounted stories from his early days of working all day and spending time with his wife and son in the early evening and then taking the typewriter into the bathroom, so as not to wake his sleeping family, and writing as much as he could before fatigue demanded he go to bed. How much more dedication did one need to prove beyond that? But that’s not exactly something you can put on a resume. That panelist’s misguided assumption, that an MFA necessarily connotes greater dedication to writing, reveals an all too common blindness to the easy privilege of those with financial security.”

http://lithub.com/the-literary-class-system-is-impoverishing-literature/

Feb 04

The Toast usually does clever, sophisticated satire, but this isn’t that.

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The Toast usually does clever, sophisticated satire, but this isn’t that. Instead, it’s a heartfelt report from inside the traditional publishing industry about why it’s so lacking in diversity, and what needs to happen to change that.

http://the-toast.net/2016/02/03/diversity-in-publishing/
Feb 02

Wow, this has been a good sales week for me, and it’s only Wednesday. Everyone must be clearing their backlog.

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Wow, this has been a good sales week for me, and it’s only Wednesday. Everyone must be clearing their backlog.

This morning’s email contains an acceptance from Farstrider magazine for my comedic story “Mail Order Witch”. They’re the twelfth market I’ve submitted that story to (a personal record). I’ve had four form rejections, six personalised rejections, and I think I withdrew it once because the market concerned had stopped responding to communication. 

Now I have the Best Problem: I only have three stories still out on submission, because I keep selling them. 

Time to write some more. 

Feb 01

Here’s a chance to be an “early reader” for Digital Fiction.

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Here’s a chance to be an “early reader” for Digital Fiction. You don’t have to review or anything (though I’m sure it would be appreciated).

Digital Fiction specializes in reprint anthologies, so all the stories will have been previously published in pro or semipro markets.

Directly delivered to your Kindle.

http://digitalfictionpub.com/blog/join-the-digital-fiction-pub-free-ebooks-readers-list/

Feb 01

This is a good summary of common beginners’ mistakes.

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This is a good summary of common beginners’ mistakes. The first one, in particular, I notice a lot, and not only in first novels.

Originally shared by Karen Conlin

I’ve been talking and posting about this very topic in the last month, having just finished editing a client’s first novel.

I’m happy to see that I’m right on track with Carolyn Haley, the guest blogger at Richard Adin’s “American Editor.”

https://americaneditor.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/thinking-fiction-first-novel-flubs-and-follies/