On Missing Clarion and Waiting on Material
Because I (mostly) spend my work-unrelated online time snooping around the websites and journals of writers and artists I admire, I caught news of a little writing workshop on the west coast called Clarion. I heard about Clarion by way of the blog of George R. R. Martin.
I did not attend Clarion this year. Simply put, it was very expensive. I understand that there are still young writers rich, desperate, priviledged, lucky or ruthless enough to figure out a way to attend workshops like this one, but I am not a member of that club. I believe that good writers have the capacity to give good advice and good instruction. I would definitely have made the most of my experience there (had I been wealthy enough to go, had I applied, and had I been accepted, which I by no means assume I would have been), but the notion that published authors have some sort of secret knowledge about how to get published and make millions is absurd. In fact, I'm absolutely positive that many great writers would make terrible teachers. I also have a creeping suspicion that at least some (and at most nearly all) of the applicants for Clarion apply so they can share a classroom with an admired or favorite author. To steer clear of that company may have been in my best interest. I can tell myself all I want that Clarion would have been a bust, but I crave knowledge, I crave improvement in my craft, and I crave the company of other writers. I also crave dark chocolate covered marzipan.
George R. R. Martin was an instructor at this year's Clarion, and is author of the terrifyingly good Song of Ice and Fire series (which is in production for its first season on HBO), and master of plaguing his fans with an agonizingly long wait for the fifth and latest book in the series, A Dance with Dragons.
Rant: I understand how writers often spread themselves thin, hopping from project to project before the first is completed, desperately scribbling to get the ideas out on paper while they are still fresh in the mind and flowing freely. Sometimes projects just get thrown on the back burner in order for something new to come along and spice up the body of a writer's work. While I make no claims at being a popular, published or prolific writer, I think I am entitled to my correct opinion when I say that people ought to finish what they start, and finish it well. I'm still waiting on Martin to deliver unto the masses the next Ice and Fire installment, and no, I do not want to read Wild Cards, thank you. Just give me Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister and Victarion Greyjoy, and everything will be copacetic. Scott Lynch, this means you too. I'll read your other stuff, I promise. Just AFTER I finish the first stuff.
Now, I'm not one of those readers who fanatically clings to a small circle of writers within a given genre. True, I prefer sword and sorcery and mystery, but I am widely read. I'm not loyal to authors. I'm a book-whore. Hurry up and give me new material, or I swear I'll read Terry Goodkind next.
Oops. Too late.
Take a look at poor Robert Jordan. The man wrote obnoxiously long-winded stories about eleventy-seven or so characters who are chained to his plot destination like oarsmen on a sinking ship. No one could possibly keep track of all of the Wheel of Time characters without taking notes, and many of them are so similar, I would have to backtrack to be sure who was who, and where, and when. Several books before Jordan's Wheel of Time series was slated to end, the poor guy passed away. I want it to be known that I enjoyed two of the Wheel of Time books, and thought Jordan's fantasy setting was slightly original and thoroughly discovered. I respect anyone who has the tenacity to make a go of it as a writer, and applaud Robert Jordan for writing so much (although I believe his stories would have benefited from a trimming of the fat). I can think of no more horrifying thing than to have your work, your legacy, left adrift on the high seas of literature, captainless.
Thoughts like these push me to work harder on Elysium, and Search for Arthur Van Webb, and Hunt for the White Fox, and How to Kill a Dead Man. It seems I have quite a few things to work on myself. Luckily, all of mine share the same backdrop, so work on one helps develop the others. However, Elysium is my first priority, and we will see something come of it soon, and very soon.
Clarion info can be found here:
http://clarion.ucsd.edu/
I did not attend Clarion this year. Simply put, it was very expensive. I understand that there are still young writers rich, desperate, priviledged, lucky or ruthless enough to figure out a way to attend workshops like this one, but I am not a member of that club. I believe that good writers have the capacity to give good advice and good instruction. I would definitely have made the most of my experience there (had I been wealthy enough to go, had I applied, and had I been accepted, which I by no means assume I would have been), but the notion that published authors have some sort of secret knowledge about how to get published and make millions is absurd. In fact, I'm absolutely positive that many great writers would make terrible teachers. I also have a creeping suspicion that at least some (and at most nearly all) of the applicants for Clarion apply so they can share a classroom with an admired or favorite author. To steer clear of that company may have been in my best interest. I can tell myself all I want that Clarion would have been a bust, but I crave knowledge, I crave improvement in my craft, and I crave the company of other writers. I also crave dark chocolate covered marzipan.
George R. R. Martin was an instructor at this year's Clarion, and is author of the terrifyingly good Song of Ice and Fire series (which is in production for its first season on HBO), and master of plaguing his fans with an agonizingly long wait for the fifth and latest book in the series, A Dance with Dragons.
Rant: I understand how writers often spread themselves thin, hopping from project to project before the first is completed, desperately scribbling to get the ideas out on paper while they are still fresh in the mind and flowing freely. Sometimes projects just get thrown on the back burner in order for something new to come along and spice up the body of a writer's work. While I make no claims at being a popular, published or prolific writer, I think I am entitled to my correct opinion when I say that people ought to finish what they start, and finish it well. I'm still waiting on Martin to deliver unto the masses the next Ice and Fire installment, and no, I do not want to read Wild Cards, thank you. Just give me Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister and Victarion Greyjoy, and everything will be copacetic. Scott Lynch, this means you too. I'll read your other stuff, I promise. Just AFTER I finish the first stuff.
Now, I'm not one of those readers who fanatically clings to a small circle of writers within a given genre. True, I prefer sword and sorcery and mystery, but I am widely read. I'm not loyal to authors. I'm a book-whore. Hurry up and give me new material, or I swear I'll read Terry Goodkind next.
Oops. Too late.
Take a look at poor Robert Jordan. The man wrote obnoxiously long-winded stories about eleventy-seven or so characters who are chained to his plot destination like oarsmen on a sinking ship. No one could possibly keep track of all of the Wheel of Time characters without taking notes, and many of them are so similar, I would have to backtrack to be sure who was who, and where, and when. Several books before Jordan's Wheel of Time series was slated to end, the poor guy passed away. I want it to be known that I enjoyed two of the Wheel of Time books, and thought Jordan's fantasy setting was slightly original and thoroughly discovered. I respect anyone who has the tenacity to make a go of it as a writer, and applaud Robert Jordan for writing so much (although I believe his stories would have benefited from a trimming of the fat). I can think of no more horrifying thing than to have your work, your legacy, left adrift on the high seas of literature, captainless.
Thoughts like these push me to work harder on Elysium, and Search for Arthur Van Webb, and Hunt for the White Fox, and How to Kill a Dead Man. It seems I have quite a few things to work on myself. Luckily, all of mine share the same backdrop, so work on one helps develop the others. However, Elysium is my first priority, and we will see something come of it soon, and very soon.
Clarion info can be found here:
http://clarion.ucsd.edu/