Weirder Tale

After sending in a postal submission of my first short story to Weird Tales back in April, I finally heard back from them today--sort of.

My returned SASE and manuscript were accompanied by a form letter explaining that the magazine has changed hands again, and submissions are closed pending the installation of a new editor-in-chief.

They didn't read my story, but this isn't quite a non-response. I'll figure out how to categorize this business over at Duotrope.

The best part is that I'm finally free to resubmit my first story (the second one has already been out three times). It's gonna need a lot of work, so I plan to wait until Nick's novel push initiative is over before diving into short story revisions.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Five Rings NPI

I've joined the Novel Push Initiative over at Nick's Five Rings web site. I'm in some august company there, and when asked how many words per diem I'd pledge, my answer of 1300 seemed reasonable. After all, it's roughly how much I've been editing every day. I'll admit to being made slightly anxious by the fact that many writers far better and more experienced than myself have pledged 250 words. It's possible they know something I don't.

Anyway, I'm not revoking my pledge--simply because that's how much ground I need to cover every day to get the novel revised on schedule. I'll be posting my progress on Facebook.

Good luck to all participants.

Hollywood: the Money Triumphs over Art

Earlier this month, Disney executive Andy Hendrickson declared that visual spectacle; not a good script, is what draws audiences to movies. The chief technical officer produced a chart showing revenues for the twelve highest grossing films of all time as evidence.

Hendrickson's announcement begs the question of why story is losing to spectacle. One disturbing answer is that western society is outright losing the ability to tell stories. This argument gains some traction when you consider Aristotle's Poetics, in which he laid out the basic principles of what makes good stories work. All of his points boil down to this: because the satisfaction derived from a story depends on the feeling of catharsis achieved in the resolution, and since that catharsis arises from the validation of the audience's shared values, it's very difficult to satisfy an audience that can't agree on which values are important. In the absence of engaging stories, filmmakers are appealing to the lowest common denominator.

I'm inclined to take Hendrickson's pessimistic assessment with a grain of salt. There are still movies like The Return of the King, Toy Story 3, and The Dark Knight on that list. Sure, they ain't exactly Shakespeare, but all of them feature solid characters and thought-provoking plots. Hendrickson is also referencing the worldwide box office numbers. Checking the US records adds the likes of Star Wars and E.T. to the list. Both of those films certainly boasted impressive special effects, but they also epitomize master storytellers Spielberg and Lucas at the height of their creative powers.

Frankly, the USA figures surprised me. I'd expected to find it populated with even more mindless CG-fests than infested the world market. Then I pondered the reason for my initial prejudice and the situation started making sense. The current crop of money-driven, committee-written productions has made me forget that the likes of Spielberg, Lucas, and Cameron once produced genuine works of art to critical and commercial acclaim. Another look at the list reveals a second interesting phenomenon. Highly creative and popular films are still being made, Americans just aren't making them anymore.

Hendrickson's outlook seems symptomatic of the profit chasing that's robbed Hollywood of its vision. The studios have abandoned the concept of making films for the love of the art. Luckily, enterprising outsiders like Sir Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, and Christopher Nolan have stepped forward to pick up the torch.

I think the record shows that you can still make a story-driven movie centered around a well-written script and solid performances. It probably won't outperform the next bloated, gimmick-laden, rehashed tentpole flick; but as long as the world gives people common experiences to share, storytellers will always have an audience.

Saving the Hero

The last few years have seen a spate of super hero films, culminating in this summer's glut of spandex-clad protagonists. But for every Dark Knight there seem to be many more Green Lanterns. For every Iron Man, there are a score of X-Men 3s. For every Captain America, there's a Captain America.

Despite the rare critical and commercial hits that continue to justify the comic book movie genre, superheroes are faring even worse on their home turf.

My associates and I were pondering this strange state of affairs, and we resolved to try our hand at writing a superhero story that avoids the pitfalls and cliches that got the comics industry stuck in its current rut.

Our first step has been to compile a list of source material intended to exemplify what comics have done right in recent decades. For inspiration, we chose seminal graphic novels and miniseries that rescued superheroes from past periods of malaise. Our hope is that what these magna opera did for Batman, Superman, adult trade, and the industry in general can be done again in these turbulent times.

Yet the question still remains. How did superheroes' ray-deflecting wristbands lose their lustre? What tarnished their reputation? Comments regarding how the superhero genre can regain its appeal are most certainly welcome.

Checking In

I've been really busy at work lately, and this increased activity has been largely responsible for my recent drop in posting volume. Exacerbating matters is the fact that very little of note is currently happening in regard to my writing. I'm still slogging away at the Nethereal revisions. However, my change in circumstances has cut my productivity in half.

Still no word on either short story. I've been twelve weeks waiting on Weird Tales. I don't have a ticket number since I made a postal sub, and I can't find an e-mail address where they can be queried despite scouring their web site. I suppose I'll just have to treat the matter as an exercise in patience.

As always, I shall hasten to post any new developments.

Art Idea

I have to credit Mick with what I think is a great idea for acquiring novel illustrations. When I wrote about an author's financial responsibilities to the publisher, I mentioned that the writer is often required to provide artwork or pay someone else to create it. I somehow forgot about the legions of university art students struggling to build their portfolios.

Mick's suggestion was to approach a student artist with a proposal to draft illustrations for a soon to be published book, which would add to the artist's body of work while increasing his exposure. Even if the publisher rejected the artwork, it would give their in-house design department visual aids to realizing the author's vision.

And of course, a student would be far more likely to work for the experience alone, or at least at a far lower cost than a professional.

No Rest for the Wicked

As everyone who's been following this blog knows, I've been slogging through the process of revising Souldancer. In the meantime, additional feedback has been coming in on Nethereal. These comments have been very helpful, and have pointed out to me that there are still plenty of ways for the manuscript to be improved.

Because I want to submit the strongest manuscript possible, I've decided to put SD on the back burner and concentrate on re-editing the first book. The aim is to further streamline the descriptions, trim superfluous expository text, and make the whole narrative more accessible.

I'm setting a daily goal of ten pages. At that rate, the revisions should only take about ten weeks.