Tag Archives: guest post

Creating the Future with Language

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Carrie Cuinn is a Author, editor, bibliophile, modernist, and geek. You can find her work online at carriecuinn.com and follow her on Twitter @carriecuinn.

When writing a story set in the present or the past, you already know what your options for language
are. You can write in the language of your expected readers, ignoring historical dialects so we can
clearly understand your meaning, or you can use words common to your characters’ time period to help
create a realistic atmosphere. Whether your story features an Old West gunfighter, a medieval farmer,
or a Roman poet, you can research the names of popular objects or slang terms the people might have
used.

When you’re writing the future, you have to make more choices. You need to balance realistically
portraying the time period with showing its difference from our time as well as making sure that the
story is still coherent to people reading it now. You need to think about who your speaker is, not just the people talking in the story but the person telling the story to your readers. You need to decide if you’re going to mix languages, create new words, adapt words we’re already using to make them sound futuristic… but how do you decide any of that?

The simplest solution to writing the future is to not do anything special at all. If you assume that your story is translated for modern readers even by some of the best E-word translation services, somehow taken from the your character’s language (whatever that may be) and put into 21st century English* then you don’t need to fake up your language. But there is a reason you may not want to take the simplest path: language can add to the setting of your story in a variety of ways, giving you a richer, more complex look at your invented future.

You can show the merger of two large cultures by including words from a non-English language mixed
in with your dialogue or even description, but – and I mean BUT – you have to be cautious. It’s terribly easy to slap on a few “exotic”** words and think you’re creating accessible multi-cultural characters but if you don’t know what the words mean or how language evolves over time, it sounds slapped on. It shows very quickly that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Mixing languages gives you a more honest feel, but that means you’ll either have phrases your readers don’t understand or you have to find a way to explain everything in context.

Firefly mixed Mandarin into the otherwise English dialogue. Joss Whedon didn’t give us subtitles (I should say I hoped subtitle translations would help me), and didn’t explain what was said, for the simple reason that the characters should have understood what was being said. There was no “outsider” to explain it to. It worked because they largely used Mandarin for swearing. So you didn’t need to know the exact translation, you just knew someone was angry. On the other hand, the first American version of Gojira, 1956’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters, mixed dubbed dialogue with the original Japanese, and added in a new character played by Raymond Burr, whose job was to be the outsider. He would yell, “What did he say?” and someone would repeat what had originally been said in Japanese.***

Firefly worked. Godzilla, King of the Monsters was a bit silly.

Another way to influence the setting with language is to create new brand names. We use brand names
as generic terms all of the time, once the object has become so common and has so many imitators that
the trademark can no longer be protected. We call that a generic trademark or a proprietary eponym.

It’s the reason you can ask someone to hand you a Kleenex or Band-Aid or a Thermos and they’ll know
what you’re talking about, even if what you’re asking for is actually produced by another company.

Inventing a proprietary eponym can be a way to show that changes have been made to technology
or commerce long enough ago that they were generalized into popular speech. Be careful that you’re
not creating a phrase you don’t need – I recently read a novel that used “Reefmail” instead of “email” because they lived on an artificial island. It was still mail, delivered electronically. The author described it as a fish swimming onto the computer screen, opening its mouth, and an envelope popping out. An envelope. So you know what it is. Then why call it something else?

Explore your options. Read over your work again. Out loud. Take out anything that feels unnecessary
or was inserted to sound exotic. Ask yourself, as many times as you need to, “why did I say it that
way?”

This is a just a beginning to the conversation about the possibilities of language in fiction. I hope that it gives you something to think about when you’re sitting down to write, or edit, your next great futuristic story.

* English is used as an example because that’s the language this post is written in. Of course, you
should use the language of your expected readers.

** If you’re hoping to create “exotic” characters you need to take a step back and consider a lot more than language. Simply put, something is only exotic because it is different than you, and different isn’t negative. A person isn’t more interesting or more sexual or more attractive or less anything just because they come from a different culture or the color of their skin is different. But you knew that already, right?

** While technically not set in the future, it is an alternate-Earth science fiction story, and illustrates
the example well.

Carrie Cuinn has written a follow up post here.

What Do I Look Like to You?

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Ethan Young was born in 1983 in NYC to Chinese immigrant parents. After attending the School of Visual Arts for one semester, Young left to pursue an illustration career. His first graphic novel, “Tails: Life in Progress”, was awarded the Gold Medal for Best Graphic Novel during the 2007 Independent Publishers Book Awards.  He has recently reworked “Tails” into an ongoing webcomic, with print editions released through Hermes Press. In addition to comic book work, Young is also a prolific freelance illustrator. You can find more information about him and his work at tailscomic.com, his Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter @EthanYoungTails.

“Wait, Ethan is supposed to be Asian?”

That question, more than any other, flooded my inbox during the early days of my online comic, Tails. I really didn’t expect the topic of race to be such a big deal. Tails follows the misadventures of Ethan (named after myself), an Asian cartoonist who fosters cats, is broke, vegan, and a tad on the whiney side. Cartoon Ethan (as I’ve come to call him) is my comic book facsimile, an embodiment of my early 20s, and yes, Asian (Chinese to be specific).  So, how could someone mistake an obviously autobiographical character for a different race?

The most obvious explanation: he looked kinda White. Was this intentional? Not really.  There were several reasons for how I drew the character, and each seemed entirely logical when I created the comic. For one, I had spent my entire adolescence illustrating Caucasian heroes. Not just super-heroes I copied from comics, but my own heroes as well. I would create fantastical stories and intrinsically made the protagonists Caucasian. Why did I do this? Well, look at the most popular super-hero characters: Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman.  All White, mostly men.  Some things just sneak their way into your psyche.

Another solid reason: most cartoonists tend to exaggerate the expressions on the human face, which means making the eyes bigger. And it’s safe to say, big round eyes are not an Oriental trait. Just examine the vast majority of Anime and Manga, where characters consistently have big eyes, tiny noses, and for some reason, hair color that doesn’t exist in the natural world. No human being looks that way, let alone a Japanese native. So, in my defense, I’m not alone in the Our-characters-look-less-Asian camp.

Still, that’s no excuse. As a writer, it’s my job to convey that my character is this, this, and that. If he’s Chinese, the audience should be aware of that, whether it’s through visual acknowledgment or through the dialogue and text.  However, outside of subtle cultural differences (such as how the traditional Chinese family unit operates, or the patriarch’s semi-broken English) Ethan’s family could be your family at a cursory glance. Combine that with the fact that my characters don’t look Oriental (or Oriental enough) and I opened myself up to that inquisition:

“Wait, Ethan is supposed to be Asian?”

I’ve found that Asian characters are generally portrayed 1 of 3 ways in mainstream media: they can your kick ass with kung fu, they are extremely smart and sexually innocuous, or ‘Hey, it’s an Asian girl dating the non-Asian guy!’ Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but those exceptions also prove the rule.  I don’t find these portrayals unfair or degrading, mind you, but they’re not entirely engaging either.

It’s my dream to see an Asian actor in the lead role in a network sitcom, without everyone making a big deal that it’s an Asian actor in the lead role in a network sitcom.

Well, that’s one of my dreams…

Anyway, that’s how I approached Tails.  I wanted to portray an Asian-American character as American first and Asian second.  This was not done to denounce my heritage, but rather to ‘normalize’ it.  To me, my life is more than a collection of stereotypes.  Being that Tails is semi-autobiographical, the story is deeply personal and excruciatingly honest at times, the comic has been a form of quasi-self-therapy, allowing me to constructively work through my petulant youth (I suspect that this is the case with most creators who dabble in autobio comics).  Calling attention to my race wasn’t necessary for the story I needed to tell.  I’m not asking for readers to be ‘color blind’; that’s simply compounding ignorance with more ignorance.  But rather, let’s just embrace race…and move on.

Even with all my self-righteous rationality, I’d be lying if I neglected to mention ‘shame’ being a small factor.  My parents immigrated to America a year before I was born.  When you grow up as an ABC (American Born Chinese), you’re not Chinese enough for your family and not American enough for everyone else.  Plus, you get targeted by racism, which is never fun.  And not just the “No, where are you really from?” brand of folksy ignorance, but the “Go back to your fucking country!” brand of hostile bigotry.  Once puberty hits, you’re seen as a nerd, even if you’re not all that nerdy (#2 on the stereotype list).  There were times when I wished I could simply reinvent myself, simply fit in.  Is that what I did in Tails?  I guess, in a way, but less cynically.  Once again, I was aiming to disprove stereotypes, but it came from a somewhat defensive position.  That’s the funny thing about shame – you carry it with you your whole life, no matter how comfortable you’ll eventually become in your own skin.

Tails features an Asian-American, and no, it isn’t a story about what it’s like to be Asian.  Ethan is a struggling cartoonist who drinks too much and complains too often.  He’s geeky, sure, but he’s also cool and chases girls and has the same everyday troubles that any New Yorker has to deal with.  I’m not the first creator who’s tried to craft a post-racial comic, and I won’t be the last.  But with my own little webcomic, I think I’ve managed to talk about race without actually talking about race.

­Not that, you know, it’s a big deal or anything.

So You Want to Start a Blog

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Amy Sundberg is a writer of science fiction, fantasy, and YA. Her short fiction has appeared in places such as Redstone Science Fiction and Daily Science Fiction. She blogs regularly at The Practical Free Spirit and is currently working on a book about social media strategy for fiction writers. She lives in California with her husband and a ridiculously cute little dog. You can follow her on twitter @amysundberg.

Maybe your agent (or editor, or writer’s group) has been pressuring you to start a blog, or maybe you’ve seen what other writers are doing with their blogs and become intrigued. Maybe you’re interested in building community or connecting with your readers in a closer way. Or maybe you already have a blog, but it collects dust most of the year or could use a reboot.

Here’s what you need to consider before getting started:

1. Commit. Decide up front on a period of time to really devote energy to getting your blog started. You won’t attract readers overnight, and if you’re revamping your blog, it takes time to feel comfortable with the change. It also can take time for you to find your own unique voice for the blog. I recommend committing to at least six months.

2. Assess your time and energy. Are you willing to devote the time and energy necessary to maintain a blog? Because if you absolutely hate the idea, you might be better off putting the majority of your online time into other social media platforms. Readers can tell if you’re dialing it in on a blog, at which point it might not be worth the time grudgingly invested.

3. Choose a platform. The two main blogging platforms right now are WordPress and Blogger. Many writers use WordPress.org because it can be incorporated directly into their author webpage. If you want to try blogging out and don’t already have a blog-enabled webpage, you can start out with WordPress.com and port all that content over to a future website that uses WordPress.org when and if you need something fancier. Blogger is a bit simpler to get started on, if you find the technical aspects of beginning a blog to be intimidating.

4. Decide on a schedule. How often are you going to post? It doesn’t have to be every day, but you need to think of an ideal posting schedule before you get started. Be ready to adapt that schedule if it doesn’t work with the rest of your life, but otherwise, make your best effort to stick with the plan. When starting a new blog, it is often better to post at least once per week; two to three times a week is fabulous. More than once a day can be a bit much for some readers. When you have an already established blog with a loyal audience, you can dial back the frequency.

5. Keep a balance between promotional content and the main focus of your blog. It’s fine if you want to use your blog to promote your work: letting people know about your published stories, upcoming novels, exciting reviews, guest posts elsewhere, and scheduled appearances. However, if you are only ever talking about you, you, you, and buy, buy, buy. that can be a real turn-off to prospective readers. So keep a careful eye on how much time you’re talking about promotion vs. how much time you’re running other content that will interest (and maybe even captivate) your readers.

6. Let people know about your blog. It is okay to promote your blog. Otherwise, how will people know to read it? Make sure you include an easy-to-locate place on your blog where people can sign up to receive your posts via email and via an RSS feed. Let your Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ followers know when you have a new post. You don’t want to be obnoxious about it and post the same link several times, but one time (or two times on Twitter–some people like to tweet their blog post once in the morning and once at night) is perfectly okay.

7. Decide on your content strategy. This is one of the most critical steps in blog creation. Think about who your desired audience is, and then figure out ways in which you can add value to their lives. If you already have an established fan base for your work, your strategy will be different than if you’re a new writer just starting out. You also want to think about how you can make your blog original, the blog that only you could possibly write. For example, many writer blogs out there have very similar and repetitive content about writing. It’s important to either find a niche for yourself within the writing blogs if your desired audience is other writers instead of readers (see Chuck Wendig‘s or Juliette Wade‘s blogs) or figure out what you can blog about that is not exclusively writing. (If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around this idea, here is a primer to get you started.) Finally you want to consider what you’re comfortable talking about, what you’d prefer to keep private, and what tone you’d like to set in terms of appropriate behavior in the comments section (or if you even want comments).

We’ve only just begun the conversation about blogging, and about content strategy in particular. Blogging does require a certain commitment of time, energy, and willingness to experiment. But at its best, it can be quite a fulfilling and impactful experience.

The History of Writing Mystery: Advice from the Greats

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Deborah Lacy likes to collect handbags inspired by books and frequents speakeasies. She blogs at Mystery Playground and Criminal Element.

Writing excellent fiction is hard. This is an obvious fact to anyone who has attempted it.  Never fear because help is on the way. Many of the best crime fiction storytellers have left you clues to assist and inspire, if you know where to look. Here are a suggestions from greats in the genre.

“If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen.” — Dashiell Hammett

The king of the hard-boiled school of fiction, Hammett is best known for The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man.  His Sam Spade character brought grit and the tough guy back into storytelling in a way that is still imitated today.  His stories didn’t shy away from tough subjects.

“There always has to be a lapse of time after the accomplishment of a piece of creative work before you can in any way evaluate it.” — Agatha Christie

Christie is not only known for her enduring characters, such as Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, but also for her intricate plots. Who can forget the precision of And Then There Were None where ten criminals are brought together on an island to be murdered one at a time matching a nursery rhyme? Or the serial killer in the A.B.C. Murders who sends a clue to Poirot before each killing?  If distance helped Christie hone this work, it could easily work for you.

More of Christie’s writing advice as well as details from her life can be found in her uncreatively titled autobiography, An Autobiography.

“Stories are nothing but mystery boxes” — J.J. Abrahms

A few years ago the king of the boffo premise, J.J. Abrahms — creator of Lost, Alias and the latest Star Trek movies — gave a great talk at the TED Conference where he compared storytelling to an unopened box (You can see the entire talk here). Abrahms talked about how once the box is open, the mystery ends and so does the suspense. He keeps an unopened box on his desk as a reminder. This is another way of saying – as you write, ask dramatic questions instead of answering them. Of course, in a traditional mystery readers will want to know the answers in the end.

“One thing that helps is to give myself permission to write badly. I tell myself that I’m going to do my five or 10 pages no matter what, and that I can always tear them up the following morning if I want. I’ll have lost nothing—writing and tearing up five pages would leave me no further behind than if I took the day off.” — Lawrence Block

A Grand Master of Mystery Writes of American, Block is known for his two series: one featuring recovering alcoholic Matthew Scudder series and the other featuring gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr. He’s won multiple Edgar, Anthony and Shamus awards and has published more than 50 novels and 100 short stories. He’s written five books for writers including Telling Lies for Fun & Profit. Block’s permission to let himself write badly gives way to him writing well and being prolific and has stopped writer’s block from stalling his writing career.

“A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.” — Raymond Chandler

Chandler’s masterpiece character, Philip Marlowe was carefully developed in novelettes for the BLACK MASK pulp magazine until he was ready to write his first novel, The Big Sleep.  All of those stories helped Chandler learn how to refine and reduce his work in a way that is still admired today.

(Best selling author of the Lincoln Lawyer and Blood Work, Michael Connolly agrees with this advice on revising.)

Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe character was strongly influenced by Hammett’s Sam Spade, and both have been often imitated. Even the late great Robert B. Parker said he modeled his most popular character, Spenser, after Marlowe. But as Spenser may have sprung from Marlowe, he quickly became his own man as Marlowe was his own.  It’s important as we take lessons from the greats that we use these ideas as a starting point for something new, rather than just copying what has succeeded in the past.