Tolerance means more than you think.

I have just finished helping a fellow writer by critiquing a male/male romance story.  What is interesting is, I am a devout Lutheran who believes in strict adherence to the teachings of the Bible and also believes that same Bible condemns homosexuality.  So, why would someone with my religious belief system support a story about a homosexual romance by helping the author critique it?  The answer is it is my opinion the writing profession demands it.  Of all the disciplines, I believe writing should involve the free flow of ideas, even ones I or someone else may disagree with.

It is not up to any one individual to judge what is right or wrong; or appropriate or inappropriate.  We are all equal in that the most we can do is say it is our opinion this is right and that is wrong.  God in heaven has perfect knowledge of right and wrong and the most any of us can do is pray for knowledge of His mind and hope we are doing His will.

I'm sure many gays and social liberals are applauding my words at the moment. They may be joyful that they have 'gotten through' to another religious conservative.  My response to this reaction is 'not so fast'.

I'm finding that a lot of the people who seek tolerance of the gay lifestyle are also equally intolerant of traditional religion. Many of the same people who are politically correct about not mocking homosexuals have no reservations about mocking Jesus or traditional Christians.  My response is that the door swings both ways.  Just as it is wrong for someone to not be tolerated for their sexual lifestyle, it is equally wrong to not tolerate someone for their religious beliefs.

Looking at it logically, there are two possibilities.   Homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God, or it isn't.  If it is not a sin, homosexuals have not committed wrong against God by practicing their lifestyle.  If it is a sin, God is loving and forgiving.  I'm convinced things will sort out at the time of judgment.  In the meantime, if we are to follow God's commandments, we are obligated to treat our neighbor with respect regardless of his or her opinions on social matters.

Inspiration from Pink? The singer I mean.

A lot of writers use music to set the mood while writing.  I find music by Enya good for Fantasy, The Moody Blues for Science Fiction, and Taylor Swift for Romance  and Young Adult.  Lately, I've also come across a song that's useful for inspiration.

Check out the section of lyrics I have selected from Pink's new hit Try:

But just because it burns

 Doesn't mean you're gonna die

 You've gotta get up and try try try

 Gotta get up and try try try

 You gotta get up and try try try

Try is intended as a love song.  The chorus is about getting up after a bad relationship, but can apply to any endeavor, including writing. 

Rejection is the constant companion of any writer.  Virtually nothing is published on its first submission. For my three published short stories, I have accumulated well over a hundred rejections. If I hadn't gotten up and tried after my first few rejections, I would never have gotten published. 

It's the same for every other writer.  No one enjoys rejection, but it's inevitable there will be many before an editor gives that acceptance e-mail.  The successful writer is the one who gets up and tries again.

A Man in a Romance Author Group?

Somehow I have found myself one of the only male members of a local writer's group.  I didn't intend to do so. I was looking for a group to join and tried several out. This one showed itself to be exceptionally warm and accepting and I kept coming back.  Although this group calls itself Ozarks Romance Authors (which should have been my first clue it would be all women), they write and share works of all genres.  From reading their works, I have learned a lot about what the female gender thinks.

Admittedly, it feels very strange for me to spend Saturday mornings in a room full of women.  I had this fear that a man who hangs out with women will be regarded as, well, you know.  (Holds hand horizontally and wags it in a gay sign.)  However, I've found that once I got over the fear of what others  think about me being there, it's been a healthy experience for me as a writer.

I can't even begin to count the number of times in my life I've wondered how 'the other side' sees things.  I've spent the last nineteen years trying to understand how my wife thinks.  As to understanding my thirteen-year-old daughter, forget it. The odd thing is finding out what is in the opposite gender's head is as simple as reading what women write.

What's most surprising is, for the most part they really don't think that different from men.   A mystery or young adult story written by a woman reads much like a similar story written by a man. There is one difference, however.  Women seem to go for Romance stories with greater vigor. 

In reality, I don't think you have to be a woman to enjoy a good Romance.  The members of ORA have read several good Romance stories and I relate just as easily to the interaction between lovers as any woman.  I think the big turn-off for men is fear of being seen holding a book with a picture of a hunky man with a chest the size of a garage door and muscles bulging out from every square inch of his torso.  Once I got over that fear of being thought of as 'one of those', I found Romance stories quite enjoyable. 

I'm glad I decided to hang out with a bunch of women one Saturday morning a month.  Now that I can see the results of my experience, I would encourage everyone to step out of their comfort zone every now and then.  It's a great way to grow as a writer.

Nobody remembers my rejections—except me.

About two years ago I finally got up the nerve to start submitting some of my short stories for publication.  I surprised myself, managing to sell three stories in the space of eighteen months.  The markets were barely paying--$10 to $20 per sale, but they were still sales. If I had been a crackhead, I still don't think I could have gotten a greater high than receiving that acceptance e-mail, with a real editor telling me how much he or she liked my story.

After clearing that milestone, I thought I'd try for semi-pro and pro markets.I knew the moment I decided to submit my stories to tougher markets I'd get a whole lot more rejections.  For the past nine months I've been watching rejection after rejection come in.  My Duotrope acceptance rate has fallen from seven percent to below three percent, and drops further with each rejection.  I'm watching my e-mails with white knuckles, hoping for that one acceptance that will make the long wait worth it.

I submitted my story The Last Hour on Earth to one of my favorite online magazines, NewMyths.com, and watched for five months as it filtered through several rounds of cuts, until I got the message  "Thanks for letting us read this. While it made it to our final round of cuts, in the end there were a few stories we liked more."

Asimov's has been my favorite mag since I was a teenager.  In an effort to fulfill my lifelong dream of being published there, I submitted my hard SF story Sailing to Eden.  Two months later, I got the response "Thank you for letting me see "Sailing to Eden." The story is nicely done, but I’m afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though."

I submitted a darling piece of horror satire The Count to a 5 cent a word publication.  They replied "While we all enjoyed the piece, we opted to go with other stories."

Please forgive my self-centered narcissism, but I think you get the idea.  I would like to think that with just a little more luck, I could have had my first sale to a semi-pro or professional magazine.  It doesn't quite quench the discouragement though.

Rejected by Asimov's, glass still half full

Last Wednesday I received an e-mail from Asimov's stating my short story Sailing to Eden had been rejected.  The content of this message was encouraging, however:

Dear Chuck,

Thank you for letting me see "Sailing to Eden." The story is nicely done, but I’m afraid it's not quite right for me. I look forward to your next one, though.

Sincerely,

Sheila Williams, editor
Asimov’s Science Fiction
Someone told me Sheila is the top editor for Asimov's, and for her to get it the story would have to have been passed through several levels.  It could just as easily have been published!!!

I find this really encouraging.  I have a rank list for this story and am sending it to the next professional publisher on it.

My meteoric rise to fame as a writer is behind schedule

I was about to say I hope 2013 doesn't suck as bad as 2012.   After more thought, maybe I should say I'm hoping for better things in 2013.  Let me explain.

Let's just say my meteoric rise to fame and fortune as a writer is not going as fast as I had hoped.  I have written a novel, but the main character's voice in my novel Bear Dreamer was not a strong one.  The novel would probably never be accepted for publication anywhere in its current condition.  To this point, my greatest accomplishment  is getting three shorts accepted for publication in the period between January 2011 and May 2012.  One of them sold for $20 and the other sold for $10.  The third is supposed to sell for $40 but it hasn't appeared in one of their publications yet.  So much for riches and success.

There is reason for optimism, however.  The most recent draft of Bear Dreamer has character voices that are actually interesting to follow.  It's in what I hope to be the final draft, then it's time to consider publishing options.  My flash fiction piece was almost accepted by a 5c per word publication.  My short story The Last Hour on Earth has been shortlisted by a semi pro publication and then shortlisted even further.  I'm persistently following up on the short story that hasn't appeared in publication yet.

Maybe this year will see more success than last year.  Then again, maybe I'll just end up with a taller stack of rejection notices.  We'll see.

-Chuck Robertson

 

 

 

Grade Inflation on Amazon?

There are a number of people who have works that have appeared on my online critique which they have self published on Amazon.  I thought I'd get onto Amazon and see how they are doing just for kicks. 

I was surprised to see the number of five star reviews.  Everyone I looked at had more five star reviews than any other rating.  Maybe the people I am looking at are the greatest collection of writers ever assembled, excepting maybe the Ex-Patriots of the 1920's.  More likely, the reviews on Amazon are greatly inflated.

It's inevitable that some of the people I'm talking about will read this post.  Don't worry, I'm not slamming you.  In fact, I think most of the people I've helped with the review process have put a lot of hard work into their novels and they are quite good as a result.  Problem is, if you give everything a five star review, then a five star review ceases to have meaning.

Think of the star rating as a bell curve.  The most common rating should be three stars since it would be at the middle of the curve.  Three stars are not bad, since these writers are competing with a number of other hard working and highly determined people. 

Consider it this way.  Suppose you study Physics at Harvard and earn a high C or low B GPA.  You have accomplished considerably more than a student who studies Physics at his or her community college and gets an A average.

I've seen a lot of pretty good novels in my critque group, most of which I think are solid three or four star efforts.  In my opinion, that is still an excellent rating because, anyone crazy enough to undertake the task to write a novel is dedicated enough to develop the talent and skill to create a good one. To me, five stars are only for the very best novels out there.  I've seen a couple novels on my crituque group that really stand out, and I literally mean a couple.

I think the reviews on Amazon are inflated for two reasons.  First, people want to be nice. They want to help whoever wrote the novel they are reading the novel and give four or five stars to anything halfway good.  The problem with this is, they indavertantly water down the value of each star they give for the review.  It becomes that much harder to pick out the really outstanding works from those that are merily pretty good.   Second, and this is the more sinister reason, a lot of people cheat by having friends write fake five star reviews or even creating fake identities and writing their own. If you are one of these, shame on you. You're ruining it for everyone.

(If you are someone I know, don't worry, I'm not accusing you.  The fellow aspiring writers I am close to strike me as honest people. I know you have gotten your accomplishments through sweat and rejections. It's the bad apples I'm talking to.)

Like most people on here, I'm working on novels of my own. When I finally finish my first novel, I was considering posting it on Amazon too, if only to see what kind of reviews I get.  My goal is to learn and rewrite until I have my work to what I consider a four star effort. Maybe after a couple more years of writing experience I can get something that approximates a five star novel.  If all I get are three star reviews, it would be a sign I have farther to go than I thought.  If I get one and two star reviews, I think I will put a paper bag over my head and use a pen name from now on.

 While I'd like to succeed on Amazon like everyone else, I want only the stars I've earned.  I'd rather have an honest three star review than a tainted five star one. 

~ Chuck Robertson