Schrodinger's Stories
  • Blog
  • Buy My Books
  • Free Fiction
  • Contact me
  • Copy writing samples

At Least Half of This Is Absolutely True

4/28/2012

0 Comments

 
"Write drunk, edit sober"

--- Ernest Hemingway

0 Comments

A Directory of e-Publishers

4/25/2012

0 Comments

 
http://www.ebookcrossroads.com/epublishers.html
0 Comments

The Hazards of Revision

4/24/2012

0 Comments

 
I revised my teenage zombie story, based on the excellent feedback in the Most Awesome Rejection Letter Ever, and resubmitted it to another magazine that also gave me an encouraging rejection letter two weeks ago. But now I'm staring at my next, half-completed story and I swear, I can't do anything. I feel like I'm stirring the words I've already written around with a stick, shuffling notes from one end of the document to the other. I'd probably better put it away and go do something else, before I poke a hole in it or something.
0 Comments

The First Good Rejection Letter

4/23/2012

0 Comments

 
Yes, it's another rejection letter. But it's the most awesome rejection letter ever! It starts "The editors have read your story and after some deep discussion we have decided not to take it for publication" and then goes on for a big paragraph about the things they liked and didn't like about my story, and ends "In the end, we didn't think this was a fit for our publication, but we did enjoy reading it. I hope you'll consider sending us more of your work some time."

I think this is actually just as encouraging as an acceptance would have been. <fistpump>
0 Comments

What Am I Good at Writing?

4/23/2012

0 Comments

 
Susan Morris always has good advice, but this one really resonates for me. What am I good at writing? What am I not good at writing? And did I shape my story around that knowledge?

Play to Your Strengths

0 Comments

Race, Gender, and Fantasy

4/3/2012

0 Comments

 
Saladin Ahmed’s Salon article may be a seven-day wonder on social media sites, but it’s raised an interesting question. Is current fantasy writing too dependent on stereotypes? Are we using a shorthand developed by Tolkien, Lewis, and Moorcock as a shortcut to world-building?

Certainly, science fiction has its own tropes, and a bad space opera is just as derivative as a bad dungeon crawl. But one thing science fiction seems to be better at than fantasy is gender inclusion and, to a lesser extent, racial diversity. I think this is because a lot of us base our fantasy worlds, consciously or not, on actual historical locations and cultures. To what extent should this limit us?

After reading Saladin’s piece, I took a look at my current project and realized that while the parts I have set in the modern day are fairly racially diverse, the parts I have set in Fantasyland (which I had imagined as roughly commensurate with Northern Ireland) were not. At all.

I had already been aware of trying to include a diverse range of women characters in the book, which is probably something I see missing from a lot of fantasy because I’m a woman. But now I’m taking another look at my assumptions about my setting. Just because I’ve decided to base the geography, or the style of dress, or certain phrases of borrowed language on an existing culture doesn’t mean that I’m locked into every aspect of that existing culture for my fantasy setting. Why shouldn’t there be a diversity of races in Northern Ireland Derivative? The more I play with the idea of race (wouldn’t you be more inclined to trust someone who resembled a trusted friend or a dead lover?), the more I think that I’ve been unconsciously limiting myself.

I don’t have to play in Tolkien’s sandbox, or Martin’s. Identifying and questioning my own assumptions is the best way to find a world that’s truly my own.

0 Comments

    Torah Cottrill

    I read. I write. And sometimes I talk about it.

    Picture
    Contact Me




    Buy My Books
    (my stories appear in these)

    Picture
    The Awakened Modern
    Picture
    The Awakened II
    Picture
    Ares Magazine
    Picture
    (Issue #20 - free to read)
    Luna Station Quarterly
    Picture
    Stoneheart
    Picture
    (Issue #14 - free to read)
    4 Star Stories
    Picture
    Stupefying Stories
    Picture
    By Faerie Light
    Picture
    (Issue #25 - free to read)
    NewMyths.com
    Picture
    The Awakened
    Picture
    Dreams in Shadow
    Picture
    Stupefying Stories
    Picture
    Homespun Threads

    Archives

    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    February 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    May 2011
    November 2010
    November 2009
    March 2009
    December 2008
    May 2008
    December 2005

    RSS Feed

    The Far Side of the World:
    the blog of my Japanese adventures

    Read it Here
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.