Butterflies Like Jewels

For your entertainment I’ve posted my latest short story as a .mp3 file.

This is not a HALO story. It is a noir fantasy with a nod to H.P. Lovecraft.

This story appears in Elemental: The Tsunami Relief Anthology: Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy. If you enjoy this story consider purchasing the book; all profits go to the victims of the 2004 Southeast Asian tsunami.

Please right click the link below and “Save target as...”

Butterflies like Jewels

(Note: this is s 32 Mb download)

Special thanks to Syne Mitchell --my wife and a damn fine writer in her own right (she also has a story in Elemental)—for all her expertise in setting up this website and the recording.

Buttonbasher Interview

KLind was kind enough to interview me at Buttonbasher. There's a mix of HALO and non-HALO questions and answers.

3 Things You Need to Succeed

I’ve received many questions about the business end of writing. To answer I’d like to start with a high-level overview of what you will need to make it in any creative business endeavor and then drill down in later posts about Agents, Editors, and Proposals.

You will need ANY TWO of the following THREE things to succeed.

Talent: You have a gift with words. Your prose is flawless, and your characters spring fully formed from your forebrain.

Drive: You get you at 4 AM to bang out a few revisions. Three hours later you’ve written an entire chapter.

Luck: Mega Hollywood agents accidentally call you. You’re mother is friends with major media CEOs. You inherit a million bucks letting you quit your day job!

Let’s examine these in order of least-to-most importance.

Talent is least important. You can learn how to write. I did (at least what passes for modern popular writing). Don’t get me wrong, true talent is a gift to be cherished. Sometimes, however, great talents refuse to change a word of their prose to appease editors or adapt to find a new (larger) audience. By and large people with only talent fade from the publishing world.

Drive. You can guess how I feel about this. There are impossible deadlines, endless rejections, and countless rewrites. And then you get up the next day and do it all over again for the pure joy of it. Without Drive your career will slow to a crawl, choke, and fall into a coma.

Luck. The single most important thing. There are innumerable barriers beyond your control to getting published. Once published these obstacles continue as you climb from first-time writer, to mid-list author, to “hey I can actually make a living at this!” ...and beyond. Luck opens holes in publisher's schedules, aligns cosmic factors so the NYTIMES reviews your novel, and keeps the editor who loves your work gainfully employed.

In the end, however, you can only control ONE of the three things. Talent--you’re born with it. Luck? At the whim of the stochastic and often-cruel gods. That leaves Drive...and that ALL up to you.

Un-stick Yourself!

I’ve talked about how it’s easier to keep going if you are already writing...but how do you restart if you’re stuck?

Here are eight tricks that work for me (your mileage will vary).

1. I get up at 4 or 5 AM to write. The higher functioning parts of my brain are off when I plop down at the keyboard at this insane hour. Sometimes I start to write before procrastination kicks in.
2. Coffee, in small bursts can overcome inertia. Too much is bad. Trust me; I was at once drinking 16 cups a day. Not good. I’m down to 4-6 cups.
3. Chocolate. Sugar rush and endorphin-like chemicals. Pimples and sugar crash to contend with.
4. Exercise. Blood to brain = a good thing.
5. Music. Eight out of ten times music will get me going. I’ll even construct play lists for certain projects or characters which I’ll then listen to whenever I write on that project or in that character’s voice. Hearing key songs will instantly snap me into writing mode. Of course after listening to these same songs a million times, you may never be able to hear them again without screaming.
6. Watch a DVD. When I really can’t write I’ll pop on a movie and watch it in the corner of my monitor as I write. More often than not, I’ll just end up watching the thing. But if its one I have seen many times, sometimes I can write. The entire point of this is to keep my posterior in the chair at the computer. More time at the keyboard = a greater chance to write. I remember watching CRIMSON TIDE over and over while I wrote some of the space combat scenes with Captain Keyes. The influence is glaringly obvious.
7. Three sentences. A trick from Roger Zelazny. Just write three lousy sentences. You can quit after that. You’ll be surprised how often this frees you up and you keep writing. The trick is to really give yourself permission to stop after three sentences. With the pressure off sometimes magic happens.
8. A deadline. This is the ultimate motivator! When an editor is paying you to deliver on a specific date, the fear of missing that deadline is like hot coals to the feet.

If you have any tricks, feel free to share.

No Comic Con

Some people had asked if I was going this year. Regrettably, no. I have to work the weekend—one big last push on the latest writing project.

For everyone that’s going to San Diego this weekend—enjoy!

Kick Your Muse Out

Coweh asks...

Do you think you could cover what gets you going for inspiration?

Inspiration is overrated, Coweh.

Sure, you can get lucky when a bolt from the blue strikes, but that’s rare. If you’re trying to make a living at a creative endeavor...you could get into real trouble waiting.

Kick your muse out. You can’t afford to depend upon such ethereal, fickle creatures.

Don’t wait for inspiration. Make your own.

I start with an idea, and then spot the obvious clichés, try to make it better, and think about it for days, or months, or in many cases years. I research, analyze, figure out what’s working and make it better, figure out what’s not working and get rid of it. I then set the project aside to let my subconscious process it all.

This is hard work.

Sometimes I feeling like I’m throwing myself into a brick wall over and over, until something gives and I discover how to make an idea compelling and cool. Sometimes an idea never pans out.

Since my process can potentially take so long, I have about half a dozen projects (novels, screenplays, and comics) in various stages of development at any given time.

Others say to share your fledging ideas. 90% of the time, however, even people you love and trust will pick apart a premature idea until there’s nothing left but blood and tears. You must eventually expose your idea to others, but only when it’s strong enough.

People want to believe that inspiration is a magical thing and comes without effort. If that happens—great! Count your blessings.

If you want to make a living at a creative profession, however, get ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

Most people I tell this to don’t like it. Go figure.

My advice: work the idea, think lots, and keep your secrets until you’re ready.

Graphophobia

Every morning when I sit down to write, I’m afraid. After almost a million words written and over a million books sold, I still am terrified that I can’t write, tell a good story, and have nothing worthwhile to say. My higher brain functions shutdown and I stare at the blank screen like an ape dumbfound by the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I have a bunch of tricks to get myself started (I’ll cover those in a later posts, don’t worry). Once I get started, though, the words come--sometimes so fast I go into a Zen no-mind lightening-hot state and tap and tap and tap until I realized that I’m in that mental state (which always then breaks the spell) and I look up and see a thousand words on the screen.

I’m sharing this because I wanted those who are trying to write and have this problem to know it’s okay. Lots of other writers do, too; you’re in good company.

You can get past this. I do everyday. Don’t give up.

Confession of a Microsoft Employee

I have a day job. I work at Microsoft Game Studios.

I write and consult for (and occasionally pal around with) some of the world's best video game developers.

Over the last six years I've worked on about two dozen games--some good, some not so...; some killed before they shipped, some dazzling smash hits. If you have to have a job, this is the one to have.

For all the HALO fans--no, I have not worked with Bungie on HALO 1, 2, or 3. They already have a great writer, Joseph Staten.

I’m currently involved with the amazing XBOX 360 game, GEARS OF WAR. If you don't know about this game you probably aren't living on the planet.

What am I working on next? Well, if you took all the best parts of your favorite games, and smashed them together at light speed with your favorite movies and books, you'd get something close to this. It's not announced yet, but as soon as Microsoft does, I can at least tell you the title, genre, and what particular thing makes this game goose-bump worthy. So stay tuned.

Bungie Ninjas

Michael writes:

In the upcoming books and possibly more that come, will loose ends be wrapped up or just remain a mystery?

Do you really want an answer? Wouldn't you rather read any hypothetical novel and find out for yourself?

No? Would you prefer an answer like: "Nothing will be wrapped up and you shouldn't buy this novel because it will only frustrate you." Forget the pleasure of an adventure well-told. Just skip to the end and read the last page in the bookstore.

Or..."Yes, everything is wrapped up in the HALO universe." There's no need to buy HALO 3 or anything else HALO-related ever again. This one book sums it all up.

I'm not going to answer questions about upcoming stories or the mysteries set up in previous stories because that's the antithesis of what I do. I craft a reading experience for you that is designed to be self-contained within the novel(s)--mysteries and all.

Now, there's even a better reason why I can't reveal any secrets. Long ago, in Bungie's top-secret lair deep inside Mt. Rainier, I was sworn to secrecy in a horrific blood-letting pact (also known as a non-disclosure agreement) for which I still bear the painful scars. If I ever violate that pact, Bungie will loosen their horde of winged-monkey ninjas to carry me off.

And no one wants that, right?

University Book Store - Friday

My wife, fellow SF writer Syne Mitchell, will be reading and signing her latest book this Friday at 7 PM at the University Book Store in Seattle, Washington.

I’ll be there, too. If you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by and say hello!

“How To” Write Books

I’ve gotten dozens of email requests for advice from aspiring writers, so over the next few weeks I’ll start a separate page to collect and share my thoughts on writing.

Also please understand that I am unable to critique any writing samples. Between my own writing, a full-time job, and my family, I simply have no room in my schedule.

In the meantime, let me share how I learned to write. A long time ago I was a graduate student working on my PhD in chemistry when I decided to write a fantasy novel. At the time I was trying to absorb vast quantities of esoteric mathematics and physics. I approached learning to write with the same tactics I used with those subjects: I read everything I could get my hands on writing (over 200 books in the UCSD library!).

Most of these “how to” write books were really bad. Some, however, were gems. Three of my favorite beginner’s “how to” books are:

The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes: (And How to Avoid Them) by Jack M. Bickham
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (Genre Writing Series) by Orson Scott Card
The Elements of Style, Third Edition by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White

If you’re an aspiring writer and are discouraged with what you’re producing, you’ve got to first understand that writing is deceptively hard. It seems like it should be easy because we write all the time: instant messages, e-mail, term papers, etc. But writing stay-up-till-3AM-because-you-can’t-put-it-down stories is another matter entirely.

Just take a deep breath and accept that you’ve got to do your homework. Good luck!

Lecturing at Evergreen

A few weeks ago Bill Ransom invited me to lecture to his novel writing class at Evergreen College in Olympia Washington. It was the last meeting of that class, and it was an honor to give them a big send off. Thanks, Bill.

I talked about how to revise a novel, writing momentum, and how to break into the business.

I was pumped to lecture on these topics because a few days before I finished a novel (in three months) and turned it into the publisher for editing.

I’m not going to bore everyone with the tips and tricks every writer talks about...save one thing: Inertia.

Once you’re writing regularly and stop—it’s a hundred times harder to overcome that inertia and start again. I get up at 5 AM everyday and write before I go into work. It’s not that I’m super dedicated; I’m just deathly afraid from starting from a cold stop. It’s an ugly pace to be as a writer, trust me.

A few students wanted my lecture notes and revision examples. Click on my blogger profile and there’s an email link to contact me.

Last thing I did for the class was read them a story recently published in an anthology to benefit the orphans of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.

As soon as I get the technical details figured out, I’ll record it and drop it here as an mp3. In the meantime, please consider buying the ELEMENTAL anthology. All the profits go to charity.

Check it out at: http://www.aletheakontis.com/elemental/