The panel, “The Writing Process” was recorded at ICON 2013, an annual Science Fiction-Fantasy Convention in Cedar Rapids, Iowa around the first week of November. Check out details for ICON 2014 at ICON’s website. This year’s Guests of Honor are: Hugo and Campbell winning author Elizabeth Bear and World Fantasy finalist author Scott Lynch, and includes Artist Lar deSouza, Artist Megan Lara, and Toastmaster Jim C. Hines. ICON also has a writing workshop called Paradise ICON, which show hosts Timothy C. Ward and Brent Bowen are a part of. In addition to our interview, I’ve asked our panelists to take a quick moment to tell us how their writing process was this past week:
Jim C. Hines’ latest book is CODEX BORN, the second in his modern-day fantasy series about a magic-wielding librarian, a dryad, a secret society founded by Johannes Gutenberg, a flaming spider, and an enchanted convertible. He’s also the author of the PRINCESS series of fairy tale retellings as well as the humorous GOBLIN QUEST trilogy. His short fiction has appeared in more than 40 magazines and anthologies, including Realms of Fantasy, Turn the Other Chick, and Sword & Sorceress XXI. He’s also an active blogger, and won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Jim lives in Michigan with his wife and two children. He’s currently hard at work on UNBOUND, the third book in the MAGIC EX LIBRIS series.
The past week has been a bit more hectic than usual. In addition to the novel I’m working on, I had an anthology deadline sneak up on me. I ended up asking my wife if she could do the driving to and from Millennicon in Cincinnati over the weekend so I could spend those hours on the laptop. Fortunately, the five-hour drive there was enough for me to get the story drafted, and the return trip got me through revisions. And I’m happy to say the editor liked the story. That’s definitely not my normal process, and not one I’d care to repeat, but it worked, and that’s the important thing, right?
Ellen Datlow has been an award-winning editor of short science fiction, fantasy, and horror for over thirty years.
She is editor of the Best Horror of the Year and has edited or co-edited a large number of award-winning original anthologies. Her most recent are Supernatural Noir, Naked City, Blood and Other Cravings, The Beastly Bride, Teeth, Trolls Eye View, and After (the last three with Terri Windling).
She is the winner of multiple awards for her editing, including the World Fantasy Award, Locus Award, Hugo Award, International Horror Guild Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Bram Stoker Award. She was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre.” And has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association.
She co-hosts the popular Fantastic Fiction at KGB Bar series of readings in New York City where she lives.
I’ve been in Florida since the 12th visiting my mom and now attending the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. While visiting my mom last week I was sent the copy edited manuscripts of both The Best Horror of the Year #6 and my original kickstarted antho: Fearful Symmetries to check over. I’ve gone over both and contacted the contributors with the CE queries.
I’m also in the middle of line editing the stories in Nightmare Carnival and The Doll Collection, my two other all original anthologies coming out within the next year.
Nancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella Beggars in Spain which was later expanded into a novel with the same title. In addition to her novels, Kress has written numerous short stories and is a regular columnist for Writer’s Digest.
The last week, my writing has been a serious, concerted effort to find the right ending for my novel-in-progress. I had an ending in mind, but the closer I got to writing it, the less I liked it. This is one of those stories that could end several ways, and I needed a different conclusion that still fit the various pieces of this complicated tale. So most of the week was spent making notes and trying out scenarios. And I found one!
Incidentally, I do not recommend this method of writing. It is both inefficient and stressful. But it seems to be the only way I can do it.
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Timothy C. Ward
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Really enjoyed this panel. When I first discovered AISFP, this was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Interviews are great–it’s always fun discovering new authors–but nothing gets me jazzed up to write like a panel from the pros.
Thanks Jared! Interesting insight. I’m always happy to hear what my audience enjoys. We have one or two more panels from ICON and a couple interviews coming up in the next month or so with multiple guests.
In case you haven’t heard them, I had a few panels recorded under my AudioTim banner before I joined the show. They are the ChiCon 7 panels. http://timothycward.com/podcasts
I’ve always been jealous of writers who have characters that “take over” and write the story for them. It’s never been that way from me. I never get ideas for characters. I always get ideas for situations or events and my stories grow from there including the characters. Is anyone else like me or do all of you form characters in your minds that become your best friends and you can’t write unless it’s something they tell you? I don’t really want my stories to be about the event though – I want them to have rich characterization like Stephen King novels do. Though his plots can get a little loose and meandering, his characterization is so good that many of his novels are some of my favorites.
I’m like you, Dan, sort of. I fit characters into situations that I’d want to write about, and as I get to know them and where their weaknesses are I try to develop the plot around what will make their achievement of goals more difficult. In that way I think you end up telling stories about the characters. My problem right now is editing to make them stand out more and feel more consistent throughout. I despise the work of character profiles, but I may need to just keep looking for one that works well.