16 January 2005

I want to read these

Teresa Nielsen Hayden points us all at some wonderful fiction submission guidelines for a forthcoming book. I want to read this book when it is finished.
Epics have lost their charm. It takes ten or twenty years for a writer to finish a series, writing the same book over and over again, piling up the foreshadowing, wearing out characters’ boots to no good purpose. By the time you’re done --- whether you’re the reader or the writer --- you can’t remember why you started.

That’s where Twenty Epics comes in. Like the neurological anomaly that sparks déjà vu, like the false memories implanted in Blade Runner’s replicants, Twenty Epics shortcuts the repetition and the tedium of reality and goes straight to what we really care about: the subjective emotional and aesthetic experience.

There was a time when you finished an epic. When finishing an epic left you feeling not discontent and exhausted but joyous, melancholy, rejuvenated, satisfied --- left you feeling, even (at least for a little while), that you were a better and wiser person for the experience.

If we do our jobs right, each of the pieces in Twenty Epics will bring back that feeling.

In ten thousand words or less.

Oh how I want to read that book. Follow the link and read the whole thing. Witty submission guidelines --- what a concept.

7 comments:

Indri said...

Why wait to read it when it's finished? Why not take a shot at it yourself? You're creative, well-read, and a good writer. Why not?

Jonathan Korman said...

Only because the submission deadline is 21 March. I don't think I can write an epic in two months!

Indri said...

You could write a SHORT epic in two months. They specify that it doesn't have to be the full 10,000 words...

Anonymous said...

Agree totally with WB!

No doubt you have already started your epic at least 20 times in the past 20 years. Pick one of them up, dust it off, and start all over again. (I think that paraphrases some song from your Grandmother's era!)

Your specific and succinct style of writing can cram 10,000 ideas into less than 10,000 words!

Don't call, don't post, WRITE WRITE WRITE.

Love,

Mom

Anonymous said...

I KNOW you can do all of this (taken from the website):

"We’re looking for immersive worldbuilding and larger-than-life themes. We’re looking for invention, experimentation, imagination, erudition, entertainment value, and world-class writing.

And we’re looking for epic. It’s got to be epic.

No, we’re not sure what that word means, either.

Redefine it for us."

Mom

Indri said...

Do you feel like you're being ganged up on? Because if you don't, I'm sure we can find some other people to join in.

Anonymous said...

Okay, Adam and Allison, now's the time to post. BUT, perhaps our writer is fully engaged in the process and has taken my advice not to call, not to post.

Mom/Kate