Seven Things Challenge

My friend Dyane tagged me in a challenge to write seven things about my writing. A full week later and I finally figured out what to say!

My Writing is Personal:

I adhere pretty strictly to the advice of Toni Morrison about writing books you want to read. That advice has been reiterated by Gaiman, another writer I admire. By now, anyone who knows me or reads this blog knows I strive for visibility with POC in speculative fiction. Particularly QPOC and QWOC. That's because growing up, I never saw myself on television or in the books I read. I don't want to fall out of love with a genre. I'd rather improve it.

My Writing is Universal

Despite the color and sexuality of the characters, I write pretty standard stuff! Science fiction has always been and hopefully always will be a commentary on society. Fantasy, hopefully will continue to be a welcomed escape from real life. I employ those characteristics in my stories. I hope in the future, we as readers are able to move past "unrelatable" characters (SARCASM) and enjoy the story surrounding them

My Writing is Activism

Shortly after the Michael Brown verdict I became extremely exhausted with the state of the country. But I also felt super disconnected from traditional activism. I was tired of protests, rallies, petitions etc. Hilariously, my current job probably wouldn't care if I got arrested in the middle of union square for protesting the verdict. I love that. But it wasn't for me.

Incidentally, I was working on a story that paralleled the civil rights movement. And it all came to me. My writing could be my activism.

My Writing is an Addiction

I'm in love with books, stories, movies, anime, conferences, memes, gifs, totes, listicals--anything related to writing, I love. I love speaking with other writers about my stories, their stories, other people's stories.  I'm obsessed. I'm hooked and I'm happy.

My Writing Gives me Hope

 

 I'm pretty vocal about my depression/anxiety. Mental illness is as common as the rhino virus. When I have downs, writing can be an upper. Granted, it's a learned skill, to be able to block out the world and write a story, but its a skill worth learning. with 30-60 minutes of solid typing, I can usually think clearly about a situation and find a solution.

 In the past couple of years, I've lost friends, lovers, faith and gained it all back again. The one thing that hasn't ever left and probably never will is my writing, desire to write and dream of doing it full time.

My Writing is a lot of Work

I'm a perpetual story starter. It's easy to begin something. It's even easy to outline and plan. But getting to the end of a story--getting past the dreaded MIDDLE--should be an Olympic sport. Further more, the re-writing, the discussion, the betas, the tweeting, the blogging, the conferencing, the speaking engagements, the marketing, the interviews, the whiskey, the scotch, the room where I lock myself inside and never come out....

My Writing is in Progress all the Time

I'm always learning because I'm always reading and teaching myself something.  Most recently, I learned to let myself write down EVERYTHING, every scene, every word, every character, every whisper of a plot.

Sometimes, those things don't become full stories. Sometimes they help me sort out stories I am already writing or wanting to write. They get merged and rebirthed. I never stop.

Thelonious, Madhuri-- I challenge you :)

Breaking the Walls: The Importance of Black Speculative Fiction Authors and the POC Characters Only They Can write

I’m going to start this article with a series of confessions.

1.     I identify as a nerd.

2.     I have never read Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones or Harry Potter.

3.     I don’t intend to read them.

4.     I don’t think you have to read LOTR to understand how to write a good Fantasy story.

 Yes. I. Did.

Why am I making these confessions? There seems to be this idea that those books, among others, embody the essential goodness of the genre. I sincerely love Fantasy but I have no interest in these books. They’re great reads and their authors have incredible imaginations. They have definitely opened doors for unexpected heroes, sex and love among dragons and series that grow with readers. But at the end of the day, no mater how much I respect and admire them as fiction, those books were not written for me.

And, as a little black girl hungry for everything from Pokemon to Xena to Dragonheart, I was always left empty and feeling forgotten.  I didn’t understand why Kendra Young’s brief stint on Buffy excited me so much. And later, I didn’t know why The Haitian on Heroes upset me so much.

Black people in Sci-Fi/Fantasy are rare. We are unicorns. I know you can name quite a few, Uhura on Star Trek (who was basically a black secretary), Abe Ellis and Aiden Ford from Stargate Atlantis, Zoe Washburne from Firefly—I’m sure you can name a person for all your fingers and toes. But the number is low—and never will the list of Black protagonists equal the list White protagonists. It just doesn’t happen. And why is that?

 

Even his visor couldn't help him see diversity.

Because we value straight hair and pale skin and light eyes, white is the default race. And in that way, among many, we are still living in a racist society. If you Google Image search “Pretty Women” or “Beautiful Women”, your results are going to yield you women with all these aforementioned qualities. If you see a Black woman, it is going to be Halle Berry. And these women are beautiful, no doubt, but they are dominating the idea of beautiful and the idea of normal.

Anyone in themedia has the chance to normalize Black people. And yes, that includes authors.

As I said before, I love Fantasy but I don’t love it because of Elves and Knights and Damsels in Distress. And maybe, when you think about it, neither do you. I love Fantasy for the heroes who overcome incredible odds, for the creatures good and evil, for the weird worlds that people have explored. I love Fantasy because the genre allows for absolutely any outcome and possibility. Anything you can think of can happen in a Fantasy book. Why, then, is it so impossible to find a Black Main Character? Consider this: How deeply would your favorite Fantasy book change if the MC were four shades darker? The answer should be “not at all”.

My last confession is that my Blackness means a lot to me. I held myself responsible for representing Black History Month in my all-white high school, I was an activist on my college campus and even now, as I write, I make it a point to create Black Characters. Even with this being true, however, I don’t think every story with a Black MC has to center around that person’s race. In fact, we would do a better job of normalizing Blackness if that wasn’t the case.

 

I mean, re-imagine Lee Jordan (the Quidditch Sports Commentator in Harry Potter) and Padma and Parvati at his side instead of the iconic Harry, Ron and Hermione trio. They can keep their personalities, specialties and histories BUT they would look different. The story itself has not changed. It has all that awesome magical deliciousness but also appeals to the little brown children out in the world (just like I was and so many of my friends were), who wish they could find more book characters who looked like them, characters who were not co-stars or supporting roles.

I’m aware some things WILL have to change, because the Black experience is nothing without a little mention of prejudice, injustice or some sort of discomfort caused by race relations in the world. But that injustice doesn’t have to be the main plot point.

 No one is going to write a Black MC like BlackAuthors. If we don’t write these stories, black literature will fall into two categories: Literary Fiction and Hood Fiction. I will admit, I can’t stand “Hood Fiction”. Maybe I despise the truth it brings to light—that we have brothers and sisters whose day jobs revolve around drug dealing, prostitution and dysfunctional relationships. LA Banks managed to combine Urban Fantasy and Hood Lit in a way that wouldn’t infuriate me if someone found the book 200 years from now and tried to use it as a tool to understand today’s “Black Culture”. Yes, the dialogue was littered with unbelievable slang and the MCs were a Spoken Word Poetry group—but the main protagonist was also a Vampire Hunter. Despite how I may feel about the final project, Sister Banks broke down a genre wall. 

 

Octavia Butler’s MC from Fledgling is Shori, an eleven year old Black girl who falls in love with a 20-something White man in segregated US History. But Shori is a Vampire. Suddenly, what was almost Literary Fiction is Science Fiction. The wall is broken.

If Speculative Fiction is about daring to dream up a world where anything can happen, writing Speculative Fiction with Black narratives means you are daring to dream up a world where no one is surprised or disgusted that a book character is Black, because White will no longer be our default race. And now is the time; people are ready to geek out. Fantasy and Sci-fi themed shows dominate the television and these sorts of books are flying off the shelves. Black Authors can help normalize the Black Main Character. We need to break down the walls.

Don’t worry. I can assure you no one will stop writing White MCs in your absence.

Finish Line

Today, I'll be writing the 19th chapter of my book. That's exciting in itself to some extent but what is most exciting for me is that I haven't stopped.

For the people who know me and read my work, I give up on projects frequently. I fail to outline and get stuck. I lose my momentum and stop. I realize the characters suck or the plot is derivative and I toss the manuscript.

But not this time. This time I see the finish line in sight and I'm headed straight toward it.

This is Usain Bolt. I am the him of writing.

I've been averaging about 10k words a month and it feels really good. But what is different this time around?

Well for one thing, I had a clear goal in mind when I began this project: Stomp the Fantasy Stereotypes. 

That goal allowed me to write a detailed outline starting first with the races of the world and then the history and finally places. Most of the outline won't go in the story but at least the place was real and different to me. Then I picked an interaction between two races to create my plot:  The Synn kidnap human women to use as surrogates. And HoSG was born.

It happened just like this, pretty much.

Now, I'm almost 3/4ths of the way finished. I'm not meeting the deadline I aimed for, which was last week, because I grossly underestimated the work that goes into producing something good. (I'll admit my other projects had huge flaws in them that I was too blinded (by the love of the game) to notice).

But I still count this as progress because I haven't stopped. I have no intention of stopping because the book hasn't given me a reason to stop. There is no lag. For once in my life there is no lag.

My high school art teacher once told me the middle of the painting is the hardest. She wasn't lying. I cried into my oil paint. Painting isn't my strong suit, granted, but the same goes for writing. The middle of the book is the worst for me. But I got through it this time and suddenly the end is completely in sight. Here's some more Usain for y'all.

 Prancing right over that muh fucker!

This moment came after tons of bad projects, some completed, some not. This came after over 100 query letter submissions, some acknowledged most not. This came after two full manuscript requests, none accepted.

And every failure has led to some sort of improvement. Improvement is progress. Progress gets you to the finish line.

Be a Better Beta

Everyone should Beta.

I mean this whether you are a writer or just a lover of stories--but I especially mean this for writers. I know what some of you are thinking.

I don't wanna!

 You work a full time job. 

You're writing your own book.

You have kids.

You have a reading list of already-published work.

You don't feel like you can properly critique work.

Get over it.

The bottom line is that Beta reading is an integral part of trying to get published. In my experience my manuscript drafts have become perhaps 3 times better after I get a few extra eyes on the project. This isn't just about correcting a comma to a semi-colon, this is a chance to see which characters speak to the average person, which people they hate or love, who comes alive and who falls flat.

This is a chance to see if your plot is moving slowly or too fast. Do your MCs have chemistry, is the love interest boring or over-sexualized?

Editing is hard, all of you know it. Here is a chance for you to dump all 500 pages of your Epic Fantasy Novel on someone else's hands. Someone who finds the story fresh, and exciting and doesn't know a thing about the other four drafts where your MC had too many apostrophes in his first name. 

You just get to be like: 

Here, Slave.  Read it! Every last bit!

 And people want to do this for you.

If you have a good group of friends and family, they have been dying to read your work. If you are smart, you've kept your draft a secret and now your adoring fans are thirsty for a drink of your amazing words! Even if no one you know has a degree in literature or writing and can't give you "educated" feed back on plot development and character they can tell you what they liked and disliked.

Every opinion counts. 

Which is why you should share yours. Reading is important to being a good writer. I think solidarity is just as amazing. What if your friends book is an amazing story that is years before it's time? What if it's an Urban Fantasy book that agents find too "preachy" and never pick up? But if what reading it inspires your own work, your next blog post, your next tweet, even? You can't miss out on the opportunity to review a fellow writer's work.

One day, (hopefully) you could be asked to do it for a big name. Your comment could end up on a book cover. How can you make sure your feedback is useful? Here's a handy list:

• Read the Book Twice
• Your first time combing through it will be riddled with names, places, rough plot. Only on the second go will you be acclimated with the characters and able to give something meaningful 

• Learn to Use an Editing Program
• "Review" in MS word is a godsend. It lets you make side comments, it highlights your corrections and all your analyses will be in different colored text. It then allows the owner of the document to accept or deny a change. Google docs does the same

•  Be Honest
• First time I had a beta reader it came from a stranger I met on Absolute Write Water Cooler. She got an agent last year. She's a very good writer. She SHAT ALL OVER MY WORK. I deserved it. It was a bad draft and I never thanked her for her honesty and break down. I wasn't ready for that kind of hurt. But she was a good Beta because she wasn't concerned about my feelings--she told me exactly what she thought of my book and what would make it a better project

• Be Objective
• It can be hard being a Beta for a friend. We are excited about their project and genuinely think its good. But consider the book as a stand-alone-project because the truth is, that is what it is. Authors don't end up being super celebrities most of the time. Usually their book is on a shelf and no one really knows what they look like walking down a street. So if the book wasn't any good, we wouldn't care about them. Learn to consider the book as a book and not an extension of someone you love.

• Find Something Negative to Say
• Feel free to disagree with me on this but I do think it's a good exercise to challenge yourself to come up with something negative. If you read through an MS and can't find a single thing you disliked--even if you admit it's completely your opinion, then you are not doing a good job. You need to give the writer everything and can decide what advice to discard. I think it's impossible to involve yourself in critical thinking without coming up with one critique.

Even if you only Beta for one project in your decades of writing, do it anyway. You will benefit from it in some way, even if it's just doing a good deed for someone else. You never know, you could be getting a sneakpeak at something amazing.

And it will look exactly like this.

Eureka: The Artist and the Lightbulb

A friend of mine just had her "moment".

You know what "The Moment" is. It can happen at work, in bed, in the shower, even while walking down the street. It's kind of like catching the holy ghost.

You just wait til they start hikin' up their skirts and stompin the floor!

"The Moment" is when someone--be they artist or arithmetician--realizes their calling and cannot ignore it any longer. My friend is an excellent writer. We share a common struggle called "Shit Happens". Shit Happens is exactly what it sounds like. It's your dog dying, your wife divorcing you, your boyfriend leaving you, your girlfriend throwing away your favorite worn out Converse sneakers. Shit Happens is anything and everything that will offer you an excuse to not do your work. I don't mean to seem unsympathetic, I AM unsympathetic. I am looking at the "old me", or really just regular me a few months prior--and about 40k words less, mind you--who was making excuses for herself. She had real problems; she was jobless, her relationship of 3 years seemed like it was failing, she was losing friends left and right and couldn't understand why.... And she let those very real and very depressing things distract her.

In truth, there are no excuses. If you are upset, write and distract yourself. If you are in a hurry, write on napkins or in the note app on your cell phone. If you need to clean the house and can't sit down and type, use dictation software. There is no valid excuse unless you say so. There is no teacher to chide your absence, no boss to deny your vacation days. If you are not writing there is no one to blame but yourself. 

You have to realize that before hand, because that takes up space and "The Moment" needs room to move through!

I imagine "The Moment" is a big diva who doesn't need to make herself known. When she arrives, you KNOW

I wish I could remember my exact moment. I thought it happened in February of 2013, almost a year ago. I quite my real estate job because I hated it and, by that point, all I did was rush through my work so I could write my novel in Google Docs. I quit, completely unprepared, convinced I was going to start, finish and submit the novel that would get me a deal. 

In September of 2013, I got a new job.

I had to admit that I half-assed it. And furthermore, I had a tumultuous summer--which I know now is irrelevant to my work but I didn't know that then and I let it stop me completely. Suddenly after I started my new job, I got this wave of invigoration. I started to write every day. I made plans for events and conferences. I started to read more. I submitted and applied to fellowships. I am averaging about 10k words a month and my draft will be finished in January. 

Ever since I had my "moment", I haven't had writer's block for more than a couple days and I've been active about fixing it, instead of hoping it will go away. Since I've had my "Moment", people have been telling me how inspired they are by me and how they wish they could be as motivated. I'm inclined to say that all they have to do is stop "wanting" and "wishing" and just do it. The roughest part of writing the book is sitting down to write. Once the fingers move on the keyboard and the words start flowing, you never want to leave. 

But I could be wrong. It might not be that easy. If you want to induce your moment--yes, like pregnancy--read The War Of Art. It's a good kick-in-the-pants and a quick read. The bottom line is, there is no reason you're not living your dream right now. JK Rowling was on welfare when she wrote Harry Potter--and she did it by choice because she's just more of a G than you are.

Note: this is not an actual picture

Write that book. It really won't write itself.

The Climb

Confession: I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing with this blog.

Then why write it, you ask? Because! It's a baby. It's a toddler fumbling through it's first steps. It's got years to figure out what it wants to do with itself, or how, or why.

"So what I just crapped myself? I'm a diva, Bee-otch!"

I'm using this as an online journal to track this novel-writing journey. So what have I learned about The Journey thus far? It's rough, man. My current WIP is my third completed book idea. This will be the first draft. I'm hoping to finish it by January, so that I have a good working draft by February, in time for the AWP conference. I hope to work through all my nerves and really meet some agents. Then query them and reference our meeting.

"Hey there, my becca is Name, can you book my sell? I mean, sell my book? I mean..."

This is pretty standard procedure and a great way to get an agent's attention. It shows you sought them out (because let's face it, authors have their own slushpile), it shows you did your research and it also shows you're serious about your career. (And let me tell you, as expensive as AWP and a trip to Seattle is for me, I'm PRE-TY FUCKING SERIOUS). After AWP, I hope to query soon. So my nights and evenings are almost consumed by writing. And I'm not just working on my book.

 All the drafts. So many drafts.

At the end of the query letter, is a short paragraph about the author. Now, I'm not going to poo-poo my past endeavors; I was a prolific Spoken Word Artist, I've had poems and articles published and I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College where I got to study Creative Writing with the best minds ever. But my fiction accolades are slim to none. Actually, just none. So I've been trying to pump out short stories and submit to lit magazines. I'm not good at short anything. Telling a complete story in under 4k words is putting myself in the driver's seat of a big ol' struggle bus. Still, it's good for me to at least be able to beef up that humble paragraph at the end of a query letter.

This is not necessary. On prior projects, I got requests for my full manuscripts even though I had little credentials. I had written a story that looked like it would sell and looked like it was different. (The story actually sucked but that's a different topic). So, of course, my primary objective is to finish the novel. Publishing is a big-freaking-deal, though, and all of this is in the back of my head. On top of even more things. 

"These are my real friends."

I'm always a better writer when I'm reading books, preferably books relevant to my project. But honestly, I like to read anything I can get my hands on. I primarily read African American lit because I love the vibe of the prose. But I'm finding some Fantasy and Science Fiction that 1. demonstrates the prose I love or 2. has been written by a black or black female author 3. contains both one and two. Another things I do when I'm not reading or writing?

Class

Events, events, events.

AWP is a big one but I end up in all sorts of things; readings, lectures, law talks, even! In the Spring, I hope to take a writing course at Gotham Writers' Workshop. At that point, I'll have sent in this project and will be working on another and (hopefully) hearing answers to my query letters. They might be all rejections. I'm prepared and almost expecting that. #jaded

So what is the point of all the exhausting  and exhaustive work? Well, if I am never published I will still write. I might as well be good at it.