Author Topic: Has this happened to you?  (Read 7965 times)

Mfitz

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on: March 07, 2007, 03:50:46 PM
I keep getting feed back like this from my critique group

"I don't usually like SF, but I really like your story." or " I thought I didn't like Sf but I'm hooked on your novel."

This has me worried although I've had some straight SF readers tell me the piece is solid so far.




Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #1 on: March 07, 2007, 05:15:32 PM
It shouldn't worry you, IMO. When this happens to me, the issue is generally that the non-SF readers are only familiar with either A) The Matrix, or B) Star Trek, or in fact, they're familiar with neither, and all they know about SF is they ain't sposta like it. What they're saying is "Hey, you aren't the strawman I had previously set up in my mind."



GoodDamon

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Reply #2 on: March 07, 2007, 05:37:18 PM
If you're not sure, you could always take a look at what else your friends in the critique group like and see if your science fiction compares well thematically or in style with the stories they're more prone to read.

Damon Kaswell: Reader, writer, and arithmetic-er


SFEley

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Reply #3 on: March 07, 2007, 05:48:43 PM
I keep getting feed back like this from my critique group
"I don't usually like SF, but I really like your story." or " I thought I didn't like Sf but I'm hooked on your novel."
This has me worried although I've had some straight SF readers tell me the piece is solid so far.

People liking your fiction has you worried?  What exactly are you worried about?

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Mfitz

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Reply #4 on: March 07, 2007, 07:22:12 PM
That maybe I'm writing something that does not have a market?

I have gotten some "it's sort of girlie" comments from guys.  On the other hand all the women who've read my stuff have loved it. I think I'm doing SF with chick-litish subplots, but maybe it's the other way around.  I really don't want to get lumped with the mostly wretched paranormal vampire/alien/robot/time travel bodice rippers.  I know there is money in Romance  but I guess I have my own genre prejudices

I not really all that worried, but everyonce in a while I am.



SFEley

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Reply #5 on: March 07, 2007, 07:41:41 PM
That maybe I'm writing something that does not have a market?

First, if the people you're getting crits from aren't the market you want reading your stuff, I have to wonder: why are you in that particular critique group?  If you view your work as appealing only to science fiction readers, then it's really SF readers who should be giving you comments.

Second, look at the amount of stuff out there that defies traditional genre tags and still does really well -- or even stuff that's definitely genre but doesn't get shelved with it, because the authors are considered to have mainstream appeal.  That's not saying it'd definitely happen for you too, but if you constrain yourself to writing to a perceived subniche only because you're afraid of being too broadly good, you're just tying a hand behind your back.  Write the book, finish it, try to sell it and see what happens.


Quote
I have gotten some "it's sort of girlie" comments from guys.  On the other hand all the women who've read my stuff have loved it. I think I'm doing SF with chick-litish subplots, but maybe it's the other way around.  I really don't want to get lumped with the mostly wretched paranormal vampire/alien/robot/time travel bodice rippers.  I know there is money in Romance  but I guess I have my own genre prejudices

Are you writing stuff you would have fun reading?  If so, then how you can you be prejudiced against your own work?

« Last Edit: March 07, 2007, 07:50:55 PM by SFEley »

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lowky

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Reply #6 on: March 08, 2007, 10:24:29 AM

Second, look at the amount of stuff out there that defies traditional genre tags and still does really well --
[/quote]

QFT!  Prime example, Poe gets shelved under literature, while H. P. Lovecraft still gets shelved under Horror.


Mfitz

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Reply #7 on: March 08, 2007, 02:46:30 PM
[Are you writing stuff you would have fun reading?  If so, then how you can you be prejudiced against your own work?

'cause I don't want half naked people on the cover of my book? 

(See that proves I'm optimistic about my publishing chances.)

I ad been in a small just SF/Fantasy critique group for a while, but although it was great for idea bouncing it was not helping me improve my writing craft, and I knew I needed help in that area.  CWP is multi genre group and really geared to helping people get published, and we have some fairly successful alumni/members.  There are several people who read and write SF in the group and they do think I'm on the right track, so I'm pretty sure it's just paranoia talking when I wonder if I have a market.


-Complete aside / semi-tangental rant-

Just as I was getting at a key and complicated section of my currant project my father-in-law was dignosed with final stage lung/brain cancer.  He and my husband are estranged, but we are the only intown family.  My father-in-law was a piss and vinegar eccentric, conspiracy theory believing, urban Appalachian stereotype before he got sick, the drugs and disease have not improved things.  I've had at my husband's sister and her family (off and on), who I do love to bits and pieces, staying with us in our one bathroom house for most of the past five weeks.  I'm  a slow writer to start out and this has sucked what writing time/energy I have and I'm having trouble getting things on paper for the first time since I started writing seriously.  Everything I do seems to be all wrong when I read it the next day. I know what has to happen next in my novel, but I can't seem to control my character's conversations. So, I know it's the situation talking to me, but I'm wondering if I have what it takes to make it as a writer.

-End of Rant-



Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #8 on: March 08, 2007, 04:37:16 PM
For what it's worth, stories about people writing novels in six weeks aside, most of the writers who teach at the workshop took 6-10 years to finish their first novel.

I have to cling to this information like a life raft, sometimes. Novels are slow, even when things are going well.



Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #9 on: March 08, 2007, 04:38:06 PM
Also Prime has a new paranormal romance imprint. I think they're called Juno. The only book I have from the line (Jade Tiger by Jenn Reese) doesn't have naked people on it.

UPDATE: Well, okay, it does a little. (http://www.amazon.com/Jade-Tiger-Jenn-Reese/dp/080955674X) But tastefully.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2007, 04:39:46 PM by palimpsest »



Mfitz

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Reply #10 on: March 08, 2007, 05:13:34 PM
Very cool cover, quite classy really.  Thanks for the line on the new imprint I'll have to check it out.  I'm not sure think my stuff would fit as Paranorma Romance.

This is much closer to my style.

http://www.amazon.com/Games-Command-Bantam-Spectra-Book/dp/0553589636/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7893562-5485629?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173372755&sr=8-1



Rachel Swirsky

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Reply #11 on: March 08, 2007, 06:08:22 PM
LOL, those covers bug me a lot more. The awkward stance, the breastage lighting, the kind of "I have to communicate the awesomeness of this novel to you without any subtlety whatever!!" rockets and guns.

But I do hear what you're saying. It sounds like a good genre to be aiming for. :)



SFEley

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Reply #12 on: March 08, 2007, 11:46:04 PM
Quote
http://www.amazon.com/Games-Command-Bantam-Spectra-Book/dp/0553589636/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7893562-5485629?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173372755&sr=8-1
LOL, those covers bug me a lot more. The awkward stance, the breastage lighting, the kind of "I have to communicate the awesomeness of this novel to you without any subtlety whatever!!" rockets and guns.

Heh.  Just remember: nobody (and I mean pretty much nobody) ever gets any control over the cover of the book they wrote.

I actually have heard some good things about Linnea Sinclair.  But yeah, I'm with you about that cover.  I look at that woman and I think "She really needs to go to a chiropractor before she jumps into any foxholes."  >8->

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ClintMemo

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Reply #13 on: March 09, 2007, 02:43:31 AM
"Breastage lighting"

That is the funniest term I've heard all day. 

Thank you.

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