In the last few months I did a few session of public writing. I did two online, using Google Docs, and one in public, with my friend Fabrizio Borgio on the other side of the table, both of us pounding on our respective typewriters1.
Some compared this to exhibitionism, but I say, if it was good enough for Harlan Ellison, it’s good enough for me.
And the experiment was rather successful, so we decided to up the ante.
This is a writing course.
It is free, and offered to all those that would like to learn how to write stories.
Write stories, mind you, not be a writer.
If you feel like this course is not a waste of time, you can buy me a coffee.
But that’s for you to decide. This course was designed to be free, because you can’t sell a writing course that works, and this one does.
The core of the course is based on a piece of wisdom I got yesterday from my friend Mauro, that is a fine writer and game designer in his own right. I added a little fluff here and there, and stole a line from Ray Bradbury and one from C.J. Cherryh.
I might update this course in the future, and maybe even an Italian version, but for the moment, here’s what you need to know:
Continue reading
There is a concept in imaginative fiction that has been intriguing me ever since I learned of its existence: pariah elite.
I found the definition in the classic Encyclopedia of Fantasy by Clute & Grant:
A group which, though despised and rejected by society, remembers and preserves the secret knowledge necessary to keep the world from ultimate Thinning. In other words, members of PEs are despised and rejected precisely for that which they retain: their knowledge of the Secret History of the World, their Talents, their memory of the Elder Gods, their familiarity with the old True Names and the real Map of the territory (which allows them to escape the minions of the false king), their direct descent from the Elder Races, their memory of the way through the Labyrinth, their access through Portals to the Golden Age … But they sometimes do more than retain the past; it is always possible that the PE may be the Secret Masters of the world.
A lot of stories I enjoyed as a young man discovering fantasy and science-fiction hinged on the idea of a pariah elite: the Morgaine Books by C.J. Cherryh and the Birthgrave books by Tanith Lee, the old Foundation books by Ike Asimov, the Uplift books by David Brin in which the whole of humanity is sort of a pariah elite.
I sometimes toy with the idea of writing something based on this idea. Continue reading
One should never brag about projects as they are still in the development phase, but this one is good and looks solid, so I’ll write a bit about it here.
I am discussing a series of stand-alone novellas, basically fantasy/sword & sorcery, to tie in with a popular small press roleplaying game.
I am currently drawing up a full pitch/proposal, with a general concept, sketches of the four recurring heroes, and a detailed outline of the first four episodes.
I am pretty excited about this, because this is the sort of fun project that’s ideal to take my mind off more complicated matters.
And what I find really exciting about this is, the publisher asked me to make the series friendly to younger readers, but also to subvert cliches and expectations and make this a sword & sorcery fit for the twenty-first century.
I think I’ll have a lot of fun with my characters.
And I get to create my own monsters. How cool is that?
So, right now it’s a new Scrivener file opened, basic publisher requests noted, and it’s time to apply my own wisdom – after all, I sell a course on pitches and proposals, it’s time to put my money where my mouth has been.
I will keep you posted on the developments, and in the meantime… wish me luck.
True to the pulp rule that stories should be kept doing the rounds until they sell1, I got a rejection slip at 8 am, and by 10 am I had revised and sent the story to another publisher.
It’s a very short, quirky piece and should make me no more than fifty bucks, but that’s no excuse for it to be idle.
Run, little story, and please do your best to impress the editor!
Karavansara 