Suvudu Cage Match 2011 - Final Round

I wrote in an earlier post about the very enjoyable Suvudu Cage Match that has been conducted again this year. The competition has reached the final bout! The good news is that voters are taking into account more than just which characters are their favourites, so there is some serious (and therefore hilarious) debate occuring about which characters should be winning.

Some of my all time favourite series were represented in the semi-finals, with Perrin Aybara (The Wheel of Time) going down at the hands of Quick Ben (The Malazan Book of the Fallen) and Vin (Mistborn) coming up trumps against Jon Snow (A Song of Ice and Fire). The final between Vin and Quick Ben should be interesting.

In addition, Suvudu is holding a contest for the best fan write-up of the ever popular 3rd place playoff between Perrin and Jon. The prize is a personalised copy of The Way of Kings from Brandon Sanderson. As per the site:

In order to be considered, please send your Perrin vs. Jon Snow write-up to spectratwitterfb@gmail.com with the subject line “Cage Match 2011 3rd Place.”

Writing advice that actually works

As an aspiring writer there is a lot of temptation to look for the big secret to doing good work, to seek that one gem of advice that will put you over the line. I found myself starting down that path. I bought a few books on the craft (at least I made sure they were produced by actual writers). I started following blogs and twitter streams of hoping to get some insight into the process that works for various authors.I started listening to podcasts about writing and writers. I've heard 'Heinlein's Rules' and read Terry Pratchett's 'Writing Secrets.' It has all been helpful, but it still didn't tip me over the edge to where I needed to be... actually writing.

Most writers seem to be in agreement that the not-so-secret path to success is to write. Write a lot. On that note I would like to introduce the most helpful piece of advice that I have come across, because it has really started to work.

These are Gene Wolfe's five pieces of 'writerly advice':

1.   Get up early and write.

2.   Read the type of fiction you’re trying to write.

3.   Remember that characterisation is what makes your story stand out.

4.   You do not characterise by telling the reader about the character, you do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic way.

5.   Do not start a story unless you have an ending in mind. You can change the ending but start with a destination.

I could have just stopped at 1. Obviously Wolfe makes some helpful points about the craft and about audience, but at this stage I am just very happy to be writing. The idea of getting up an hour or so earlier than usual and dedicating that time to writing is working. It does mean that by the time I go to bed at night I am genuinely tired, and I struggle to be productive in any way after about 9 p.m., but I am writing. Whether I am writing well remains to be seen.

Thank you Gene Wolfe.

What I've been up to...

A week ago I mentioned my secret project. Here's the (big) reveal!

I've been investigating the possibility of writing articles and reviews for existing sites (as well as continuing with my blog) and my first such piece has now been posted. The folks over at The Ranting Dragon have taken me on provisionally as a reviewer. Here is my first effort for them (in their format, so it's a little different), a review of Legend by David Gemmell.

Any material that I post for these other sites (there are two more in the pipeline) I will obviously link here, since I created the content. So from now on some of my reviews will simply be links to those sites - I am obviously happy to engage in a bit of cross-promotion.

NaNoWriMo Update

In spite of the fact that I only started the blog a month or so ago I have been taking a break from it to help my NaNoWriMo progress. Not that there has been much of that. Most of my time has been devoted to planning and plotting. I think that's my method. I haven't written much that would appear on a page in a book, and that's disappointing (but it's been that way all year, not just in November). It's hard even yo disclose a word count when I've done so many little things all over the place. Suffice it to say, I won't have 50,000 words come November 30.

I'm behind the times in posting about this, but it turns out that several professional writers aren't big fans of NaNoWriMo. I completely understand the agents and editors that read through unending piles of slush in December not being enthused by it, but I agree with the comments of Mary Robinette Kowal and John Scalzi, who leapt to the defence of National Novel Writing Month (International if, like me, you're Australian).

Essentially, NaNoWriMo is terrific if it encourages expressions of creativity and gives would be writers the extra bit of motivation they need to cross the line from thinking about writing to doing it. Would I let someone else read a story I churned out in a month? Now way. But I would edit and build on what I produced in that time frame, and use it to propel me forward. Mary Robinette Kowal in particular revealed that her debut novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, started in this way.

Writing with a day job

At the start of the year when I decided to pursue writing I figured teaching was a pretty complementary job. There's good holidays, I can get home relatively early in the evening if I push myself and constant interaction with people exposes me to all sorts of levels of human experience (what some people might call, material). Of course, the year has hardly followed the ideal path I set out.


Most advice that I hear about writing has a pretty simple message - write. Stop talking about it, stop thinking about it and do it. The follow up to that instruction is usually something to do with developing regular writing habits, which is where teaching is terrible. I'm not incessantly busy, but in the periods when I am busy my job can occupy my time to the exclusion of all else for a few weeks at a time (like at the moment). I stop reading, and writing is off the agenda completely - I can't even update a blog apparently.


I'm not about to quit teaching. I really enjoy it. I'm hoping the steps I have taken to shuffle my responsibilities will result in a much more steady working life next year. But this year isn't over yet...


I'll be unofficially doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November (even though I'm not American - I can bring the international flavour). My aim is a manuscript of between 80,000 and 90,000 words. That's alot of writing, but a few things at work will be falling in my favour to make it (at least slightly) possible. I will be finishing my outlining before the month starts, and the story is based on an idea that I've been considering and researching for quite a while now. I think the groundwork is done, and I think I'll be the type of writer who prefers to outline pretty thoroughly.


If it goes well, I'll then be spending the first week in December madly editing the manuscript so that it is in some sort of shape to enter into the Terry Pratchett Prize. I'm under no illusions about the quality of what I will probably produce, but it's important to have goals like that to write towards. My only other completed and submitted piece of fiction this year was also for a competition - I obviously need that motivation.


I'll be charting my progress on my fledgling blog, and I'll hopefully find some time to post thoughts about my reading and other issues that I come across. I can't stop reading altogether, Towers of Midnight lands in early November and it is a must read for a long time Robert Jordan fan like me.