Category: Writing

Whaddya Mean, No Babel Fish?

The first Astronomicon panel I attended was “Aliens Speaking Alien,” which included writers Josepha Sherman, Rick Taubold, Nancy Kress, and Carl Fredericks. I admit, the only reason I went to this panel was that it was the first opportunity I had to hear Kress speak. But I took notes anyway, and here’s what I learned:

1
Carl Fredericks says there are two levels to think about when writing or writing about alien language. The lowest level is “language.” A higher level involves semantics, e.g. “motor oil” vs. “baby oil.” Might an alien think we make oil from babies? Could we make that mistake of an alien tongue?

2
Nancy Kress told us that one way to start is by considering the biology of aliens. Do they even make sounds? Do they make sounds within a range audible to the human ear?

Also, instant universal translators [my paraphrasing:] suck.

Recommended reading: “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang.

3
Other approaches to writing alien language: Sherman starts with the premise that for space travel to be possible the way modern aviation is possible, there has to be a sort of intergalactic lingua franca that everyone understands. Kress tries to “sneak it in.” Fredericks wrote (or read? Can’t remember) a story where a race’s vocal language was a secondary language reserved for parental interactions with their children.

4
Some thoughts on actual mechanics, most (but not all) from Kress…

  • Quotation marks or italics sorta suck [my word] for telepathy or other non-verbal communication. People have used typographical tricks w/great success.
  • Any invented language needs an integrity to it. A consistency. One option: pick 3-4 consonant sounds and a couple of vowels to use most of the time.
  • Fluted effects usually involve K or L sounds. Growls: G, R, or F
  • And even if you think you’ve made up a name, Google it anyway!
  • One writer used typography to illustrate one twin starting a sentence and the other finishing, every single time.

5
Idea Free-For-All

  • More required reading: Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination.
  • Go overboard and you won’t get published.
  • Language is only partly auditory. That’s why we need emoticons in email/text.
  • Using pheromones. Poul Anderson had a smell on every 3rd MS page. Maybe overdoing it?
  • Animals don’t speak in phonemes. Most of their stuff is in the spaces between sounds.
  • Some panelists irritated when every single slang/foreign expression gets immediately translated. It’s very possible to tell by context.
  • In some stories, humans and aliens never really communicate, but they just get it. (Or, not!)
  • You usually have two choices when writing “English in the future” — just use English or go ahead and invent slang. There’s a high risk of sounding ridiculous with the latter.
  • Alien societies probably have classes and their language would reflect that.

Where Ideas Come From

In a 1970 interview with Rod Serling by sci-fi author James Gunn, Serling recalls…

…99% of the writing that arrives on the desk of a mass media guy is pretty therapeutic writing. These are people who generally preface by saying, “I ain’t such a good writer but I got this real good idea in my dream after eating the rancid mayonaise…”

It’s about 8’59” in…

“Here we go again/ He’s back in town again”

For the past two years, I’ve sworn off National Novel Writing Month. It’s not that I’ve ever turned my nose up at it. It’s just that I’m primarily a short-story writer, for one. And, more importantly, I’ve got a bit of a backlog of stuff that needs to be revised and submitted (or resubmitted). Plus, I’ve always had trouble wrapping my head around the idea of writing a novel. Besides having only one or two ideas that might possibly be big enough for that format, I get discouraged that I don’t have the level of fortitude I see in the novel-writing members of my critique group.

But somewhere along the line, I’ve gotten out of the habit of drafting new stuff while rewriting old stuff. If you’ve read or heard Ray Bradbury’s thoughts on writing, he’d probably tell me, “Yr doin’ it rong.” And it’s bothered me for the past twelve months, which is why NaNoWriMo keeps me coming back.

I’m not too hung up on whether or not I finish. I did back in 2005 and haven’t looked at the thing since, and since I’ve published a few things since then, it’s all good. Basically, I’m in this because my feeble Jedi skillz need work and I figure NaNoWriMo is the best way to kill all these birds with one thirty-day stone.

I’ve got a strategy which involves…

  • Creating a novel of interlinked segments. Yes, you can check the NaNo boards for the endless debate about what constitutes a novel, but if Cat Valente’s In the Night Garden (The Orphan’s Tales, #1) and Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s Madeleine Is Sleeping are novels, then so is my attempt, tentatively titled Thoughts of Reference.
  • Going through my notebook–I’ve accumulated and tagged all these items, and dammit, it’s about time they started working for me.
  • Channeling Ray Bradbury, the master who demonstrated that it was possible to write a story a week. I’m attempting something a little more ambitious, but at the same time, isn’t. All I’m after are first drafts!

You’re all welcome to join me for the ride, though I make no promises as to how long that ride might be. I’m always glad to offer help & support, but I gotta warn you: I believe in doing unto others as I would have done unto me, so my help & support might look a little something like this…

If you’re down with that, then by all means, look me up!

In the Zone

Last week, I attended the 2008 Rod Serling Conference at Ithaca College, where Serling taught from 1967-1975. I scored a pass because The Wife was a judge in their scriptwriting competition. I saw a lot and learned a lot that I didn’t know. The best part was a session where the speaker presented video clips of small- and large-group lessons given by Serling himself at various workshops. Here’s one such clip, thanks to the piracy joy of YouTube.

The keynote speech at the conference was given by the past dean of the Park School of Communication who had access to unedited clips from this series, filmed on a soundstage at I.C. after a moment, so the story goes, where they finally realized the need to capture Serling’s teaching on camera. The man who was “the head of the class” in that last clip said a few words, as well.

I’ll post a few more clips later. There’s something about them, but to say they’re “inspirational” doesn’t seem quite right. There isn’t too much that any writer hasn’t heard a thousand times over (Serling himself would probably say that). But maybe it’s the sense of universality and timelessness in these forty year-old clips.

In any case, I’m still reeling.

Drowning in RSS

So, I’ve been writing so much that I’ve let gobs and gobs of intarwub stuff pile up in my Google Reader. I’ve tried to quit “starring” anything, at least until I got caught up. Yeah, right. I just piled shit into Google Bookmarks.

Anyway, here’s a random sampling of stuff I’ve accumulated, mostly writing related.

1
From Dar Kush (Steven Barnes) on reading.

The point is that your output will be one step down from your input. You can’t read comic books and write classics. Sorry. Here’s a joke I always tell students: ‘If you want to write comic books, read pulp fiction. If you want to write pulp fiction, read popular fiction. If you want to write popular fiction, read bestsellers. If you want to write bestsellers, read classics. And if you want to write classics..? Choose your grandparents very carefully.’

2
Steve Perry on writers workshops (part one of two)

Damon [Knight]’s personal taste is not the same as an intrinsic flaw in the piece, and you have to be able to tell the difference, else you wind up producing stories that please the workshoppers but don’t sell …

Here’s part two.

3
Another POV on critique groups from Bev Vincent.

4
Sarah Monette talks about Five Things I Know About Worldbuilding

5
Paul Jessup writes about The Newbie Writer Cycle.

Jay Lake follows up with The Early Career Writer cycle

6
There is NO….number 6.

7
From Warren’s Bad Signal mail a few weeks ago…

But I did note that apparently the Gene Hunt role in the
ill-advised American remake of LIFE ON MARS is going to
good old Colm Meaney. And god knows Meaney’s made some
crap to pay the mortgage, but he tends to elevate a thing —
or at least let some light into it — just by showing up. So I
might give the remake a look after all, even though it’s
almost guaranteed to be a train wreck…

And there you have it. Vital bits of information that, only by the grace of God, I’ve managed to survive without blogging about until today.