I think it is especially beautiful how! punctuation becomes a proxy for stream of consciousness. Where--better than-- a science fiction novel to !flagarantly! emote with punctuation and speculation? Truly; it is as expressive as marsh gas... catching fire.
I am reminded of one Bai Ling's writing (courtesy gofugyourself.com):
Its been hard for me the last few days, my phone keep ringing like crazy, but what did I do? just wish that I could tell the truth to the world, but sometimes you just can't, maybe you have to wait for my book to come out and read, yes I am writing a book, more colors than 7 colors of the rainbow, more exciting stories than you would ever known, more odd turns will take your breath away, more roses will kiss the sexy red lips into your deep brian, just like my gifted life, special, yes special and especially with men......
"Kutch glared into the monster's single neon red eye; his muscular sweaty chest heaving from the exertion of their brawl. In the momentary pause of the battle; a tension fell across the room as each warrior took a moment to regain his composure. They were no longer man and monster, but two beings experiencing mutual pain. The silence was so thick and pervading it was smothering; and Kutch felt a clarity of thought stirring into wakefulness overriding the warnings of his Command Chip.
How many times had his skills and training for fighting monsters left him with nothing but bruises and heart-ache; but never with any kind of pleasure whatsoever? How many times had his professors in the Space Academy said there was no logical way to fight a monster; other than using some kind of skill or training? How many times had they said that other than using some kind of skill; or some kind of training; all you could do was just kind of sit around and hope the monster fell over and died on its own?
Suddenly; Kutch found he could not take his eyes off the taut; slime-covered body of the monster. What were they fighting for anyway? Were they really so different? Kutch laughed; the sound a mixture of pure relief and powerful realization. Damn the professors; they were a thousand billion parsecs away!
The monster; sensing the change turned to run. Were those tears Kutch saw? Tears of understanding? Kutch laughed; and caught the monster's hand. It was so nice to touch without the fear that his skills or training would get in the way. That he could just be himself... and love as others loved.
'Come; monster. We're going to change the way things are done around here; we're going to find a new way to express ourselves.'
And all alone in the darkness of space; man and plasmoidal genetically-engineered sentient fungus exchanged cellular material and were as one."
@crashedpc: Well, I don't know if it would be porno, because I think that takes a modicum of skill. I think it would more likely be just some kind of very awkward rubbing that occurs with minimal brain activity, and which just happens to be followed by orgasm.
What really makes me depressed, is that I (and 9/10ths of regular io9 posters) probably have better stuff just laying about on 3.25 disks in the bottom of our desk drawers, than this guy could dream up in a lifetime... even if we spiked his beloved collection of dog-eared Tek War novels with blotter acid.
Yet, despite posessing the writing skills of a sausage, the man actually managed to sit down at his computer and hammer out 350+ pages of this shit... *plus* work up the balls to submit it to a publisher!
I would like an infusion of this guy's crazy juice. Just enough to cary me through my 12-part epic about the dimension hopping cyber-punk super hackers who build a gigantic computer to fight God.
@Annalee Newitz: How about VR hackers so advanced that their VR ends them up on the Australian aborigine dreamscape, where they fight ancient dream-gods with massive networks of hooked-up people who devote their idle brain processing time to the war effort?
Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of welding an unbalanced washing machine to the CERN hadron collider, in order to create a gigantic swirly Stargate/DS9 type wormhole thingee... and then the super cool mega hackers (who also ride bitchin' skateboards and listen to futuristic thrasher metal while base-jumping off corporate skyscrapers in order to stick it to the man!) build this giagantic steam-driven rocket fist...
Yeah, you heard me! These hackers are so bad-ass they're not just going to fight God, they're going to "one punch" God!
If the first series is successful then I plan on writing another set of 12 novels told from the perpective of the main character's sidekick "Jelly." It'll have nearly two paragraphs worth of new material per novel, and if you read both series back to back, you'll be able to see God get sucker-punched from two totally different angles!!!
@Pope John Peeps II: Screw the hackers and dream gods. I am currently devoting my idle brain processing time to the search for the world's most comfortable pair of pants (SWMCPP). It's like SETI, but not as well known, despite humanity's great need for comfortable pants. We're not talking regular old stretchy sweats or broken in jeans here, we're talking face-meltingly, end sequence of 2001: A space Odyssey, mind bendingly comfortable pants. It's almost a full time job.
@Anekanta: You know, pants don't come fully formed out of the seeds of the almighty pant tree anymore. In modern times there are these skilled craftsmen who actually take individual pant pieces and stitch them together to make a perfectly-fitting garment!
I think what we have all learned from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is that you're more likely to succeed if your concept can be pitched in about one sentence.
Then if an agent asks for a chapter... that's the time you can either impress with your writing or not. I would suggest not trying to impress agents in the letter itself.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of brilliant works that can't be summed up quickly. And that's why a lot of those works took years for the writer to get published. Sideways. Harry Potter. Forrest Gump. Those didn't make good pitch letters, despite the fact that they turned out to be ground breaking.
Once you've already been published, then it's more likely you can pitch something more detailed. Or in the case of the Zombies guy, you can just keep writing the same thing.
The way in which many agents have responded to this whole agentfail thing is unbelievable. Agents make a game out of calling writers stupid, posting their query letters and insulting them, or just joking about how many "godawful" submissions they were forced to sift through in their slushpiles, and the ONE TIME some writers vent because of their extremely reasonable frustration, agents lose their minds! 300 replies. NOT ALL THAT MUCH. NOT A BIG DEAL. It would have been more if people weren't afraid of being blacklisted by agents, which they certainly would have. What does that say?
Certain agents (not naming any names) are still talking about this, and I just can't even believe it.
"OMG its so hard to be an agent!" That's what this whole agent for a day thing is trying to prove. It's this silly, absurd response to agent fail. Yeah, I'm sure its hard. But guess what? It's your full time job. But not only that, it's your career! And you love it. Know what's a lot harder? Being most of the writers in this world who WANT writing to be their full time jobs, but just have to manage to do it on top of their ACTUAL jobs and lives.
Maybe the agents should try writing for a day? Get up at 5 am so you can have time at Starbucks to get some writing done before you go to work, and then go work at a shitty, low paying job you hate until five. Come home after that, cook dinner, and then force yourself to write some more.
I know several writers that do this every day, some who have kids on top of this! And they haven't made it yet, haven't sold their books yet, but I swear to god, I never hear them complain, or bitch, or anything. Because writing is what they love, and no matter how hard it is, they won't give up until they've made it.
OOOOhhhhhh but you have to read bad query letters every day? GASP! However do you manage?
I know some agents are all upset by the fact that some writers are frustrated with them, or even just frustrated with the biz and just taking it out on them. And it's understandable. But the way in which some have reacted is so immature and unbelievable, calling all the commentators on agent fail "whiners and complainers"
It...blows my mind. I'd say the majority of those comments were both fair and constructive criticisms.
As a writer myself, there are several prominent agents involved in this whole thing who I used to really respect, and after this I want nothing to do with them, no matter how talented they may be at what they do. Yes, they deserve respect. Absolutely! They work hard for writers, and are passionate about what they do. But they have to be mutually respectful. No matter how shitty a book is, how shitty a query was, a writer poured their heart and soul into it on top of their own lives, be it school, work, or both. And this is HARD. And unrewarding, especially when all it gets you is being shit on by some condescending prick on their blog.
*TAKES DEEP BREATH*
I swear to god, if I hear about this again my face will melt off.
I sincerely thank you for this comment. Unfortunately our company has decided to move away from the direction of rambly and bitter. But please continue to submit your work to us, we're always open to new ideas.
We apologize for the impersonal manner of this response. Unfortunately, we do not have time to personally reply to every snide and pointlessly negative remark we receive. This is a subjective business, and we wish the best in your search for validation.
It has come to our attention that kitchens are often hot. While I understand how tempting it is to spend time in them, it can often be dangerous. Especially if, like yourself, your body simply cannot take the heat.
All the best,
other guy.
p.s. also that first one was a bit of a joke, but you've obviously got the sensitive dial turned up to 11.
@Pope John Peeps II: Agentfail. Just watch, the NYT best seller list will be topped in 2009 by a book actually titled Rambly and Bitter. It's a buddy cop story.
Ugh, I am so sick of hearing about Agentfail/Queryfail. It was a lame thing for agents to do and they got pissed when writers took the gloves off and did the same thing. There is one agent in particular that keeps bringing it up daily via Twitter. Not to get into it too much, but agents (especially ones that have die-hard fans of their blogs) really need to take a step back and realize that their behavior (on both sides) is really silly.
Rambly is a half-Jewish half-vampire survivor of a world war 2 concentration camp. After escaping to the high arctic and serving with the Finnish national intelligence agency for the better part of the early 21st century, he returns to Jersey to settle down and run a pizza joint. Until he meets Bitter: the manifestation of a dream had once by a precocious chess genius who dies in his sleep. Slowly the two learn valuable lessons about life and love and family.
(In the movie, Rambly is Mickey Rourke and Bitter is Dakota Fanning)
"Kutch is not a typical science fiction-fantasy monster slayer relying on training and experience to take on the unknown."
Kutch raised his eyes from the softly pulsating screen, mind ablaze with the choice he knew he had to follow. Slowly, he raised himself from his Suspens-a-tron 4000 model immersive internet lounger, set aside his nano-cherry wild-blast chicken smoothie and embraced his destiny. Reaching to the communico-panel on the wall with heroic resolve, Kutch did the one thing he knew he could:
04/14/09
04/14/09
I am reminded of one Bai Ling's writing (courtesy gofugyourself.com):
Its been hard for me the last few days, my phone keep ringing like crazy, but what did I do? just wish that I could tell the truth to the world, but sometimes you just can't, maybe you have to wait for my book to come out and read, yes I am writing a book, more colors than 7 colors of the rainbow, more exciting stories than you would ever known, more odd turns will take your breath away, more roses will kiss the sexy red lips into your deep brian, just like my gifted life, special, yes special and especially with men......
([sic], seriously.)
04/14/09
04/14/09
"Kutch glared into the monster's single neon red eye; his muscular sweaty chest heaving from the exertion of their brawl. In the momentary pause of the battle; a tension fell across the room as each warrior took a moment to regain his composure. They were no longer man and monster, but two beings experiencing mutual pain. The silence was so thick and pervading it was smothering; and Kutch felt a clarity of thought stirring into wakefulness overriding the warnings of his Command Chip.
How many times had his skills and training for fighting monsters left him with nothing but bruises and heart-ache; but never with any kind of pleasure whatsoever? How many times had his professors in the Space Academy said there was no logical way to fight a monster; other than using some kind of skill or training? How many times had they said that other than using some kind of skill; or some kind of training; all you could do was just kind of sit around and hope the monster fell over and died on its own?
Suddenly; Kutch found he could not take his eyes off the taut; slime-covered body of the monster. What were they fighting for anyway? Were they really so different? Kutch laughed; the sound a mixture of pure relief and powerful realization. Damn the professors; they were a thousand billion parsecs away!
The monster; sensing the change turned to run. Were those tears Kutch saw? Tears of understanding? Kutch laughed; and caught the monster's hand. It was so nice to touch without the fear that his skills or training would get in the way. That he could just be himself... and love as others loved.
'Come; monster. We're going to change the way things are done around here; we're going to find a new way to express ourselves.'
And all alone in the darkness of space; man and plasmoidal genetically-engineered sentient fungus exchanged cellular material and were as one."
04/14/09
04/14/09
04/14/09
04/14/09
Yet, despite posessing the writing skills of a sausage, the man actually managed to sit down at his computer and hammer out 350+ pages of this shit... *plus* work up the balls to submit it to a publisher!
I would like an infusion of this guy's crazy juice. Just enough to cary me through my 12-part epic about the dimension hopping cyber-punk super hackers who build a gigantic computer to fight God.
04/14/09
04/14/09
04/14/09
Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of welding an unbalanced washing machine to the CERN hadron collider, in order to create a gigantic swirly Stargate/DS9 type wormhole thingee... and then the super cool mega hackers (who also ride bitchin' skateboards and listen to futuristic thrasher metal while base-jumping off corporate skyscrapers in order to stick it to the man!) build this giagantic steam-driven rocket fist...
Yeah, you heard me! These hackers are so bad-ass they're not just going to fight God, they're going to "one punch" God!
If the first series is successful then I plan on writing another set of 12 novels told from the perpective of the main character's sidekick "Jelly." It'll have nearly two paragraphs worth of new material per novel, and if you read both series back to back, you'll be able to see God get sucker-punched from two totally different angles!!!
04/14/09
04/14/09
What wonders hath technology wrought!! HATH!!
04/14/09
I call it "Space Murder".
04/14/09
keeping its speed over fifty. And if its speed dropped, the bus would explode! I think it was called, The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.
04/14/09
04/14/09
Then if an agent asks for a chapter... that's the time you can either impress with your writing or not. I would suggest not trying to impress agents in the letter itself.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of brilliant works that can't be summed up quickly. And that's why a lot of those works took years for the writer to get published. Sideways. Harry Potter. Forrest Gump. Those didn't make good pitch letters, despite the fact that they turned out to be ground breaking.
Once you've already been published, then it's more likely you can pitch something more detailed. Or in the case of the Zombies guy, you can just keep writing the same thing.
04/14/09
04/14/09
Certain agents (not naming any names) are still talking about this, and I just can't even believe it.
"OMG its so hard to be an agent!" That's what this whole agent for a day thing is trying to prove. It's this silly, absurd response to agent fail. Yeah, I'm sure its hard. But guess what? It's your full time job. But not only that, it's your career! And you love it. Know what's a lot harder? Being most of the writers in this world who WANT writing to be their full time jobs, but just have to manage to do it on top of their ACTUAL jobs and lives.
Maybe the agents should try writing for a day? Get up at 5 am so you can have time at Starbucks to get some writing done before you go to work, and then go work at a shitty, low paying job you hate until five. Come home after that, cook dinner, and then force yourself to write some more.
I know several writers that do this every day, some who have kids on top of this! And they haven't made it yet, haven't sold their books yet, but I swear to god, I never hear them complain, or bitch, or anything. Because writing is what they love, and no matter how hard it is, they won't give up until they've made it.
OOOOhhhhhh but you have to read bad query letters every day? GASP! However do you manage?
I know some agents are all upset by the fact that some writers are frustrated with them, or even just frustrated with the biz and just taking it out on them. And it's understandable. But the way in which some have reacted is so immature and unbelievable, calling all the commentators on agent fail "whiners and complainers"
It...blows my mind. I'd say the majority of those comments were both fair and constructive criticisms.
As a writer myself, there are several prominent agents involved in this whole thing who I used to really respect, and after this I want nothing to do with them, no matter how talented they may be at what they do. Yes, they deserve respect. Absolutely! They work hard for writers, and are passionate about what they do. But they have to be mutually respectful. No matter how shitty a book is, how shitty a query was, a writer poured their heart and soul into it on top of their own lives, be it school, work, or both. And this is HARD. And unrewarding, especially when all it gets you is being shit on by some condescending prick on their blog.
*TAKES DEEP BREATH*
I swear to god, if I hear about this again my face will melt off.
04/14/09
I sincerely thank you for this comment. Unfortunately our company has decided to move away from the direction of rambly and bitter. But please continue to submit your work to us, we're always open to new ideas.
sincerely,
this guy.
04/14/09
We apologize for the impersonal manner of this response. Unfortunately, we do not have time to personally reply to every snide and pointlessly negative remark we receive. This is a subjective business, and we wish the best in your search for validation.
All the best,
THIS guy
04/14/09
It has come to our attention that kitchens are often hot. While I understand how tempting it is to spend time in them, it can often be dangerous. Especially if, like yourself, your body simply cannot take the heat.
All the best,
other guy.
p.s. also that first one was a bit of a joke, but you've obviously got the sensitive dial turned up to 11.
04/14/09
04/14/09
@5AMfrenchtoast:
Ugh, I am so sick of hearing about Agentfail/Queryfail. It was a lame thing for agents to do and they got pissed when writers took the gloves off and did the same thing. There is one agent in particular that keeps bringing it up daily via Twitter. Not to get into it too much, but agents (especially ones that have die-hard fans of their blogs) really need to take a step back and realize that their behavior (on both sides) is really silly.
04/14/09
04/14/09
Rambly is a half-Jewish half-vampire survivor of a world war 2 concentration camp. After escaping to the high arctic and serving with the Finnish national intelligence agency for the better part of the early 21st century, he returns to Jersey to settle down and run a pizza joint. Until he meets Bitter: the manifestation of a dream had once by a precocious chess genius who dies in his sleep. Slowly the two learn valuable lessons about life and love and family.
(In the movie, Rambly is Mickey Rourke and Bitter is Dakota Fanning)
04/14/09
04/14/09
When you open it, a microchip yells in 5amfrenctoast's voice "HOW'D YOU LIKE THEM APPLES?!"
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04/14/09
04/14/09
Kutch raised his eyes from the softly pulsating screen, mind ablaze with the choice he knew he had to follow. Slowly, he raised himself from his Suspens-a-tron 4000 model immersive internet lounger, set aside his nano-cherry wild-blast chicken smoothie and embraced his destiny. Reaching to the communico-panel on the wall with heroic resolve, Kutch did the one thing he knew he could:
-Hello; police!
04/14/09
04/14/09
That sentence is pure win, and my new Facebook status.
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Nothing; except exclamation points!
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04/14/09
PS. braak's novel comes with Benjamin Franklin, if ya know what I mean.
04/14/09
04/14/09