Friends, I had a whole bit to write you today, about metrics and the tyranny thereof, about the importance of casual conversation and soup dumplings, but I can’t write it in the time I have before my ride gets here to sweep me off to World Fantasy in Saratoga Springs. Suffice it to say:
- Writing is big and complicated and it’s easy to cling to metrics (wordcount!! Book sales per convention as sole indicator of con’s value! etc.).
- But writing (and publishing!) are network effects: words look linear but they web to other words (and memories, works of literature, etc.); people connect to other people, conversations to other conversations.
- There are metrics in writing (sunt lacrimae rerum), but whatever metric you choose is just a finger pointing at the moon.
- If you don’t know what I mean about fingers and moons, let Bruce Lee help.
- When you’re trying to maximize for a metric (wordcount, bench press max weight, whatevs.), it’s easy to forget the actual goal, which is: good work? Fitness? (You’ll have to figure out your own goals.)
- I’ve spent whole years stuck on plateaus in my fencing because I focused on one metric—points scored per bout. You might think the number of points scored in a bout is really important, but in training points per bout turns out to be a trailing indicator of quality of form, depth of strategy, psychology, etc.
- That said, ain’t no shame in targeting certain metrics, so long as you understand that’s what you’re doing.
- Obviously, there are moments when you really should be trying to maximize points per bout—e.g. in a tournament or a duel to the death.
- Not that I do that sort of thing.
- Sometimes the most important thing you can do for your writing, or for your life, is step away from the keyboard and go meet a friend for soup dumplings.
That said! Here’s my schedule for the next few days. If you’re NOT going to World Fantasy, the big takeaway for you is that next Tuesday, Nov 10, I’ll be in Cambridge, at Pandemonium Books, signing with Adam Christopher! And there will be booze!:
Wednesday, 7pm, Northshire Books
Tor’s hosting the most star-studded bash you can imagine—just look at that guest list on the link above! I’ll be trying to keep it cool—my reflex in this situation would be to run around asking for autographs. Whee!
Thursday, 2 pm, City Center 2B
Magic is the essential ingredient of Epic Fantasy… except when it isn’t.
Can a story be Epic Fantasy if there isn’t a spell hurling mage? Do all quests need a wizard? The panel will discuss how magic is used in Epic Fantasy and some of the texts that do things a little differently.
Paul Di Filippo (mod.), Max Gladstone, Kate Laity, Amal El-Mohtar, Karl Schroeder
(I expect this panel to answer the first two questions ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in the first five minutes, then move on to larger considerations of how magic functions in epic fantasy, what ‘epic’ means as a genre term anyway, and what, if anything, takes magic’s place when magic’s absent. Should be fun!)
Friday, 6:30 pm, Broadway 1
Reading: Me!
I’ll be reading! I don’t know whether I’ll be reading from Four Roads Cross, or from something even further in the future. If you come, you can contribute to the decision!
Tuesday, 7:00 pm, Pandemonium Books and Games, Cambridge MA
Reading and Signing with Adam Christopher!
Adam Christopher, he of the SHIELD comic, has a new book out, a robot detective novel called Made to Kill that looks fantastic. Come hang out with us! There will be booze! And blood too—at least, presumably those attending will contain blood, but it probably won’t be shed. We hope.
That’s all for this week, though. See y’all at the con!