I'm a hack (and slash) author.

[RangerWickett]

So I was just taking some time to plot the course of the last bit of my novel, and I was typing up some ideas to clarify my scattered thoughts. The novel is about unemployed adventurers who have to deal with real life since they can't be heroes. Well, as I'm working on the plot, I'm trying to decide whether to have event A or B happen first, and I write:

"The first way I have a lot more angst early on, and the climax of the game will be"

And then I stop. I realize I just called my novel a game. This comes on the heels of me visiting my old creative writing professor, who told me I need to get my fiction away from D&D, because it won't sell, and I would be better off creating my own stories.

It amuses me, and frightens me a little. Am I just writing a glorified storyhour? It's not based on a campaign, but it's in the same world that I run my D&D games in.

I think the best advice my professor gave me was that I watch more TV than I read novels. I should focus on trying to work in TV. I'm going to do just that.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

that's pretty common advice, from what I hear. My brother just finished his first novel, and he purposely shied away from reading for the two years he took to write it.

I find my own fiction often seems to be too closely related to my gaming experience, and I need to break away from that.

 

[diaglo]

the stuff i write tends to include a lot of graphs, maps, illustrations, statistics, ...

yup, pretty much why i like D&D too.

 

[John Morrow]

And then I stop. I realize I just called my novel a game. This comes on the heels of me visiting my old creative writing professor, who told me I need to get my fiction away from D&D, because it won't sell, and I would be better off creating my own stories.

Does your "old creative writing professor" like science fiction and fantasy? In my experience with them, a lot of them just don't get the genre and what sells in genre fiction is different than what sells in mainstream fiction. That said, there are some good books written specifically about writing science fiction and fantasy out there and fantasy author Holly Lisle has some good (free) advice on her web site here:

http://www.hollylisle.com/

I think the best advice my professor gave me was that I watch more TV than I read novels. I should focus on trying to work in TV. I'm going to do just that.

Then I hope you live in Southern California. A few years ago, a friend went to a workshop at a science fiction convention hosted by J. Michael Straczynski (who created Babylon 5 and wrote for a lot of other television shows). The friend asked Straczynski, "If you are interested in writing for television, do you have to live in LA?" Straczynski's answer was that you pretty much have to, because if someone calls you up and wants to discuss your script over lunch and you don't live in LA, what are you going to do?

 

[RangerWickett]

Does your "old creative writing professor" like science fiction and fantasy? In my experience with them, a lot of them just don't get the genre and what sells in genre fiction is different than what sells in mainstream fiction.

My professor, Jim Grimsley? He writes sci-fi and fantasy. Though interestingly, the page that tells who he is at my university's website kinda glosses over that fact.

He's writing a Neverwinter Nights module.

 

[John Morrow]

My professor, Jim Grimsley? He writes sci-fi and fantasy.
[...]
He's writing a Neverwinter Nights module.

Fair enough. A lot of college creative writing professors don't like science fiction and don't know how to deal with it. But having read slush pile submissions at a major publisher, my best advice to you would be to make sure that no matter what you write, it grabs your readers attention in the first page or two because otherwise, that's all they may ever read.

 

[takyris]

Rather than say that you should watch TV or not read certain stuff, I'd go with:

1) Read/watch the stuff you want to write
2) Write the stuff you want to read

If what you want to write is gaming fiction, and what you read is gaming fiction (ie, Dragonlance novels, Eberron, Forgotten Realms, and some of the S&S authors that read like gaming fiction rather than epic fantasy), then write that. There's room for it to sell, and you'll be happier with that than writing something you feel you ought to write.

If you don't mind me asking... why do you want to write a story about unemployed adventurers who can't be heroes? Most adventure fiction is about people having adventures, and most people read adventure fiction in order to read about exciting stuff. If I'm reading what you described correctly, then you're writing a kind of anti-adventure novel, a novel that will appeal primarily to people who read gaming fiction enough to recognize your tropes but also want to see a sort of deconstruction of the genre. Is that what you really want to write about? Why?

(Note: Not saying it's a bad idea. Not saying that you shouldn't do it. I'm asking you to justify the amount of time you're going to spend on it.)

The novel I'm outlining right now is (short version) Ocean's Eleven in a fantasy setting and with a lot more swashbuckling action. I'm writing it because I enjoy reading thrillers and heist capers but I also love fantasy, and I'd rather have fun riffing on fantasy tropes than having to research the security layout of actual real-world museums.

So I guess my question to your question is: Are you reading the stuff you want to write, and vice versa, and if not, why not?

 

[Wild Gazebo]

I think you mean 'conventions' every time you say 'tropes'.

Sorry, I guess that's pretty rude. It's just that...I just completed a paper on structuralist rhetoric theory and it bothered me a little. Sorry.

Continue.

 

[takyris]

Why would I talk about fantasy conventions? My novel doesn't involve people standing in line for long periods of time to get an autograph from Orlando Bloom or devote countless panel-hours to arguing about the relative merits of Earthsea Magic versus Runelord Magic.

(cough)

After visiting Dictionary.com, I note that you're absolutely right. My bad. Been misusing that one for years, evidently.

 

[Insight]

Then I hope you live in Southern California. A few years ago, a friend went to a workshop at a science fiction convention hosted by J. Michael Straczynski (who created Babylon 5 and wrote for a lot of other television shows). The friend asked Straczynski, "If you are interested in writing for television, do you have to live in LA?" Straczynski's answer was that you pretty much have to, because if someone calls you up and wants to discuss your script over lunch and you don't live in LA, what are you going to do?

Yep, yep, yep. A writing partner and I tried to sell a screenplay without living in LA and it didn't happen. And this was with contacts in the industry and everything, including the executive producer on Farscape.

Location, unfortunately, is still everything in the TV and Film business. You will have a lot better luck writing novels and trying to get into TV/Film through the side door (as a published author in another media) than trying to write for TV or Film and not live in LA, NY, etc.