Micro-Magazines: Future or Fad of Media

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Seth Godin (among others) proposes that Micro-magazines are the Future of Media.  He defines a Micro-magazine as:

Being digital (probably a PDF), that's free to 'print', fast to make and easy to share. (Newsweek spends seventeen million dollars a year on paper.)




Having subscribers, either by email or RSS




Focused on issues that appeal to some, but not all




Having a very specific audience (call it a tribe)




Enabling that tribe to connect by sharing the ideas in the magazine among them, as well as supporting it with a forum or blog




Containing ads that are relevant to that audience




Being longer than 140 characters or even a blog post, so significant ideas can be exposed in detail (Seth Godin)

This is not a new idea, it is an old one. So let's start by calling them what they are.  Every time I see the word Micro-Magazine I really want to say Micromachines and John Moschitta, Jr.  I feel like I need to start talking as fast as I possibly can.  What we are really talking about are Zines: Extremely focused magazines made by people you have a strong interest in the subject for people with a strong interest in the subject.

I know some people won't like my use of Zine here.  To them, they think of poorly photocopied, saddle-stitched pamphlets someone cooked up in their mother's basement.  I think of the periodicals I always loved to read, and looked forward to more than any other.  To each their own, but we cannot have this discussion unless we are honest with ourselves.  What we are really talking about is the professionalizing of Zine publication.  Low cost, quality content for a focused audience.

That said, let's look at each of Seth's points individually:

Being digital

Agreed.  Future of media is digital publishing.

File Format

I call upon all Gods and Devils to prevent the PDF from being the format of the future!

The format of the future is going to be variable.  It needs to be available on the web, as a download, as an app for our favorite mobile device, and print on demand.  It needs to be available in every format a reader may want to read it in.  Conversly, there needs to be a singular tool for the publisher to post once and have the content appear every where.

Sharing

The format need to be easy to share.  One button click to all our favorite networks, to email, and to print.  How ever the reader wants to share it, out it goes.

Subscriptions

Why do podcasts work?  1 click subscriptions.

The platform will need to have the ability to allow the reader to subscribe in the manner of their choosing in one click and to have the content auto-delivered.  Email and RSS already exist, it is possible though not easy to make a mobile app, but it also needs to be added automatically to our Kindles, iBook shelf, or to be mailed via a print on demand.  Options are the solution.

Focused Content

The content needs to be focused.  That is why we offer the new minisites on dashPunk so people who are only interested in a particular subject can find that content easier.

The days of Mass Media are for the most part over.  The long term future in in producing content that will appeal to a niche audience and evangelizing for the importance of niche to bring more people in.

A Tribe of its own

Some topics appeal to a lot of people, others don't.  The trick is to find a way to get your tribe to support the Zine no matter the size.

It is also important to let your tribe talk to itself.  The more people involved the stronger the Zine will be for it.

Monetization

Awwwww, I said a dirty word.

I would really like to be a utopian, but everything costs money, and thus has to make money to succeed.  It is a hard truth to face, but that's the deal.  If I want to give my content away for free, I have to sell ads to cover the cost, and hope that my readers will support my sponsors and affiliates, shop in my Amazon Stores, and buy my books.

I know that this is a great place to link out to these thinks, but I feel like that would violate my contract with my readers.  I am not posting to advertise the ways I make money, but to share thoughts I find interesting.  I know I can tell went someone is pushing a sale and I think you all can to.  That is a lesson I think more writers need to learn.

Content Collection and Exploring Ideas

This is the Holy Grail.

• The Problem: (Content) longer than 140 characters or even a blog post, so significant ideas can be exposed in detail


• The Solution: The Link.

Hypertext does this really well.  The MMO Aoin does this very well in that all Mission text is linked to dictionary articles, which link to the game's UI.  I never leave the game to find out more information.  I can easily surface this information if I want to, but it doesn't clutter the game if I am not interested.

Google Living Stories is an interesting model for this, but it is not polished enough to be useful yet, but it is movement in the right direction.

Scribd has also delivers some of these features, but in isolation of any of the other content.

My Dream WordPress Project

Everyone has their favorite Open Source project.  Mine is WordPress.  I would love to see a BuddyPress scale open source project to bring these features into WordPress in a way that is simple and easy to use.  If there are any developers out there interested in starting this project.  I will set up a site and start gathering resources for it.

We can build a better media for the future, we just need to put our heads together and make it happen.

What dejla taught me about writing

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There are times when I forget what it's all about, and I need a reminder:

That's the joy of fanfic. It's not a career, it's not a job, it's not something you slog at 9 to 5. It's something you choose to do because it delights you. You get the pictures out of your head and onto the page, and then, sometimes, you share them. Sometimes you don't, like Emily Dickinson, but even if you don't, you wrote them because you wanted to. Because it was exciting to see the words on the page (dejla).

All writing should be like that!!  All of it!

Before I got into it with my sister about my future as a writer, I used to write like that.  But she told me I had to buckle down and get serious or give it up... so I did.

I remember when writing was fun, but it hasn't been for a long time.  I don't want to let her down, so I doubled down and started looking at my writing as a career... that was a big mistake.

Every writer needs to stay connected to their passions.  I lost my way and now I find it really hard to write.  I have to go back to basics and fall in love all over again.

Thank you dejla.  I needed a good swift kick in the ass.

Transgender and Androgyny in Speculative Fiction

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My new story is in trouble.  A lot of trouble.  I can not figure out what I want it to be about.  I really want to do something different, something I want to read, something I want to see, and I've learned that I am a hard target audience.

I only know one thing about the story, I want it to have a drag cabaret in it and I want to play around with gender in a way I've never done before.  I want the character list to include at least 1 drag queen, 1 transgender, and 1 androgyn.  It is hard to deal with this in a way the average reader will be able to cope.

Pronouns and gender words are posing a problem for me.  Also introducing the characters in a way that tells the readers who these characters are without a "coming out" scene or using unflattering language.

When I read iambic kilometer's META: Five+ Ways Being Transgender in Fandom Really Sucks, and Why I Stick With It Anyway, I felt an ache within me to work even harder to get this right.

The trans character is to one I am having the more trouble developing, so I might drop her from the roster.  Is it better to do a questionable job with a character or to leave them out?  I'm not really sure, but I need to figure that out.

Testing a Setting

Yesterday, I finished the first draft of a test story for a new setting I am developing.  Wow, that was a vague sentence, but it sounded like I really said something didn't it.

I liked it.  I haven't written an Urban Dark (Gothic) Fantasy since 1996.  I blame Emerian for my return to Horror writing.  I love the genre, abandoning it only after I felt trapped in the rules and requirements it puts on fiction.

After my near breakdown in November, and the many months of recovery, I realized that I am tired of playing by everyone else's rules.  I have always been bound to one system or expectations.  The world I grew up in is gone, and there is little to nothing I can do to bring it back.  I have to just pick up from the mess that exists now and move forward.

If I can be allowed a cliché: "Be the change you want to see."

A couple weeks ago, I started working on an idea.  It was strange and scared me a bit.  Unlike anything I have ever written, I didn't have a model, or genre to define it.  I am not claiming that it is original.  I am sure somewhere someone has written something like it, but it is mine.  It is the type of story I want to read.

Form

My biggest hurdle has been getting beyond the structures of the novel and the short story.  I agree with H P Lovecraft that the best fiction is pulled off with the same craft as a well devised hoax.  So I started playing around with ways to tell a strory directly and from oblique angles.  I would love to share some of these stories, but they may be included in the final project, so I don't want to release them early.

My biggest inspiration comes from comics.  I love the shared universe, and I would love to find some writers to help me out on this project.  The idea of the setting as hero mashed up with characters that readers will really care about excites me.  In the end I would like this story to spawn blogs, vlogs, and podcasts set in the world, expanding it holding to the canon.

I have never been accused of dreaming too small, LOL.

Test Everything!

If I had any advice for the writers out there it is this.  Test everything!  If you get an idea, no mater how outlandish, bizarre, or out of the mainstream.  Give it a try.  See how it comes out, then move forward based on the results.  I have found a new setting I love writing in.  Who knows what you will find.

A Rose by any other name

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A new story is boiling in my mind.  It scrapes at the inside of my skull like Athena trying desperately to get out.  The cast of characters came to me quickly, but they needed names.

...names...

Sometimes, I feel like names are the bane of all authors.  They have to fit the character and the setting, and work well with each other.  That might sound simple, but for me it spirals into a series of questions just short of the Spanish Inquisition.

Eric's First Rule of Naming

No character in the story can have the same name as a member of my immediate family.

That is hard.  In this particular story, there is a character that feels like a Christopher and another who feels like a Donna, but my sister's name is Chris and my mother-in-law's name is Donna, so both of those names are out.

I made this rule when I was really young, when family thought characters with the same name were really ways to talk about them.  (sigh)

There is a practical reason for this too.  Writers can be sued if people think characters in their stories are based on them.  It makes naming a bit challenging for me, but it is a wise thing to do.

Eric's Second Rule of Naming

Names must flow together well.

Flow is a hard thing to talk about.  The easiest way to think of name flow is that the names need to sound like they belong together.  Families and regions have certain naming conventions, and as a Speculative Fiction writer, determining those conventions are important.

Older fiction didn't bother with this, so we ended up with names like Blork, Gort, and Xanthon.  Names that sounded outlandish, but were just weird.

H. P. Lovecraft thought a lot about the names of the creatures in his fiction.  Cthulhu for example is based on the greek work Cthon which means underground, and he intentionally wanted something that was hard to pronounce and that would be pronounced differently by everyone.  He thought it helped to lend the character an unknowable and alien quality.

Eric's Third Rule of Naming

Love the names you choose.

Writing a novel or series is akin to marriage.  You are going to spend every moment of every day with these characters rummaging around in your head.  It can take months or even years to write and edit a story.  It is a commitment.  Make sure you are committed to the names you choose so you don't end up with a Dwigt in your manuscript.

The really real reason why science fiction is dying

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Paul Jessup thinks he knows why Science Fiction is dying:

Heinlien. Asimov.  At the latest, Orson Scott Card (but mostly just for Ender’s Game). I don’t see anyone ever looking for something new...

This is why SF is spiraling downward in sales. It’s fans just aren’t buying it anymore. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I love Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, etc. so I don’t mind that it’s popular and selling. But some part of me wonders- is SF meant to be kept in the past? Is that why Steampunk is so popular right now, because it’s an emulation of the past? I’m not sure. But this is a problem (Paul Jessup).

Is classicism the problem?  Well, it is part of it, but it is only one of many.

Lessons Lost

The biggest problem SF has is that the industry didn't learn from the New Wave SF of the 60's and 70's.  These authors, most notably Harlan Ellison and Ray Bradbury, didn't allow themselves to be constrained by the limits of industry enforced genre.  There stories were a little bit science, a little bit fantasy, a little bit horror.  The incorporated whatever they thought they needed into their stories to make them good.

Genre has become increasingly rigid.  Publishers forgot that Speculative Fiction is the literature of the imagination.  It once explored the question, "What if" without any limits save those of the author's imagination.  As the genres stiffened, sales have continued to go down.

Lack of Imagination

This genre lock is not the only problem facing SF.  Have you seen any of the marketing for new fiction?  No?  You are not alone.

If a new classic is published and no one knows about it, will it make any sales?  Yes, among the author's friends and family.  That is about it.

Publishers and authors need to find new ways to generate excitement about new titles, but that is not enough.  Fans need to find better venues to share and spread the word about their favorite new books.

Bless me, for I have sinned

I have to admit that I really haven't read any new books in a long time.  With the exception of Night's Knights, Brave Men Run, and Burning Skies.  These don't count because I read them after meeting the authors.  I also don't count the Harry Potter books or franchise fiction.  Personally, I find it too hard to find new books to read.

As a writer, I feel like I am confessing a mortal sin.  I want to read more, but I am not sure where to find new books.

I've thought about reviewing books myself, but I don't feel like I have the time to wade through the weeds to find the books.

So, I ask you.  Where do you find out about new books?  How can we promote SF books better?

Amazon settles in Antitrust lawsuit

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Is this really a reason to celebrate?

The Booklocker suit was in response to a decision by Amazon to make all print-on-demand publishers use its BookSurge (now CreateSpace) division if they want to sell their titles directly on the Amazon Web site or face the removal of their buy button. Under the agreement, Amazon agreed to not remove Booklocker books from its Web site or to remove the “Add to Shopping Cart” button. Amazon, which admitted to no wrongdoing, also agreed to pay $300,000 in attorney’s fees (Publishers Weekly).

I don't think so.

Amazon gets to admit no wrongdoing, and pay what for them is a tiniest of tiny fractions of what they make an hour...

This maybe good news for Booklocker, but what about the other Print-on-demand providers?  I assume they are covered, and I hope to Uma Thurman that I am right.

The Publishing industry is changing, and we need new rules.

(via File 770)

Do we need $4.00 Books

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Mark Coker over at the Huffington Post wrote an interesting post calling for Publishers and Authors to move to a $4.00 eBook.

Here in the U.S., most consumers already think twice before shelling out $7.50, $15.00 or $30.00 for a good read. If a book at the current prices represents a big purchase for citizens of the world's most affluent economy, imagine the cost burden for the vast majority of the world's literate people (Mark Coker).

It is not hard to agree with the idea that books cost too much.  $5-$10 seems to be the sweet spot for books.  When Liquid Sky first came out, the book cost $20, and it was not easy to sell.

Imagine how hard it is to walk up to people and say, "Hi, you don't know me, but could you give me $20 to know me better?"  Try it some time and be prepared for rejection.

After we split the book up, each volume is now around $8, and they sold well.  The lower price point really helped sell the book.  I am curious about the idea of $4 books, but I think that price point is more of a macguffin than a real price.

Affordable Access = Smaller Books

By offering customers a cheaper, smaller and less expensive format, publishers expanded the available market for their books and enabled a larger number of readers to gain access to affordable reads (Mark Coker).

That is the key.  Smaller and cheaper formats.  Lower the cost of a book would require shrinking the size of the book.

The industry started looking for smaller books a little while ago.  Personally, I have focused on serializing my work so I can still tell the complex stories I love and still keep the word count down.  I am not sure there is another way to lower costs.

eBooks require readers

Ebooks also hold the promise to expand the worldwide market for books. Hundreds of millions of new middle class and literate consumers have come online outside the US, especially in developing countries.

...

Since it costs the author or publisher next to nil to "print" each copy of an ebook, ebooks are extremely profitable on a per-unit basis, even at a low selling price (Mark Coker).

I agree that ebooks are cheaper to make, but the cost to the average reader is just too high for now.

Most people do not like read books on their laptop or desktop computer, so to sell to they need to get an ebook reader.  The Kindle costs between $300 and $490, while the Sony ebook reader costs $300.  For $300, you get the reader... that's it... books are extra

Books are not music

The industry needs to realize that books are not music.  We were used to spending money for a discman to listen to our cds, so when Apple introduced the iPod and iTunes, it was natural for us to buy an iPod instead of a discman.  It was easier to use, and so we bought it.

We are use to just buying books and using them.  The psychological barrier to purchasing an ebook reader is much harder to get over.

For $300 ebook reader, we could buy:

• 40 books for $7.50


• 20 books for $15.00


• 10 books for $30.00

Lets just take the average of 23 books.  The reader asks themselves: "Should I buy 1 ebook reader or 23 books?"  Which would you do as a reader?

For ebooks to catch on, Amazon and Sony need to offer book credits with the purchase of their readers.  It is easier to spend $300 on an ebook reader if you get 20 free books.  The reader would be a loss leader, and they would make up the difference on the sales of books through the device.  If they implemented this solution, readers would go mainstream.

Until something like that happens, the iPhone, Courier Pad, and Android devices are the only hope for ebooks long term survival.

Range of Formats

Not all books should be priced at $4.00. Publishers should segment their markets to ensure they're delivering a range of products and formats that offer the target customer value that exceeds each price point (Mark Coker).

Agreed.  For now, the best model appears to be:

• $ free ebook to promote the book. (American Gods sales increased 300% because of the free copy, Paul Krugman agrees)


• $ low ebook (so readers can show support, $0.10 per 1,000 words sounds fair)


• $ middle paperback


• $ premium hardcover

State of the industry

Some might argue book publishing isn't in trouble, as evidenced by the industry's continued growth. True, the industry has grown in recent years at 1.6 percent annually between 2002 and 2008, according the Association of American Publishers. Yet this growth is a mirage. Publishers are maintaining the illusion of growth by increasing prices. If we adjust for inflation, unit book sales have been in decline for many years (Mark Coker).

Writers, like myself, need to look to the future, and find a way to keep our industry alive.

(via Personanondata)

 

Do you want text, audio or video?

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Sonia Simone over at Copyblogger asked an interesting question: Is Writing Obsolete?

I have been asking the same question for a long time now.  I love to write and read, but as the amount of time I have dwindles, I find myself relying more and more on audio and video.

Blogs

I love text on blogs.  It is scanable and I can know right away if I want to read the rest, but there is something about unedited video that I find extremely compelling.

Some of my favorite blogs are little more than webcam videos of people talking about topics I find interesting.  They are personal, and the context clues the voice and face offers is matchless.

I've thought about doing more videos for dashPunk, but I am put off by the idea that no one would really want to watch me talk.

I like audio.  We post all of our podcasts to the site, and people spend more time than I thought they would listening through the site.

Books

My biggest problem writing lately is that I am not sure what the future of fiction should be.  I really enjoy writing novels.  I want them to be so much more.

I am working with an audio engineer to make full cast audio productions of my books., and I have thought about offering a version read my me.

Honestly, I would love to make a video series out of them, but I would have to find a filmmaker to help out.

What do you want?

Are you interested in Text, Audio, or Video?

A Story with 3 Genres

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An idea hit me. One that I love. One that I really want to write, but I have one little problem...

I am not sure what genre to set it in!! The basic idea is to explore spirituality, power, and the power of relationships to save people.

I know that is a little vague, but it is a complex story with a generic outline that spans four novels at the moment.

My biggest problem is that I can see the story existing in three different settings

1. My existing Barrens End setting, where Liquid Sky, Fate's Harrow, and Shine like Thunder take place.


2. A new modern supernatural horror setting that would be somewhere between the Vampire Chronicles, Harry Potter, and the Cthulu Mythos.


3. A unique hybrid fantasy setting, a kind of sword and sorcery/dark fantasy/supernatural horror/steampunk thing.

I can honestly see the story in each of these settings, and how each will affect the plot. I am partly looking for comments, and part thinking out loud. I am really unsure which way to go.

What would you all like to see?  I am really open to suggestions

When there is no dark side...

The oldest foe of humanity has to be the demon of time management.  It stalks the wasted minutes and hours of our lives.  Temples are built for its glory and those few souls who struggle to capture the beast are more often than not left wounded and disoriented from their encounter.

Some say it is not worth fighting, "Ignore the creature and he will ignore you.  Just go about your business and hope it does not notice you and attempt to devour you."

Other say, "He is a gentle beast, tamed with the lightest whisper."

Then their are those who truly frighten me who say, "Submit to the demon as your lord and master.  Allow him to dictate every facet of your life.  You will be better for it."

In my life, I have been all of these people, but the work has become increasingly difficult.

The Compromise

"Demon! You will tell me what is required from me, and I will tell you what is a benefit to me, and what is a curse."

It's admittedly not the best plan, but it is one that has worked for a while.  I look at the mountain of To do's, and I do a pros and cons list.  What is the upside and what is the downside?  Focusing on the items with the most upsides in my benefit if completed or the most downsides if left undone, I was able to tame the beast for quite some time.

Then it found a new angle to attack me from.  Projects started cropping up that inevitably balanced on the scales.  The system broke.

The decision rests with you...

From a slobbering brute who assailed me with fears, doubts, and risk, the demon morphed into Klaatu from The Day the Earth Stood Still, except both paths it offered offer the same benefits and the same risks,  and there is not enough time or energy available to me to accomplish both simultaneously.  Then with a cleaver grin the beast said, "The decision rests with you."

None of my tricks work anymore, and thw quandry makes my head swim in so many directions that I don't know where to go or what to do.

This is not untraveled ground for me.  It is a path that I know all too well.  I continually find myself in these predicaments.

In a limitless world, you are your only limit.

As I have said many times, the blessing and curse of the modern era is that anything is possible.  With so many possibilities it is hard to figure out which way to go, what path to go down.

So here I am.  The schedule is packed.  Between the podcasts, blogging, and novel requirements I have little to no time to turn around and see what I should do or where I should go.  None of it is an easy decision.  I feel guilty when I neglect any of these projects and I love and enjoy doing all of them.

How do I get out of here?

Well, part of it seems easy, and the rest fills me with fear and trepidation.

I have two stories wrestling in my head, and I am going to do the only thing I can: work on both of them.  I am going to post the ideas as they develop on this site, and grow them toward the novels they could become.  As for everything else, I am just going to have to let go.

I have been afraid to watch Merlin out of fear that it would spawn a new podcast from dashPunk.  If it does it does.  I am just going to have to do as much as I can.

To quote Queensryche:

The art of life is ...
without rushing, without faltering, unraveling the secrets of knowledge.
We must challenge and defeat our four natural enemies;
Fear.
Clarity of mind.
Power and the desire to rest.

Free Ebooks boost Sales, but How?

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Victoria found this interesting Fact about giving away a free eBook of your novel.

... a doctoral student, John Hilton, is collecting data on the sales impact of ebook giveaways...

...While four of the five Random House books Hilton identified showed an uptick in sales post-e-version, 20 of 24 Tor titles showed a decrease. Why the difference? "One possible explanation is that by making the free books available for only one week a different dynamic was present [for Tor] than when the books were made permanently available [by Random House]," Hilton says. "The opportunity for word-of-mouth to spread about the free book may have been significantly diminished in the model used by Tor (Writer Beware Blogs!)."

Permanently Free= Word of Mouth

The study is finished but the difference between permanently giving away a free eBook increases sales while a limited time free eBook didn't.  The trick to building any audience or community is word of mouth.  My question is, how much do you giveaway?  I am not talking about whether or not to give away the whole book or just a sample, I am more interested in when is a good time to start giving away the book.

Writing in public

I have been toying around with the idea of writing a book in public.  I am in the process of developing a new novel, and I have been thinking about making the development and the writing public.  The question for me is how.  I can see a couple options:

1. Set up a free blog and allow anyone to read and comment on the ideas, outlines and drafts.


2. Set up a paid blog and allow anyone who preorders the book to read and comment on the ideas, outlines and drafts.

I like the second model best because it would weed out people who do not like my work at all, and it would allow my fans to be a part of the the writing process.  I do not usually release hardcovers, so maybe I could make a signed hard cover the preorder book.  Maybe I could even set up a gold membership that would offer an exclusive copy of the prewriting in print too.

What do you think?

No one writes alone

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I have a lot in common with David Halpert over at Scifi Watch.

I have always been a writer too.  For me, It started when I was a kid watching He-man and the Transformers.  I started writing and drawing my own comics.

I fell in love with books when my sister bought me the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Mark Twain.  I started telling stories for my AD&D club, and my preferences were always Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance.

I never thought about writing a book before I read Dragon Singer by Anne McCaffrey.  That book changed the way I saw novels.

The Internet changed my writing

Before I wrote Liquid Sky, I agreed with David:

Realistically I’m all alone when it comes to achieving my goals of getting published (and hopefully to one day write full-time) [SciFi Watch].

Now, I see the error in that way of thinking.  I am not alone in my writing goals.  I have my readers, friends, and fans to help me get where I want to go.

It depends on your goals

If your goal is to garner the approval of publisher so a corporation will pat you on the head and say, "Good job." at least once, then this system might not work for you.  But if your like me, with a compulsion to write and a desire to get your stories out for others to read in the hopes that it will become a full time career, then give it a try.

Writing and fandom...

are forever connected one with the other.

If you have a story to tell:

• write it


• edit it


• polish it


• share it for the world to read


• connect with your readers


• grow your readership


• hone your writing


• repeat

You are not alone in your writing.  Today, there is a cloud of readers who can and will help you build and audience and support your work.

Never believe that you are alone.

The Cult of Done Manifesto

I have fallen in love with this idea. It is time to bring an join to the Cult of Done!

I am inspired to let go a little more and release works into the wild so others can do more with them.

(via Bowing to the Future)

Myth Makers

All well written Speculative Fiction tales are a part of the fabric of the new mythology.  This is true whether the author meant it or not.  Every story we see/hear/watch is unconsciously compared to the stories we live by.  If the new story aligns with, adds to, alters, or changes that story, it has become a part of an individual's personal mythology.  Simply calling something myth or mythos does not make it so.  Only when that alchemy occurs and the story is adopted by others does the story become myth.

Pure Mythology

While that may sound pretentious or mystifying, it is, in fact, a plain statement of fact:  Pure mythology...

• is fiction that gives the reader/viewer a true experience of being alive.


• is drawn from the archetypal well of dream that invests meaning into the text.


• is written in such a way that it connects with the reader to impart clues to understanding profound mysteries.

Any writer who truly engages their imagination in the creation of their work does all three of these things, often without conscious thought or action to do so.

When a writer or artist is set free of commercial and popular demands, and allowed to penetrate and explore their own creative vision, the result can be pure unencumbered art.  The more corporate the art of writing becomes, the less interesting, and true the result.

Many fans are tired of the homogenized work that is becoming more and more common in the industry.  We do not need another company driven by profit margins, or another author whose self-important propaganda obscures the art.  We need writers and artists that love what they are doing.  That is why we are here.  We are looking for something better.

Return of the Cultural Cycle

As we discussed in the Project: Shadow Manifesto, In the era before copyright, "stories, heroes, melodies, and lyrics belonged to the people.  Stories were told, and retold.  Numerous visions of each story competed against each other.  The best were remembered, collected, retold, embellished, and built upon.  The rest were forgotten."

Stories used to have to fight for the attention and memory of  the populous.  Now they fight for the attention of an editor or producer who is often more interested in making a quick buck than telling a great story.  But things are changing!

The advent of the internet and the various methods of print on demand have opened up the floodgates for anyone to publish a story, movie, or song that wants too.  We are returning to the old survival of the fittest model but with one major difference.  We lack the common space for this free exchange of stories to take place.

Only a small fraction of YouTube's traffic searches for the video they watch.  Most rely on others.  And when it comes to text or audio, where do you go to find what you are looking for.  The chance of discovery has increased, but so have the odds against being able to find something new.

For the vital role of the Cultural Cycle to return, we have to discover new and better ways to enable discovery of the new stories.

Copyright, not the only problem

Each generation must retell the tales of the preceding generations in their own context to keep them relevant.  This cycle has been broken by copyright, but this is not the only problem facing us.

• We are not teaching writers to create lasting works.


• We have not made it easy to find these works.


• We have not made it easy to share these works.


• We have yet to find a way for these to writers to easily make a living from their work without repeating the problems of the past.

And there is one last problem, and its a big one:

Marketing Mythos

The word “Myth” has become a marketing term.


It has gotten so bad that people have started rebelling against the very notion of myth making, assuming it is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

We have to fight this trend and realize that myths are just the stories that give our live a sense of meaning and purpose.  Without them, life is dreary hollow place.  To quote the Manifesto again:

We need writers and artists that love what they are doing.

We need fans who are not afraid to speak their minds.

We need places in our towns/cities and online where we can meet and share the few gems that we find from the industry and from the independent artist, writers, and filmmakers who are still following their bliss rather than the dollar.

Now we need to look at what a myth really is, and how we can spread them easily.

Literature of Change

We have discussed What Speculative Fiction is, What makes it Progressive, and Why it is important that it is progressive,  but now it is vitally important to clarify some key points about the nature of Progressive Speculative Fiction.  There are two equally disastrous paths we can take from here.  As with everything in life, we have to find the middle path between the opposites:

• The Light Side: Everything is great, and will only get better.  The future will be a universally happy place.  We are heading towards a utopia.


• The Dark Side: Entropy rules the world and things are only getting worse.  The future will be a gloomy and sinister place.  We are heading towards a distopia.

Both are extremes, and neither can ever paint a valid world that has any grounding in reality.

Does Speculative Fiction have to be gloomy?

Damien G Walter at the Guardian wrote a fascinating article about the utopian and distopian sins of Science Fiction (read it here).  He asks the basic question that I would love to paraphrase: Does Speculative Fiction have to be gloomy?

From the recent releases, you might assume the answer is a yes, but it doesn't have to be.

Gloomy has its place in any story, but if that story only strikes one note throughout, then it become boring, and the audience looses interest.  We can see this trend with Lost and Heroes, but shows like Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, and Sanctuary show that it s possible to strike a happy median.

Sometimes a story has to be bleak and gloomy throughout to make the point, like 1984 by George Orwell, but more often then not writers take the gloom to an unnecessary extreme.

The challenge for writers of science fiction today is not to repeat the same dire warnings we have all already heard, or to replicate the naive visions of the genres golden age, but to create visions of the future people can believe in (The Guardian).

Must SF fix the worlds problems?

Kathryn Cramer at Tor had an interesting take on Damien's post (read it here):

I view science fiction partly as a set of perceptual tools we take with us into the world. I don’t think SF can be held responsible for finding solutions to all the world’s problems, but I think it is SF’s task to help us understand them (Tor).

Whether or not the writer understands or believes it, all fiction is a perceptual filter that shows their readers/viewers the world from a certain point of view.  People are influenced by these perspectives to differing degrees.  The quality of the fiction plays a part in that, but so too does the structure and discipline of the reader/viewer's mind.

It is too much to ask any writer to solve the world's problems in their work, but they have to understand that they are responsible for show the cost and consequences of their character's actions.

For example, we like to believe that people are born good or evil, and that it is alright to be amoral from time to time.  This is why so many people reacted negatively to George Lucas' edits of the original Star Wars Trilogy and the addition of the prequel.  He clarified Han Solo's morality and showed how a good person can become evil.  In fact, it has been argued by C. S. Lewis and others that their truly is no such thing as evil.  There is only vile, horrible, and misguided attempt to do good.  If you look at most of the "monsters" in history, they are people who thought they were doing good even though they wrought horrors on the world.

It is the job of every writer to show that every action has an effect.

A Positive Science Fiction Platform?

Jason Staddard over at Strange and Happy put forth his Stranger and Happier: A Positive Science Fiction Platform.  While it is well intentioned, I think it swings the pendulum too far in the other direction.  Let's go through the planks in the platform.

Positive science fiction starts with acknowledging that there are positive things happening, now (Strange and Happy).

Is this necessary? No.

Often an SF writer will start here, but others will start with the fear of the current situation or from the perspective that the current state of affairs in beyond saving, and impose a new solution to avert the mistakes the present state could lead too.

• Star Trek starts with a world war and global catastrophe that nearly brought about another dark age.


• Lestat saw the system of mandated belief an filial duty as corrupt and corrupting.  It wasn't until he became a vampire that he started looking for a better way.

That does not mean we should ignore this plank, but simply take it as advise rather than a rule.

Positive science fiction is about the possibility of positive change (Strange and Happy).

Absolutely.  In the Project: Shadow Manifesto, I call this simply "hope for the future."  Things can get better, but that doesn't mean they are destined to.  If there is no hope, there is nothing at stake for the characters and no tension in the story (What is Progressive SF?)

Positive science fiction has a protagonist or protagonists that can effect change (Strange and Happy).

Definitely.  This is the problem I have pointed to time and time again with SF media, and why I didn't like Battlestar Galactica for a long time.

This ties directly into hope.  If it is impossible for a character to affect change, then there is no tension.  The villain will win.

Positive science fiction isn’t afraid to look at challenging definitions of “positive (Strange and Happy).”

This is where the writer has an important question to answer.  "For whom is the change positive?"

Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side is necessary to bring balance to the force.  There are many ways to take this, but it is fundamental to Progressive Speculative Fiction.

Positive science fiction inspires people to act and influence positive change (Strange and Happy).

So long as it is not preachy, I agree.  If the story inspires the reader/viewer to make a possitive change within themselves, then the story succeeded.  There isn't enough time or space for me to list all of the stories that have influenced me positively.

Literature of Change

There is a common thread weaving through this discussion.  Jetse de Vries on his blog, In the Plane of the Ecliptic found the middle ground between gloom and naivite, the answer we have been looking for:

I disagree with the cliché that SF is the literature of ideas (they help, but they're not the core): to me, SF is the literature of change.

Roughly speaking, there are two kinds of change: things change for the worse, or things change for the better (I realise life is much more complex than that: some things improve, other things worsen, and some things don't change very much. I'm looking, admittedly roughly, at the net result here) (In the Plane of the Ecliptic).

Even the simplist horror and fantasy deals with the nature of authority and friendship.  Change is the only constant in the universe, and Speculative Fiction is the literature of change.  Writers ask themselves, "What if this happened?"  The answer is usually, everything would change.

How writers explore the changes is the difference between and great and a mediocre story.

What is Progressive Speculative Fiction?

"Progressive Speculative Fiction is a story told in any medium which has a “What if” at its core and is filled with hope for the future and promotes a sense of community (Project: Shadow Manifesto)."

Of all the things I wrote in the Project: Shadow Manifesto, that one sentence has proven to be the most controversial.  Writers have emailed me asking if their work is Progressive SF or not.  Let's approach the question slowly.

What is Speculative Fiction?

Speculative Fiction is any fiction that has at its core a "What if?"  There are five main subgenres of Speculative Fiction:

• Science Fiction


• Scifi


• Fantasy


• Horror


• Alternative History

What sets these stories apart from the mainstream?

All fiction asks the question, "Suppose X happened to this character, what would happen?"  Speculative Fiction asks, "What if X were true about the universe, how would this character react?"  For example:

• Harry Potter: "What if magic existed in the world and it could do anything but bring people back from the dead?"


• Lord of the Rings: "What is the prehistory of Europe where a mystic struggle between the powers of light and darkness over the nature of the world to come?"


• Dune: "What if it were possible to alter consciousness enough for people to see the interconnectedness of all things"


• Cthulu Mythos: "What if there were beings in the universe as powerful and incomprehensible as we are to an ant?"

The question is the heart of the story.  You cannot have a ghost story unless you ask, "What if ghosts interfered with the lives of people?"

That is why it is called Speculative Fiction.  It speculates about a world that is different from ours in some way.

What makes Speculative Fiction Progressive?

Hope for the future and promotes a sense of community.  Some have taken this to mean that dark fiction cannot be Progressive.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Heroes and Battlestar Galactica

Image by Mostly Lisa via Flickr

Heroes is not progressive, but Battlestar Galactica is.  Both of these stories are dark, and at times bleak.  Why is one Progressive and the other not?

There is no hope in Heroes.  Nothing inspires the characters forward.  They looked into Kierkegaard's void and could not take their eyes off of the fact that the world is free from purpose and meaning.  They embrace their meaninglessness, and robs the series of any lasting merit it could have.

Battlestar Galactica looked into the same void, and the characters chose to carve out their own meaning in the cosmos.  They have hope for the future, even if it is challenged often, and they are continually struggling to build a viable community.

Hope for the Future

Hope is a necessary element of fiction that many post-modern writes/producers neglect.

• Without hope, the characters have nothing to loose.


• With nothing to loose, there is no tension.


• Without tension, there is no reason to care about the characters.


• If you don't care about the characters, there is nothing left but spectacle.

That is the primary problem with shows like Lost, Heroes, and Fringe.  All they have is spectacle and shock value.  They have no depth, and there is no reason for people to care about them.  People watch simply to see what crazy thing happens next.  They will be forgotten quickly.

Community

A side effect of the hopelessness and ennui that fills post-modern SF is the focus on the individual to the detriment of the community.  This factor alone was able to change my opinion of Battlestar Galactica.  I didn't used to like the show, but after I marathoned the boxsets, I could see and better still feel the communities that were trying to maintain themselves.

A sense of community is integral to Speculative Fiction because most if not all stories present a world that is different from our own, and without a sense of community it is hard if not impossible to understand the nature of the setting.  For example look at Legend of the Seeker:

• The levels of mistrust amid Darken Rahl's soldiers


• The submissive population of Brennidon


• The reverence of the Confessors for each other and their outrage at sacrelige


• The prevelence of hidden valleys and islands

All these and more add up to a better understanding of the world under Darken Rahl's control.  Through these communities and the relationships between Richard, Zedd, and Kahlan defines the setting.

Hope and community are part of what Progressive Speculative Fiction is, but they are also Why Progressive Speculative Fiction is important, which we will talk about in the next post in this series.

Blogging about what other people are making

Image via Wikipedia

Gina Trapani is no longer going to be the lead writer at Lifehacker.

The bottom line is this: for someone who loves making things on the web, spending 100% of the time blogging about what other people are making is simply untenable (via LifeHacker)...

I have butted up against that very same problem.  dashPunk Media, dashPunk.com, and the Project: Shadow Informant started as side projects for me.  They were footnotes to my fiction writing.

Brian and I were having these discussions anyway, why not have them publicly.

Over time, they have devoured more and more of my time.  It is no longer a side project, they have become my main job, and I am sneaking every moment I can to work on my fiction as a sideline.  It is not easy.

I am not giving up on the sites or the podcast, but I feel Gina's pain.

The Vision

The one thing that propels me forward is my vision for dashPunk Media, and for the Genres that I love.  So many reforms are necessary before any real change can happen.  The marketplace is shifting, and no one knows where or how it will settle out.

These are dark times for writers.  If the written word is to have a future beyond blogs and twitter, new models will have to be constructed.

It never ceases to amaze me the miriad ways people are exploring to move forward.  We can only get there togeter.

I wish Gina the best of luck with all of her future projects, and I wish the same for everyone driven by passion.  May you find every tool you need to realize your dreams.

Project: Shadow Manifesto

To mark the 10 year anniversary of the Project: Shadow Manifesto, we thought it was time to overhaul it again, but this time to open up the project to all of the like-minded fans out there who are tired of the status quo, and who are hungry for something new.

Brian and I drafted the original Project: Shadow Manifesto in 1999 as an outline we saw in professional publishing.  The original draft was heavy on problems, light on vision, and even lighter on solutions.  We took years investigating the limited options available at the time, built the original Project: Shadow, and I started writing.

In 2004, we revised the manifesto, and re-launched Project: Shadow.  The new draft focused on the solutions possible through new technologies.  The world/culture presented us with newer challenges.

---

We are fans.

We love our music, stories, characters, and settings.
We know about what we love.
We participate in what we love.
We support what we love.
What we love supports us.

At heart, a fan is not someone who enjoys a movie, a song, a band, a book, or a show.  A fan feels an intense connection with the object of their love.  Fans decorate their homes, offices, and desktops with items that announce their allegiance with their favorite bands, movies, shows, and books.

The problem with our popular culture is that it doesn’t blink at a sports fan wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with their favorite team, or even a replica jersey, but wear a Star Wars shirt or dress like a goth and they think they have the right to mock you.

What is the difference between a fan wearing a jersey to a game or fan bringing a light saber to a movie?  Or for that matter, what is the difference between a sports fan painting themselves up to go tailgating or a fan dressing as their favorite character at a convention?

Perception.  Pop Culture has classified sports fans as acceptable and speculative fiction fans as geeky.  I have to say, it is just as geeky to now all of the stats for everyone who has ever played for a particular sports franchise as it is to know the stats for every creature in the Monster Manual.  The only real difference is one fan accepts they are a geek, and the other pretends their geekiness is proof they are a jock.

The disapproval is the least of the problems facing today’s fan.

From Storytellers to Copyright

Problem: People are natural storytellers.  We hear a story, embellish it, and pass it on.

Solution: We tell each other stories, sing songs, write books, make videos, and create art to share these stories with each other.

Every story we tell is not original.  We like to tell the same stories over and over.  We borrow stories from any where and retell them in our own vernacular.  It is intrinsic to who and what we are to share stories with each other.

Problem: The only constant in the world is change.

Solution: We ask ourselves the question, "What if," and share the answer with each other.

Problem: Artists and Writers need to make a living singing their songs, writing their books, making their videos, and creating their art.

Solution: We establish systems of Copyright.

The Cultural Cycle

Before the era of Copyright, stories, heroes, melodies, and lyrics belonged to the people.  Stories were told, and retold.  Numerous visions of each story competed against each other.  The best were remembered, collected, retold, embellished, and built upon.  The rest were forgotten.

Who told the first story about Hercules? Or Jason? or Troy?  Who started the legends of King Arthur? or Beowulf?  The first tales and their countless reiterations have been lost, but the best, most iconic stories survived.

Of all of Shakespeare’s plays, only a few comedies have no obvious sources, and even they rely upon well established patterns and archetypes.

This is the Cultural Cycle that keeps important stories alive.  Each generation must retell the tales of the preceding generations in their own context to keep them relevant.  This cycle has been broken.

• Problem: Companies lobby to prevent Intellectual Property from reentering the commons of the culture.


• Problem: Companies control the instruments of culture, making it harder to engage culture creatively.


• Solution: Fans retell these stories as not for profit tales, films, and  songs.


• Solution: Fans organize themselves into clubs and conventions.

These solutions are are not enough.  Fanfiction and film relies on the good will of the copyright holders and the fact that the fans do not make money from their works to slip through the thinnest of loop hole in copyright.  As a result, pop culture is unaware of the cultural developments and retelling of these new stories.  The subculture may be enriched by them, but the culture as a whole is not.

The Creative Commons and the Cult of the Dollar

Problem: Publishers and producers focus more on the commercial and popular value of a work, and the creative energy of the work suffers.  Readers/viewers will not become fans, and fans will not continue to accept passionless works of Speculative Fiction.

Solution: Placing honesty over consumerism, we fans must stake out our own home to create and share the works we love.  We must stand between the darkness and the light:  This is the purpose of Project: Shadow.

Problem: The Companies and Rights holders lashed out against the fair use of their properties.

Problem: Some Rights Holders have lulled fandom into a false sense of security by not suing and even encouraging those who produce fanworks

Creative Commons is one of many proposed solutions to this problem.  Others have lobbied for copyright reform.  Neither of these is a solution to the problems.

Copyright reform is a doomed enterprise while corporate lobbyists have the power they do over the congress.  While it is a goal to work for, it is just not realistic in the short term.

Creative Commons is closer to a solution, but the adoption rate has not been sufficient to even start chipping away at the problem.

The reason Creative Commons is an uphill battle is that it is a major evolution in the way rights holders handle permissions to use their work, and exists without an intermediary form.  Existing rights holders have not adopted it because they are unwilling to give up all the rights entailed under Creative Commons.

I approached the Creative Commons Foundation with a proposal for a Fan Works License:

Some of the rights holders I have talked to are reluctant to use the CC because they are concerned they are giving up too many rights to their works.  A Fan Works License would allow rights holders to clearly state what they will allow others to do with their characters, content, and settings.

It would be a bit more complicated than a standard CC, stating whether others may make original text, video, music, or art projects based on their works.  It would also allow them to set the content rating they would allow fan works to have.  This could be aligned with the MPAA ratings or the ESRB ratings system or an original system.  The reason for this is so a young adult novelist could set a max rating of PG-13, allowing others to know what standards they would apply to determine whether a fan work is legitimate or not.

The other terms would be the same as in the standard CC.

You may not think something like this is necessary, but the current state of fan works is hazy.  While few have been sued in the last couple years, at any time, rights holders could decide to start suing again.  By creating a license that covers works with the same characters and settings rather than a particular book or movie, I believe we could get more rights holders to use the license to allow for the creation of fan works, which is a step on the road to open up works to the commons.

They responded with a simple, “CC probably isn't going to be expanding the license offerings, and in fact, over the past few years CC has been reducing the number of licenses.”

I do not believe that a fanwork or Creative Commons license is the ultimate solution, but as a possible stepping stone toward an open culture.

Progressive Speculative Fiction

• Problem: Modern and Post-modern fiction is antithetical to hope, imagination, and community


• Problem: Success is easier through snark, hate, and discrimination.


• Solution: We will promote, support and create Progressive Speculative Fiction.

What is Progressive Speculative Fiction?

Progressive Speculative Fiction is a story told in any medium which has a "What if" at its core and is filled with hope for the future and promotes a sense of community.

How can disaster fiction be progressive?

Watch a Godzilla movie or either The Day the Earth Stood Stills.  If there is nothing worth saving, then there is no tragedy.  The heroes must at least try to save someone or something worth saving.

How can horror be progressive?

Watch nearly any horror film made prior to 1990 or for the best example read The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker or anything by Anne Rice.  If life is not worth living or there is nothing worth defending, where is the horror.  If life is worthless, then death is merely a release from a nightmare.  There is nothing scary about it.  If there is no free will, nothing is lost by imprisonment or possession.  If sanity is not worth preserving, why bother.

What works are Progressive Speculative Fiction?

There are too many to mention all of them, but to offer a spectrum:

• The Matrix/ The Matrix Reloaded/ The Matrix Revolutions/ The Animatrix


• The Dark Knight
  


• Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within
  


• The Lord of the Rings


• Dune
  


• Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, and The Tale of the body Thief


• Godzilla

Just to name a few.

Mythos

• Problem: The word "Myth" has become a marketing term.

Homogenized works are released more often by the industry every year.  Focus groups and market analysis have replaced quality work, but since the cultural cycle is broken, industry has no alternative.  It is safer to release works like the ones that sold last year than it is to seek out new talent/ideas that would be more of a risk.

They know what the fans want.  We want myths, stories that speak to us on a deep level while entertaining us.  Myths are hard to make.  It is easy to add in a wizard or a starship and call it mythology.  Fans see through it, but the masses are looking for little more than sex, violence, and humor.  Speculative Fiction has been watered down to little more than:

• imitation space opera


• knock-off cyberpunk


• repackaging of the rings


• martial arts boom-boom


• torture porn

They, then, wrap it in a shiny box, slap the word myth, saga, legend, or reboot on it, and wait for the masses to spend their money on it... and they usually do.

We do not need another company driven by profit margins, or another author whose self-important propaganda obscures the art.

We need writers and artists that love what they are doing.

We need fans who are not afraid to speak their minds.

We need places in our towns/cities and online where we can meet and share the few gems that we find from the industry and from the independent artist, writers, and filmmakers who are still following their bliss rather than the dollar.

That is why we are here.  Project:  Shadow and dashPunk will provide a platform for writers, artists, filmmakers and fans to “follow their bliss.”  We are dedicated to finding and promoting the best Speculative Fiction out there: the little/well known writers, filmmakers, artists and works, fostering their talents, and helping them to not only follow their hearts, but to share that vision with others.

But we cannot do it alone!

Fandom Strikes Back

• Solution:  We must seek out and support the writers, artists, and producers that encourage and support fan works.


• Solution:  We must get writers, artists, and producers on the record about their position regarding fan works.


• Solution: We must live according to our values of hope, imagination, and community.


• Solution: We must build a community around hope, imagination, and community, and reject the rote cynicism that defines the faux-fandom that loves to tear things down rather than build things up.


• Solution: We must spread the stories, videos, songs, and art that speak to us.

Together, We can make dashPunk and Project: Shadow more than an idea or a website, but a vibrant community of fans who share the things we love with each other.

Together, we can make it easier to find and share the things we love and find new things to love.

Together, we can build a community of fans who support and engage one another for our mutual benefit.

Alone, none of us can stand up to the corporate powers who control the music, video, text, and art that we love, but together, our voice will be heard.

Fandom is a vibrant culture with its own music (filk), events (conventions), games, and myths.  Until now, we have gathered periodically, or in disparate groups. 

Now is the time to bring the great multitude of fan bases together.

Now is your time!  Copy this Manifesto.  Print it, post it, email it, share it!  Tell a friend, and most importantly Make your voice heard.

Download

• [download#1#size#nohits]


• [download#2#size#nohits]


• [download#3#size#nohits]


• [download#4#size#nohits]

Project: Shadow Manifesto by Project: Shadow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at dashpunk.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at /about/.

12 Day of Tales

I have an idea, more of a notion or a hope, but I think it would be pretty cool if I can pull it off.
What if this year to celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas, I gave you all 12 free stories in 12 different genres. To make it even more interesting, I will see if I can get some other writers to join in.

You all have been so great to me, the least I could do is get you some free stories.

I am not sure how feasible this is. It is a lot to write in a short time, but I think it would be really fun to try. Now the question remains, what should the 12 genres be?

1. Steampunk


2. Elfpunk


3. Mythpunk


4. Space Opera


5. Galactic Empire


6. Wuxia


7. High Fantasy


8. Dark Fantasy


9. Supernatural Horror


10. Space Western


11. Contemporary Fantasy


12. Sword and Sorcery

I think that is a good list, but I would be interested in what you all think. Do you want the stories to be tied together with a particular theme? We have to act quickly. Time is ticking away.