It’s funny how inspiration comes and goes.

When I sat down to write another post yesterday, I found my Muse frustratingly silent. Today, however, she’s back from hiatus and has agreed to work part-time.

Muse willing, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to qualify for Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) membership. Because of my publisher’s payment scheme, my novel won’t be recognized, so I’m trying to publish three short stories this year.

Short stories are brutally hard to write. Originality, at least in the science fiction and fantasy genre, is practically non-existent. In fact, the editors of Strange Horizons, a magazine of speculative fiction, are compiling a list of “Stories We’ve Seen Too Often.” That is, trite, weak, or just plain stupid plot lines that they constantly find in their submissions e-bin. These are some of my personal favorites:

4. Weird things happen, but it turns out they’re not real.
a. In the end, it turns out it was all a dream.
b. In the end, it turns out it was all in virtual reality.
c. In the end, it turns out the protagonist is insane.
d. In the end, it turns out the protagonist is writing a novel and the events we’ve seen are part of the novel.

12. Evil unethical doctor performs medical experiments on unsuspecting patient.

27. Someone takes revenge for the wrongs done to them.

29. Strange and mysterious things keep happening. And keep happening. And keep happening. For over half the story. Relentlessly. Without even a hint of explanation.

I must admit that I’ve written, or tried to write, each of these stories. That’s why they’re my personal favorites.

To publish fiction, then, writers need to be aware of their contemporaries and strive for originality. Harold Bloom called such striving the “anxiety of influence.” The anxiety of influence affected the greats of English literature, and now, perhaps more than ever, it bedevils writers in all literary genres–but especially in science fiction and fantasy.

~ by manjouming on January 2, 2008.