Still Alive

I'm still alive: back from a vacation in Europe and ready to wage war against the blank page, or more accurately, the blank word processor screen. More soon.

New (Old) Story

I took a few unplanned days off of work recently, mainly to get my head in order. It's surprising how happy and productive I become when I don't have to go to work - I actually got to finish an old short story that I started almost two years ago. It was actually the second short story I started, just after Ringtone.

The Passenger is the first of possibly several short speculative fiction stories set in a modern day Australia, all based around genetic engineering, civil war and the fight for identity. Each story gives a little more insight into the Australia of the future, and is told from a slightly different perspective. My plan is to try and get The Passenger published in a reputable Australian speculative fiction magazine - at least that's my plan. Maybe it won't make it past the editors, but either way, hopefully you will get to read The Passenger sometime soon.

As far as the novel goes, it is still progressing slowly.

Things In The Back Of The Drawer

I’ve decided to put the first draft of my novel 'in the drawer', so to speak, and leave it there for a few weeks. I don't want to see it, and I certainly don't even what to think about it. Sure, I might lose three or four weeks of writing time, however, the time to clear my mind and come back to the story with a new perspective is definitely worth it in the long run.

Fortunately, when I did put my novel back 'in the drawer', I happened to stumble across an old story I wrote about a year ago called 'The Mind's Eye'. The story was originally an idea adapted for the Australia TV series 'Two Twisted', back when they were advertising for new material for a second season. Ultimately the ‘Mind’s Eye’ was rejected along with a couple of other stories I submitted - I'm not entirely sure which is more disheartening, having your story rejected, or having it rejected from a shithouse TV series like Two Twisted; probably the latter.

I sat down and reread the story - it may be considered a little clichéd in part, but I certainly enjoyed it enough to spend some the last week belting-out some of the dints in the bodywork. It's a novelette by definition, running at over 10000 words at the moment, however, I hope to find a market for the story. Novelette's are always a little awkward - too large for your average short story magazine, too small to be taken seriously as anything else.

Probably need another couple of weeks on and off to perfect the story, then I’ll look at magazines for publishing.

Stephen King's 'On Writing'

I recently picked-up an audio book copy of Stephen King's book called 'On Writing'... and I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in creative writing. Probably would have made a good Christmas gift, oh well, there's always next year. Reading the physical book is great, but listening to King tell his story, in his own words, was definitely worth the price of admission.

Essentially the book is half autobiographical, half instructional guide on improving your creative writing. The autobiographic chapters, while heavy-going at times, gives the reader a good understanding of where King has come from as a writer, and provides us with an insight into the life experiences that have inspired King's stories. The second half of the book, King's guide 'on writing' was equally as interesting. This is the reason you are reading the book in the first place. I wouldn't say there was a great deal of information in those chapters that one could call 'revolutionary', a fact that King himself admits frequently. However, these chapters are full of bullshit-free, commonsense, instinctual tips and observations from a guy who has spent the last forty years as a writer. He must be doing something right, surely?

One of the most interesting ideas presented by King was the concept that you shouldn't have to plot out the story - simply put the characters in a situation or environment, and allow their own instincts/characteristics guide the story. Simple but thought-provoking.

I’d recommend the book to any creative writers out there – after finishing it, I felt recharged and enthusiastic about my writing. I believe that I’m certainly on the right track; however, there is a long road ahead. Will I succeed? Will I fail? Who knows? I’m done asking those questions. I don't have those answers. Regardless, Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ had given me a new appreciation of the journey.

Stephen King's 'On Writing', available at Amazon.

Novel Progress: Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas (for yesterday) and a happy New Year... and all that bullshit. We don't celebrate Christmas all that vigorously in my household, and given some of personal factors, including the illness of family members - 2007 has been especially low-key. Pretty much nonexistent. Just another day.

I decided to use Christmas Day to continue belting the first draft of the novel into shape - Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day are more or less the only real holidays I will get off over the next few months. The occasional public holiday here and there, but that's about it. Sure, I do get a couple of weekends to myself per month, where I don't get dragged into my real job on a Saturday or Sunday, but with so many things to do in the space of a normal weekend, my writing seems to get somewhat neglected.

Anyway. No real progress on any short fiction since my last update. I did start toying with an old fantasy/sci-fi/post apocalyptic short story for a few hours, however I decided to leave it on the backburner for the moment and concentrate on the novel.

The novel is around the 45000 word mark at the moment - it's on the cusp of being a long novella, or a short novel. With additional editing, fleshing-out ideas and spot-welding, it will definitely fall on the side of a short novel. 50000 - 60000 words as an estimate. Word count isn't all that important, as long as you have used as many words as necessary to tell your story.

'Ringtone' On Your Mobile

My first published story, Ringtone, has recently been given a second life... coming at you on your mobile phone.

Matt Ward from Skive Magazine has been working on an associated site called skiveflash. For those interested, skiveflash is a flash (250-1,000 words) fiction site designed for users of mobile phones. Despite the fact that the site is still fairly new, I couldn't pass-up the chance to have people read Ringtone on their mobile phones. The irony.

Hopefully they aren't driving when they read it.

Glass shards at the ready.

Novel Progress: Initial Adaptation Complete

Last night I completed the initial adaptation of my novel "UC", taking it from screenplay to something resembling a novel. Only took a few months, and that was the easy part. Now I have to go back over the entire thing and craft something that resembles a first draft. Actually more like a second draft, technically. Time to take some of the clunky movie dialogue and pad it out a little, make it a little more human... all without losing the fast-paced nature of the story. This part is going to be even more difficult than getting the initial adaptation on paper.

Oh well. Another three or four months and let's see what I can turn out.

Running On Empty

With the publication of Hemodialysis, I've realised that I'm completely out of stories for publication. I've got a few in half-arsed stages of completion, but I can't really see them going anywhere, and I'll probably scrap these ones completely and start fresh. Most of my concentration at the moment is going into the novel, codenamed "UC"... which at one point was seemingly dead in the water; however it has since picked-up momentum in the last couple of weeks. I'm currently around page 80 of 113 pages of the adaptation, and definitely on schedule to have this initial portion done by the end of December.

I've got some interesting ideas for Sci-fi themed stories, which is a market that I have been skirting around and flirting with for the last few months. Generally my work is fairly mainstream; however sci-fi and speculative fiction is definitely the next step.

I've never been interested in inter-galactic warfare, space ships or the like. My sort of speculative fiction and sci-fi will generally have a very Australian, and somewhat satirical flavour. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Skive Magazine Undergoes 'Hemodialysis'

'Hemodialysis' has been accepted for publication and should be appearing in the December 2007 issue of Skive Magazine. Skive is published quarterly and contains 'short stories from some of the world's most exciting authors.'

While I certainly don't consider myself one of 'the world's most exciting authors', I am certainly pleased to have my story appear in Skive. The last few months have been fairly uneventful from a creative standpoint, and this is definately a shot in the arm.

On a side note, 'Re-entry' doesn't appear to have been accepted into the Zombie Anthology that closed all the way back in May. Not really surprised, it was a bit of a rush job, and upon re-reading it, there were a hell of a lot of typos and such. Not my best work by a long shot. Plus upon doing some digging around, it looks like a lot of stories had already been accepted as early as December last year. To be honest I'm pleased in a way that it won't be seeing the light of day just yet. The overall story was really great (in my mind) and the 7000 word limitation and rushed writing could have never done it justice. Essentially the story captured a twenty minute period at the climax of the story, and none of the great build-up to it. I'll leave the idea on the backburner and I might get back around to it as a novel... assuming I ever finish UC that is.

One Bullet

My micro-fiction story 'One Bullet' finally appeared on Flashshot:

ONE BULLET
By Jamie Richter

“Salutations. You have been randomly selected to participate in One Bullet,” the loudspeaker crackled.

Emily opened her eyes. She was still groggy from the sedatives.

“The rules are simple. Sixteen contestants, each issued with one biometrically-encoded handgun, chambered with one bullet.”

The crowd erupted in applause.

Emily examined the weapon that sat on the floor of her cell. The tiny red light on the handgrip indicated that the gun was locked; it awaited Emily’s delicate, biometrically-matched grip to arm it. Armed was good.

“The Prize? Tonight’s sole survivor will be granted oblivion!”

The rusted cell door slid open.

“Happy hunting!”

Writing micro-fiction isn't as easy as it sounds... one hundred words isn't really a lot to play with. Give it a shot!

Novel Progress

Just to keep you up to speed on my attempt to write my novel, and so I can keep focused, I have included a little progress box on the menu down the right-hand side. So far I'm about 20% through my initial adaptation of the screenplay, and I am aiming to have this at least done by December. I've adapted about 24 out of 113 pages of the screenplay - about 11,000 words in all. Given that this is just the first pass, the word count isn't too bad. Obviously a writer should be aiming to tell a story in as many words as it takes to tell that story. Err, yeah that made sense. Generally it is recommended that a novel be somewhere between 80,000 to 120,000 words... but I'm not too worried about this target at the moment, I'm sure the story will fit comfortably within that predefined limit. Getting the initial story on paper is the first step. Getting the thing published is at the very end of the Yellow Brick Road - just before I bitchslap the Wizard.

September Status Report

I've decided to put aside some of the short fiction I've been working on over the last couple of months and I'm going to take a crack at working on a novel. Every man and their dog thinks that they have a novel in them, but I'm under no allusions that this will be a long, unforgiving journey. Hell, I may not ever get around to finishing it, but I'm going to give it a shot. I'm somewhat of a realist as you would well be aware.

Fortunately I don't have to worry too much about sitting down and plotting-out the storylines and characters - I already have it all on paper. It's been sitting here for a few years. I've decided that my first attempt at a novel will involve a story adapted from my first (and favourite) screenplay. Yes, I'm taking the unusual approach of adapting a screenplay into a novel. Usually it's the other way around, a writer struggling to condense a 50000+ word novel into a 120 minute screenplay. Stripping away important character development etc. The great thing about turning a screenplay into a novel is the amount of freedom that you have to develop what were essentially two-dimensional characters, and unresolved plotlines that may have initially been stripped in a screenplay. It's actually quite liberating as a writer.

I won't give away too much of the initial plot, but I'd like to think of it as 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch' meets Chopper Read. It's essentially a dark crime comedy set in the world of bungling Australian criminals. A world where a criminals mouth is often faster than their brain... or their trigger finger.

Given the nature of the story, I've decided that I am going to retain a lot of the snappy, disjointed nature of the screenplay in the style of the novel. Play a little with the conventions of your standard story. A novel for the A.D.D. generation.

With my current work commitments, I'm probably adapting about ten pages of the screenplay each week. If I were to extrapolate that across the entire length of the screenplay, I'm probably looking at around ten to twelve weeks to get a very rough draft together. A *very* rough draft. Once that's down, I'm probably going to have to go through it and rewrite the majority of the rough draft. Ever so much fun. I’m aiming at hopefully get the rough draft done by the end of the year… with an improved rewrite by about March next year - although I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch. I may just get sick of it before then.

I'll let you know how my progress goes - good or bad. In the meantime I'm still waiting on some sort of response regarding 'Re-entry' and 'hemodialysis'. Part of me wants 'Re-entry' to get rejected... I'd love to tackle that story as my next novel (assuming the first one ever gets off the ground).

Hopefully I can get a few more short fiction stories published before the end of the year.

Rock out with your cock out!

Twisted Tongue

As promised, Twisted Tongue Issue #7 is finally out. I received official word that the magazine had came out this morning as I got ready for work, so I haven't had much time to peruse it (aside from my own work), but it definitely looks to be packed with a lot of interesting writing and illustrations. Over 100 pages of fiction, interviews, poetry in fact. Worth a read for sure.

'The Cloud' can be found on page 23. 'Supreme Hunter' on page 98.

Website: Twisted Tongue

Twisted Tongue #7 'Coming Soon'

Just a quick post to say that the August issue of Twisted Tongue should be coming out in the next few days. As you can probably guess, two of my stories, 'Supreme Hunter' and 'The Cloud' will be featured in this issue, and I'll post news additional on this as soon as I find out the exact details.

PS. Greetings to any new visitors that may have found their way to my blog after viewing mini-biography in Twisted Tongue.

Like Hotcakes?

It appears that most of my work is being published almost as quickly as I can churn it out. While I'm extremely pleased with my progress so far, the whole situation has become somewhat of a double-edged sword, especially for a guy who writes as a hobby. A blessing and a curse. I didn't really expect to get a lot of this published so quickly, which probably harks back to my previous rant about targeting markets.

Now I'm in kind of a bind...

Aside from a couple of stories awaiting the thumbs-up or thumbs-down, I'm pretty much out of material at the moment. Work and family life has been fairly chaotic of late, and on the work front, it's probably going to get even more chaotic in the coming month. Truth be told, I'm not sure I can even tolerate another month without some time off... I'm ready the fucking snap. I want to rest. I want to write. I can't do either.

I'm burnt out.

While I get my shit together, I'll wait to see what happens with the two stories I have out in the wild. 'Hemodialysis' is a short story with dark twist, set in the world of dialysis and organ donors. 'Re-entry' is another short (around 7000 words) aimed at Altair Australia's recent call for Zombie stories back in April/May. I'm not holding my breath on 'Re-entry'. The premise of the story is pretty cool (at least in my mind), but I had to write it at short notice - which is fairly evident upon rereading the story a couple of months later. Either way, I'm pretty sure that I have a decent story under the rough exterior; with a little more spit-polish I am certain that I will get it published somewhere, in some form.

Anyway, time to recharge the old battery.

Richter on... Rejection

Rejection is a natural part of the writing caper. Rejection is a writers bread and butter. Regardless of whether you are Stephen King, or John Smith, you are going to get your work rejected... the second you send a piece of work out for possible publication, chances are it's going to be a 50%/50% toss-up on whether it gets accepted or not. Okay. Maybe, more like a 5%/95% shitstorm. Rejection rates are pretty high, let's face it, if you look at the rejection rates of most publications (Duotrope is a good source for this info), you are detinately talking a good 80 - 95% rejection rate. The odds of getting your work published really depend on the market you are trying to target. If I were a math geek I could probably come up with some sort of fancy-pants formulae for getting published, but sadly (or fortunately), I'm no maths geek. Come on, what did you expect?

Things I ask myself when deciding on what market to target
- Why am I writing this story (my motivation)?
- What am I writing (genre, content)?
- Who wants to read what I'm writing (audience)?
- Who do I want reading what I'm writing (the right audience)?
- How much money do I want to make (non-paying, paying)?

For beginners, I'd definitely suggest trying to target your local non-paying markets. Make sure you polish your work before sending it to a non-paying market - just because they aren't paying in cold, hard cash doesn't mean they will accept any shit that you scoop out of your collective conscious and dump onto a piece of paper. Feedback with any rejection is typically non-existent, so don't rely on proof-readers or editors at magazines to give you any constructive criticism... these guys are flat-out trying to get through the hefty pile of submissions. Write a quality story, and try your local non-paying markets first. You will generally get a higher strike rate and quicker response than sending your work to a paying market. Don’t expect to be able to sit in your lawn chair at home and wait for the cheques to roll in like Stephen King… even he had to start somewhere.

If you think your work is genuine quality that is worthy of publication in a paying market, then by all means, go for it! Just don't lose faith after possibly waiting for 90+ days for some sort of response...

Personally, I can't say that rejection bothers me a great deal. Sure, you slave your guts out on a story only to have someone tell you they aren't interested, usually without as much an explanation, or some feedback on how your could have improved the story. That's writing. You get over the arrow to the heart pretty quickly, just yank it out and use it to fuel the fire of your passion. So it wasn't for Market A? Who cares? To mangle an old proverb, “there are plenty of markets in the sea”. Hmmm, is it even a proverb? Anyway, there has to be a market out there for your work, you just have to find it. Don’t let it bother you. Load the bullet, spin the chamber, snap it shut and fire off another round.

You have to hit something eventually!

'One Bullet' being chambered in November

More news from the fiction front. One of my micro-fiction stories, 'One Bullet' is scheduled to appear on Flashshot on (or around) November 2nd. I know that November is quite a long way off, but Flashshot appears to a very popular avenue for micro-fiction authors... hence the November date.

For anyone interested, "FLASHSHOT is a daily dose of genre (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery and Surreal) flash fiction of 100 words or less, sent to your email box every day."

'Supreme Hunter' and 'The Cloud' set for Twisted Tongue

Great news! Two of my stories, 'Supreme Hunter' and 'The Cloud' have been accepted for publication in the August edition (#7) of Twisted Tongue. Twisted Tongue is a UK based magazine that endeavours to publish "original, well-written stories with a twist, whether it is a twist in the tale or a twisted tale".

Authors write about what they know, and truth be told, ‘Supreme Hunter’ was a short story that was inspired by numerous liquor-filled lunch hours spent playing an arcade game called Extreme Hunter at the local pub. I’m sure you are probably thinking, “How is a story about a bunch of drunk guys playing an arcade game even worth publishing?”… just wait for the twist!

‘The Cloud’ also appears in the August edition of Twisted Tongue, and falls into the category of micro-fiction – 100 words or less. I’ll dispense with any sort of plot synopsis for ‘The Cloud’, although once again, watch out for the twist. I would definitely suggest that everyone have a go at writing micro-fiction, it’s certainly not difficult, nor is it as easy as it sounds!

On a related note, I’m running out of stories to submit for publishing. I guess that I should really try and focus on writing some more stories. Damn day job!

'Ringtone' - Ripples Magazine #9

One of the first pieces of fiction that I wrote in a serious capacity was a quirky short story going by the title of 'Ringtone'. The story was ultimately a bit of tongue-in-cheek social commentary about our reliance on technology, Marshall’s theory of supply and demand, mobile phones, and the age old question "what is a person willing to endure in order to survive?"

With that little spiel out of the way, I'm proud to announce that 'Ringtone' can now be read in the July 2007 issue (#9) of Ripples Magazine. Thanks to Sam Cousins for publishing the story!

The story may be a little rough around the edges, but it will definitely leave you thinking!

Brumm brumm broom broom brumm...

"Some are born to darkness...'

"...others simply hide in the light."

I'm typically the sort of guy who likes to keep what could only be described as a 'low profile', but I figure that if I plan on persuing my interest in writing fiction, it seems like a necessary evil to reveal myself.

My name is Jamie Richter, and I'm a Queensland based writer of slipstream, technology-themed horror, and dark speculative fiction. I have never really modelled my style of writing after any particular authors, or cite any authors as my inspiration for writing; I just enjoy the process of scooping ideas out of my head and dumping them onto the paper. Excuse the colourful imagery. Hell, I don't even claim to be that great of a writer – you can probably surmise this from what you’ve read on my blog so far.

Prior to trying my hand at writing short fiction, I spent a couple of years writing for film and television... I came close to a couple of breakthroughs with my screenplays, but alas, they didn't eventuate. My screenplay 'Unorganised Crime' finished in the top 50 of Project Greenlight Australia, which was an Australian spin-off of a reality US TV series devised by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck - the winner walked away with a cool $1 million to film and direct their winning screenplay. Top 50 out of approximately 2000+ entries wasn't too shabby - so close!

I have always been an extremely creative person, whether this outlet came in the form of drawing, writing short stories and screenplays, or developing modifications for popular computer games like Soldier of Fortune 2 and Battlefield 2. When I have an idea stuck in my head, I have to shake it loose; otherwise it will drive me mad. I don't care what the format is... whether the idea is good or bad... I just have to get it out my head. I find ideas to be like one of those Scarab beetles, if left unchecked, the bastards will just burrow into your brain and slowly tear you apart.

Anyway, enough of the stream-of-consciousness ramble. The main purpose of this blog is to help me shake-off my mind-numbing and creatively-devoid day job, and give me the additional motivation to push forward and write more interesting short fiction. I don't care about being famous, I don't even really care about the money - it’s all about having some fun and getting my crazy ideas on paper. Hopefully this site will help me document my journey... wherever it takes me.