Author Archives: Tony Ballantyne

Writer and Tech blogger

Loncon 3: The 72nd World SF Convention

I’ll be attending Loncon 3, and I hope you are too.

** Final Update 7th August **

Kaffeeklatsch

Saturday 13:00 – 14:00, London Suite 5 (ExCeL)

Tony Ballantyne, Laura Lam

Come and chat!

I’m moderating the following panel:

I Can’t Do That, Dave: artificial intelligence, imagination, and fear

Sunday 13.30 – 15:00

From the Minds of Iain M Banks’ Culture to Portal’s GLaDOS, artificial intelligences abound in sf, and not infrequently they turn on their creators. Whether as idealisation of reason or deadly threat – or both– why do AIs have such an enduring appeal? Where do fictional AIs
stand in relation to the real-world science? And to what extent has sf explored the ethical questions surrounding the creation of sentience to better serve humankind?

Madeline Ashby, Tony Ballantyne,  Anthony Fucilla, Justina Robson, Tricia Sullivan

I’ll also be on the panel for the following:

British Comics: Influences and Influencers

Friday 11am
130 years ago the emergence of Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday saw the first comic book (as we recognise it) published in the UK. Since then the medium has gone through many cycles of expansion and contraction.


What comic books from outside the UK have been influential upon the development of comic books here – artistically, politically, and thematically?

And how have British comic creators and stories in turn exerted their influence upon the comic book industries in other countries?

Is there a recognisable British comic book tradition? And how is it changing and adapting in an instant, connected world with a multitude of styles and visions?

Urban Fantasy: London

Friday 18:00 – 19:00

The early twenty-first century commercial explosion of urban fantasy — first person, coexisting supernatural creatures, often noirish — was, at least initially, driven by the American market and American writers. Increasingly, however, writers such as Kate Griffin, Ben Aaronovitch and Paul Cornell are writing contemporary urban fantasy set in the UK and, in particular, in London. How has crossing the Atlantic changed this subgenre? How is it similar to or different from older forms of British urban fantasy?

Forte! Classical Music, Opera and the fantastic

Monday 12:00 (noon)
As the mass entertainment of previous centuries and arguably the preferred musical form for current blockbuster movies and games, classical music and, to an extent opera, are natural partners with fantastic story-telling. Panelists explore these connections: both themes of the fantastic in classical compositions and music depicted in SF&F.

 

 

 

Parrenthorn Debate @The Portico Library

“This House Believes that the European Union should not have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.”

I was delighted to be invited to the Portico Library in Manchester to adjudicate a debate evening with students from Parrenthorn High School, as part of the Portico Library’s Conflict and Community Programme.

The standard of debate was high, the students had clearly researched their topic and spoke persuasively. Even more impressive, they proved themselves capable of listening to opposing points and providing counter arguments.

I’ve written elsewhere about the raw deal teenagers today receive at the hands of the media. Anyone in doubt of the potential of teenagers should begin by listening to the pupils of Parrenthorn High School.

Thank you to the Portico Library for inviting me, the staff and pupils of Parrenthorn High School, and the Zochonis Charitable Trust for sponsoring the event.

The Proposers
The Opposers

My Advice Remains the Same

I learned the craft of writing through short stories.  When beginner writers ask me for advice, I always recommend they try the same.  There are a lot of reasons for this:  every tale completed means more practice at writing beginnings, middles and ends; you can experiment; you’re getting feedback more frequently…  Best of all, you’re leaving each story behind and starting a new one.  You’re always trying something new.

I don’t know how often I’ve said this.  I do know that my advice is rarely taken.  Fair enough, you choose which advice you take. but even so, I have wondered why more people don’t start with short stories…

And then, following a conversation the other day, it finally occurred to me why.

Because every short story completed opens up the possibility of another rejection.

Because rejection is painful.

Because writing a story means putting your heart and soul out there with the risk that no one is interested.   Writing a story exposes you to the world.  Devastating if the world isn’t interested.

It’s far safer to write a novel. The rejections are a long way in the future.  You can mess around with a novel indefinitely, endlessly perfecting it, dreaming of the time that its picked up, that it becomes a best seller.  One short story does not make you a writer, but with a successful novel you can miss out the wannabe stage and go straight to the top of the tree.

Good luck to you if that happens, and I’d be really interested to hear how you did it. But otherwise, my advice remains the same.  Write short stories

Six Things to do When You’ve Finished a Story

  • Put it away for a few weeks. That way you can come back to it with a fresh mind
  • Ask yourself Can I delete the first paragraph? The answer is usually yes
  • Ask yourself Is the ending really as strong as is could be? The answer is usually no
  • Read the story through out loud. It’s amazing the things you’ll pick up that you wouldn’t have seen on a read through.
  • For the same reason – if you have the time and the patience – key the story in again
  • Lastly: submit the story to a market. You can’t hang on to it forever…

See Also

They Can’t Die!

 I overheard a conversation recently about the TV program Endeavour. Someone was complaining that the show had reached a point where the lead character was in danger.

“And we knew he wouldn’t die,” they complained, “because this show was a prequel. We know that Endeavour lives, he was seen as an older man in the TV show Morse.”

I’ve heard this sort of thing before, and it’s wrong. It misses the point. It’s not how stories work.

No one expects James Bond to die. No one ever expected Charlie Brown to ever kick the football. And surely no one expected Voldemort to be triumphant…

In most stories, the reader knows that the hero isn’t going to be killed, but that doesn’t matter. A journey is no less entertaining for knowing what the destination is going to be. Not every trip has to be a mystery tour.

There’s something almost reassuring in this, in following a story where you know what’s going to happen. This is what children in particular find pleasing in fairy stories and nursery tales, the repetition in the tale as Goldilocks tries the chairs, the porridge and then the beds and each time it’s the last choice that’s just right

A writer follows a curve and takes the reader with them. Some writers complain that people don’t want true innovation, that their stories are rejected because they’re too original. They may be right. But as I’ve written on this blog in the past, that’s the way the market works and the market is always right.

But there’s something else, too. Knowing when to repeat, knowing when to follow the conventions, that’s part of a writer’s craft. It makes peeling off into unknown territory so much more satisfying…

The Perfect Scene

Here’s one of my favourite passages in modern literature. In it, Sue Townsend describes Adrian Mole spending Sunday at his Grandma’s house. I suspect that many other people my age will recognise the scene from their own childhood. Nothing else I’ve read captures a sense of time and place so well.

Many writers have a temptation to throw unusual words or extravagant sentences at their ideas. This passage show that real genius is capable of simplicity:

Archers omnibus. Egg, bacon, fried bread, the People.

Roast beef, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, cabbage, carrots, peas, Yorkshire pudding, gravy.

Apple crumble, custard, cup of tea, extra strong mints, News of the World.

Tinned salmon sandwiches, mandarin oranges and jelly, sultana cake, cup of tea.

Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years by Sue Townsend

Sue Townsend

If anyone ever tells you that women aren’t as funny as men, say two words in reply: Sue Townsend.

Sue Townsend wrote the funniest book I’ve ever read: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4. I read it at just the right time of my life – aged around 15 or 16, when I was just a year or so older than Adrian Mole when he wrote his first diaries. When asked why she had written about a teenage boy and not a girl, Sue Townsend replied that she believed boys and girls were pretty much the same at that time of their life. She certainly described my childhood (and I sometimes fear she is describing part of my adulthood, too.)

Like many excellent writers, Sue Townsend knew that the best writing is often the simplest. One of her most inspired passages is to be found in The Wilderness Years, where she simply describes the food that Adrian eats one Sunday afternoon round his Grandma’s house. It’s nothing more than a list, but it sums up my childhood perfectly, sitting in front of the coke fire at my Grandmother’s house, reading the Sunday People and then watching something like Bullseye on the television.

Sue Townsend died on Thursday evening, aged 68. She left behind one of the most consistently funny and moving series of books ever written, books filled with a well realised air of righteous indignation about them. Sue Townsend was on the side of the forgotten people, the failures, the Adrian Moles of this world.

She will be missed.

Six Tips on Writing First Drafts

  • A first draft is about getting it written, not about getting it right. Don’t spend too much time on it
  • Think of an artist painting a picture – they get the basic outlines and then fill in the details later. That’s what a first draft should be – broad daubs of paint
  • Stories have a habit of hitting a wall as you write them. Don’t sit there sweating about how your hero will escape from the pit: just get on with writing the next part. A solution will occur to you eventually. It always does.
  • Don’t lose touch with your subconscious. If you can’t think of the right word, or phrase, or character, or description… miss it out! You can always add it in later.
  • Stephen King recommends finishing a first draft in a season (spring, summer…). Okay, that might not be possible for a part time writer, but even so, get it done as quickly as possible
  • Many writers find the first draft the painful part. The real pleasure of writing begins when you can take your time licking that first draft into shape…

See Also