A question about SNW

[TGTheodore]

KLauderdale said:

TG Theodore said:


I found writing serious DS9 harder than the others. Writing humorous DS9 was a snap.

--Ted

I still have the story I submitted to an early SNW, "Where Everybody Knows Your Designation" at the ready if Pocket ever does an all-humor anthology.

And I have my "Wake Me When the Planet Gets Back", too.


“Um ... Bajor’s gone. Sir.”

“What?”

Captain Benjamin Sisko almost laughed at the absurdity of the statement.

Almost.

But when his thick dark fingers clenched the stitching on his antique baseball, Chief Miles O’Brien knew his commanding officer was not amused.

“You mean it’s cloaked, don’t you, Chief?”

Despite being at attention, O’Brien shifted his weight from one leg to another. He didn’t dare glance over at Rom, who was already perspiring heavily—especially for a Ferengi. Sisko’s piercing glare was almost more than Rom could handle. Making eye contact with O’Brien certainly would drive the poor assistant engineer into hysterics (which tended to result in that high-pitched Ferengi squealing both Sisko and O’Brien hated so much).

“Uh, no, sir.” O’Brien cleared his throat. “The whole planet. Gone. Well, I mean, we think it’s still there, but ... we can’t actually find it anywhere.”

--Ted

 

[Therin of Andor]

KLauderdale said:
Where can I go to join the WGA?

Cheers, mate!

 

[Christopher]

TG Theodore said:
And I have my "Wake Me When the Planet Gets Back", too.

I don't get the allusion.

 

[Scott Pearson]

RedJack said:

William Leisner said:
I found writing DS9 more challenging than the other shows, for whatever reason. *shrug*

me too. The show had VERY few cracks and, until the Lit-verse did its "extra season," very few unexplored crannies.

I love the show but VOYAGER had a LOT more open space.

I guess I came at the thing from a different angle. Most of the stories I submitted for SNW were "just another episode" stories, without looking for loose ends. Perhaps another reason it took me six years to get in, as my first accepted story, "Full Circle," was a loose-end story.

So DS9, from my point of view, had lots of potential stories because it did have such a richly developed setting. But SNW was perhaps primarily a loose-end kind of market; genius that I am, I never really caught onto that while trying to write for it

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Maybe, Scott, that's why I'm a "Perennial Strange New Worlds Loser" (a tee-shirt I've designed, but never uploaded to my Cafepress store), as the one thing I never submitted was a "loose end" story. That's not to say I didn't make use of continuity in my submissions, but I never felt a need to "fix" an oversight in the series, if you know what I mean.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Allyn Gibson said:
Maybe, Scott, that's why I'm a "Perennial Strange New Worlds Loser" (a tee-shirt I've designed, but never uploaded to my Cafepress store), as the one thing I never submitted was a "loose end" story. That's not to say I didn't make use of continuity in my submissions, but I never felt a need to "fix" an oversight in the series, if you know what I mean.

What we need is a KRAD list of SNW stories that places them in three broad categories: (a) tying up loose lends/sequels; (b) out-and-out retcons; and (c) stand-alones, aka, another weekly episode.

It would be interesting, in an ubergeek way, to see how things break down. My guess is that (a) and (b) would account for more than two thirds of the stories. (Speculations should probably be left in their own category, since they were not done throughout the anthologies.) And having to decide which category a story best fits in would give us all another thing to argue obsessively about.

 

[Christopher]

Well, let's see... here's a quick list of stories that I'd call standalones rather than sequels, gapfillers, "whatever happened to..." stories, or other derivative categories:

Vol. I: 9 out of 20
II: 4/17
III: 7/20 (counting the story in Klingonese)
IV: 6/22
V: 8/23
VI: 8/23
VII: 6/23
08: 6/22
09: 6/23
10: 4/19

Total: 63/212

Of course, that's only an approximation, because there are a number of borderline cases. It's just meant to give a general sense of the proportion.

I find that, contrary to the assumptions made above, a large number of the standalone stories are VGR stories. I'd say that's because the format of VGR lent itself to stories about the ship encountering some new planet or species, and left limited room for sequels or return visits. The other series with the highest ratio of standalone SNW stories (I think -- I haven't actually done the math series-by-series) is TNG, followed by ENT. DS9 stories are rarely standalone, but are usually sequels, prequels, retellings, and other elaborations on show characters and continuity.

Which isn't too surprising, really. While some storytellers are motivated to fill in gaps and counter perceived flaws in a series, others are going to be motivated to tell stories with the same style and approach as the shows they're based on.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Christopher said:
Well, let's see... here's a quick list of stories that I'd call standalones rather than sequels, gapfillers, "whatever happened to..." stories, or other derivative categories:

Vol. I: 9 out of 20
II: 4/17
III: 7/20 (counting the story in Klingonese)
IV: 6/22
V: 8/23
VI: 8/23
VII: 6/23
08: 6/22
09: 6/23
10: 4/19

Total: 63/212

When I wrote my previous post, I almost asked for a "KRAD/Christopher list," given the two people most likely to step up with such info. I only left off your name to save typing!

This list does indicate that perhaps Dean had a preference for stories that weren't standalones, but also shows he certainly wasn't against them either.

 

[Christopher]

I don't believe editorial preference had much to do with it, aside from a preference to leave the entrants free to tell whatever kind of story they wanted. I've never read much fanfiction, but I daresay that a very high percentage of it consists of sequels, gap-fillers, "where are they now" stories, crossovers, and other followups. A large part of what motivates fan authors -- and pro tie-in authors, for that matter -- is the desire to revisit or elaborate upon aspects of the shows that deserve more attention (in the author's view). So if you don't specifically ask people not to tell such stories, I think it's likely that they're going to make up the bulk of the entries.

 

[Scott Pearson]

Christopher said:
I don't believe editorial preference had much to do with it, aside from a preference to leave the entrants free to tell whatever kind of story they wanted. I've never read much fanfiction, but I daresay that a very high percentage of it consists of sequels, gap-fillers, "where are they now" stories, crossovers, and other followups. A large part of what motivates fan authors -- and pro tie-in authors, for that matter -- is the desire to revisit or elaborate upon aspects of the shows that deserve more attention (in the author's view). So if you don't specifically ask people not to tell such stories, I think it's likely that they're going to make up the bulk of the entries.

I see what you mean. I never read any fan fiction, so I didn't have any idea what the general trends were. I tended to write standalones, but I wrote a few followup stories as well. My Sky's the Limit story is a standalone, but I did sprinkle it with continuity references in a way that some would call fannish. Which is fine by this fan.

 

[T'Bonz]

It was my impression based on what I saw, that "wow, way out there" speculation stories were preferred. That doesn't count cutesy Tribble ones.

My problem was that I wrote my stories as if they could be aired, that is, they were episodes. Usually I had humor involved. My stories were pretty run-of-the-mill and not so "gee whiz, this'll blow your mind" type story.

Of course, I'm a new writer so it's entirely possible that my writing wasn't quite up to the mark. I'll never know if it was just that, or if it was my type of stories that did me in when it came to the contest.

It was all great fun for the most part. I got to meet lots of good people because of this and some day I will be published. If not in the Trek world, elsewhere. I miss the contest and I will miss reading the anthology each year.

Fortunately, there are still other Trek books being published.

 

[Christopher]

^^Well, as my list above shows, anywhere from 20 to 45 percent of the stories in each volume were standalone or episodic pieces. So I don't think it's likely that stories of that type would be rejected purely because they were of that type.

But given how much competition there was for 20-odd slots, a story would have to have something beyond the run of the mill (at least in the judges' view), something that evoked a "gee whiz" reaction, whether in the concept, the characterization, or the writing.

 

[TerriO]

Suddenly, my lack of ability to sell Dean on a SNW story makes much more sense.

 

[T'Bonz]

Christopher said:
^^Well, as my list above shows, anywhere from 20 to 45 percent of the stories in each volume were standalone or episodic pieces. So I don't think it's likely that stories of that type would be rejected purely because they were of that type.

But given how much competition there was for 20-odd slots, a story would have to have something beyond the run of the mill (at least in the judges' view), something that evoked a "gee whiz" reaction, whether in the concept, the characterization, or the writing.

Understood. With all else equal, it comes down to personal taste in the end. Those way out speculative stories, quite frankly, bore me. I like to watch an episode and either be moved or amused.

Everyone is different. Plenty of people found the Tribble stories cute. I thought the vast majority sucked. I did write a story about how the Tribbles came to hate Klingons and even finished it before realizing that it was ineligible due to the main character not being a known Trek character name or guest star.

Thanks for the research on the breakdown of the stories. That was most interesting. I had to rely on memory and there were two SNW books that I hadn't read, so there was a gap in my knowledge. It was just my impression as to what seemed to sell and as impressions are sometimes, it could have been wrong.

I remain grateful for both the contest and the feedback we received. It started me on my way. I'll always have a soft spot for the SNWers.

And there are quite a few of the regular Trek authors who are really cool people. It was worth every penny I spent on my trip to Baltimore for having the chance to meet quite a few of them.

**realizes anew how much she misses DS9.**

 

[Lorraine Anderson]

And I'm not a regular Trek author, but I was glad to meet *you*, T'Bonz!