Downwrite & dirty: confessions of a slush pile reader

It’s not the beginning of the end, but as Winston Churchill said, it’s the end of the beginning. The end of the beginning of WRiTE CLUB, that is, the anonymous writing contest sprung from the brain of MG/YA writer DL Hammons, which I mentioned in the last post on this site before I disappeared under the deluge of the 189 writing samples submitted by 132 writers from around the globe. Although not all writers used their full 500-word allowance, those 189 entries translate to nearly 95,000 words – the equivalent of reading a novel written in more than a hundred styles and almost, it sometimes seemed, as many genres. 

It was an amazing, refreshing, humbling and ultimately hopeful experience.

And it’s only just begun. As I write this, the first two contestants to gain enough votes from me and the other 19 WRiTE CLUB slush pile readers have entered the ring and are duking it out for approval of any reader who wants to weigh in. Tomorrow another pair will vie, and so on every weekday through May 17. 

Voting on each bout stays open for a week, so would-be readers who missed the opening round Monday, April 29, still have until noon on Sunday, May 6, to cast their votes, with final votes on all first-week contestants closing May 9, and so on. 

image: pixabay

After the third week, three previous losers from each of the initial weeks will be given second chances, in three-person cage bouts followed by a pair of semi-final rounds. Those left standing (including a wild card contestant) will advance until the final round, when a party of celebrity judges makes the final choice, to be announced at the 2019 DFW Writers Conference, June 22-23.

Please note that up to the penultimate stage of the game, we as readers will turn thumbs up or down – and, writers hope, provide commentary explaining our choices. 

Because contest entrants are anonymous – their real names known only to Hammons' wife, whose behind the scenes work qualify her for a spouse-of-the-year award, writers may vote for their own entries. The slush pile readers who read the initial entries, winnowing them to a field of 30, may also vote. This will give all writers who made the first cut of 30 (out of 189) valuable feedback on their appeal to readers. All Hammons asks is that we use our own identities when voting and posting comments. And, that we not lobby for particular entries or attempt to influence the votes of others.

I explained in a previous post (“A straight shot to this WRiTE CLUB judge’s heart,” April 2), what a writing sample took to gain my favor. Some other slush pile readers joined in on Twitter with #revpit-style thumbprint analyses of what they liked – or not – in sample reads. However, we did not compare notes. 

Neither of the first two entries that hit the ring this week was among my personal picks, although I admit to voting for another entry from one of the writers. And although I favor adult thrillers, mysteries and historical fiction in my reading for pleasure, my votes went to writing writers designated as both adult and young adult, and to which they applied genre labels including "contemporary," "fantasy" (in which I include "magical realism" and "urban fantasy"), "horror," "romance," and more. Some of my favorite entries were those I would have labeled "humor," although they paraded under other genre titles.

In an email this week, Hammons noted that of the 189 entries, a record 168 received at least one vote from his panel of slush pile readers. Of even the remainder, no doubt some judges – including myself – noted intriguing concepts, characters or settings. And all participating writers deserve respect for devotion to their vision and willingness to share their work. Truly, there were far, far more outstanding and worthy writers than the initial group of 30 WRiTE CLUB fighters can indicate. 

And so, Hammons offered this suggestion to us 20, so far relatively anonymous slush pile readers. Will we provide feedback to writers (with their permission) who didn't make the initial cut of 30? I'm willing, and I hope other readers – and writers – will take up the challenge.

In the meantime, keep those votes and comments coming at WRiTE CLUB! 

The comedy and tragedy of mixing literary genres

Although I’m edging away from writing science fiction and fantasy, those genres still hold places in my heart. So, I was delighted to reconnect with them at this year’s FenCon, Dallas’ literary sci-fi/fantasy convention. And to find a panel of writers who love writing too much to stay tied to a single genre version, whether "mashed" in the same story, or separated in “silo” stories.

Not that genre mixing is a modern phenomenon. What would Hamlet have been without a comic gravedigger? And where would William Shakespeare have been if he couldn’t move from comedies to tragedies to historicals without losing his audience? Why should Will have all the fun?

But how can modern writers manage those combined genres? Or switch seamlessly from one genre to another?  And do modern tastes – and modern social media – work against such mixing in 21^st century writing? In short, what are the perils of writing in more than one genre? 

YouTube personality Shado Wiley teamed with genre-busting writers Charlayne Denney (Fangs and Halos series), Ethan Nahte (The Undead Ate My Head), and Karen Bogen (Quest and Find) to search for answers. Even when the answer sometimes was, darned if they knew!

“There are people,” Bogen admitted, “who actually know what they’re writing about.” For others, including her, “the book tells you what it wants to be.”

“(Mine) started as a paranormal romance, and then I blew up a building,” said Denney, who combines angels and vampires (as well as explosives) in her Fangs and Halos series. 

l-r, Denney, Wiley, Nahte, Bogen

“So, you sit down to write the book that wants to be written?” moderator Wiley asked.

Mostly yes, the panelists agreed, although Nahté cautioned that he’s able to write strictly in a particular genre, especially his chosen one of horror, if there’s a call for a specific genre. “I have to ask, does this work? If it doesn’t, I do it anyway!”

“I listen to what my characters are telling me,” Denney said, “and hope they know what they’re doing.”

Still, Wiley said, pursuing the issue of “perils,” “Are there dangers to writing in more than one genre?”

“You could lose your audience,” Bogen said. “There’s also the peril of losing your focus,” Nahté added. 

“You get editors who don’t know how to sell them,” Bogen said, meaning, know where to place them on bookshelves with such labels as “fantasy,” “science fiction,” “young adult,” and so on. Although, Denney said, “with the advent of self-publishing and independent publishers, there’s less rigidity in labeling.” 

At this point, audience members were waving their hands with questions. “Are there any genres that are not mashable?”

Maybe not fairy tales and Nazis, the group decided. To which Bogen added, “I don’t do teenage angst vampires.” 

“Bless you!” Wiley intoned. Although that, perhaps is a matter of taste. When he noted, that with respect to Nahté’s specialty, zombie anthologies, “zombies mix with anything,” Nahte added, “They’re really good if you mix them with Twinkies.”

At which point an audience member asked, Is this the panel I thought it was? Her problem wasn’t how to mash genres together but how to keep her brand straight while writing books in each of four different genres. 

“Silo them,” Wiley said. The first step is to work on only one genre at a time. “If you find yourself drifting, set it down and write the book you’re drifting to.”

Nahté, in contrast, finds working on multiple books helpful. “If I get to a point where I’m blocked, I go to another book to clear my mind.”

A change of writing location can also help delineate the genres. “Use different rooms to keep yourself focused,” Wiley suggested, “Book A in the living room, Book B in bed.”

And “comedies in the bathroom,” was Nahté’s deadpan suggestion.  

What about the use of pen names? Will using multiple pen names benefit authors who want to write in multiple genres? Or should they stick with the same name regardless of how much genre mixing they do?

Wiley’s take was that separate pen names were acceptable when writing in multiple genres, but writers should beware of excessive name changes. Or excessive genre changes. Things have changed since Shakespeare’s time, and writers whose names are too closely identified with a particular genre will find it hard to switch. Even if they adopt pen names for multiple genres, identities can be hard to hide. “Like Hollywood, the book industry doesn’t like new things,” Wiley warned. “Names are franchises now. It’s tougher to hide behind pen names now since the advent of social media.”