I discovered Patti Smith while at school, in the late 1980s. I’d been into the Velvet Underground for a couple of years, and I was just discovering and getting into all these cool American bands, like the Ramones and The Doors. I picked up a vinyl copy of her first album, Horses (1975), at a record store in Bristol, at the top of Park Street, opposite the museum. It was produced by John Cale, whose early albums I really liked, and Smith looked amazing on the sleeve, like some sort of hip androgynous alien, with this fuck-you attitude. I looked at it all the way home on the bus, turning it over and over in my hands. When I finally got it back to my room and put it on the turntable, it blew me away. It was arty and passionate and perfect, and it took no prisoners. It mixed reggae and rock with this spectacularly demented poetry; and Smith had this incredible voice that sounded beautiful and ugly all at the same time. I was 17 years old, and I played it over and over again.

“Space Monkey” is the second track on Smith’s slightly patchier (but more commercially successful) third album, Easter (1978), and it’s a prowling, swaggering chant of a song, buoyed up by cheery organ and driving bass. Without the vocals, it might almost sound like something by Talking Heads; but here, Smith dominates the music. She alternates spoken word passages with Jim Morrison growls, until the whole thing degenerates into panting and monkey screams.

(This article originally appeared on the Sci-fi Songs Blog).

The following articles have attracted a lot of traffic. It seems they’ve proven useful to a lot of people. In case you missed them first time around, here’s a convenient list of links:

• The Role of Science Fiction
• 5 Useful Writing Tips
• 3 Ways To Increase Your Writing Time
• How To Write Press Releases
• What I Learned From My First Book Launch
• The Difference Between SF and Fantasy

I’ve been involved in a discussion on LinkedIn, concerning the marketing value of Twitter. Many of the professional marketers in the discussion seem hung-up on the number of followers they have, with one boasting that he has 700 followers, yet only follows 15 people himself. Others are seemingly prepared to dismiss Twitter altogether because they have too many spam followers, and have not thought to block them.

Continue reading “Twitter For Business”

The following article appears in the new issue of Focus, the BSFA’s magazine for writers:

What I Learned From My First Book Launch
By Gareth L Powell

Elastic Press published my first short story collection, The Last Reef, in August 2008. Now, a year and a half later, I’m looking back at the process of releasing the book, and the lessons it taught me.
Continue reading “What I Learned From My First Book Launch”

The following article appears in the new issue of Focus, the BSFA‘s magazine for writers:

How To Write A Press Release
By Gareth L Powell

If you’re serious about selling the books you write, then sooner or later you’re going to have to get some press coverage. Maybe you need to attract people to a book signing you’re holding in Waterstones; maybe you’ve just signed a big publishing deal; or maybe you’re releasing your self-published novel. Whatever your reason, the humble press release is still one of the best ways of attracting an editor’s attention.

Continue reading “How To Write A Press Release”

All our myths are attempts to address three questions:

1. Where did we come from?
2. How do we behave now we’re here?
3. Where are we going?

Science fiction concerns itself mainly with the third question (and you could argue that the other two are the purview of religion and mainstream literature, respectively). Bearing all this in mind, here are seven things I’ve learned about writing:

1. Some days, writing is like scrabbling around in a dark pool looking for pretty stones.
2. If you want people to read your story, write about people.
3. You will be remembered for what you write, not what you fail to write.
4. If a reader has to put your book down and use a dictionary to look up the meaning of the clever word you’ve used, they may not come back.
5. Stuck for inspiration? Stop thinking about it. Have a bath. Go for a walk. Clean the car. Distract yourself and inspiration will strike.
6. Want to be a more productive writer? Give up caffiene and quit smoking. Seriously. Both are counter-productive distractions.
7. The only thing more terrifying than beginning to write, is not to write at all.

“The impulse to create beauty is rather rare in literary men… Far ahead of it comes the yearning to make money. And after the yearning to make money comes the yearning to make a noise.”

- HL Mencken

One of the questions people often ask me is: “Where do you find the time to write?” When they ask this, I often think that what they really mean is: “Why can’t I find enough time to write?”

From personal experience, I know how difficult it can be to find the time and energy to be creative, especially if you have a full time day job, a mortgage to pay, and a family to look after, and I won’t pretend I have all the answers. But there are strategies you can use to increase the time you have available for writing. The three strategies listed below have worked for me, or for other writers I know personally:

Continue reading “3 Ways Of Finding More Time To Write”

I have a number of reference books on the art of writing. Some are better than others, and some I dip into almost every day.

Take The Elements Of Style for example.  So far I’d have to say it’s been the most useful book I’ve found in terms of day-to-day writing.

First published in 1935 and since revised and updated, this handy pocket-sized book is a first rate field guide to punctuation, grammar, and sentence construction.

It has been criticised in some areas for its championing of the active voice over the passive, but this is a minor quibble, and I’ve personally found it an excellent reference for basic things, such as the correct punctuation of dialogue and the difference between commonly confused words, such as “alternate” and “alternative”.

If you want to find out why this little book has been praised and recommended by generations of authors and professional copywriters, you can pick it up relatively cheaply on Amazon.

1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
4. You must put the work on the market.
5. You must keep the work on the market until it is sold.

These rules appeared in the 1947 essay “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction” by Robert A. Heinlein and I agree with all of them save for number three. I tend to find my first drafts fairly ragged. The magic happens in the rewrites. I would hate to send a first draft out to market. But, based on my own experience, I think we can interpret this rule as:

“When a professional editor tells you to change a story, do so.”

After all, the editor probably has a far greater understanding of what sells in his particular market. Don’t be precious. If they ask you to change something, they almost certainly have a very good reason for the request.