Hi
everyone. Have we met? My name is Charles and I read a lot of short
SFF. I feel like every time I write that it should be read as if
opening an AA meeting. Because, well...I’m a bit of a
short-sff-aholic. It’s...well, something of a problem. But my
problem can be your gain! Because I find that what I hear most when
talking about short SFF as a field is that there’s Just. So. Much.
And there is! Far more than any one person can read. Which is only
really a problem if one just wanders in without a map. That’s where
I come in. In this series I want to start to map the short SFF field
with an eye toward giving readers the tools to find the stories
they’re most interested in reading, or to find new
publications/subgenres/authors that they might not have otherwise
tried.
Maps
are interesting things. On the one hand, they can firm up borders.
They can create walls. They can codify injustices. On the other hand,
they can be vital tools not only for not getting lost or getting to
where you want to go, but for knowing what’s out there. Maps can be
about setting expectations before pushing into the relative unknown.
Maps can also be about describing a lack, as oftentimes the vast
unmarked areas on maps are just as telling as the clear lines of
city, state, and country. And, of course, every map bears the marks
of its creator, is a text that tells a story. I cannot and will not
attempt to tell you that the maps I make will not reflect me and my
interpretation of what’s out there. I can only be as up front about
it as I can. I am a reader and writer of short SFF. I read widely,
and have published widely, and that will color how I think about and
how I reveal short SFF to you.
First
off, some definitions of terms. Because any map that’s useful is
going to have a key. Let’s get some essentials out of the way.
Short
SFF
- Any speculative fiction shorter than novel-length (flash, short
story, novelette, novella) as well as speculative poetry and
nonfiction.
But
wait, fuck, I did that thing where I defined something with a term
that probably also needs to be defined. So…
Speculative
fiction
- Fiction that requires
the writer to break one of the “rules” of accepted reality. Be it
magic, technology, alternate history—speculative fiction is about
asking “what if something
was different than we accept it to be?”
This
is, I grant you, a rather nebulous definition of speculative fiction
that is based not on a piece predicting technology or even being
“untrue.” To me, the sole thing a piece of speculative fiction
must do is break a rule that is considered
to be true
currently. Rules change. Technology changes. History changes. But if
the author is consciously breaking with how we conceive of and
organize the “real world,” then I consider what they are writing
to be speculative. Yes, this means my definition is based in some way
on the author, not the reader. Fight me.
But
with that out of the way, let me run down a few definitions that I
find helpful for more specific genres.
Fantasy
- Fiction where the “rules” broken concern magic or the
supernatural (also, loosely, variants to accepted history).
Science
Fiction
- Fiction where the “rules” broken concern technology or
extraterrestrial beings (also, loosely, depictions of the future).
Horror
- Not necessarily speculative but based on the feeling of fear evoked
in the reader. It becomes a qualifier of speculative fiction, though,
as in speculative horror, or SFF horror, which would be fiction that
breaks the “rules” of accepted reality and
focuses on the feeling of fear evoked in the reader, often in the
distance between accepted reality and the reality the work
introduces.
Obviously
those are the Big categories, sort of like the continents of short
SFF. I will typically be looking at things a bit more specific than
that, what most would consider subgenres. I’d actually list
speculative horror as a subgenre, and a particularly robust one, and
also the only subgenre of horror that I’ll probably be looking at
because it’s the overlap between Horror the genre and Speculative
Fiction the super-genre. And are you tired yet?
Anyway!
I just want to give you an idea of how I’m approaching the process
of map-making. I’m not incredibly interested in drawing lines
between “hard” science fiction and “soft” science fiction.
Really, the reasons I want to do this can be broken down thusly:
- To provide a tool for readers to break down short SFF into meaningful, manageable chunks that will help them locate stories they will hopefully love.
- To counter the narrative that short SFF is either too massive, too disparate, or too opaque to be successfully navigated.
- To talk about short SFF, which is one of my great loves.
- To highlight publications, authors, and trends within short SFF.
That
is perhaps an ambitious list of goals for this series, but that’s
the aim. In my head each installment will explore a certain area of
short SFF, mapping it as thoroughly as possible (for me) in the
current landscape (with perhaps some notes as to the recent past). I
will provide links to examples of stories and publications and
resources I find helpful to mapping short SFF, and I will try to be
as open to feedback as possible. If you have suggestions on what
you’d most like to see, or particular kinds of short SFF you want
help finding more of, please sound off in the comments.
One
last thing before I close this down. People often come to me to ask
how to find stories. How to refine their search. While I hope to help
through this series, there are some tools that are available to you
right now, and I find that not everyone thinks of this when they’re
considering where to look as readers for particular
genres/styles/etc. Your best resource as a reader is…submissions
guidelines. Yes, they are written for writers, but if you want to
know what a publication is interested in, submissions guidelines are
where to look. Skip the About Us section of publications. Read what
they want. See if they have a diversity statement. Check to see what
other tactics they might have to encourage marginalized writers to
submit. This is a really easy “cheat” for readers to get a feel
for a publication without checking out reviews or reading sample
stories. And using a tool like The Submissions Grinder at Diabolical Plots allows you to search by genre, by length, by basically whatever
you want. It’s not what it was designed for, but it is amazing for
searching out venues and stories to read.
Plus,
well, all the short fiction reviewers out there. There are many. I
will do a post specifically about reviews and reviewers at some point
but yeah, reviewers are a resource.
So
I hope you’ll find this series helpful. Cheers!
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POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.
POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.