Sci fi, fantasy and horror writer Ian Watson advises us to read widely to nurture our writing
Ian Watson
Ian Watson is an author specialising in writing science fiction, fantasy and horror novels, as well as poetry and short stories. He was the judge of the Aeon Award 2009 and worked with Stanley Kubrick on the story that was to become Steven Spielberg’s film A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Ian talks to us about how living in the English northeast helped him to develop a sizeable imagination.
What inspired you to become a writer?
Obsession and experience of life (I was lucky enough to live abroad in Africa and Japan). Plus the drab banality of the northeast of England during my adolescence caused me to gaze up at the stars and fantasise. Also, a sense of difference between my imagination and other people’s; but the trick is communicating this to other people in a way that illuminates their own lives and thoughts.
Did you find a literary agent or a publisher first?
I never had an agent (though I could certainly use one now!). Oblivious to publishers not caring much for simultaneous submissions, in 1972 I sent my first novel, The Embedding, to three London publishers, and one of them, Gollancz, bought it, subject to a bit of rewriting. The Embedding and my second novel, The Jonah Kit, both won awards, translations and American editions happened, and Gollancz persevered with me for almost 25 years.
Did you face much rejection initially?
Aha, no rejections initially; it’s latterly that I get rejected - and I’m by no means alone in this. When I started writing, there were far fewer authors in my field; thus less competition. Also, publishers were almost all independent, so they could do pretty much as they pleased, whereas now most are (a) in conglomerates, often controlled by media groups with bottom lines and (b) editors must obey sales and marketing, whose main criteria are financial rather than, for want of a better word, artistic.
Also, instant point of sale reporting means that sales figures are known immediately, so if they aren’t good enough soon enough, that’s that pretty soon.
Gollancz finally kicked me overboard about ten years ago, but since I know the field reasonably well I succeeded in selling The Great Escape, the story collection they bounced, to American publishing house Golden Gryphon Press, and ironically it became a Washington Post Book of the Year.
The novel they bounced experienced several further weird calamities, but I got it into print after about the years. ‘Bloody but unbowed’ is the necessary motto.
It’s worth noting that nowadays there are a lot more excellent small presses where authors can seek refuge (and even superior production values), not least for short fiction collections.
How did you come to be the judge of the Aeon Award?
The SF, fantasy and horror worlds are fairly unique in organising lots of conventions where fans, editors, author, publishers all mix and know each other. Thus I met various of the editorial team who run Albedo One, Ireland’s outstanding SF magazine, which sponsors the Aeon Award, and they asked me to judge the shortlists of half a dozen stories per year for the Aeon. They themselves prune the entries down to a manageable shortlist for me.
What will you be looking for from the competition entries?
I usually tend to favour the sort of story I would love to have written myself, but obviously didn’t write. Since I’ve written SF, fantasy, and horror, I have quite wide-ranging tastes. I look for good writing and for originality rather than variations on common themes, a unique point of view and atmosphere.
I would prefer an innovative though somewhat imperfect story over a perfectly executed clone of familiar material.
What is it about the speculative fiction genre that appeals to you?
A heightened sense of the nature of the universe we are in, of the big mysteries of space and time, of our evolutionary roots. The Big Picture, rather than contemporary cameos no matter how sophisticatedly delineated. Or at least the Big Picture lurking in the background.
What are the biggest challenges of writing that type of fiction?
Conveying a sense of radical otherness while using the language and concepts we’re limited to, without which what we write might be incomprehensible.
What do you enjoy most about it?
People telling me that a book or story has changed their lives in some way.
How do you make the transition between writing novels, poems and short
Marathon, conjuring trick, sprint or 200 metres. I try not to repeat myself, so in a sense I’m making transitions all the time.
Whose writing do you admire?
Robert Irwin, Michel Houellebecq, José Carlos Somoza, Barrington J. Bayley, Stephen Baxter, Paul McAuley, Liz Williams, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds, John Meaney, Stendhal, Flaubert, Sartre, Zola, Herodotus, and others.
Among Young Adult Gothic writers (very suitable for adults too!) Sarah Singleton is outstanding.
Where do you carry out the majority of your writing?
In my office at home. I don’t have a laptop, or not yet. I might scribble notes when I’m away from home, but I don’t do actual writing elsewhere.
What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Probably having screen credit for Spielberg’s film A.I. Artificial Intelligence based on the story development work I did for almost a year with Stanley Kubrick some years earlier.
But I’m rather proud of my collaborative book with Italian surrealist Roberto Quaglia, The Beloved of My Beloved, published in the UK by independent Newcon Press in Spring 2009 - I’m fairly sure this is the only full-length genre fiction by two authors with different mother tongues, yet written as though we shared the same brain. A European co-production!
What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?
Be aware that in many respects it’s easier to start than to continue. Also: read widely, not just in the field you want to, or feel best equipped, to write in. Read about perfume, butterflies, the Mongols, astrophysics and a hundred other things. Reread and edit your work very critically to see that everything makes sense, and is as beautifully written as possible.
What are you working on now?
A big technothriller (contemporary plus medieval) with a collaborator.
For further information please visit www.ianwatson.info
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