On Whimsical SF

[euclid]

Hi,

I write whimsical SciFi short stories. The sort of thing that Primo Levi wrote or R. A. Lafferty or (quite a lot of) Robert Sheckley's short stories.

What I write usually does not include hard science. Sometimes it doesn't include any science at all.

For example, I have a story about a stay-at-home husband whose wife works (in a wrecker's yard). He invents things. He has this idea for an electric suit to keep the arctic fishermen warm. He creates the suit - nearly setting the house on fire in the process - only to find that it lifts the wearer off the ground...

Sometimes I come up with ideas for what you might call mainstream SF, but when I written the story, it always turns out the same way.

Is there a market for whimsical stuff like this?

 

[Boneman]

Well, depends on what you mean by whimsical.... there are those who say Douglas Adams could be considered whimsical, and some of Terry Pratchett's work is definitely whimsical. (It's funny, but if you say 'whimsical' more than five times, the word sounds really weird.....) Eion Colfer's work has a real edge of whimsicalness (Whimsicality?) to it, even if there's a hard-nosed edge in the stories (artemis fowl, anyway).

Why do you ask? Because you need to write for the market, and want to be sure? I wonder if JKR (oh no, not her again, why does everybody quote her??) thought about whether there was a market for boy wizards etc? Or did she (re?) establish the whole market by herself. Somewhere in these chronicles (and I'm sorry I can't remember where, but I often get lost browsing in here) are some excellent comments by others about writing for yourself vs the market. If your writing is whimsical and it's good, then it will find, or possibly even, found, its own market. I'd venture to say that you could open a niche and be one of the first........ put some up in the critiques, and we'll see.......... What do we know? But you did ask.....

 

[mygoditsraining]

(It's funny, but if you say 'whimsical' more than five times, the word sounds really weird.....)

Also if you do it in front of a mirror, the Candyman shows up and looks all confused for a second, and because it's been a while since I've seen the movie, I'm guessing he spits a load of bees out and tries to use his hook-hand to stab Virgina Madsen in the neck?

Where was I? Oh yes.

Whimsical works - although it can lead to disastrous endings if you're not careful; I really enjoy Robert Rankin's books but some of them just seem to fall to pieces at the end because it seems that not even God knows where he's going with the final act and he ends up with something dramatically limp and not nearly as funny as the preceding 200+ pages.

And Hell, if that's what you enjoy writing; write it. If we were all looking for immediate commerciality we'd all be churning out Romance novels.*


*Not that there's anything wrong with Romance novels, if that's what you like writing. I must admit, though, I'd be unable to put pen to paper and hammer out anything titled "Dark Desires After Dusk" without accidentally committing seppeku to retain what little honour I have.

 

[SNG]

I remember reading Robert Sheckley's "A Ticket To Tranai", a hilarious story about a Utopian society on another planet, loved it. His stories are still published in anthologies.

As for your question on the market try reading independent SF magazines like Interzone, Jupiter, Asimov's.

 

[Ursa major]

I really enjoy Robert Rankin's books but some of them just seem to fall to pieces at the end because it seems that not even God knows where he's going with the final act and he ends up with something dramatically limp and not nearly as funny as the preceding 200+ pages.

I've read a couple of Rankin's books, one was hilariously funny, the other a bit of a damp squib (and from early on, not just the end), although even then there were plenty of funny passages.

The problem is that whimsy - and comedy in general - is quite hard to pull off (and very hard over the length of a novel). I can only applaud those who try to write comic books (whether genre or not). When it works, it can add a whole new dimension to the enjoyment of the reader; but when it falls flat....

 

[Blackrook]

Whimsical science fiction is hard to pull off because there has to be a serious point to it.

 

[MersSong]

Well, are you writing because you enjoy it, or because you want to sell it? If you write it because you love it, and you write well, a market will come. Like Boneman said, just look at JKR.