Jonathan Sherwood's first fiction sale was finished on a Tungsten T2. Adrenochrome, as he's known here at 1src, provided such great answers to my questions that I've decided to post them as-is.
Here's a peek inside the mind of an extraordinarily honest and talented writer, Jonathan Sherwood.
1. What was your first work ever published? When?
“Under the Graying Sea” is my first fiction sale. I’ve been writing for years, but I was trying to write and publish straight literary stories and having terrible success. My stories’ themes were always a little more “out there” than most literary fiction, so one day I sat down and had a good long think about why I was writing. I realized that in my heart I wanted to write science fiction because it’s the genre of ideas and I love bending my brain around new ideas. I grew up devouring science fiction and my first childhood stories were all science fiction. In college I had a writing professor who chastised me for writing a fantasy piece and convinced me that “real” writers only write literary fiction. Stupidly, I believed him, and it took me a good ten years before I was able to shake off his influence. Once I realized science fiction was what I really wanted to write, I wrote “Under the Graying Sea” and was very fortunate to have it premier in Asimov’s.
2. Which authors inspired you?
The two biggest influences on my writing are clearly Ray Bradbury and Henry Miller. I don’t think the two would be caught dead in a room or on a bookshelf together (well, maybe Miller since he’s already dead), but the weird mix shaped my approach to writing today. I grew up reading everything of Bradbury’s I could find. I spent my meager allowance through my mother’s mail-order book catalogue, buying every Bradbury book I could afford. I read most of the other big science fiction and fantasy authors as well, but Bradbury resonated with me. I wasn’t bowled over by an author again until I was well into my “literary” bender. I read Tropic of Cancer and remember feeling confused and elated. I started reading book after book by Miller. He’s a genius wordsmith and a genius of elucidating the joys and frustrations of being human. There’s a book out called Henry Miller on Writing that’s so good I scanned my copy through an OCR and converted it to a Palm doc so I always have it with me.
3. What programs do you use on your computer/PDA?
Right now I’m using a LifeDrive. I bought one the first week they came out and I love it. And hate it. But mostly love it. For writing I use Wordsmith, Docs To Go, and OfficeSuite. Palmary Clock should be included software in every Palm. It’s my alarm in the morning, my desktop clock at work, my workout timers, etc., etc. I use eReader, and Tome Raider for reading and reference (Merriam-Webster’s complete dictionary in the former and Wikipedia in the latter). Handyshopper for lists, Pocket Tunes for music, TCPMP for movies, Noviiremote because my two-year old keeps hiding the remotes, 2sky for astronomy, Calorie King for nutrition tracking, and probably a dozen more freeware bits. I use the LifeDrive constantly, every day. It’s faster to use it to check my email or a quick web site than starting up the computer, I listen to podcasts on it, chart my workouts on it, use the voice memo for story ideas when they hit me, track my finances – it hit me one day how dang cool the thing is when I was trying to get my daughter to sleep. I was playing lullabies for her with Pocket Tunes while I was reading a book off eReader.
4. What made you decide to use Wordsmith, Docs To Go, and Office Suite on your LifeDrive? How does it feel using them?
I started with a Handspring Visor. At the time, Wordsmith was the hands-down leader in word processing. I bought it because with a new baby in the house, I wasn’t finding much time to write and I knew that if I didn’t figure out a way to work it into daily life, I wasn’t going to be writing at all. I wrote about the first half of the first draft of “Under the Graying Sea” in graffiti on the Visor. Wordsmith worked flawlessly the entire time. It was way too slow for spell checking, so I did that on the computer, but nearly all the writing was done in Wordsmith.
I eventually upgraded to a Tungsten T2, and with that came Docs To Go. DTG’s word processor didn’t impress me, and it still doesn’t. Wordsmith is much faster – one click of a button and I’m writing, no waiting – and its fonts are much more pleasing to the eye. Even on my LifeDrive, I still use Wordsmith 90% of the time for word processing. But with the T2, I also bought a Stowaway keyboard, which is still my favorite. That took writing on my Palm to a whole new level. In addition to “Graying Sea,” I started writing other stories, keeping a journal, astronomy log, writing notes, story ideas and other written works in Wordsmith.
I finished my story on the T2, sold the story, and with the money I bought my LifeDrive and a Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard. The LD has its issues, but I love the thing. I use about 3GB for music, which I listen to when I write, and I store all of the writing I’ve ever done on it. I never like the Bluetooth keyboard, though. It was cool to use, but it dropped the connection far too often, double-lettered, and the third time I found a minute to write and discovered the batteries were dead, that was it. I bought a Palm infrared wireless and things have been much better. I’d still prefer the larger Stowaway W-keyboard that never faltered and never had a battery issue, but the Palm Universal Wireless works well enough. The LifeDrive’s large screen is also a welcome improvement for writing over the T2’s. The T2’s was brighter, but not by much, and I’m willing to give that up to be able to see more text at once. There’s something about seeing more text that gives you a better sense of placement in the story.
With version 7 of Office Suite, I tried the trial and liked it enough to purchase it. Like DTG, it’s slow, so I don’t use it that much, but I don’t have a lot of choice since the Palm community does not have a word processing program that can really do everything a word processor needs to do. Wordsmith is by far the best program for cranking out words on a Palm. It’s fast, it’s elegant, it’s easy on the eyes, and its keyboard support is first rate. On the downside, it can’t live on a card, can’t sync documents on a card or hard drive, and most infuriating of all, it can’t deal with native DOC docs. DTG works very well with native Docs, has a nice spreadsheet (good for tracking submissions), and keeps all my document needs in one place. On the downside, it can’t handle RTF files, which is the format Wordsmith saves its files on your computer (and which can be synced back to the LifeDrive’s drive – wonderful!), it’s slower than Wordsmith, doesn’t handle keyboards as well, and for whatever reason the fonts are hard on my eyes. Office Suite looks wonderful (except for the spreadsheet). It reads nearly every format, it has on-the-fly spell checking and I love the page layout view. Its downside is mostly its speed, which is slower than even DTG.
So I find myself jumping around to each of these programs. At one point on vacation, I had to email my story back home to my writing group. I wrote it in Wordsmith, and then had to cut and paste it into a DTG document to save it as a Word Doc. Of course, formatting issues came up and I had to deal with those. I couldn’t use Office Suite to open Wordsmith’s RTF files because the RTF files are only created when syncing with a computer. Nope, cutting and pasting. Blue Nomad doesn’t seem at all eager to upgrade Wordsmith, which is a shame. Just some native DOC support would be nice. DTG is a nice compromise among the three, and Office Suite looks like it might pull off being the Palm word processor champ down the road if they can just speed up their program.
5. What are your tips for current writers and budding writers out there?
Everybody has writing tips, and few really work for everyone. There are a few I think are universal. First, don’t forget about the reader. Don’t get so engrossed in your writing that you forget that the purpose of your story is to convey something to someone. Remember at all times that your goal is not to build a world or design unique characters – it’s to give the reader an experience. Hopefully that experience will include unique characters, etc., but don’t let the process become your goal.
Second, interact with other writers. This means read other writers and be read by other writers. Join or start a critique group and get some sugar-free feedback. Dissect how professional stories work or don’t work, and be open to other’s opinions of how yours is working or not. Check your ego at the door. It’s not about you, it’s about the reader and his experience with your story. And read. Nothing sets your brain on fire like reading.
Third, be persistent. If you can’t set aside time to write, buy a Palm and write when you can. I wrote one scene of “Under the Graying Sea” while in a hospital waiting room. Another guy there was talking loudly on a cell phone about the new breasts his wife was at that moment receiving. For half an hour I tried to write an important scene while the guy next to me waxed poetic about boobs. Be persistent in developing your writing. If everyone thought your last story stunk, learn from it and make the next one better. And be persistent in submitting. I got lucky in that my first science fiction story sold, but I have 128 rejection letters from literary markets (all deserved).
And probably the most important thing that I learned the hard way is write what you love. Find out what moves you, and then find a way to make it move someone else.
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Jonathan Sherwood is from Rochester, NY. His daughter is his inspiration for "Under the Graying Sea." The story is in the February issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
Read more writing tips and an excerpt of "Under the Graying Sea" at
www.JonathanSherwood.com
The sci-fi bug has bitten me once again, thanks to "Under the Graying Sea." I'm back to devouring ebooks with my LifeDrive. Thanks to Adrenochrome for the support!
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