clarion

The value of Clarion - a frank view, a few years on.

I've been a big supporter of Clarion in the past and I'm on record as saying that without it, I probably wouldn't be an author now, because it gave me some key business contacts in the USA - no small advantage for a Brit. I also made some of my best buddies there. I attended Clarion East , sold stories I wrote there to major pro mags right away, and less than two years later I'd sold my first trilogy. The rest is history. But...well, you know there's always a but.

Clarion used to be regarded as the experience for those serious about a professional career in writing speculative fiction, at least in the eyes of the great and the good of SF/F. I'm not sure how widely that view is shared in the publishing industry; I've certainly met editors who have very negative views of Clarion and tend to avoid buying stories from its alumni. Either way, the opinion of editors and publishers matters most, because they sign off on the cheques.

And if you find yourself saying at this point, "How crass! Filthy lucre? This is art!" then move along, because there's probably nothing for you to see here.

The good stuff about Clarion

Unlike most courses, where you just pay your money and show up for a few days, entry to to Clarion is competitive and you have to convince a panel of judges that you're up to the task, which includes being prepared to commit six consecutive weeks to the course. I still think it has unique value simply because it's immersive, and - if you take it seriously and don't dick around for a month and a half playing the wacky student - being locked up with nothing but writing day in, day out, is going to show you what you're made of, and if it's the job for you. You might also get lucky and encounter truly inspirational tutors who strike sparks off you.

The bad stuff about Clarion

It's wholly about short fiction (unless its remit has changed recently) and short fiction doesn't pay the bills unless your name is Harlan Ellison. What I've learned about the real pro business of writing since 2004, when my first book hit the shelves, is so different from what I was taught at Clarion that I now can't recommend it as preparation for being a novelist.

And the book business is about novels. If you don't believe me, walk into your local bookstore and and take a look at the shelves. You won't find many anthologies of Nebula winners in there, or much by way of short fiction in any genre. Short fiction is a declining market. Again, if you don't believe me, look at Locus's annual review each February and chart the downward sales trend of the short fiction magazines.

A large part of the business is also about licensed work - tie-ins - and Clarion has never, to my knowledge, dealt with the huge international English-language tie-in market. Lit-snobs with tiny print runs of a couple of thousand or even hundreds may sneer, but pros know the score even if they won't admit it. (Which is why tie-in work is a very competitive market. It's real writing for real audiences that pays real money.) The normal reader, the kind you'll need in huge numbers to make a good living, doesn't usually ghettoize books in that way - they just read what they like. And if they like your licensed fiction enough, they'll also read your creator-owned stuff. Tie-ins make business sense. They'll also show you what you're really made of as a writer.

My six penn'th. (Or ten cents, depending on the exchange rate.)

If your ambition is to write for a living, i.e. earn most or all of your income from writing fiction, then I honestly don't think Clarion will help you at all. It might even hinder you if you don't temper it with market reality, because you might come away with the idea that all you need do is write a few short pieces for obscure arty magazines, and then editors will then batter down your door with a fat cheque-book to recruit your genius.

If you're happy to write on the basis of an occasionally paying hobby, or you have a partner or parents who'll support you financially while you write, that's perfectly fine. Writing is a wondefully fulfilling activity, and it's up to you how you enjoy it. But my definition of professional is earning a living by doing a specific job, whatever that job might be. And the book business is getting harder and harsher every single year. It's not just about novels now; it's about novels that shift big numbers, and so the mid-list is shrinking. Fact of life.

There's CLARION EAST (the original at MSU, East Lansing) and CLARION WEST (based in Seattle) as well as CLARION SOUTH based in Australia. At time of writing, there was still talk of a European one starting up. But they're still not about how to write novels, if that can be taught at all. All I can say is that by the definition of professional used in the SF/F community - selling at least one short story for professional rate money, nothing more - Clarion does what it says on the tin.

But if by professional you mean commercially successful, or even selling one novel, then I think you'll be better off using those six weeks to actually write a book or do a bit of living and travelling to feed your imagination. Your call. If you're an unashamed opportunist like me, you'll get every ounce of benefit out of every course you attend anyway, relevant or not. But Clarion is not geared towards making you a successful novelist and teaching you about the business. I don't know any course that is - and I don't believe any creative writing degree programme can make that claim either. (Most successful novelists haven't done any courses at all, of course. In fact, most novelists period. Don't forget that.) So I don't think that Clarion can really prepare you for a professional career as most lay people would understand the term.

And storytelling (which is what sells books) is something you can either do or you can't. All that any writing programme can do is refine and enhance what's in you already, and enable you to understand the process going on in your head and the reader's.

So...do you apply, or not? And are you doomed to starve in a garret?

If you're determined to pay money to learn more about writing anyway, Clarion is still your best bet, I think.

But decide what you want out of writing before you give up six weeks of your life and a lot of money (accommodation and food costs) in the hope that Clarion will transform your fortunes. Some very successful novelists have come out of Clarion, but it's been pointed out to me that they'd have succeeded anyway. Most folk who complete Clarion don't even sell their short fiction to the big markets, and the rule of thirds often quoted to me seems to apply: after Clarion, one third will sell at least three or four shorts in their career, one third will carry on writing as a hobby, and one third will give up writing altogether.

Like any competitive business, there isn't room for everyone who wants to trade. It's not a lottery, though; publishers buy what they believe will sell, not what they pick at random from a hat. Your odds of becoming a pro writer are not one in all the many thousands of wannabes submitting manuscripts. Your chances are determined solely by whether you write what will sell. (And I can actually define what that is now, but that's a whole new topic.) If you're cut out to be a writer, you'll become one anyway. Beware falling into the trap of what one editor described exquisitely as "the role-playing game of being a writer."

Writers write. Professional writers write for a living. It's your choice which kind of writer you want to aim at becoming.