The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction to run an Online Writer’s Workshop.

Since the assault brigades have deployed to put fire on this, I’m going to throw my two cents in.

Here is the deal. Gordon Van Gelder, Editor and Publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, will be setting up an online writer’s workshop. It is a pay to play system and the professional moderator will be none other than former Asimov’s Editor and award winning science fiction writer, Gardner Dozois. Membership is limited to 100 members.

The attack pattern, near as I can suss out, is that perhaps it is a bit unethical for a magazine to run such a workshop. The other issue is that there there might be a two tiered payment system for stories (which is nonsense, an unspoken multi tier system already exists as the established writer is getting far more than my five cents a word for their story). Lastly, some folks have an axe to grind both with Gardner Dozois and Gordon Van Gelder, namely the self appointed politically correct fascists of the science fiction and fantasy community. It wasn’t too long ago that Gardner was all but accused of being a racist, sexist editor (utter nonsense).

So I guess the plan is to kill the workshop by bad mouthing it enough so that people will not participate.

Let me punch some holes in this right now.

First and foremost, as a writer, I’d definitely pay good money to get Gardner’s advice on a story. His advice, in fact, is more valuable than publication in Gordon’s magazine, though I would not turn that down either. Over the course of my career, when Gardner was still an editor at Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, his advice on their Forum and in the personal responses he sent me expedited the evolutionary process for me. I sorely miss having that voice in my rejection pile. I think in many ways that Gardner is probably the go to Writer (note that I did not say Editor) who can tell you what is wrong with your story.

Second, writers pay for workshops all the time. We pay to take creative writing classes at college such as the one my peer, friend and mentor, Terri Lowry, teaches. We pay to take them in brick and mortar classrooms and we pay to take them online (my plan for this fall with Terri). We pay good money not only to get the instructor’s advice but also that of our peers in the class. Some of the more fiscally able in the SF community pay a great deal of money to attend workshops such as Clarion or the Science Fiction Workshop held out at the University of Kansas Center for the Study of Science Fiction. Many pay because their favorite author will be there. More than a few, I suspect, probably pay for the networking opportunities (nothing wrong with that).

How, pray tell, is Gordon’s model any different?

The fact of the matter is that it isn’t any different. Editors in science fiction have guided writers with their rejections and their feedback since the magazines first hit the stands in the early part of the 20th Century. The only difference is that the vector of dissemination has changed.

All other concerns voiced by others in the greater science fiction and fantasy writing community, frankly, smack of the standard dose of personal vendettas against two men who do not deserve such treatment.

Respects,
Steven Francis Murphy
Author of The Limb Knitter and Tearing Down Tuesday
North Kansas City, Missouri