Harris Coverley has short fiction published or forthcoming in Lovecraftiana, Schlock! Webzine, and Disclaimer Magazine, as well as poetry in Gathering Storm, Bewildering Stories, and the Weird Poets Society anthology Speculations. He lives in Manchester, England.
How long have you been writing and what got you started?
When I was nine I read my first fantasy novel, The Mennyms by Sylvia Waugh, and I think my first “grown-up” science fiction novel was Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four at the age of twelve. These I believe are the works that really set my imagination off.
I used to write a lot as teenager; I maybe managed to write about three dozen short stories (and the beginnings of about three novels) between the ages of 13 and 18, all speculative fiction of some kind or another (literally the only type of fiction I read at that point), before deciding that I wanted to put all my effort into becoming a philosophy academic (I was, and remain, a strange beast).
In January 2017, I had a go at writing a short story. It ultimately didn’t work out, but I kept thinking about it until September that year, when I finally wrote and finished off my first short story (a work of Bukowskian semi-autobiographical ‘dirty realism’) in about seven years. Since that time I’ve drafted over forty short stories (having a few successes here and there) and hope to draft a full novel later this year.
What is the best piece of advice you have for new writers?
The old cliché is still a cliché, but it remains the best advice: the only way to succeed as a writer is to write, and to write as often as possible with a basic target. My current target is the same as Ray Bradbury’s: one new short story a week regardless, and I’m currently meeting it by grace of the Gods. Don’t get hung up on rejections; I had over twenty rejections before I got a short story published (just kudos, no pay), and in the end it took me nearly two years and over one hundred and forty rejections to sell my first prose piece. Tenacity is the only way.
Another is that you have to try different things out in order to experiment and develop your skills. In the past three years I’ve written hundreds of poems, short stories of many different genres, and a column for an online magazine, as well as sketches for radio and a monologue for the stage (admittedly they weren’t produced, but I still had a go). Try something different, see what you can grow.
If you could go back and find yourself five years ago, what advice would you give yourself?
Five years ago, not only was I not writing, I was not even reading any fiction. I would tell myself to stop wasting time arguing obscure political points with online losers (of which I was one) and pick one of the two hundred or so unread books he had off the shelf. I wouldn’t tell him to get back to writing; I would hope that would eventually come naturally. I would also tell him that academia is a bad labour market and that he’d probably be happier working a decent job for a change.
What is your favorite type of fiction and who are your favorite authors?
I try to read widely, and over the past few years have read varied works of speculative fiction alongside Russian realism, American realism, political satire, absurdist plays, and whatever else I’ve picked up. I can find any genre interesting as long as it’s well-written, but the speculative always drags me back to its lair somehow. My favourite authors, at least at this time, are Jorge Luis Borges (Labyrinths I found a big influence; truly some of the best short fiction ever composed), G.K. Chesterton (The Man Who was Thursday may be my favourite novel), Kurt Vonnegut (the same with Mother Night), Terry Pratchett, Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison, and Charles Bukowski (maybe something of an outlier in this group, but his Tales of Ordinary Madness really spurred me on as a writer, and I adore his gritty poetry).
How do you measure success when it comes to your writing?
The “first stage” was for me being published at all, even if just for the kudos. That means that at least one editor in the known universe didn’t find your prose completely repugnant, and you can work from there. I was very lucky: that editor just happened to need someone to write a column for him, and I got a weekly chore (but an enjoyable one) that forced me to write.
I’ve since had two fiction sales (including “The Whistler” to Theme of Absence), so I’d say I’m well into the “second stage”: routine payment for prose. Believe me: payment isn’t everything, but it helps, oh boy…
(Another thing is what I call “third party praise”: complete strangers giving positive coverage to your stuff on social media because they genuinely enjoy your work.)
I guess the next “stage” would probably be a steady stream of sales along with–at a pinch–a nomination of some kind; a “Best of” anthologisation of a piece would be sweet too.
What tips do you have for finding time to write?
Another cliché, but it’s true: the only person that stops you writing is you. Stop watching that crap, it’s a bad influence on your writing; put down that book (read yes, all the time you have, but not so that it distracts from your own creations); tell people that you’re busy or engaged so you can write; have a beer yes, but after you’ve written something.
If you have to, write-off all your time after 9 pm (tell the others in your house you’re going to bed for an “early start”), spend an hour or so writing, then an hour or so reading (to counter-balance) before sleep; if that’s not possible, or if you find it more comfortable, do the same but in the morning after 6 am. Write every week night, and then edit and submit at the weekends. Have a “production schedule” if you must, my advised target again being one short story a week.
Do you favor the traditional route or self-publishing?
One hundred percent the “traditional” route. A few months ago I heard a true horror story about a self-published novelist who had a character draw his weapon twice in a scene. Sends shivers down my spine even now! Writers need editors, and publishing professionals are the best. They want your stuff to sell and be good, and so should you. This is a market capitalist society, and a brutal one at that, and you have to operate within it. Some people are successful in self-pub, but many just end up hawking into the void.
Protect your integrity yes, but you can do that (for the most part) while having the expertise of the industry.
Are you an outliner or discovery writer? Or somewhere in between?
I describe my process thus: I tend to fully imagine a story before I write it (or at least the core elements of plot and characterisation), and I might write a brief summary down as a jumping off point. I’ve always, even when writing essays in secondary school, been more of a “mental planner” than a real outliner.
The blank page is like a field at night for me: I tend to have an ending in mind, so I toss that to the field’s far end like a big rock. I then toss all the other “rocks” (plot points, dialogue snippets etc.) across the field, before starting to “walk across the field” (actually write the story). You stumble about, tripping up every so often, collecting “rocks”, until at last you reach the “end rock”, which may end up not being the initial “end rock” you originally tossed. You then realise you’ve left several “rocks” behind, and you have to decide whether or not to go back and “get them” (insert them into the text in the second draft) or not.
If this is confusing, then congratulations, you’re saner than me. It’s total bollocks, but somehow it works.
How do you deal with rejections?
The trick is simple: re-read, re-edit, re-submit. After a certain point of practice, very little you write is going to be completely “unpublishable”, so there has to be a place for it “to live” as such.
You also have to face up to the fact that what you’ve written is very likely not a “masterpiece”, but that the next thing you write may just be. In spite of that, that rejected piece is still your baby, and with a little tender care you can still find it a decent crib, even if you just have to take exposure as payment.
Keep building up those bibliographies people! It’s the only way forward!
Is there anything you’d like to plug? Feel free to share a link.
I have two pieces in the new anthology of speculative poetry from the Weird Poets Society, Speculations, edited by Frank Coffman.
You can purchase it here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/frank-coffman/wps-anthology-speculations-2018/paperback/product-24106394.html
