Nascence: 17 Stories That Failed and What They Taught Me

by Tobias S. Buckell

New York Times Bestseller Tobias S. Buckell has published 45 short stories in various magazines and anthologies. But in the process of learning how to sell those 45, he wrote over 100 short stories that failed in a variety of ways while learning the craft.

In Nascence, he reprints 17 failed stories written from 1996-2004 and details some of the major failings of the stories that led him to abandon them, and what he learned from those failures moving forward.

Nascence isn’t just a look at how stories fail, but also a look the beginnings of Buckell’s fictional worlds and the stories he was trying to tell at the very start.

Genres: Writing, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fantasy

Nook

First published March 26, 2011

About the author

Born in the Caribbean, Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times Bestselling author. His novels and over 50 short stories have been translated into 17 languages and he has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Author. He currently lives in Ohio.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nascence
Tobias S. Buckell; 2011
Suppose you're a writer. Suppose you've spent a decade and a half learning to hone your skills, learning to turn weak and clichéd vignettes into narrative gold. Along the way, you're likely to have compiled quite a bit of hackneyed prose as you stab in the dark for something that works. At the end of the road, when you've accomplished your goal of breaking into the mainstream publishing world, what are the chances that you'd look back on those dusty cast-aways and find anything of value?

Tobias Buckell's latest collection, Nascence, explores his development as a writer and storyteller in exactly this way, by going back and dredging up old stories from the trunk and casting a critical eye over them. At first this format sounds a bit daft. Why subject your readers to the worst you have to offer? But the collection unfolds as a fascinating look at the maturation of a story-teller rather than a group of sub-par stories.

Buckell introduces each piece with a comment on the stage of life and narrative intention it inhabits. The first, "Spellcaster," reaches back to 1996 as the first story the juvenile Buckell ever wrote with a goal in mind. It is, as the introduction rightly concedes, a dreadful story but in the context of building toward a greater sense of storytelling, a frantic reach for that thing that urges on all writers to find and tell stories, it becomes a chance for the reader to connect to the writer's intention rather than output.

The subtitle for the collection is "17 Failed Stories and What They Taught Me" but if truth be told, several would pass the muster of some of today's more discriminating short fiction outlets. "The Arbiter" is an interesting look at interplanetary politics and colonialism. "Life!" presents a screwball vision of future alien relations. In even these cases where the story is entertaining, there is the backdrop of writely development, the adjustments over time are plain to see. Leading up to and then out of Buckell's stint at the Clarion Workshop, Buckell continues to improve and brings the reader along with him. A decade and a half of steady growth condensed into less than 300 pages.

But the jewel of the collection is the growth of the story "A Jar of Goodwill." Buckell gives us a look at how the story evolved over the course of ten years until it's publication in Clarkesworld Magazine in 2010. It's possible to see the underbelly of the story as he searches for that crystallizing idea that brings everything together. It's easy to overlook the amount of effort and creative chagrin that goes into crafting a coherent and interesting short story but Buckell lays the elements out for the audience to pick apart and reassemble and see what went into creating one of the magazine's more popular stories.

If there is a complaint, it's that reading someone's personal slush pile can become occasionally tiresome. If one isn't interested in the exterior context of the stories, they're not likely to find much of value in this collection. For those who are interested, however, an entire short fiction education is available inside the pages of Nascence. Recommended.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently saw an informal poll of authors on how many books they wrote before finding representation and getting published. There were very few that found deals on their first finished novel. More often, it was the third book found them representation, fifth book got them a book deal. Ninth book found them representation AND a book deal. 10+ each for some. Stuff like that.

The numbers are even more impressive with short story writers. There's sort of a woodshedding process that goes on, practicing over and over, experimenting, and sharpening your craft until you break through. In this collection, Buckell shares some of the stories he wrote early on as he was cutting his teeth, and in the case of "A Jar of Goodwill," shares a few incarnations of a particular story that finally got published in Clarkesworld.

While the stories are potentially interesting to study, the best parts of this for me were Buckell's reflections on them. He shares where he went wrong, what he learned from each, and it's pretty cool to see how his strengths as a storyteller evolved. I love that he published this.

[Lieke · Rating 4 out of 5]

It will take me a while to process what I've learned from reading these failed short stories - and the last, successful one. After all, what really is failure, and what is success, and doesn't everyone have their own interpretations of it? Still, I enjoyed reading through them, seeing the change in style, voice etc. and think other writers would enjoy this book too, as a learning experience and general inspiration. Now to stop procrastinating and write some stories of my own.

[Sarah Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often find established writers are unwilling to discuss their past failures at length--perhaps they are embarrassed, perhaps they feel there is nothing for others to learn, or perhaps they simply haven't scrutinized the trajectory of their own development.

I am grateful that Buckell has taken the time not only to collect his failures, but to examine why they failed, and to compile that information into a chronological study of his progress to pro-level writing. For anyone interested in writing SF genre fiction (and particularly the military-flavored sci-fi Buckell writes), this book is profoundly useful, inexpensive, and often overlooked.

The stories themselves are...ahem...not good, but they are merely illustrations.

While there are other excellent genre craft books that provide stories as examples for concepts (see, e.g., Those Who Can or Paragons ), Nascence is, in many respects, more helpful. The stories are all from the same author, providing stylistic consistency and allowing the stories' weaknesses--and, gradually, their strengths--to move to the forefront. The reader can compare Buckell's approach to various concepts in his earlier works (which are fundamentally awful) with his later works (which are readable, but still unpublishable), and, ultimately, with a final, publishable draft of one story. With Buckell's commentary as guidance, there is a clear sense of what works and what doesn't.

I will offer several caveats, however. First and foremost, there is a bit of Clarion-worship, and with it, the danger that readers will conclude that going to Clarion is mandatory step toward becoming a competent SF author. Second, Buckell's style is not everyone's style; the basics are there, but what worked for Buckell may not work in quite the same way for others. Finally, if you're like me, reading seventeen unpublishable stories in a row will cause you to unconsciously absorb horrible stylistic habits. Consider concurrently reading a "Best of" anthology to cleanse yourself.

[Kevin McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book. Very rarely do you see an accomplished writer like Bucknell track his progress from early "not so good" stories through his modern, much stronger ones. Better still, the author goes into a lot of detail about what he learned in each story, and how he applied those lessons to later ones.

For anyone interested in writing stories or the writing process, this is an *excellent* book to read. Basically a career-tracking memoir and powerful instructional tool in one, the book gives good insights into how one can develop from a novice to an expert storyteller.

[B.J. Keeton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most unique short story collection I've ever read. I would say that it's a must-read for writers and anyone who cares about the process of becoming marketable. The stories vary--some are stinkers that are hard to get through, while others I'm amazed never saw the light of day before now. Overall, it's probably the best book I've read in a long while, and I just can't recommend it enough.

[Tom Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tobias introduced this book as either a brilliant idea or self-aggrandizing. I think it is both. It gives him the ability to show some the work that made him an author today, and we get the chance to see the mistakes he made while writing them. If you are an aspiring author, fan of sci-fi, or just a fan of Tobias's work, you should find something to love in here.

[Dan Smyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was interesting. I think there were a few things missing that would have made it really good, but as a whole a decent read, fun, and worth the money I paid. If nothing else, it's made me interested in picking up one of his novels, which can never be a bad thing for an author to accomplish.

Full review coming soon

[Stephen Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good introduction to writng SF short stories.

Looking forward to reading the ones he sold. :)

[Kirtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent accounting of abandoned stories and the reasons behind the abandonment. Sharing failures with one's fan base is very insightful idea.