Spider Star

The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More.
Praise for Star Dragon

"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin

"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine

"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review

"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly

"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Meta

Portrait of the Writer as a Pick-Up Artist

May 20th, 2009

I had a mild epiphany the other day, and I have no doubt I am not the first and the idea is not original, but here is my thesis: writers are pick-up artists.

There is an entire community of pick-up artists who have workshops, critique each others craft, and who develop theory and teach techniques to meet and seduce women. Books like The Game by Neil Strauss and TV shows like The Pick-Up Artist on VH-1 have brought the community into the public eye. The techniques of pick-up artists work. Apply the 10,000 hours any serious skill requires, and you too can master pick up. I think most guys could benefit from learning just a little bit, if just to stop boring or scaring women and to be a little happier with themselves and to have a clue.

There are a whole bunch of different methods employed. Some are very rigid and quantified, like those of Mystery. Some are more free form, like those of Juggler. But they all have things in common and they all work.

What are the common elements?

First is opening. You need to do something to get someone’s attention, to get them to engage with you, specifically. In a high-energy night club with a lot of guys around the opening needs to be something different and dramatic. Saying “hello” is nice in theory but there had better be more than that there. Approaching someone to talk about a sexual topic is a lot more interesting than preferred brand of toothpaste.

Next is hooking. That opening has to be followed up in a way that convinces the other people that you’re okay to hang out with for a while. Different approaches use different methods for this, but it is generally a matter of remaining interesting.

There’s usually a qualification stage, some kind of give and take, so that the woman is investing in the interaction.

There’s a comfort stage, getting to know each other, spending time together.

There’s a seduction stage with various escalations, withdrawals, and progression to a climax.

And all along it is important that things remain interesting, moving forward, with highs and lows, give and take, a range of emotions in play.

OK, this is really just too obvious, but I will spell out the close parallels as a writer and teacher/student of writing.

Every story should have a hook, something that grabs a reader and conveys confidence in the writer. Like pick-up artists, writers have their own styles and they can be recognized as interesting and attractive almost immediately (or not — tastes differ). After the initial hook, there should be enough going on that a reader can decide to continue. A writer employs lots of small tricks, things like microtension, planting little mysteries and doing a slow reveal of these in ensuing pages. Pick-up artists tell stories, sometimes several at once, parceling out the bits and pieces. They also use back-handed compliments (”negs”) and false take-aways (pretending to leave or shifting attention away) that maintain interest and tension. Confidence, always. Uncertainty will lose interest in a hurry.

Another thing that is in common: subtext. When a man and a woman are talking, in a pick-up the subtext had better be about the blooming relationship (AKA flirting). If the conversation is about the weather or pizza toppings or whatever, and only about that, the pick-up is dead. In a story, if the characters are only talking about what they are literally talking about, without any subtext, character issues, etc., the narrative is dead. This is one reason why infodumps are frowned upon. These are long passages to convey information and nothing more. Much better to give them a subtext and to be interesting on multiple levels. Arguments are a good way to insert infodumps, as people do throw out facts everyone knows in order to make a point. The subtext of the information is the underlying character conflict.

There should be investment from a reader. Not just the time, but something more. It’s usually a personal investment, sympathy or empathy for a character, or sheer intellectual interest to learn something or solve a puzzle. A reader doesn’t just suck down information. A reader has to have something to win or lose, too.

There needs to be a long middle period in a story where a reader develops deeper feelings for a character as the character goes through various interesting and challenging events. Pick-up artists don’t typically date per se, but you can equate the middle complications of a book as a girl coming along on the adventures the pick-up artist has on a daily basis, getting to know their world (which should be more cool and fun than most). Being a good pick-up artist is about having a cool, interesting life and giving someone that experience, too, cutting out the boring bits as much as possible. Good writers do the same thing through their characters and stories.

A writer working toward climax, ever increasing the tension and stakes, is just like the pick-up artist working toward climax. “Climax” is a pretty clear word in common on this.

Is it any wonder that one of the most popular story forms is the romance? Women crave this experience in real life and vicariously, too. Other genres do the same sorts of things, but with different styles or payoffs. The mechanics of the process are pretty much the same.

Pick-up artists just seem to me to be guys who study the craft in order to more reliably have success, learning what is interesting to women, learning what makes themselves more interesting and less needy. They sometimes face hostility about being fake, or something being wrong with them for trying to understand a natural or magical process. Well, sometimes writers get this too. There used to be a popular school of thought that said that you can’t teach writing, and that you had talent or not. That’s ridiculous, of course. Craft can be learned. It may never lead to a masterpiece, and it can’t change the things that interest you, but that’s the same with pick-up.

I only think there’s one rule to writing: anything that works, works. What we call craft is a just a collection of wisdom about things that usually work. There are all kinds of schools of thought about how to write, from someone like Barry Longyear who will explain step by step how to write a story to someone like Stephen King, who confesses in On Writing that he makes up the story as it goes along and sometimes abandons projects when they stall.

Sometimes a writer who doesn’t know what they’re doing will get lucky and write something pretty good, but will have difficulty repeating the result because the craft is weak. Sometimes a guy who doesn’t know what he is doing will “get lucky”, too, and have difficulty repeating the result because his skills are weak.

Anyway, what’s the point of this? I think it’s an interesting new way for me to look at writing, and it may result in stronger work in some ways. Some writers reading this may get more of a clue about social interactions, too, or at least what makes some people more attractive to others. Ideally every writer understands social dynamics well, but I know for a fact that this is not true (working on it myself for years with some improvement). And if there are some pick-up artists out there reading this who are trying to learn to be better writers, I hope it helps them, too. They seem to be writing a lot of books these days and selling pretty well.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.