Aspiring and experienced Writers' discussion thread

[rexbeccarox]

Awesome! I got an agreement for a trial period for the subforum. We need to keep it popular, though, in order to keep it alive!

[Athene]

Awesome!  I got an agreement for a trial period for the subforum. We need to keep it popular, though, in order to keep it alive!

That was fast. Thanks for that.

[Ravenshire]

I'll start with a question: if you had the time to spend on it starting now, what book project would you tackle? A novel? About what?

I think I would expand on a sci-fi short story I wrote years ago about a guy who dies in a car accident and who's brain and DNA is put to use in an ultimately (mostly) successful experiment to not only clone the body, but use nano-tech to "record" the mind of the dying guy and "re-map" the mind of said clone, "killing" the the consciousness of the clone along the way.

All rights reserved.

[Iroscato]

For now I'm focusing on my main sci-fi story series, but I did have this one (to me at least) interesting, low-key idea.

It follows the first person to be successfully awoken from cryogenic freezing in the far future, and how they would adapt and interact with the vastly changed world - relearning the language, catching up on centuries of history, coming into contact with the bizarre and massively advanced technology.
No explosions, no high-stakes battles or chases, just an exploration of the adaptability and vulnerability of humans when they find themselves in a strange new world.

[The Valkyrie]

Awesome!  I got an agreement for a trial period for the subforum. We need to keep it popular, though, in order to keep it alive!

That was fast. Thanks for that.

We work in mysterious ways.

[Rhondazvous]

I have eight  chapters of a story outlined that I would return to, but I would probably start over from scratch.  I'm hesitant to post all the details openly like this(not that I necessarily think someone would steal it), but suffice to say it's a sci-fi story about a timid guy that was aused by his mother but has completely repressed all of his emotions due to it.  He receives a futiristic treatment for his psychological issues, and there's an acciddent during one of these treatments that causes him to experience something "supernatural" that forces him to confront all of the anger and pain he has repressed.

I'm big on exploring phsychological themese with sci-fi, and I also try(emphasis on "try") to incoporate metaphorical layers into the plot.  The best sci-fi are the stories that use impossible scenarios to make statements about reality.  It's sad to see the genre so cluttered with shallow attempts to cash in on laser beams and exo-skeletons.

Are you familiar with the work of Fred Pohl. One of his favorite main characters has a computerized psychoanalyst that responds to his moods and conversation like a real human being.

[Faith No More]

Are you familiar with the work of Fred Pohl. One of his favorite main characters has a computerized psychoanalyst that responds to his moods and conversation like a real human being.

No, I'm not, but it sounds interesting. Is he a modern author?

[Alex K]

I have eight  chapters of a story outlined that I would return to, but I would probably start over from scratch.  I'm hesitant to post all the details openly like this(not that I necessarily think someone would steal it), but suffice to say it's a sci-fi story about a timid guy that was aused by his mother but has completely repressed all of his emotions due to it.  He receives a futiristic treatment for his psychological issues, and there's an acciddent during one of these treatments that causes him to experience something "supernatural" that forces him to confront all of the anger and pain he has repressed.

I'm big on exploring phsychological themese with sci-fi, and I also try(emphasis on "try") to incoporate metaphorical layers into the plot.  The best sci-fi are the stories that use impossible scenarios to make statements about reality.  It's sad to see the genre so cluttered with shallow attempts to cash in on laser beams and exo-skeletons.

Are you familiar with the work of Fred Pohl. One of his favorite main characters has a computerized psychoanalyst that responds to his moods and conversation like a real human being.

I have a traumatic experience connected to the name. There is this novel "Last Theorem" written by Pohl and Arthur C. Clarke, no less. It is a horrible horrible hack job. A hot mess that doesn't seem to go anywhere and the most absurdly unreadable alien sub plot. Who let this get published, I wondered. I put it down after a few chapters and never touched anything by the guy again...

[Rhondazvous]

Screenwriting and teleplays. I've heard that a completed work shouldn't be read or re-examined by the author for at least 2 weeks once it's finished, in order to critique one's own work from a proper perspective.  So true......and sometimes sad.

That’s good advice. One thing I used to do to help my students (I taught basic writing to undergrads at Cal state) edit their work is, when I saw something that wasn’t working, I’d ask the student what a particular sentence or paragraph was adding to the overall paper. They’d read it and decide it wasn’t doing anything, but instead of telling them to get rid of it, I’d tell them to save it for a paper where it would fit in. That makes it easier to edit my own babies, as well.

[Alex K]

Exactly! I did that all the time with my last nonfiction thing. I had to shorten ithe almost finished manuscript by 50% because it had to be a short crash course format limited to 100k characters, and since it is a terribly painful process, I was always like, ok, these paragraphs here go in the next book! Whether it ever really does happen is not clear, but simply deleting two hours of hard work? I don't think so!