Future of writers of the novel verse

[Garak234]

Will the writers of the old trek verse “retire”-move to another Novelverse to make room for new writters. Or will there be a continuity between the details of the alternate reality ended by Coda and the future novels on
far future of the UFP. If the former is true who do you see replacing the established authors? If the latter is true which new novel verse writers are likely to play the most prominent roles in shaping the new novelverse. What will be the divergence point of the new novel verse if it is revealed to be an alternate timeline?

 

[Christopher]

Will the writers of the old trek verse “retire”-move to another Novelverse to make room for new writters.

There's no reason why changing the continuity should require changing the authors. It's all still Star Trek, and many previous writers have worked in more than one variation of its continuity. Bringing in new writers is always a good thing, but it has no correlation with tie-in continuity changes.

What will be the divergence point of the new novel verse if it is revealed to be an alternate timeline?

I doubt there will be a "new novelverse," just various standalones trying to stay consistent with current canon. When the shows are in production, they take the lead in defining the continuity and the tie-ins follow. Tie-ins only really have the space to develop their own ongoing continuities when the source shows go off the air.

 

[Greg Cox]

Changing the continuity doesn't necessarily mean changing the authors. Heck, I've written Batman across multiple continuities over the last thirty years or so.

Writing in a new continuity does not require different skills than writing in a previous one. You just need to keep up-to-date and be consistent with whatever version you're currently writing.

"Okay, which iteration of PLANET OF THE APES or TERMINATOR are we talking about here?"

 

[Christopher]

Writing in a new continuity does not require different skills than writing in a previous one. You just need to keep up-to-date and be consistent with whatever version you're currently writing.

Right. Many of us work in multiple fictional universes already, whether different franchise tie-ins or different original universes of our own, or both. I even made a list of my own various universes recently, and it's a very short list compared to someone like you or Keith DeCandido. It's no more difficult to work in two different variations of the same fictional universe.

 

[Greg Cox]

Exactly. The Batman in my DARK KNIGHT RISES movie novelization is not in the same continuity as my recent COURT OF OWLS novel, let alone the one in my INFINITE CRISIS or FINAL CRISIS novelizations, or even my first couple Batman stories, which were written to tie in with BATMAN RETURNS back in 1992.

But it's all Batman. I just need to remember that the guy in the Christopher Nolan movies has never fought Thanos alongside the Justice League, or run into Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman. Don't need a new writer for every new continuity.

Same with STAR TREK or any other long-running franchise.

Honestly, the premise of the OP is based on a false assumption: that tie-in writers can't adapt to changing continuities or updated versions of old properties. To the contrary, that's practically part of the job description!

 

[shapeshifter]

<cartman voice> Author fight! Author fight!

 

[Greg Cox]

<cartman voice> Author fight! Author fight!

What fight? Christopher and I are agreeing with each other.

And for the record, I certainly have no intention of being "retired."

 

[The Wormhole]

The past year has seen Trek novels by new authors, so there's obviously some new blood being injected into the novel line. But I see no reason not to expect the old guard to continue contributing either.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Not intended as a slight on current/novelverse authors, I'm all for fresh voices telling Trek stories.

Plus there's that diversity issue brought up on these pages last year.

 

[KRAD]

Honestly, the premise of the OP is based on a false assumption: that tie-in writers can't adapt to changing continuities or updated versions of old properties. To the contrary, that's practically part of the job description!

I agree with every single word Greg says here except for the word "practically." It is the job description.

I've been in this business for almost thirty years now, and I've written in the media universes of Alien, BattleTech, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cars, Command & Conquer, CSI: NY, DC, Doctor Who, Dungeons & Dragons, Farscape, Darkness Falls, Gargantua, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Heroes, Kung Fu Panda, Leverage, Magic: The Gathering, Marvel, Night of the Living Dead, Orphan Black, Resident Evil, Serenity, Sleepy Hollow, Star Trek, StarCraft, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, World of Warcraft, The X-Files, Xena, Young Hercules, and Zorro; the shared-worlds of Limbus Inc., Pangaea, Phenomenons, Scattered Earth, V-Wars, and Viral; and also the author-proprietary worlds of Dr. Munish K. Batra's "Animal," Mack Bolan's "The Executioner," H. Rider Haggard's "She," Jonathan Maberry's "Joe Ledger," David Sherman's "18th Race," and Gregory Wilson's "Icarus."

I can adjust, is what I'm saying.

 

[Garak234]

I didn't know what type of answers I would get so don't take this the wrong way. I am very happy the novelverse writers are not open to retiring so other writers can take their place. It made no logical sense (though that type of thing happens in many fields and professions sometimes justified sometimes not) for such a thing to happen(Though I wouldn't have been surprised if it did). And now a continuity of talent is assured for the future novels of the 31st century.

 

[Christopher]

I am very happy the novelverse writers are not open to retiring so other writers can take their place.

Well, writers move on all the time, and new writers come in. It's just that there's no reason to think that would be correlated with the TV franchise going back into production and the writers having to adjust to keep up with its continuity. It never was before, and there's no reason it should start to be now. There were authors who contributed to the loose '80s Pocket Books Trek continuity who continued to do books in the TNG-era continuity, like Howard Weinstein, Margaret Wander Bonanno, and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens. When Star Wars declared its Expanded Universe "Legends" and started over with a new tie-in continuity, the very first author they turned to was John Jackson Miller, a veteran of the previous EU, and since then they've brought back Timothy Zahn, whose Thrawn trilogy began the EU as a unified thing, and had him write a new Thrawn trilogy set in the new continuity. And DC Comics has rebooted its continuity numerous times while continuing to use the same writers and artists. There's just no reason why a change in the content of fictional stories should have any bearing on the employment of real-life people.

 

[veritech]

I agree with every single word Greg says here except for the word "practically." It is the job description.

I've been in this business for almost thirty years now, and I've written in the media universes of Alien, BattleTech, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cars, Command & Conquer, CSI: NY, DC, Doctor Who, Dungeons & Dragons, Farscape, Darkness Falls, Gargantua, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Heroes, Kung Fu Panda, Leverage, Magic: The Gathering, Marvel, Night of the Living Dead, Orphan Black, Resident Evil, Serenity, Sleepy Hollow, Star Trek, StarCraft, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, World of Warcraft, The X-Files, Xena, Young Hercules, and Zorro; the shared-worlds of Limbus Inc., Pangaea, Phenomenons, Scattered Earth, V-Wars, and Viral; and also the author-proprietary worlds of Dr. Munish K. Batra's "Animal," Mack Bolan's "The Executioner," H. Rider Haggard's "She," Jonathan Maberry's "Joe Ledger," David Sherman's "18th Race," and Gregory Wilson's "Icarus."

I can adjust, is what I'm saying.

I realize this is off-topic but Pangaea . . . . what a trip!! That's an amazing shared universe; a "what if" alt-history I had never pondered before!

 

[shapeshifter]

And for the record, I certainly have no intention of being "retired."

I am glad for that, didn't mean to imply you were retiring.

What fight? Christopher and I are agreeing with each other.

It was a joke. Anyone that knows Cartman would get it. Guess no one does, or not PC here. Carry on!

 

[Cloud]

I agree with every single word Greg says here except for the word "practically." It is the job description.

I've been in this business for almost thirty years now, and I've written in the media universes of Alien, BattleTech, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cars, Command & Conquer, CSI: NY, DC, Doctor Who, Dungeons & Dragons, Farscape, Darkness Falls, Gargantua, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Heroes, Kung Fu Panda, Leverage, Magic: The Gathering, Marvel, Night of the Living Dead, Orphan Black, Resident Evil, Serenity, Sleepy Hollow, Star Trek, StarCraft, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, World of Warcraft, The X-Files, Xena, Young Hercules, and Zorro; the shared-worlds of Limbus Inc., Pangaea, Phenomenons, Scattered Earth, V-Wars, and Viral; and also the author-proprietary worlds of Dr. Munish K. Batra's "Animal," Mack Bolan's "The Executioner," H. Rider Haggard's "She," Jonathan Maberry's "Joe Ledger," David Sherman's "18th Race," and Gregory Wilson's "Icarus."

I can adjust, is what I'm saying.

That's pretty impressive when you see the whole list like that. How do you go about preparing for this? Is there binge watching involved? A reliance on your own knowledge? Show bibles? It can't be easy trying to capture the nuances of character when you can't be an expert of all those shows and genres. Or maybe you can?

 

[mastadge]

Yeah, I don't think changes to the source material is a big thing. More logistics: if the line has gone from a dozen or more books a year to half that, more of the contributors are going to have to take other opportunities. And if they are indeed trying to add more diversity to the line-up, then that leaves even fewer options for familiar writers.

 

[Christopher]

That's pretty impressive when you see the whole list like that. How do you go about preparing for this? Is there binge watching involved? A reliance on your own knowledge? Show bibles? It can't be easy trying to capture the nuances of character when you can't be an expert of all those shows and genres. Or maybe you can?

Researching your subject matter is basic to a lot of fiction writing. If it's media tie-in, you watch the show and review what supplemental materials you can. If it's hard science fiction, you research physics, biology, engineering, whatever. If it's murder mystery, you research forensics, toxicology, police procedure, etc. Whatever the genre, you're writing for an audience that knows the subject (at least, many of them will and will spot anything that feels wrong), so you do the work to get it right.

And of course, most of us can only write one book at a time, so it's not like you have to be an expert on everything at once. Heck, by this point I've probably forgotten a lot of what I learned about Marvel Comics when I did my X-Men and Spider-Man novels. I've filled my head with other stuff since then.

 

[Greg Cox]

That's pretty impressive when you see the whole list like that. How do you go about preparing for this? Is there binge watching involved? A reliance on your own knowledge? Show bibles? It can't be easy trying to capture the nuances of character when you can't be an expert of all those shows and genres. Or maybe you can?

It helps, of course, if you've grown up with a franchise and know it down to your bones, as with STAR TREK or PLANET OF THE APES or BATMAN or whatever, but these days it's also easier to bring yourself up to speed than ever before, as long as you're willing to do your homework.

I've told this story before, but I had never actually seen a single episode of LEVERAGE when I agreed to write one of the tie-in novels, but then I binge-watched the entire series to date, studied the on-line episodes guides, and visited the fan pages and message boards until I thought I had a pretty good idea of not just what the show was about, but also how it worked and even what its fans most liked about it. And then I wrote my book.

And, honestly, as Christopher noted, you have to do your homework when writing an original novel, too. I'm forever having to look up obscure facts about nerve gas, safe-cracking, submarines, everyday life in different historical eras, or whatever, just to avoid embarrassing myself!

"When did they start using X-rays in hospitals? Do history teachers have to major in history or education? What are the popular kid's names these days? Can you tattoo over scar tissue?"

 

[mastadge]

I've told this story before, but I had never actually seen a single episode of LEVERAGE when I agreed to write one of the tie-in novels, but then I binge-watched the entire series to date, studied the on-line episodes guides, and visited the fan pages and message boards until I thought I had a pretty good idea of not just what the show was about, but also how it worked and even what its fans most liked about it. And then I wrote my book.

And then won an award for it, no?

 

[Christopher]

And, honestly, as Christopher noted, you have to do your homework when writing an original novel, too. I'm forever having to look up obscure facts about nerve gas, safe-cracking, submarines, everyday life in different historical eras, or whatever, just to avoid embarrassing myself!

"When did they start using X-rays in hospitals? Do history teachers have to major in history or education? What are the popular kid's names these days? Can you tattoo over scar tissue?"

I once copyedited a Western, and I spent a lot of time on etymology sites trying to find out if various words or phrases were in use yet at the time it was set, and finding more suitable period alternatives if they weren't. Also checking when towns were founded, that sort of thing.