I am nearing the end of posting the Star Trek Hunter series on Trek BBS.
I am now posting Star Beagle Adventures on the new Ad Astra site - here is the link:
Star Beagle Adventures - Episode 1: The Eye of the Beholder
In Star Trek Hunter, the story focused around Dr. Kenny Dolphin, a middle aged philosopher who was divorced and had two adult, estranged daughters. While there is a very big story moving around STH, at heart the story that I set out to tell was the impact of Dolphin’s philosophy on the Federation and his reconciliation and reunion with his daughters - the most important thing in his life. Dolphin is a New England WASP and is very guarded with his emotions.
For Star Beagle Adventures, I wanted a different kind of hero. It seems to me that while gay men and lesbians have been increasingly represented in fiction, gay men in particular have been largely presented as metrosexual or masculine. The more effeminate gay man - often self-identifying as queer - is largely treated as a jokey character and not taken seriously. So I wanted to show such a man in a strong leadership position.
Emotionally, Skip Howard, an aristocrat from San Diego, is the polar opposite of Kenny Dolphin. Howard is warm, open with his emotions and has no inhibitions in expressing love and compassion. I also wanted to present him as a man who was completely accepted and loved by his family. No doubt Kenny Dolphin’s family loved him, but they were uncomfortable with any big expressions of that love - in keeping with WASP culture. Not so with the Howards, who are very effusive.
Dolphin’s story with STH begins in his mid-50’s and, despite his writings having an enormous impact on Federation culture (actually in no small part because of that impact), he sees himself largely as a failure.
Skip Howard is the youngest captain in Star Fleet, entirely by nepotism, and is completely unashamed of having taken advantage of his family connections to get there and to get a plum assignment. He started out with a great hand, but he has played that hand extremely well.
After a year of writer’s block, I am suddenly producing Star Beagle Adventures at a breakneck pace, averaging a scene every day or 2 days.
One odd idea I hit on was to use the lyrics and titles of Yes songs to inspire and structure each adventure. So Episode 2 is Astral Traveller and Episode 3, which is nearly complete, is Yours Is No Disgrace. For those not familiar with the trippy acid rock lyrics of Yes - I encourage you to dig them up and listen. Wonders await beyond your wildest imagination…
In writing SBA, I don’t feel any need for a lot of high action starship battles or hand-to-hand combat. It will show up when it’s part of the story. I’m more interested in problem solving and particularly in how my characters deal with moral problems and social issues.
I have more than once talked about my writing method: Know your characters. Invent a problem. Call your characters to the stage and watch how they deal with it. I discover details of the problem with my characters. As much as possible, I try to not control their actions, but simply to observe and record them.
Right now there is a creative fervor at Trek BBS - particularly with admiralelm11, Zephram_Cochrane, BountyTrek and several others in full production.
I hope that, especially as you are in the midst of a very productive writing period, that you will take a moment and share your process, your inspiration, your motives with the other writers here - which can be particularly helpful to those currently experiencing writer’s block.
Thanks!! rbs
I am now posting Star Beagle Adventures on the new Ad Astra site - here is the link:
Star Beagle Adventures - Episode 1: The Eye of the Beholder
In Star Trek Hunter, the story focused around Dr. Kenny Dolphin, a middle aged philosopher who was divorced and had two adult, estranged daughters. While there is a very big story moving around STH, at heart the story that I set out to tell was the impact of Dolphin’s philosophy on the Federation and his reconciliation and reunion with his daughters - the most important thing in his life. Dolphin is a New England WASP and is very guarded with his emotions.
For Star Beagle Adventures, I wanted a different kind of hero. It seems to me that while gay men and lesbians have been increasingly represented in fiction, gay men in particular have been largely presented as metrosexual or masculine. The more effeminate gay man - often self-identifying as queer - is largely treated as a jokey character and not taken seriously. So I wanted to show such a man in a strong leadership position.
Emotionally, Skip Howard, an aristocrat from San Diego, is the polar opposite of Kenny Dolphin. Howard is warm, open with his emotions and has no inhibitions in expressing love and compassion. I also wanted to present him as a man who was completely accepted and loved by his family. No doubt Kenny Dolphin’s family loved him, but they were uncomfortable with any big expressions of that love - in keeping with WASP culture. Not so with the Howards, who are very effusive.
Dolphin’s story with STH begins in his mid-50’s and, despite his writings having an enormous impact on Federation culture (actually in no small part because of that impact), he sees himself largely as a failure.
Skip Howard is the youngest captain in Star Fleet, entirely by nepotism, and is completely unashamed of having taken advantage of his family connections to get there and to get a plum assignment. He started out with a great hand, but he has played that hand extremely well.
After a year of writer’s block, I am suddenly producing Star Beagle Adventures at a breakneck pace, averaging a scene every day or 2 days.
One odd idea I hit on was to use the lyrics and titles of Yes songs to inspire and structure each adventure. So Episode 2 is Astral Traveller and Episode 3, which is nearly complete, is Yours Is No Disgrace. For those not familiar with the trippy acid rock lyrics of Yes - I encourage you to dig them up and listen. Wonders await beyond your wildest imagination…
In writing SBA, I don’t feel any need for a lot of high action starship battles or hand-to-hand combat. It will show up when it’s part of the story. I’m more interested in problem solving and particularly in how my characters deal with moral problems and social issues.
I have more than once talked about my writing method: Know your characters. Invent a problem. Call your characters to the stage and watch how they deal with it. I discover details of the problem with my characters. As much as possible, I try to not control their actions, but simply to observe and record them.
Right now there is a creative fervor at Trek BBS - particularly with admiralelm11, Zephram_Cochrane, BountyTrek and several others in full production.
I hope that, especially as you are in the midst of a very productive writing period, that you will take a moment and share your process, your inspiration, your motives with the other writers here - which can be particularly helpful to those currently experiencing writer’s block.
Thanks!! rbs
Not sure if it’s a strength or a weakness, but I’m more used to writing in script/TV format, so a lot of the Bounty stories (and the series as a whole) have been pictured and structured in that way in my head. In terms of episodes/acts/scenes, plotting, story length and so on. I’m not sure it really helps me in a prose format, and it sometimes feels the stories get mired in setup and are a little slow to get going, which might not be an issue in the first act of a 45 minute TV episode, but feels like more of an issue if you’re asking someone to read a 35,000+ word story. Ah well, here we are. 
