Anyone here ever try to write science fiction?

[Tom]

I'm a big believer in outlining. If you have all the logistics plotted out in advance, and already know how to get the plot from Point A to B, then you can concentrate more on the actual prose. I rely heavily on index cards, legal pads, and other low-tech writing aids.

Thanks to modern-day word processing, you can also layer in various parts of the story, so you're not trying to do too many things at once. I may concentrate on dialogue one day, then go back and fill in the visuals and physical business later on. Or vise versa.

Hope this helps!

Yeah, I do the same for the most part. For me, for some weird reason, I also like to write things out in screen/teleplay format, maybe I'm just more use to it

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Outlines are over rated. Very often the inspiration for the story is really just best used as an inspiration to write (ie., get off your ass.) Many award winning or respected literary figures admit the genesis of their story or poem is often edited out by the final draft. Even if you stick to an outline, the beginning chapters often have to be rewritten in order to jive with the better material that comes later.

 

[Greg Cox]

Outlines are over rated. Very often the inspiration for the story is really just best used as an inspiration to write (ie., get off your ass.) Many award winning or respected literary figures admit the genesis of their story or poem is often edited out by the final draft. Even if you stick to an outline, the beginning chapters often have to be rewritten in order to jive with the better material that comes later.

Depends on the author . . . and your deadlines. When you have to write a book in a month, you can't afford to waste time on dead ends or write yourself into a corner. A good outline can save you plenty of grief . . . and stomach lining. I can't imagine tackling a novel without an outline.

But, again, they're not for everyone.

 

[S. Gomez]

I like to think of it as planning a road trip.

With apologies to those unfamiliar with Canadian geography, let's say I wanted to go from Vancouver to Toronto. I hate flying, so I decide to drive. I plan my route, know which highway(s) I'm going to take, where I'll stop for the night, etc. But along the way I come across a really cool mountain range, maybe the Rockies or something. So I decide to detour to see more of it. It's great driving through some beautiful scenery, but it means I have to change my route, which means cancelling hotel reservations and making new ones, and so on. So I do it, to give myself a treat. Then, as I turn down to go back to the Trans-Canada (or whatever my original route was), I remember I have friends living in Calgary that I haven't seen for ages. Another detour, another change of plans. Maybe my trip is now getting longer than I intended it, but its also getting richer. I visit my friends for a day or so, then back on the road.

But while I'm going, I'm exchanging emails with my friend back in Vancouver who's originally from Chicago, and he's telling me about this great bookstore there. I say, "Well, as long as I'm driving across the continent, and have my passport with me..." So I drive down to Chicago, visit the store, and have a new stack of books to look forward to reading. But now this means that to get to Toronto I have to drive around the other side of Great Lakes instead of down south through Ontario. The end result is that I still get to my intended destination...just from a different direction.

I've occasionally thought about writing a book serially and releasing it onto a blog for my friends to read. But that would be like having passengers in the car; if I screw up...

 

[Trent Roman]

I've written sci-fi; I have a few stories floating out there in the small press and many others languishing away on the hard drive. As a writer, I tend to be linear, but for organic reasons; I never skip around in stories because I never know when something unanticipated might become important to the story. I don't use outlines, but I do generally go into the story with a few key plot turns, scenes or lines of dialogue I want to hit; the process of writing the story becomes one of discovering how I get from one such roadpost to another.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Candlelight]

I wrote this story called "The Alien Space Monkey Pirates of Alpha Quadrant Seven".

It was about a young farmer who got caught up in a galactic war and went after this hot chick that turned out to be his sister. There's also intergalactic gangsters that resemble slugs and a space captain that looked remarkably like Indiana Jones.

Turns out someone had created something similar.

 

[Mr Light]

I've been tinkering on a sci-fi tv series for 16 years now. It will be the greatest show ever made... if it ever gets made I also extensively outline and plan in advance. I need a meticulous outline with every single action worked out and even lines of dialogue. If I'm writing and I reach a point where I don't know what happens next, I deadline into a brick wall.

 

[JediKnightButler]

I'm working on something right now but it's still more in the conceptual stage-bits and pieces of it are still rattling around in my head but I've written some down stuff in a document. I don't know if it would be considered science fiction, well, maybe it would but it is basically a collection of episodic novels about a couple of galactic law enforcement agents and their myriad adventures, personal challenges, and a civil/galactic conflict towards the end. I've been working out a story arc that builds on itself over time kind of like B5.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I've got a couple of stories in my anthology that are Sci Fi, and a few more Posted here and there on the Internet that qualify, including my Arthur C Clarke homage. I've also got some others that would be considered Sci Fi in the broad sense, but are really Space Opera or Science Fantasy. I've also got a partially written novel and screenplay that are Space Opera.

I've got no advice. When it comes to writing, I'm completely Bohemian; which is why I don't get more done.

 

[Worf2DS9]

I've really only done a complete outline for my Corps of Engineers story. Because of the length of that project, I wanted to plan it out beginning to end before I started, basically a rough sketch of scenes, which characters are involved in the scenes, and dialogue, too. Certain aspects of that plan were adjusted as I wrote, of course, but it was nice to have an idea what I was doing. For the shorter stuff, most of the time I basically just come up with an idea, start typing, and hope I make it to the end of the story.

 

[RandyS]

I've been writing a sci-fi series of my own creation off and on since 1986. Before that, I spent two years putting it together in my head. I'm not (and most likely never will be) a professional writer, but I agree with everybody who said that writers find what works best for them. That's true about anything.

I outline every idea I get for this series. Outlining in this case, means writing down my ideas as I think them up. Now, those ideas go into a file I keep on my computer. Before that, I filled up a notebook as I went. In the first five years, I filled up thirty-five notebooks. This idea got THAT big.

One of these days, I might try editing it into a publishable condition.

 

[Christopher]

I've been tinkering on a sci-fi tv series for 16 years now. It will be the greatest show ever made... if it ever gets made I also extensively outline and plan in advance. I need a meticulous outline with every single action worked out and even lines of dialogue.

Which is not the way to do a TV show. TV is a collaborative medium with lots of different people contributing to the finished product -- not just the multiple members of the writing staff, but the director, the actors, the editor, and so forth. Not to mention that the creators of any show have to follow "notes" (suggestions with the weight of orders) from the various tiers of executives. Not to mention the various real-life factors that could force a change in the planned storyline (actors leaving, real-life tragedies being too similar to your story plans, the show getting cancelled and needing an accelerated finale, etc.) Any meticulous advance planning is going to be subject to extensive changes.

Just in general, planning too meticulously can be self-defeating. Presumably you're smarter now than you were 16 years ago; the ideas you had back then might not be as good as the ideas you could come up with now. Having a broad plan is good, but it should be flexible enough to allow for innovation and improvement along the way.

Anyway, if you've only been outlining and tinkering for 16 years, then you're stuck. Writing doesn't mean planning the stories you hope to tell someday. It means actually sitting down and writing them.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I have an ongoing idea for a book that I've messed around with since junior high but have never really concentrated on it because I have all these unfinished screenplays and outlines/treatments. I like outling my work. It helps me to expand my original idea and I always try to include as much treatment as possible. Most of my treatments have turned into scriptments they're so long and detailed.

 

[Candlelight]

I've been tinkering on a sci-fi tv series for 16 years now. It will be the greatest show ever made... if it ever gets made I also extensively outline and plan in advance. I need a meticulous outline with every single action worked out and even lines of dialogue. If I'm writing and I reach a point where I don't know what happens next, I deadline into a brick wall.

I've got two on the go, with Candlelight (hence the username) the one I'm currently working on.

Written two scripts so far. Happy with it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Yes, I'm yet another one of those multi-book epic extravaganza folks. I've probably written about 100,000 words of prose, edited into more or less finished stages, over the past several years and here's the depressing part:

I had to toss it all and start from scratch.

Yknow why? The premise didn't work! I had a premise that didn't place the main character in the center of the action. Which didn't seem so bad at first...but as the story evolved, I found it harder and harder to finagle the guy in the center of the story. I took a good hard look and realized:

1. A different character needed to be the central character (who I wasn't even that interested in!)

2. My main character needed an entirely different premise for him to deserve main-character-ship.

I opted for #2, since it's chiefly my affection for the characters that keep me motivated to write. And a lot of the character-building, universe building and even parts of finished scenes can be revamped into the new premise, plus that 100,000 taught me how to write, so it's not a total loss. (The usual axiom is that whatever your first novel is, you'll have to toss it out - that's just for practice.)

My main advice then is, start at the start. Don't jump into writing actual finished prose. Think your premise and your characters through and map out where you are going with them. Don't take the risk of running into a brick wall after several years of effort. (Or, take the risk and figure it's a necessary learning experience anyway.)

And thinking about some common amateur mistakes, here are a few I've seen frequently:

1. Mary-Sue-ism. It ain't just for fanfic. Having characters who are too damn perfect and obviously just the writers' wish-fulfillment is very jarring and makes the writer look like some kind of arrested adolescent. I've seen published novels that make this error, just less blatantly than the fanfic. A good solution is an unreliable narrator (meaning someone who is not a stand-in for the writer's psyche).

2. Impoverished description. This seems to be a symptom of writers who don't read and would rather be writing a TV or movie script. They limit themselves to sight and sound, but the other senses are conspicuously missing.

3. Out of control description. You really don't need to describe everything your character is wearing and every object in the room. Choosing a few elements that create a full sense of character and place is a hard trick but well worth cultivating.

4. Characters who talk too damn much. If you're an accomplished writer, you can try unusual formats such as almost-all-dialogue (or, almost-no dialogue if you prefer). But huge chunks of poorly written diatribe from your characters is generally not a good idea. Especially if you have this guy in your character list...

5. Captain Exposition. It's very obvious when a character is saying something just to convey information the reader needs to know. Respect your readers' intelligence that they can get by with a certain degree of ambiguity (like leaving out the details of a room, knowing how much you don't have to say is another one of those nifty tricks) and respect your own talent that you can convey needed information in a more artful form.

6. Taking too long to get to the beginning of the story. Figure out your story and then lop off the first part because it's boring. I don't even need to know what your story is to know that. All stories have a ramp-up period before the gigantic glob of space goo attacks. Start with the space goo and if you need to fill us in on the backstory, dole it out in flashbacks along the way. But above all, don't take the chance of losing the reader's attention in the first paragraph.

Hmm, none of that relates specifically to science fiction, does it? That just goes to show that there aren't separate rules for good science fiction. Just make sure it's good fiction.

As for tips-find a situation/location/time of day etc where you are both alert and comfortable, let your mind wander over your planned story until ideas come to mind and then write them down. That's really all any writer does.

That's like 2% of it (the fun 2%)! All you end up with is a stream-of-consciousness jumble. The other 98% is hammering it into some useable shape.

I'm a gardener but I have a concrete mixer and a backhoe because if all you have are plants, that ain't no garden.

 

[Mr Light]

Presumably you're smarter now than you were 16 years ago; the ideas you had back then might not be as good as the ideas you could come up with now. Having a broad plan is good, but it should be flexible enough to allow for innovation and improvement along the way. Anyway, if you've only been outlining and tinkering for 16 years, then you're stuck. Writing doesn't mean planning the stories you hope to tell someday. It means actually sitting down and writing them.

Oh the story goes through a fundamental change every couple years. It's constantly in flux, elements are changed all the time. It's fun to alter things or else I'd be very bored going over the same story for 16 years in stasis The only things the same from 16 years ago are the initial characters basically!

And I've written, in the past, about 30 episode scripts from different points in the series, and then 3 years ago I started to write it sequentially in prose format and I got 3.5 episodes in before I quit.

Not to mention the fact I realize there's a 1% chance I'll ever get to make my show, so there's a 99% chance this is just a fun little thought exercise for me. I do need to get back into writing it as a book, though. A book has a much higher chance of getting published/made than a TV show.

 

[sojourner]

1. Mary-Sue-ism. It ain't just for fanfic. Having characters who are too damn perfect and obviously just the writers' wish-fulfillment is very jarring and makes the writer look like some kind of arrested adolescent. I've seen published novels that make this error, just less blatantly than the fanfic. A good solution is an unreliable narrator (meaning someone who is not a stand-in for the writer's psyche).

I personally now refer to this as "Honor Harringtonism".

 

[TGTheodore]

I "sold" a script called "Omission" to Deep Space Nine for the 1995-96 season. It was subsequently "unsold" and "Rules of Engagement" was essentially written in its place.

And I was published in Strange New Worlds in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

[Middle section with credits deleted by poster. I mean, come on, Ted ...]

I quit writing science fiction around 2006.

Lots of good advice in these posts.

The most important to me: clear vision, persistence (keep writing) & flexibility.

--Ted

 

[Maurice]

My advice, and it works for a lot of people: Start writing. Keep going. Even if you don't like some decision you made or a scene or a character, keep plowing ahead. Make note of what you need to change in what's already written but don't go back. Just keep going until you reach THE END. Once you have a complete story you will a) have the confidence of knowing you can do it, and b) you can see the entire piece and make judgements on if it works based onthe entire piece, not guessing if fragments are going when you like.

Then you do the rewrite and fix it all up.

Some people want it to be done when they reach THE END, not realizing that a first draft is just that.

Even if it sucks, you are writing, and, like any exercise, you get better by doing it, not putting it off. I have piles of finished but abandoned projects in my filing cabinets and hard drives (not all of them...I've got plenty of published/sold work) and I consider not one of them a waste, as each one taught me something and helped me hone my skills.

 

[Candlelight]

3. Out of control description. You really don't need to describe everything your character is wearing and every object in the room. Choosing a few elements that create a full sense of character and place is a hard trick but well worth cultivating.

Are you listening Peter F. Hamilton?!?