Fair enough. Hope this helps.
Implementing Vulcans into my story.
- Thread starter The Stoic
- Start date
Fair enough. Hope this helps.
Your kidding right?When my story is complete, I do plan to publish.
Well, it was more the fact that you continued after a published author and an editor both advised against it, nevermind everyone else that weighed in.
What the hell, you just had at least two successful, published writers telling you what you're doing is ridiculous and derivative and all you do is reject everything they say? They even gave you outright examples of people who had basically done the same thing you're trying to do and how it got rejected. You really expect to get far with that kind of attitude? Do you even have an agent?
All you're doing is ripping off of other people's ideas, claiming "homage" and trying to put it into an original work. Essentially, you're a hack. Good luck getting published because with that chip on your shoulder and your refusal to come up with your own ideas, it isn't going to happen.
All you're doing is ripping off of other people's ideas, claiming "homage" and trying to put it into an original work. Essentially, you're a hack. Good luck getting published because with that chip on your shoulder and your refusal to come up with your own ideas, it isn't going to happen.
If you had bothered doing anything but skimming through the exchanges here, you would have seen that I conceded the point of their name, and also considered Greg's words. Greg never stamped this "ridiculous" or anything close to that. As a matter of a fact, both authors understand my intent, and have offered alternative.
They understand that all authors have their influences and inspirations, and Christopher even admitted his first sci-fi tale was inspired by Star Trek.
You can continue trying to make this out into something it isn't, but don't expect a response from me.
I read everything they said. Whoopee, you're going to change the name. We're all proud. Yet anyone who reads it, anyone you send it to, is just going to go "Yep, those are just Vulcans. Lame." They said the same thing.
And all Christopher said was he took the ideals of Trek and applied it to his original SF, which has been done in plenty of other sci-fi. You're looking to rip off an entire fictional culture. "Oh I'll change their name and extend their ears". Holy shit, what a braintrust that must have taken to come up with that idea! Hope you didn't strain yourself too hard.
And all Christopher said was he took the ideals of Trek and applied it to his original SF, which has been done in plenty of other sci-fi. You're looking to rip off an entire fictional culture. "Oh I'll change their name and extend their ears". Holy shit, what a braintrust that must have taken to come up with that idea! Hope you didn't strain yourself too hard.
You know what? Let's lay off The Stoic. Let him try it this way, and let him learn from the experience. Rejection is an essential part of learning to write. And sometimes you just have to live through a failure before you can really understand its lessons.
Just for accuracy's sake, though:
No, I said that I try to apply the core principles of ST to my writing. In fact, when I started out building my own universe, my ideas were very derivative of ST, but the more I worked at it, the more I came up with more distinctive ideas of my own and drifted away from imitation. All creativity begins with imitation at its most elementary level, but the truly creative mind soon leaves that level behind.
For example, my universe initially had humanoid aliens, but then as I learned more science, I realized how implausible that was and switched to nonhumanoids. Initially I had humans as the central race and everyone else at a comparable tech level, but eventually I realized that aliens would probably be thousands or millions of years ahead or behind us, and there'd be plenty of established civilizations already. I still have plans for a universe where humans are the primary organizers of the local alliance they're part of, but the circumstances that bring that about are very different from anything in ST, and indeed that backstory has become the central defining element of this particular universe. Initially I planned to write about a starship and crew much like those in Trek, but later I came up with other approaches that interested me more, as well as recognizing some problems with the conceits of Starfleet exploration (for instance, why only have one ship instead of two or more)? My FTL drive was originally a lot like warp drive, but then I thought about it more and came up with more interesting and fresh propulsion ideas. And so on.
Just for accuracy's sake, though:
No, I said that I try to apply the core principles of ST to my writing. In fact, when I started out building my own universe, my ideas were very derivative of ST, but the more I worked at it, the more I came up with more distinctive ideas of my own and drifted away from imitation. All creativity begins with imitation at its most elementary level, but the truly creative mind soon leaves that level behind.
For example, my universe initially had humanoid aliens, but then as I learned more science, I realized how implausible that was and switched to nonhumanoids. Initially I had humans as the central race and everyone else at a comparable tech level, but eventually I realized that aliens would probably be thousands or millions of years ahead or behind us, and there'd be plenty of established civilizations already. I still have plans for a universe where humans are the primary organizers of the local alliance they're part of, but the circumstances that bring that about are very different from anything in ST, and indeed that backstory has become the central defining element of this particular universe. Initially I planned to write about a starship and crew much like those in Trek, but later I came up with other approaches that interested me more, as well as recognizing some problems with the conceits of Starfleet exploration (for instance, why only have one ship instead of two or more)? My FTL drive was originally a lot like warp drive, but then I thought about it more and came up with more interesting and fresh propulsion ideas. And so on.
I think The Stoic (who has actually been very stoic) should be grateful that Christopher and Greg Cox have taken time to give advice to him (her?) as an aspiring writer.
Sometimes, it can be a thankless endeavor.
Sometimes, it can be a thankless endeavor.
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