The SFF Writing Check-in Corner

WriteMinded said:

That's the thing about writing off-world fantasy. You get to make your own rules and they do not have to adhere to known science. If a thread on the topic of ostrich-like birds being used for transportation exists, it would be based on someone else's vision. You have to get your own. You also have the task of determining for yourself how monetary systems work. Many SFF writers spend years working out details of the universe in which their stories take place before ever writing a word. Others just dive in and figure it out as they go.

Fun, isn't it?

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Thank you, WriteMinded. I am of the pre-planning school, myself, but, respect those who prefer to create as they go.

Fugitive Energy said:

Thank you, WriteMinded. I am of the pre-planning school, myself, but, respect those who prefer to create as they go.

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Huh, I envy you. For me, it's not about preference. It's about what I can and cannot manage. Many other writers feel the same way. Planners plan, pantsers make it up as they go along, and the rest of us do our struggling somewhere in the middle.

Good luck with your world management. Keep us posted on how it's going.

sandree said:

I am at 30,000 words on my first novel attempt. Well, OK, third attempt at the same idea in different genres - started out sci fi, went to fantasy, now back to sci fi. This is the furthest I have gotten so I’m a bit proud of myself. I am determined to get this whole thing on paper and finish it. Then I’ll figure out what to do next. I have stopped myself from going back and editing from the beginning as I was tending to do, as that was making it harder to get new words down.

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That's awesome! You obviously love writing or else you wouldn't have so many attempt. That means you can do it! Just keep enjoying it and you'll finish.

Whew, ok! Here's my current projects

Novel 1: The Molmory Sphynx
Draft finished, sitting at around 120,000 words. I finished it in December and have been working on short stories and other projects in the meantime. I'll be picking it back up in August as my primary writing project until I have it polished enough to send out.

Novel 2: Vale Sevin Project
Goal: 70,000 words
I just started this book and don't have a title yet, but it's action-packed fantasy and romance. Never done a romance before, but in the current state of the world I felt the need to write something fun, light-hearted, and comforting that doesn't take itself too seriously but still respects the readers' time. So far I'm 2000 words in and about halfway through the first chapter.

Short stories editing:
The Stars Halt on a Vast Field -- I am the WORST TITLE WRITER. I hate the title for this story and am looking for a new one. This is a science fiction retelling of Arachne, where Arachne is an artist and Athena is an extremely powerful AI under Administrator Zeus' control, and Arachne and Athena fall in love.

Mutiny Is a Team Effort -- a flash piece about people on a generational ship taking their lives into their own hands. I am letting it marinate for a few weeks before I start revising.

No Reservations -- Fantasy story dealing with the afterlife and delicious diner food. This one has been out on sub for a few months now, but I couldn't help opening it up and realizing I'm not happy with some of it. If/when it comes back rejected I think there's some parts that could use tightening and lifting in the middle/towards the end. Waiting to hear back before I spend time on it, though.

Finished a short speculative story on the horror of Trump that hints of what happened when he fell from power. Disquieting stuff.

Cobalt Jade said:

Finished a short speculative story on the horror of Trump that hints of what happened when he fell from power. Disquieting stuff.

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Umm...how do I get a copy?

Have to submit it, the deadline's tomorrow. If no one buys it, maybe I'll post it on my website.

I decided to self-publish. After receiving good advice from fellow writers here I divided my long novel into four volumes. Now, I'm working on finding titles and writing summaries, before looking into covers. Lots of proof-reading will be done during my summer vacation later in August.

Started on my fourth novel, which is the second in a SciFi series about human extinction, and what comes next.

Probably halfway through the first draft of my near-future speculative/dreamworld/scifi crossover type thing, going great guns but aware I have heaps of work still to do on world-building and what-if'ing the heck out of the 'other' world in my story as I'm currently torn between it 'making sense' and just saying 'it's speculative, just roll with it.'

I just published my first self help book, now I'm knee deep into a fantasy novel at the worldbuilding stage. I have races, world events, a magic system, artifacts, characters, locations and a loose plot. working on the terraforming at the moment.

Working on my first novel/novella in an episodic series code-named (project-named?) "Salvage Girl". I have the eight-part series planned and plotted, and the first episode has all the major scenes of the setup drafted. Working on better scene transitions and supporting scenes now. It's a space travel, weird skill, coming-of-age story, starting on a budget interstellar transport, moving to a colony planet, a starliner, a pirate ship, and ending on a trading clan ship of sorts.

I'll give this a go.

I mentioned on my blog that I started coming up with a new story idea for a series I'd completed earlier in the year. I got started on the new science fiction project this week. I now have one of the main characters on the world that's central to the plot. She's about to learn how bad the situation is for people on this planet. An idea's popped into my head about what next to write in this universe once this project is over.

I've also started to get some ideas for a new fantasy series that would be set in the world I've been working on the past year or so (daughter of the MC of that series). I'm going to try to sit down and do some plotting at some point so something will be ready to go.

I managed to kick out another 500-600 words this morning between getting up and finishing my usual breakfast of coffee and cigarettes. I'm hoping for at least another 1000 before I go back to bed tonight. More would be nice, but I'll take whatever I get.


Edit: When I said I'd take whatever I get, I didn't mean computer trouble. Took a little nap at about noon ( I'm old and 3:00am is no damn time to be waking up ), and when I woke up, the cursor was acting squirrely.
Took a while to figure out, but eventually I got the problem fixed.

So... anytime you folks get writter's block, just be thankful it isn't the electronic variety.

Nice to see some post activity in this thread.

Finally finished with the first draft of Aberrations and am now halfway through the first edit. Only small issues so far, both related to getting on and off ships in 5th century. I expect the last half of the edit will be quite challenging. The day I came to The End, instead of feeling good about it, I said to myself, "I don't like this book." The next day, I started the edit — no, not a believer in putting them away for a while — and found I liked the first part a lot. Maybe it's only the last half I don't like, or maybe I am just tired from all the chapter cutting and rearranging and rethinking of situations. I am about to find out.

@ OldHat63 - Keep your eye on that cursor. You never know what they might get up to while you're napping.

WriteMinded said:

@ OldHat63 - Keep your eye on that cursor. You never know what they might get up to while you're napping.

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Which is why I usually turn the comp off when I'm gonna be MIA or unconscious for a while.
In this instance, that was almost a fatal mistake, since the cursor's oddball bouncing around made it extremely difficult to log back on.

As it turned out, it was a combination of a Windows update and a Firefox add-on causing the problem.
( Bad script in the add-on )

Computers.... I hate 'em. Have since 1986, when I first sat down in front of one.

OldHat63 said:

. . . Computers.... I hate 'em. Have since 1986, when I first sat down in front of one.

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I sat down in front of my first about the same time as you. My boss brought it to me as if it was a wonderful gift. I moved it to a corner of my office where it stayed for 6 months. Then he got a little tetchy about it, so I plugged it in and gave it a try.

Fell in love. No matter how nasty, stubborn, or frustrating they get, I still love 'em. Can't help myself.

I've been getting acquainted w/Google Earth Pro; specifically, Mars. Finally downloaded it a few days ago after weeks of considering it (meaning: I stalked it on YouTube!). I'm still in the greenhorn stage of learning though. Reason: For the visual—potential enhancement/snag-avoidance on a recently edited manuscript—since I can't hop the next available flight to Mars!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!

Okay.... I'm still managing about 1000-1500 words a day. I'd probably get two or three times that if:

1. The weather would stop screwing with me. It's been much cooler here at night and early morning, and this meat suit I'm stuck walking around in doesn't like it worth a damn. The area from my left shoulder to the middle of my spine, and all the way up to the base of my skull has decided that the best way to file a protest is to become one big cramp.
I am not amused.

2. My old wireless keyboard hadn't picked right now to decide it wants to retire.
I guess I can't really blame it, since it's about 10 years old... and I will buy another one in a few days... but damn, ya couldn't wait another week dude? Seriously?

3 The curse of the spastic cursor is turning ME into a spastic curser. Grrrrr...
Yeah, more chasing down and squashing of bugs, replacing HDMI cables, so on and so forth...
Have made headway and THINK the problem is finally solved ( again ), but... it was time I'd rather have spent on other things.

Anyway, even for all that, I'm still generating a fair amount of words, both on my draft and here on the forums, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
But I'm damn well going to any way. So there.

Oh, and the song from my playlist that came up as I started typing this? Ringo Starr - It don't come easy.

Still trudging through the edit. I like editing, so I'm having a grand ol' time. From start to finish is a very long distance, 170K plus words, and this being my first go round, I'm finding things I'd forgotten about, things I can use later on, and one path that I started down, but didn't pursue. I also put back two scenes I'd taken out earlier. Getting there, getting there.

Update on the story I'm working on:

It felt too short, so I found places to add material. I also carried on writing the story. I'm now into the next-to-last chapter. It's moving along, but still feels a bit short. I'll probably press through to the end, look the whole thing over to see if there are more places to add material, then see how long it is. Right now it appears to be a short novel.

RobertLCollins said:

Update on the story I'm working on:

It felt too short, so I found places to add material. I also carried on writing the story. I'm now into the next-to-last chapter. It's moving along, but still feels a bit short. I'll probably press through to the end, look the whole thing over to see if there are more places to add material, then see how long it is. Right now it appears to be a short novel.

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I'd like to swap length problems with you, at least for one book. I can't imagine coming up on the short end and having to plump it up. Cutting is painful.

Progress made.

Chapter 4 of this first draft is finished, and I went out and bought a new keyboard and mouse yesterday evening.
So at least I'm not fighting my equipment along with everything else, at the moment.

Hadn't realized just how crappy the old keyboard had gotten 'til I sat down with the new one.