I want to be a science fiction writer. I plan on world building and creating alien species. I decided to create my wiki called Isaac's Guide to the Universe Wiki. Can you tell me anything, anything I need to know about writing my stories?
My Wiki for my stories
- Thread starter Isaac Law
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Hey Isaac! Welcome to the SFFWorld! Take a look around, we've got some great stuff around here to recommend to writers, both new like yourself and the experienced, published crowd. We also have some more stuff that will be starting up soon in January so stick around!
Your question is pretty open ended. What sort of stuff do you want to know? What is inspiring you to be a writer? Why Sci-Fi?
The most important things for me when I am beginning a new project is to have a good idea in mind. By this I mean a good, strong idea in my own mind of my characters and what I want to have happen in my story. Nobody can tell you what story is going to be a good one in terms of becoming published or getting readers' attentions. All you can do is find a story you think is interesting and then tell it. My last advice is to have fun. Take it slow, don't get angry or beat yourself up if the writing process doesn't go as fast as you think it should. Relax and enjoy the process, even when there are difficult moments when nothing is happening and you really think something should be happening. Books, short stories, any kind of writing at all is a journey. Go at your own speed. Unless you write very short fiction (flash fiction) and maybe not even then, you will rarely ever complete a writing project in one sitting. Though I did complete a 6,500 word first draft of a short story in about 19 hours once. That was a fun day! (so it is completely within the realms of possibility)
Your question is pretty open ended. What sort of stuff do you want to know? What is inspiring you to be a writer? Why Sci-Fi?
The most important things for me when I am beginning a new project is to have a good idea in mind. By this I mean a good, strong idea in my own mind of my characters and what I want to have happen in my story. Nobody can tell you what story is going to be a good one in terms of becoming published or getting readers' attentions. All you can do is find a story you think is interesting and then tell it. My last advice is to have fun. Take it slow, don't get angry or beat yourself up if the writing process doesn't go as fast as you think it should. Relax and enjoy the process, even when there are difficult moments when nothing is happening and you really think something should be happening. Books, short stories, any kind of writing at all is a journey. Go at your own speed. Unless you write very short fiction (flash fiction) and maybe not even then, you will rarely ever complete a writing project in one sitting. Though I did complete a 6,500 word first draft of a short story in about 19 hours once. That was a fun day! (so it is completely within the realms of possibility)
One example is that I find specific subgenres inspiring. Hard science fiction, soft science fiction, space opera, speculative fiction. Speculative fiction feels with "what if", so I would do the question: What if the stories of reported alien life forms(such as The Greys, Reptilians and Nordics) were true? That would make a good space opera along with speculative fiction. I also create alien worlds and life forms to extend on creativity. I'll tell you about my character sketches when I can.
The answer to "Why Sci-Fi?" is because I like science. I like speculating on how warp drive works or on alien anatomy. When I look at the screen, I speculate on what I'm seeing where others wouldn't bother. I like books and documentaries on the science behind Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who and others. The difference between me and skeptics, however, is that I don't believe in impossibility. I believe that if you can imagine something, its possible, no matter how impossible some skeptics say it is.
CMTheAuthor
Life is fantastic, yes?
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A few key points:
First off, you seem to be mixing up terms. Speculative fiction is actually not a sub-genre of science fiction; rather, it's a super-genre that covers all science fiction and fantasy, as well as anything with elements from them (superheroes, supernatural horror, etc.)
Secondly, keep in mind that a lot of the intrinsic details of how your world works, by default, will not make it into the actual story. Why? Because, to be honest, it would bore most readers to read about the technical minutiae of how a warp drive works or alien anatomy. The key is a light touch; drop pieces of info where they're relevant, and keep the rest in your head or your notes for reference (for future sequels).
Third, there is far more to writing than world building. The key is to balance characterization and plot with your setting, and find the blend that works for you. If you have trouble with the latter two...well, look up a few guides on writing, and then practice your technique. Thankfully, this place is full of writers who will be happy to read and provide feedback, so be sure to take advantage of that.
Fourth: I would advise against creating the wiki until you get your work published, so you avoid giving away key details. It doesn't do you any good if you've already spoiled some of the elements of your book before people even read it. That kind of surprise is a big element of science fiction, after all.
Good luck, and enjoy the writing!
First off, you seem to be mixing up terms. Speculative fiction is actually not a sub-genre of science fiction; rather, it's a super-genre that covers all science fiction and fantasy, as well as anything with elements from them (superheroes, supernatural horror, etc.)
Secondly, keep in mind that a lot of the intrinsic details of how your world works, by default, will not make it into the actual story. Why? Because, to be honest, it would bore most readers to read about the technical minutiae of how a warp drive works or alien anatomy. The key is a light touch; drop pieces of info where they're relevant, and keep the rest in your head or your notes for reference (for future sequels).
Third, there is far more to writing than world building. The key is to balance characterization and plot with your setting, and find the blend that works for you. If you have trouble with the latter two...well, look up a few guides on writing, and then practice your technique. Thankfully, this place is full of writers who will be happy to read and provide feedback, so be sure to take advantage of that.
Fourth: I would advise against creating the wiki until you get your work published, so you avoid giving away key details. It doesn't do you any good if you've already spoiled some of the elements of your book before people even read it. That kind of surprise is a big element of science fiction, after all.
Good luck, and enjoy the writing!
kmtolan
KMTolan
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- Apr 14, 2008
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- 2,522
Wow, I remember when I was at this point. Hi Issac! Look, I know it isn't the most fun, but if you really want to be a writer then you're going to need the basics - putting together a good sentence, plot, motivation, all that nifty stuff that starts with basic grammar. High School English only gets you started. If you possibly can, take college level creative writing courses. Writing is, in many ways, like carpentry. Take building a table for example. Sure, the artist is involved at every step, but the mechanics of the thing - keeping the tabletop smooth. Making sure the thing stands on its own without rocking back and forth. This isn't the cool stuff like carving intricate patterns along the sides would be. This is basic mechanics. You need to learn it, and understand that you never really stop learning. Writing is as much a science as an art.
Kerry
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- Dec 7, 2009
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- 4,568
So this wiki is to be a kind of shared notepad for you and your collaborators to both quickly and easily access online, eliminating the need for late night calls saying, "Dude! I need you to look up _____." You: "Wha? Huh? You know it's 2AM, right?" Friend: "Yeah, but you've got the notebook and I'm working on stuff and I really really REALLY need to know!" Doing something electronically is a good way of keeping stuff like that from happening. But CM's question gets me thinking: is this wiki actually online and public or are you only calling it a wiki because it operates and you use it like you would an online wiki? That said, there are other places to store your notes electronically so they are private between you and your collaborators. In Google Docs, for instance, making the document(s) "shared" allows you and others to access them both at once. Also, Microsoft OneNote. I am outlining and making tons of notes on stories in that and every time I create a new "notebook" as it calls it, the program asks if I am going to share that notebook. I always say No, so I am not sure if this could just be shared on a single network or if it can do it between me and a friend in another city who also has the program. But those are options for electronic, shared storage spaces.
CM is also correct that writing is more than worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is one of the best aspects of the craft that my writer friends and I always go doe-eyed over. And while it is true, too, that much of what is put in notes about the story you are writing does not always transfer into the story itself, that does not mean you should not take notes on it. For instance, how is your chief engineer supposed to repair the warp drive that it is his responsibility to maintain and keep in working order if he does not know how it was built or what makes it work? Your ten page notes on the construction and operation of warp drives may only transfer to the story as a two line, twenty word total bit in this book here, and only eleven word bit in the next one BUT, if you don't know the hows and the whys then there is no way that that can happen. Your knowledge of a thing comes through in amazing ways. You know how they say dogs can smell fear? Well, readers can smell an author's ignorance, especially of their own, made up thing. Be it a warp engine, the physical look of an alien species, or how politics between the Empire of X and the Stellar Kingdom of H work, you have to know for yourself. So take those notes! Figure it out! You are having fun doing this. Keep having fun!
However, you are having this fun for a reason, yes? To put the ideas you come up with here in your story. So do some writing of the actual story as well. Start getting those things you are taking notes on and developing ideas about onto an actual page that your audience will be reading. If you have not already experienced this for yourself, then let me say that writing the actual story will produce further ideas that you will decide to take notes on. Some ambassador from an alien species will comment on another alien species that your characters have never encountered before and that you, yourself, the author, did not know existed. It does happen. Characters sometimes just say things and you, typing/writing it out, sometimes sit back in your chair and say, "What? What's that? Why did you say that? What are you talking about?" So you keep writing and you figure it out. Characters take on a minds and personalities of their own and develop their own ideas and bases of knowledge. Let this happen. It's fun! And no, you won't have gone mad, no matter what other people tell you. If it is madness to hear your characters talking to you in your head, or having full conversations with each other or to see them suddenly shove something in front of your mind's eye so that, in the real world, you give a loud, vocalized exclamation, "OH! I understand now!" If that happens, then it means anyone who has ever told a story, a full and complete story, is mad and everyone's most favorite people they've never met (authors, screenwriters, playwrights, etc.) are all mad and all needing a psychiatrist's help.
I want to tell you this too, Isaac. Kerry's way is not the only way. Writing classes can be good, and even fun, if you allow them to be. But you do not have to take one to be a writer. Sometimes he presents it as such, as he did above. But what you really need to be able to be a writer is a love for the story you are telling and a desire to tell it. Sometimes I think Kerry wants writers to have taken a writing class before they have even fallen in love with telling stories. I'm betting this is wrong but sometimes I do think it. Taking a writing class, I feel, needs to be a writer's decision akin to the decision of an alcoholic or drug abuser's decision to admit they have a problem and then deciding to seek help. That is what a writing class is for a writer. Using that analogy, our work, our skill with words, is our substance of choice that we have a problem with. After seeing little improvement of our skill over many pages and many stories we may come to the decision that "I love telling stories. But I hate how it comes out. It never comes out quite right and what I wrote doesn't hold me, and probably won't hold anyone's attention, like the act of telling it does [for me]. Maybe taking a writing class would help me do this better? Hmm, I should look into that." Only once you have reached this point, I feel, should you actually take a writing class. If you are in school and writing classes are being forced upon you as requirements for graduation, that is one thing and, yes, you will learn from them and be able to adapt their lessons for your writing. But seeking out a writing class independently of an educational program in which you are already engaged? No, don't do that until/unless you have reached that point that you want to improve your writing ability and you are not able to do it on your own anymore.
Kerry, I did not want to admit this to you but, yes, I have taken a writing class in the way and for the reason I have just stated. I did it over this last summer. It was not a Writing class for grammar and punctuation (I did take those in college as part of my program's curriculum) but a novel writing class. Having written several novels now I was the person with the most practical experience in the class other than the teacher because it was Novel Writing 101. You may not count this but I do, because it was me choosing to be taught by someone else about my writing. It gave me a few new ideas of how to approach my writing and got me out of a horrible slump I had been in, both of which were my entire reason for deciding to take the class. So there, I admit it. It was helpful.
CM is also correct that writing is more than worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is one of the best aspects of the craft that my writer friends and I always go doe-eyed over. And while it is true, too, that much of what is put in notes about the story you are writing does not always transfer into the story itself, that does not mean you should not take notes on it. For instance, how is your chief engineer supposed to repair the warp drive that it is his responsibility to maintain and keep in working order if he does not know how it was built or what makes it work? Your ten page notes on the construction and operation of warp drives may only transfer to the story as a two line, twenty word total bit in this book here, and only eleven word bit in the next one BUT, if you don't know the hows and the whys then there is no way that that can happen. Your knowledge of a thing comes through in amazing ways. You know how they say dogs can smell fear? Well, readers can smell an author's ignorance, especially of their own, made up thing. Be it a warp engine, the physical look of an alien species, or how politics between the Empire of X and the Stellar Kingdom of H work, you have to know for yourself. So take those notes! Figure it out! You are having fun doing this. Keep having fun!
However, you are having this fun for a reason, yes? To put the ideas you come up with here in your story. So do some writing of the actual story as well. Start getting those things you are taking notes on and developing ideas about onto an actual page that your audience will be reading. If you have not already experienced this for yourself, then let me say that writing the actual story will produce further ideas that you will decide to take notes on. Some ambassador from an alien species will comment on another alien species that your characters have never encountered before and that you, yourself, the author, did not know existed. It does happen. Characters sometimes just say things and you, typing/writing it out, sometimes sit back in your chair and say, "What? What's that? Why did you say that? What are you talking about?" So you keep writing and you figure it out. Characters take on a minds and personalities of their own and develop their own ideas and bases of knowledge. Let this happen. It's fun! And no, you won't have gone mad, no matter what other people tell you. If it is madness to hear your characters talking to you in your head, or having full conversations with each other or to see them suddenly shove something in front of your mind's eye so that, in the real world, you give a loud, vocalized exclamation, "OH! I understand now!" If that happens, then it means anyone who has ever told a story, a full and complete story, is mad and everyone's most favorite people they've never met (authors, screenwriters, playwrights, etc.) are all mad and all needing a psychiatrist's help.
I want to tell you this too, Isaac. Kerry's way is not the only way. Writing classes can be good, and even fun, if you allow them to be. But you do not have to take one to be a writer. Sometimes he presents it as such, as he did above. But what you really need to be able to be a writer is a love for the story you are telling and a desire to tell it. Sometimes I think Kerry wants writers to have taken a writing class before they have even fallen in love with telling stories. I'm betting this is wrong but sometimes I do think it. Taking a writing class, I feel, needs to be a writer's decision akin to the decision of an alcoholic or drug abuser's decision to admit they have a problem and then deciding to seek help. That is what a writing class is for a writer. Using that analogy, our work, our skill with words, is our substance of choice that we have a problem with. After seeing little improvement of our skill over many pages and many stories we may come to the decision that "I love telling stories. But I hate how it comes out. It never comes out quite right and what I wrote doesn't hold me, and probably won't hold anyone's attention, like the act of telling it does [for me]. Maybe taking a writing class would help me do this better? Hmm, I should look into that." Only once you have reached this point, I feel, should you actually take a writing class. If you are in school and writing classes are being forced upon you as requirements for graduation, that is one thing and, yes, you will learn from them and be able to adapt their lessons for your writing. But seeking out a writing class independently of an educational program in which you are already engaged? No, don't do that until/unless you have reached that point that you want to improve your writing ability and you are not able to do it on your own anymore.
Kerry, I did not want to admit this to you but, yes, I have taken a writing class in the way and for the reason I have just stated. I did it over this last summer. It was not a Writing class for grammar and punctuation (I did take those in college as part of my program's curriculum) but a novel writing class. Having written several novels now I was the person with the most practical experience in the class other than the teacher because it was Novel Writing 101. You may not count this but I do, because it was me choosing to be taught by someone else about my writing. It gave me a few new ideas of how to approach my writing and got me out of a horrible slump I had been in, both of which were my entire reason for deciding to take the class. So there, I admit it. It was helpful.
I think the wiki is online the internet. For the sake of any future publishing success. However, I doubt it will be a problem with people outside my creative team because most people in the world don't even know it exists. It is useful for storing information, and it is there for others to look at. If people are interested in the places and characters that inhabit my universe.
A wiki is a good place to start. I personally use Scrivener (a writing application) and I keep track of all my characters, places, things, events, in sub folders away from the main content of the story. At some point in my life I may create a wiki as I've come up with so many characters that I need to keep track of them all and once I start publishing I'd like a place to send my readers.
If this is a collaborative effort, then a wiki would be a good place for the group to keep track of that. Of course you can us google docs just as easily and it wouldn't be visible to the world (I think you can also create private wiki pages, but I haven't tried that yet).
As for learning how to write Spec Fic, the best way is to:
1) READ...a LOT. To learn how to write well, read EVERYTHING you can get your hands on inside and outside the genre. Reading will give you a good idea of how to write by learning what others are doing.
2) Buy a book or two on how to write. There are a tremendous number of books out there. This forum probably has a thread on this and if someone is feeling really nice they may link to it for you
3) Write, write, write, and then write some more. There's no substitute for writing to get better and to learn how to write. Stumble, fail, get up, try again.
4) Once you finish something (and not before you finish something) let someone else read it and critique it for you. If you give them a partially done manuscript and they tear it apart, you'll start over and this is a vicious cycle and you won't learn how to finish something.
5) Learn how to edit, learn grammar, learn about story structure, plotting, pacing, character, and all those little nuances of writing. This you can learn along the way, but still, there is no substitute for sitting down and writing to understand what all this is about. It's not until you're putting words on the page that you'll even have a clue as to what all this means.
I could go on and on and on about all this. But the two biggest things you need are to read a lot, and write a lot. The rest will either come naturally, or you'll read a book on writing and figure it out, but unless you sit and type (a lot) you'll only spend time that might not really need to be spent. Research is a good thing, but for some authors, it'll slow you down. That's not saying you shouldn't have notes, but those you can write up as you're working on your story. #justsaying
To be honest, worry about the story first, then worry about how to keep track of everything. When you edit a completed story you'll be able to track everything.
If this is a collaborative effort, then a wiki would be a good place for the group to keep track of that. Of course you can us google docs just as easily and it wouldn't be visible to the world (I think you can also create private wiki pages, but I haven't tried that yet).
As for learning how to write Spec Fic, the best way is to:
1) READ...a LOT. To learn how to write well, read EVERYTHING you can get your hands on inside and outside the genre. Reading will give you a good idea of how to write by learning what others are doing.
2) Buy a book or two on how to write. There are a tremendous number of books out there. This forum probably has a thread on this and if someone is feeling really nice they may link to it for you
3) Write, write, write, and then write some more. There's no substitute for writing to get better and to learn how to write. Stumble, fail, get up, try again.
4) Once you finish something (and not before you finish something) let someone else read it and critique it for you. If you give them a partially done manuscript and they tear it apart, you'll start over and this is a vicious cycle and you won't learn how to finish something.
5) Learn how to edit, learn grammar, learn about story structure, plotting, pacing, character, and all those little nuances of writing. This you can learn along the way, but still, there is no substitute for sitting down and writing to understand what all this is about. It's not until you're putting words on the page that you'll even have a clue as to what all this means.
I could go on and on and on about all this. But the two biggest things you need are to read a lot, and write a lot. The rest will either come naturally, or you'll read a book on writing and figure it out, but unless you sit and type (a lot) you'll only spend time that might not really need to be spent. Research is a good thing, but for some authors, it'll slow you down. That's not saying you shouldn't have notes, but those you can write up as you're working on your story. #justsaying
To be honest, worry about the story first, then worry about how to keep track of everything. When you edit a completed story you'll be able to track everything.
kongming
www.voxnewman.com
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2005
- Messages
- 386
I've been writing my Fey World series on my Android with an app called Polaris Office. In addition I've made a structured data-map of all that background stuff I need to know on an app called Mindjet. In addition, I use an app called Pocket to store my research. Hope this helps.
kongming
www.voxnewman.com
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2005
- Messages
- 386
I'm just putting my two cents in because I always vehemently disagree with point #1, mostly disagree with #2, wholeheartedly agree with #3 and generally agree with the remaining points.
Reading a lot greatly improves your reading ability and marginally increases your talent for writing. In addition you risk being overly influenced by other's writing. Therefore, I consider it neutral to a possible negative (at the very least inefficient) way of improving your writing. Just write lots is my advice. Also taking grammar and creative writing courses can open your mind up to new techniques and tighten your style.
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2009
- Messages
- 4,568
I do not believe the act of reading a lot is something a writer does to improve their skill at writing. I believe you should read a lot as a writer to see what is out there, to see what has been done and what is still left to do. It won't (or shouldn't) deter you from writing a certain type of story if all the stories you see walking through the bookstore are about the same thing you want to write about. But in that case, you should look at some of those stories, see how other authors approached the plot, the characters, the world they created, and see if you can't make your story any different because, really, who wants to be called a copy catting plagiarist? Not this guy, that's for sure.
Another reason to read a lot is to see how other authors handled this specific kind of situation. This kind of goes with what I said before but, really, this would be to see how an author went about something such as describing a particular scene, giving it the reader enough of the physical details (the landscape, the arrangement of furniture in a room, where the people/things are at and how the are sitting/standing, dressed, holding/carrying). If you have a similar issue in your story or, especially, a whole bunch of issues (ie. numerous characters, each of whose characterization you are having trouble with) then read a book with similar characters so you can see how that author handled the situation.
Caedus
Registered User
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2011
- Messages
- 167
Quoted for emphasis. You don't want your story's backbone to be the crazy geeky stuff going on in your world as that doesn't make for a good story. Look at my last flash fiction for instance aha. Balance is key. Although some people don't mind if the story places a good deal of emphasis on the science aspect. For me as long as somebody isn't putting up equation in page 2 or trying too hard to show off what he/she learned in graduate school then I'm good.
http://www.fearfulsymmetry.net/?p=745
A professional author shows how to write a story by plotting it out with yhe seven-point plot structure. He uses a story he sold (The Mountain of the Lord) as his example.
And if that's not enough, here is this for your consideration:
http://www.sfwriter.com/owindex.htm
A professional author shows how to write a story by plotting it out with yhe seven-point plot structure. He uses a story he sold (The Mountain of the Lord) as his example.
And if that's not enough, here is this for your consideration:
http://www.sfwriter.com/owindex.htm
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