Well, it seems my original intention for story number one has been ran off road to say the least. Yesterday I had decided that the first installation would be a macro historical view of the universe in which the stories will take place. I have a few pages written but instead of a history its the first setting with the first characters introduction. I guess in like in any creative process if there is an inspiration it should be followed as to not lose what could potentially be a great vehicle for the continuation of the plot or the overall project.
One of my intentions for the character stories is to focus on making them people instead of hollow shells. I want my characters to have a real impact on the story and not just an inconvenient necessity. Forgive the cliche's but I want my characters to jump off the page and be larger than life in the story at times. In my opinion character development is as essential element to any story or book even if the main theme or common thread is larger than any one person. Also to this affect I need to consider my audience, which will be science fiction readers. To me, in this genre the characters are just as important as the nifty technology, galactic phenomenon, or interstellar war; but to much focus on the people can take away from the "coolness" of a scifi setting. Now granted this is a story or series, so I do have the freedom to make them as long as I want so as to include both elements character development as well as the stunning technoporn we all love in our scifi.
Another pitfall I would like to avoid in the creation of this is that personally I think that a lot of science fiction stories have a tendency to take themselves to seriously almost to the point of being laughable. There will be content that does require a bit of seriousness perhaps a war, an emergency, or some battle between characters or an inner turmoil focusing on one person but I don't want the stories to be so over saturated with one theme that I risk boring the reader. Then again if to much comic relief is used it might take away from how I want the reader to view the story. So I will see how this develops for me as I continue to write. All the good intentions, preparations, and outlines in the world I still need entertaining content and some self involved over analyzed crap.
Today after I exhaust my ideas about the first characters story I will begin the historical outline. I do not expect that the actual history will be complete until the end of the first few stories but I want to make as many facts, and events set up historically so I know what pieces of the puzzle to put where. Thanks for reading and dealing with my babbling, posts are appreciated or just shoot me an email if you want.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I totally agree. As much as I want to get involved with some books, they are just too serious. I don't need a comedy or even a happy ending all the time but a 'too serious' book will make put it down and not pick it back up.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I've found useful in a story is to write a dossier of each important character. It fleshes out the details around them outside of the story itself, gives you ammo to work with to make them seem more real in the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with The Syd and Brian. Start with a character and write and let the story come out of your fingers and don't self-censor.
ReplyDeleteI would put some detail in on technical items, such as a brief description on how a ships weapon systems work, how ships themselves work, and whatnot- on the bigger things. If you mention about a type of laser pistol, anyone interested in sci-fi doesnt really need to know how it works- we "get it".
ReplyDeleteIts the 50/50 part on this. You want a fun, active and decently paced story without being slowed down by techno-babble. But, no detail makes for what most books are now- crap.
Later,
Dan
I'm actually way ahead of you on this one. One of this things I have already began to do with the first character is have in describe in not so nauseating detail what the weapon systems names are and what they do. There will be some techno babble nonsense added but it won't be so overt it's annoying.
ReplyDelete