Author: Dan Harris

Writer of stories that haven't happened yet. 10% Sci, 90% Fi. Author of The Unity Sequence: ASCENSION POINT (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009TCE6G4) & VENUS RISING (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C9PF35G)

Writing While-U-Wait

On By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, WritingLeave a comment

What to do when you can’t write, or edit, your WIP? Like now, when I’m waiting for feedback from my beta readers. (Or rather I will be when a new printer cartridge arrives in the mail, so I can print a copy, so my fiancée can read it. I bet Stephen King never has this problem. Anyway.)

You write the next thing, of course! I’ve had the high-level premise for the next book knocking around for a while now, and today I started putting some bones on it. I’ve now got a chapter-summary outline for the first half, and biographies for the four protagonists, which I think is a pretty good day’s work.

The second book is set in the same universe as the first, a few months later, with a slight overlap in characters – I’m not sure if this will be confusing when I start switching between projects. I hope not.

Another pitfall I’ll need to avoid is due to the setting – the story is primarily based on a harsh, desert world, with an advanced but still fiercely tribal culture. I’ve already had to throw a few possible plot points away because I realised I’d unconsciously ripped them wholesale from Dune.

Damn you, Frank Herbert. Using up all the good desert-based material. Oh well. I’ll manage!

Mad Men meets Sci-Fi

On By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, WritingLeave a comment

Tor.com has a great piece here – Mad Men Begins Highlighting Science Fiction as a Tool of Expression.

I love Mad Men. It’s one of the most tightly written, perfectly paced shows on television, with a cast of realistic, rounded and often deeply flawed characters. I really appreciate all of the cultural references that make the show so true – the Kennedy/Nixon election, Vietnam, etc – but it’s especially satisfying for me to see sci-fi popping up, with Ken Cosgrove’s writing it under a pseudonym, and now the long-lost and oh-so-pathetic Paul Kinsey desperate to pitch a script for an exciting new show called Star Trek:

Paul: “I think it should be their season opener next year.”

Harry: “If there IS one. It’s a tough timeslot — “My Three Sons,” “Bewitched” — that thing’s a juggernaut.”

Yup. Star Trek‘s good, but it’s no Bewitched.

Bob Mayer on Self-Publishing

On By Dan HarrisIn Self-Publishing, WritingLeave a comment

Another quick link – there’s a great guest post from Bob Mayer on Live Write Thrive here.

The key lesson for me, as a writer just getting started:

“The #1 mistake I see new writers making are slapping their first book up on Kindle and then running around trying to promote the hell out of it. No. Write first book. Start writing second book. Finish. Start writing third book. When you have at least three good books, then you can start promoting. It’s a learning curve. Also, how many are willing to put that sweat equity into it? It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

From an ‘author of more than fifty books all available in eBook that have sold over four million copies’, I think I’ll pay attention.

‘Fifty Shades of Grey Banned From Libraries for Being Too Racy and Poorly Written’

On By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Self-Publishing, Writing4 Comments

Just a quick one, because I actually laughed out loud at the headline. Article on io9 (again!) here.

The first comment has a brilliant Amazon review:

“Thanks to the many other perturbed readers who have shared their own choices of the most annoyingly overused phrases in this masterpiece. Following up on their suggestions with my ever-useful Kindle search function, I have discovered that Ana says “Jeez” 81 times and “oh my” 72 times. She “blushes” or “flushes” 125 times, including 13 that are “scarlet,” 6 that are “crimson,” and one that is “stars and stripes red.” (I can’t even imagine.) Ana “peeks up” at Christian 13 times, and there are 9 references to Christian’s “hooded eyes” and 7 to his “long index finger.” Characters “murmur” a whopping 199 times (doesn’t anyone just talk?), “clamber” on/in/out of things 21 times, and “smirk” 34 times. Finally, in a remarkable bit of symmetry, our hero and heroine exchange 124 “grins” and 124 “frowns”… which, by the way, seems an awful lot of frowning for a woman who experiences “intense,” “body-shattering,” “delicious,” “violent,” “all-consuming,” “turbulent,” “agonizing” and “exhausting” orgasms on just about every page.”

Pity the author. Without critical acclaim, all E. L. James has are her 250,000+ e-book sales and seven-figure print deal.

Successful Self-Published Sci-Fi and Fantasy Authors

On By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Self-Publishing, Writing4 Comments

More mainstream media analysis of the self-publishing phenomenon from io9 here.

While the headline is the big sellers’ numbers, though vaguely interesting they’re not really relevant. They aren’t what any new author could practically aim for – except maybe “B.V. Larson, who writes both sci-fi and fantasy, has sold some 250,000 copies of his 25 titles“. The key element there being twenty-five titles – if you stick at it, and write that many novels which are that good, you’ll sell a lot of books.

I also take issue with a couple of things in the article.  Read more…