Retro Futurism

On May 8, 2012May 10, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, WritingLeave a comment

Nice post on io9 here.

I’m drawn to the Anachronista category – the others don’t do a lot for me. I’m no good at history so hardly qualified to suggest alternates. Cheese is . . . well, cheesy. And I think there are enough people writing steampunk – the best example of it, China Mieville’s work, doesn’t even get called it because it’s so much more as well.

But anachronista, that I could do. The next book I’ve got planned is somewhat tinged with this – it’s a Chandler-style detective noir, but set in the same technologically advanced far-future universe of my current WIP.

It wouldn’t quite fit the anachronista mould the io9 article talks about, as it’ll be stylistically redolent of 1930s/40s/50s pulp crime lit, rather than actually containing any technology that you might have found back then. But still – that’s one of the things I love about SF, the scope to combine it with another genre entirely and come up with an interesting hybrid. I’m looking forward to writing it.

The Fickle Nature of Motivation

On May 7, 2012May 7, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn WritingLeave a comment

It makes no sense, sometimes. I work from home, nine to ten hours at the computer where once or twice every hour I’ll think ‘Man, I wish I was writing now. That would be awesome’. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy my job, but . . . well, it’s not my number one. Obviously!

Anyway. So all day long in the back of my mind I’m wishing I could write. And then I finish work for the day – and I can’t start. Fickle brain wanders off, excited by not having to do any more work today. And rather than getting writing straight away, I instead:

Wash the dishes
Check Twitter
Read other people’s blogs
Defrost some pork chops
Watch trailers for The Dark Knight Rises
Drink beer and consider opening my own microbrewery one day
Write blog posts about the fickle nature of motivation

Not crazy productive. Though the last one is at least getting the fingers going, and fickle brain in the mood for cracking on with THE LAST CHAPTER.

(Or the epilogue. Yeah, I still don’t know.)

I’d love to hear your own procrastinatory stories in the comments. And it’ll save you from doing what you should be doing, too!

Redshirts

On May 7, 2012May 7, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn Reading, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Writing1 Comment

Great review of John Scalzi’s Redshirts at Tor.com here.

“Redshirts is not merely a satire of the conventions of popular science fiction as a genre (although it is an excellent satire), it’s a harsh critique of waste. Why should we allow ourselves to be thrilled and horrified by the senseless deaths of fictional characters when we could be equally entertained by the stories that those characters carry within them?”

I’m looking forward to reading this. I’m sure it’s a little more high brow a commentary on the redshirt trope than the (still brilliant) one on Family Guy:

Captain Kirk: “All right, men. This is a dangerous mission. And it’s likely one of us will be killed. The landing party will consist of myself, Mr. Spock, Dr.McCoy…and Ensign Ricky.”

Ensign Ricky: “Ah, crap.“

To Epilogue or Not To Epilogue?

On May 5, 2012May 5, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn WritingLeave a comment

Just finished drafting the penultimate chapter of my novel. Now twenty-two down, and 88,000 words written. Only one chapter left!

Or so I thought. And then it occurred to me: ‘Hang on, this isn’t a chapter. It’s an epilogue.’

Then the second thing occurred to me: ‘But people hate epilogues. Don’t they?’ Read more…

Reading Now: The Thirty Nine Steps

On May 4, 2012May 4, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn Reading, WritingLeave a comment

The Thirty Nine Steps – John Buchan

I picked this up yesterday for the Kindle, for some ridiculously low price.

I must have read the book ten times when I was a boy – it came in one of those enormous compendiums of Penguin classic novels, along with Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, and about fifteen others. Read more…

When I Get Uninspired, I Stop Being Uninspired and Be Awesome Instead

On May 3, 2012May 4, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn WritingLeave a comment

Man, I did not want to write today. Don’t know what it was. Could be the weather which somehow managed to be chilly and muggy at the same time. Maybe it’s a full moon. Maybe I haven’t been sleeping well. Whatever it was, when I sat down and opened the blank page for that next scene, writing was far down my fun-things-to-do-now list. Read more…

Writing for the Head vs. the Heart

On May 3, 2012May 3, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, WritingLeave a comment

Another good read on Emma Darwin’s blog here.

It seems like every couple of months I’ll read some industry insider’s comment that the market for SF/F is decreasing, then another saying that it’s never been stronger. It’s hard to know what to expect when I do get to the point of actually pitching a manuscript – whether an SF thriller in today’s market can be said to ‘have a good chance’.

But I’m not sure it matters to me – as the article says, you need to write something that you care about, or it’ll be tough, and you’ll hate it, and even if you do finish it won’t end up with the kind of soul that you impart to something you love. I’m pretty sure I’ll only ever want to – or maybe even be able to – write science fiction. Where that will get me in future, who knows!

Downton Galactica? Battlestar Abbey? It’s all Culture and Character, Folks

On May 2, 2012May 3, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn Sci-Fi and Fantasy, WritingLeave a comment

Great article on Tor.com here.

This piece reminds me of one of the best pieces of advice for science fiction or fantasy writers that I’ve ever read. My sieve-like memory for detail doesn’t allow me to quote or even paraphrase the source, but the essence of it was that in the best SF/F the science or the fantasy isn’t the centre of the story. They’re the framework, the setting, and probably certain plot drivers, which surround the actual heart – the people and civilisations interacting, the personality and culture clashes which resonate with the reader because of their familiarity.

Iain M. Banks is the master at this, in my opinion. His Culture novels – the name itself flagging up the key theme – are anthropological masterpieces, often based around one civilisation (the Culture) being far more technologically advanced than the other that they’re interacting with, and dealing with the political and sociological fallout of even the most benevolent interventions. We can all recognise the parallels in that, I think.

“This has all happened before, it will all happen again” indeed.

The Dreaded Edit

On May 1, 2012May 1, 2012 By Dan HarrisIn Writing8 Comments

I’m nearing the finish line for the first draft of my WIP – just two chapters left to write. Eight scenes, eight or nine thousand words. Should be done sometime next week. And then . . .

The dreaded edit. Now, seeing as how this is my first novel, I’ve not been through the editing process before. A lot of writers I’ve read on the subject seem to treat it as a necessary evil – but evil nonetheless. Read more…