9 replies to this topic

[Kalimaster]

A couple of days ago I came across a used book store and managed to get a copy of a book I've never read. The book is in good condition and after reading it I think I've found a new author whom I would suggest.

Author. David Golemon

Book Series. Event.

Not something you really want to read late at night before bed time. lol.

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 14 August 2015 - 06:03 AM, said:

Interesting. I will have to look into this. I went to a used book store in Frankenmuth and came back with first edition printings of Dune. Something I don't usually find. Also have nearly completed my Michael Crichton collection off of used Book stores and such.

As an author I can tell you those first editions can be pretty rough sometimes. But please, by all means, buy them! Think of the starving authors!

(we really do starve)

[Mister Blastman]

Marack Drock, on 14 August 2015 - 10:00 AM, said:

WHAT BOOKS DID YOU WRITE! I will buy them if they are sci fi or fantasy..... seriously there is like a 90% chance. Also any tips for me, as I am an aspiring author and have written 120 pages of my first novel.

I'm almost done with my first, which is part one of a three or four novel series (might be more, remains to be seen, the ideas keep pouring into my head). I'm on the third draft now, over halfway done, so... soon! It is still over 500 pages--my goal is to get it under 125k words and I'm at 126k. But with this style revision, I'm finding the bad prose I cut along with redundant exposition has given me space to enrich the universe, which is nice.

My biggest tip--keep writing! Write every single day. Just get the first draft out on paper, that's the first big hurdle.

[Mister Blastman]

Ah yeah, characters... Let their dialogue and action define them--their looks are one thing, but, like us, they don't really make the person beyond the superficial first impression. Giving them dialogue quirks--i.e. phrases they say, way they talk, personality differences, that will go a long way towards helping them find their own uniqueness.

After my first draft I went back and started reading and I found most of my dialogue was crap and then I began the painful process of building those personalities. Believe it or not, it wasn't until the third draft that I finally got down to the superficial details on a few of them--and threw in a short bit of backstory for some.

But the third draft for me, at least, is a complete style revision because my biggest vice has always been overly wordy and clunky sentence structure.

There are days where it seems like nothing but pisswater comes out of my proverbial quill.

And on that environmental stuff--most first time authors tend to overdo that. I know I did. It has taken lots of practice and re-writes to help streamline that. The difference of how I wrote five years ago and now is night and day.

Edited by Mister Blastman, 14 August 2015 - 11:08 AM.

[Mister Blastman]

Well military doesn't mean they have to be dry. There are lots of opportunities for dialogue depending on the pace of the plot and the setting you put them in.

Ender's Game has some neat trainee situations, whereas movies like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon and Aliens (I love the 80s) have great banter and dialogue with a variety of encounters and personality types. Dune and Starship Troopers are also fantastic depictions of alternative futuristic military culture.

My novels have the challenge of multiple alien civilizations, cultures, societies, worlds and governmental overlap within the galactic neighborhood that adds to uniqueness. If you feel it is too dry, spice it up, throw a curve ball at the entire plot. Put them in uncomfortable situations and see how they react and most of all, never be afraid to alter your course into the unknown--you might surprise yourself with the direction it takes and alter the successive framework to fit with it.

When I started I simply knew who the protagonist(s) was(ere), what was his problem and where he needed to go. The rest kind of worked itself out.