Category: Science fiction

Creator of Worlds

Recently I remarked to one of my writer friends that I wish I could write funny.

She replied immediately that she wished she could create worlds.

That left me thoughtful. I’ve created many worlds. Some overlap part of this world, but many are second-world type settings that have little in common with our ‘real’ world. I’ve gone on stellar and planetary math quests, researched deep rabbit holes about life and items like it, and often find myself having to make up entire swaths of items to answer a question or to allow a character to do what I know they require for that story.

My first second-world fantasy idea came in high school. I never did write that series, but I had ideas about it. Eventually I abandoned it because high school is full of people who will listen about your ideas even if you overtalk it and then don’t spend that time writing it, and I did high school and college for a semester – and in the margins you could find my notes for this novel that hasn’t ever become more than ruminations in my head.

I’d say maybe one day, but I’ve created so many others that I may never get back to it.

I looked at a list today, of created projects that are in limbo for the moment since I’ve been working so hard on this Space Western that I am determined to get out and publish. That list doesn’t include the novel I thought I was going to write in high school/college, and it already had 9 projects listed. I didn’t even look that hard, just to projects that had been drafted or mostly fleshed out and ready to draft.

Ransom, Creator of Worlds But They Might Not Be Funny Ones.

What’s your writer tag? What’s the tag you wish you could write? I do believe that most of these great things are like muscles that can be strengthened or atrophied over time whether we use them or not, but there are many pieces that come naturally or they don’t.

The good news for novels is that the one I’ve been struggling with my antagonists is maybe, finally, coming into line with what I want and need it to be. Then it’ll be on to the next one. The really good news is that I feel after all of these acts of creation- the characters, the plots, the settings, and the themes- that I am getting much better at this than I used to be. It’s a tough road, but I still enjoy it.

Posted on by ransomnoble 0

The Storm is Coming Anthology – Submitted and Accepted!

Sending items out means getting an acceptance or rejection. Sometimes this is too much for writers to take, the waiting and the not knowing and most of all wondering if the writing is good enough.

Good enough is a troublesome concept. It’s not just whether or not a piece is well-written. There are so many things to take into consideration, like the overall market and whether or not the editor likes it. Then when the rejection comes through, you wonder if you’d just worked a little harder, made just one little change, if it would have been okay.

I can’t be the only one wondering these things. I don’t let it stop me from sending things out. I aim high. I get rejected. I try not to let it get to me. It’s not easy.

This time I got lucky, or I just had a great fit with The Storm is Coming anthology.

My story, The Rescuers, is one I wrote a time ago, but it always sounded like Chapter 3 in a novel. I needed time to focus it into something much better. It happens that way sometimes, when you have a good premise but the writing doesn’t quite follow through on the promise.

It helps to not give up on yourself or the story that needs to be told. Sometimes that short story has to be made into a novel, but other times it can work if other pieces are different. I throw out a lot of rough drafts, and some of them I tweak endlessly (or so it seems) and others pop out fully formed and ready to be something.

I guess it just reminds me of that saying where you write what you are ready to write. Sometimes we have ideas we aren’t ready to tackle at the moment. Other times we tackle them and falter, but that doesn’t mean we can’t keep revisiting the idea until it gels.

There might be more to this Rescuers story later. I can’t say whether or not the characters will try to push their other adventures into my head or if I randomly run across something I know has to fit into their world. For now, I’m extremely excited to be slated for the upcoming anthology and waiting to see what else is in store from Sleeping Cat Books.

Posted on by ransomnoble 2