More Novel Ideas

[lostcarpark]

It's well over a week since I said I'd update on the novel at least once a week. So much for trying to be accountable.

I last reported that I was struggling with Chapter 2. Well, guess what? I'm still struggling with the same chapter.

One of the reasons the chapter is proving difficult is because it contains no human characters. Nothing strange about that - it's a science fiction novel after all. But there are difficulties. How do you present it from the alien character's viewpoint, when the human readers will have no frame of reference for relating to that viewpoint? I've been perusing various books on writing sci-fi, and they all seem to say the same thing - put a human character in the scene to give a frame of reference. The trouble is that I don't want to do that, as in my story it's very clear that humans have never met any aliens before, and I don't want the human and alien storylines to intersect until well into the novel.

As a result of all this, progress has been slow. But slow progress will still move us forwards. I had to start the chapter three times before I found an opening that worked for me, and even with that I've had to go back and revise it a couple of times as I went. I've got about 4,000 words into the chapter, and I'm hoping to bring it to a conclusion in the next couple of days, although I know I'll have to revise it some more. I'm now at the point where I'm happy with the way it's working out. I've managed to bring more conflict into it then I expected, which is a good thing. However I think the ending I had planned for the chapter might be a bit to nice, and I'd like to give it a bit more of an edge. But I think I've got a story that will make people think, and hopefully question perceptions for a while.

So this week I want to finish chapter 2 and make a good start on chapter 3. I think this should be more straightforward, as it's back with the human characters. Chapter 3 has a relatively simple storyline, but a lot has to happen in the chapter. I think I should be able to get the basic storyline down fairly quickly. Then I'll need to go back and polish it a bit. It's going to be gung-ho action all the way. Which should be richly deserved after all the thinking in chapter 3. After that they'll probably need a rest.

But looking at the story ahead, I can't see them getting it in chapter 4...

Sorry to all if my musings about a novel I've told you nothing about don't make for interesting reading.

Comments

[crazysoph.livejournal.com]

I've found David Brin's Uplift series, particularly the final book (uhm... brainfart moment, as I fail to remember more than "the one after Startide Rising") did a particularly nice job of several such moments, non-human characters at moments of great drama and tension. Of course, YMMV, but still... I remember a couple of scenes particularly with great fondness, for having communicated so well, without resorting to a homo sapiens on the scene. (Will supply on request, since I don't know if you've read the book and don't want to spoil if you haven't, or burden if you have and hated it...)

Thanks for the update, I've been enjoying your report, and *ahem* experiencing an itch in the "writers' accountablility" department, too.

Crazy(so, now you're responsible for more than yourself, bwa ha ha hah!!)Soph

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

It's always interesting to watch someone else's creative processes at work.

I'm not a fan of alien-only passages. One reason is that an alien viewpoint is already fatally compromised by expressing it in the English language (or whatever language you happen to be writing in). Few writers are able to pull this off, in my opinion, and I find those passages where the Grand Interlocuter of the Fourth System explains to his Burrin why exactly his fidj has to be smollerised before the Drale Acension a massive turn-off.

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Oi! Have you been reading ahead? My Grand Interlocuter keeps his fidj to himself, thank you very much.

Seriously, I think it's an experiment I'm willing to go with for the time being and if I'm really unhappy with it, then I'll have to find another way.

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that's on my "must read when I get time" list.

I'm surprised I didn't mention my Psion at all in this report - it's great to whip out anywhere and write a bit. I had it in London over the weekend, and was able to write on the plane, on the train, on the tube, and any other spare moment. It can lead so some slightly disjointed passages.

The main thing with accountability is to be writing something every day, even if it's not very much.

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

Good luck! Seriously, unless the alien-only scene is utterly vital to the story or has some compellingly original aspect to it, then it's probably going to give you more trouble than it's worth (as well as potentially alienating (heh) a reader like me who has little patience with genre SF - but there again I suspect I'm not a part of your target audience).

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

I was going to suggest him too. Is it Brightness Reef?
I think maybe it works because there's many different aliens. Do you just have one species? I don't know how it would work with that.

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

I probably should start at the beginning of the series anyway.

In this particular chapter, I have two races encountering each other for the first time, so there are some interesting interactions, with both seeing each other from their own perspectives. Later on there will be quite a few others.

The tricky part is not being able to use any human-specific references. This is particularly problematic when those references are measures of distance or time. It does create the potential for some interesting mix-ups, where the alien performs some task that, from it's perspective, takes hours only to later find out that it actually only took seconds.