Any SF writers out there?

Sorry to be a bit off topic but I can't find the ' lost posters' forum to ask there.

If anyone's heard from White Scorpion recently or has a way I can get a hold of him, it'd be greatly appreciated if you could shoot me a PM. I miss this bugger's stories.

 

Hi BodyElectric. I've been away, but hopefully I'll keep my feet on the ground for a while. Next story is dedicated to you.

 

Is it just me, or did all the proper sci-fi ideas get done far too thoroughly in the Fifties for anything written now to really qualify as the same kind of thing without actually copying? (that sentence was too long)

I've wanted to write sci-fi for a while, but it seems like all the big themes have been used, and I'm less keen on what's called "space opera", where the idea seems to be to just throw everything in together and hope. I still haven't finished reading Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy (which is about the dead coming back to life in the 27th century), simply because it's so draining on every level.

Any thoughts on this?

 

they manage to keep coming up with fresh ideas as amazing as it seems; even getting kinda mainstream like Gibson's Pattern Recognition was basically The Pelican Brief scified, but it was a new twist on things, so no, not all used up.

 

To be honest, that was kinda where I was going to head for; doing not-necessarily-sci-fi plots in a sci-fi setting. I just don't know if that seems a bit pointless.

 

I've tried to write sci-fi but its a really difficult genre to be good at because you have to make the incredible seem credible. Its difficult to say what makes bad science fiction or good science fiction but its the only genre that I truly enjoy reading and I know good from bad when I see it.

Sometimes though I think its because in the same way as characters within a story have to be multidimensional personalities - so does the environment in which the story takes place - and sometimes bad science fiction occurs when either the characters arent well thought out enough or/nor the background upon which the events take place. Its as though somehow because the facts of the plot are incredible enough they sterilised the human element. Almost like its story board images rather than flowing drama

On the other hand I think good science fiction makes you feel like, even though you are unfamiliar with the technology or environment that you none-the-less understand it and identify that its the only way it could have been. When the protagonist is winning the day you see why he is the one thats saving the world or whatever and why it couldnt have been anyonelse etc. Too often people tend to not know their characters enough before they put them into the story if you see what I mean - but a good writer spends time thinking about each character and writing them up in words before writing the story - they know how the character gets around and so can make them seem natural to the world they inhabit

I really would love to write a great peice of science fiction myself but as Oscar wilde said "those that can, do - and those that cant, teach"

 

It's important not to lose hope. If you have an idea that has been done before you can always try presenting it in a different way. For example both Labour and Conservative parties snubbed the Green Party in the 80s and 90s, but now that environmental priorities have also become a commercial issue and source of revenue, both these lecherous Political degenerates have made a U-turn to incorporate, if not steal, the Green Party's manifestos. If they can get away with re-writing something that was written many years ago, then I don't see why anyone else should be embarassed to do the same. After all, they govern us so they are supposed to set an example to the rest of us hard working tax-paying people.

 

There's some interesting stuff on Wikipedia (obviously sourced from elsewhere) relating to something called "post-cyberpunk", which seems to be intended as a reaction against the whole post-apocalyptic loner Mad Max figure. Despite the sci-fi setting, all the characters have jobs and suffer from pretty much the same kind of concerns as we do. That's the sort of thing that intrigues me. The way humans will react to technology. We very rarely see people being assailed by giant killer robots, but we do see them unable to programme their video recorders all the time.

Failing that, I'll just go for the sword-and-sorcery-style fantasy genre and do basically the same thing.

 

its hard to put yourself out there tho - its just like wow I know this isnt exactly great infact what if my writing is crapper than I thought and everyone hates it - its a risk isnt it ? I dont know why but thats hgow I feel if I write seriously - I read it and its not the best stuff ever written so I hold back and dont let people see - usually just bin it

I might give it a shot here tho and do a few paragraphs at a time - I already got a good story forming

 

Just get drunk while you write and stay drunk until after you've shown it to someone. They'll say it's great, and then it won't matter.

 

LOL yeah true enough !

hey everyone listen up - this book is rated by a LOT of famous sci fi writers like arthur c clarke and many others
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Maker
its by Olaf Stapledon
who inspired many that wrote after the 1930's but he is relatively unknown

 

Worked for my last dissertation, and I got a 2/1. If you suffer from being your own worst critic, you have to find ways to trick yourself into getting a rough something down on paper/PC/whatever. That way you can alter it later, build on it, and possibly throw the original bit out after all. If you don't put anything down in the first place you have nothing to build on.

 

good advice - ! I have written quite a lot really but just binned it a few months or a year later and my only hope was that a writing career didnt become an ambition - I dont think the public was ready for that maltreatment by publishers - I am no george orwell or arthur c clarke that much I know for a fact and usually I cannot say I am anywhere near as good as even the medium sized talents that often post here so I know I am nowhere near the best who post at hip
but soon I may spend a few weeks writiung something and post it here

 

There's that thing they say about inspiration and perspiration. Talent has very little to do with writing, really. The ability to stick at it is what makes the difference.

 

There are so many brilliant people writing, especially in Sci Fi.
I've got around 10 pages of how to write sci fi, just getting all those notes together is a book in itself. But I believe setting everything up before writing. It'll take forever, but that's the way its done.
Oh, and Olaf Stapledon is pretty well known, he's in the Canon at least.