Writer's Blog 2010-01-26

I would imagine that most writers buy writing guides. I have many. In this image I'm holding Writing a Novel. It is part of the teach yourself range. At the end of each chapter it has exercises to try. So that is what I'm going to do.

The first chapter deals with planning. I am not a great one for planning. Usually I prefer to make a start and see where the story goes. In the same way that sometimes just playing a game is a better way to learn, rather than reading the rules.

I have a vague idea of where my novel is going. I uploaded some sections of it here but I think that quite a lot has changed since then. I'd rather not upload my plan but I will discuss something else the book talks of and that is why I want to write.

I wish I could say that writing is purely my passion. This is not strictly true. I enjoy some of the process, such as universe creation, but it still feels like a slog. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that. While the act of writing isn't so interesting the telling of the story is. If I had children I would probably be telling them stories of my own creation every evening. Hopefully they would be interested. As I have no one to tell stories to, I write them down. It would be nice if I could make money from this one day. However if I won the lottery, which would be magic considering I don't play, I think I would continue to write and upload them for free.
Making money is simply a factor of life. So when I say I want to make money from this it is a matter of practicality. Of course I could just get a job but that to me seems rather dull.

Part of my reason for writing is also, I'm not sure how to put this, for lack of a better word, copying. I don't mean writing Stellar Conflicts, Star Wars, I mean taking a pick'n'mix of ideas. So maybe you have a story about a vampire hunter but he/she is in the twenty-fourth century. From the excellent Firefly we know that strange genera mixes can work. Sometimes in reading or in watching films I try to guess the plot. Then when I get it wrong I can write that story. More than that though there are times when other works of fiction have ideas that aren't used beyond one episode/chapter. As a writer you can take those on board an make something great.
I have no proof of any connection but TNG had an episode about, what was essentially, a stargate They didn't use beyond that episode, and one of DS9, but for the various Stargate incarnations it is the entire premise.