A Thread for Writers to talk about Writing

[Ten Key]

On 7/12/2017 at 7:17 PM, Ten Key said:

It probably goes without saying that I'm not a big fan of mystery novels.  

On 7/13/2017 at 1:58 AM, KSK said:

I find that really interesting in view of your earlier comment:

On 7/12/2017 at 7:17 PM, Ten Key said:

No one is telling the whole truth-- no one knows the whole truth. It makes puzzling out the setting's history difficult, but in return the biased storytelling serves to illuminate the various factions and luminaries in a way that would not be possible with a single, accurate retelling. In attempting to spin the past, the present is revealed. 

On 7/13/2017 at 1:58 AM, KSK said:

To me, that's the essence of a good mystery novel and as others have said, I'm fine with mysteries, provided that the clues are there to find. I find Sherlock Holmes stories a little frustrating in that regard - I can never find the clues - so Holmes' brilliant deductions always have a slight air of '....and the butler did it' about them.

 

We may have different opinions on what constitutes a "mystery novel". I'm with Kuzzter on this one. . .there are an awful lot of adventure novels out there masquerading as mysteries. For me, a mystery novel is a story that focuses primarily on a "caper". . .it presents the plot as a puzzle to be solved. This virtually necessitates writing from an outline, and as a result these stories are almost universally plot driven-- the characters exist only to unfold the puzzle box, one clue at a time. 

In contrast, the unreliable histories I'm referencing in my comment are never revealed to be true or false, and ultimately the details don't really matter. They exist as backdrop to give the reader a feel for how the various groups think about themselves, the world and each other. Some of the characters you encounter believe their version of the story is the unvarnished truth. . .others have their doubts. Where were you when the Dragon broke? No one knows, and it doesn't matter, because that text is mainly there to contrast different groups of people, not to provide a history lesson. 

 

On 7/13/2017 at 0:39 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

I live in constant fear that some especially astute reader is going to come along and say, "wait, you just said this, but way back there you said that," and I'm going to have to make like an epileptic jello mold with the handwaving.

That text may also be a little bit of this^

 

On 7/13/2017 at 2:44 AM, KSK said:

It occurs to me - although I may be wildly off the mark here - that there's not so much of a difference between a character led story and a world building led story. IF they're going to carry the story then both characters and worlds need enough depth to be interesting and also to generate consequences. A character led story will be driven by how a character responds to circumstances and, ideally, having those responses be consistent and believable. Similarly, a world-building led story is driven by a consistent set of rules or concepts and how those concepts play off each other to generate consequences.

Which is possibly why I enjoy world building. I find building a consistent world to be very satisfying in its own right and also a wonderful way of generating story ideas by taking one aspect of how the world works and following its implications.

I'm having trouble putting what I want to say into words here. So if this is muddled, forgive me. 

There was a minor character in the Battlestar Galactica mini series who was intended to be written off (and presumed killed) by the end of what was effectively the pilot episode for the follow on series. But the show's producers ended up being so happy with the actor that they brought the character back, a decision that ended up having a major impact on the story. This was only possible because the show's writers had not pinned down exactly how hyperspace travel worked. 

World building is a necessary part of storytelling. . .it provides both a framework for character development, and context for character background. Behavior that would be shocking in one setting might be perfectly normal in another. But I dislike putting too much information up on the table too soon. Not only do you run the risk of infodumping, but you also limit yourself for no good reason. Do you need that constraint somewhere down the road? Great, get it in there. Not sure yet? Hold onto it and see. I have experienced situations where some of my characters started to "write themselves", and when that happens I want to be able to chase that rabbit as far as it's willing to run. I don't like it when plot gets in my way, and I really don't like it when some extraneous detail I dropped in chapter two prevents something "really cool" from happening in chapter 26. I have a pretty good idea what my world looks like, but everything is malleable until it actually hits the page, and I like to preserve that flexibility for as long as possible. 

I have it in my head that Kerbals are pretty tough. . .significantly more robust than the squishy humans that write them. Just how tough is an open question. . .tip that scale too far in either direction and you create certain opportunities and close others. I don't intend to find out until the story tells me I need to. . .and if it never does, I'm just as happy not knowing. 

Obviously that can create a different problem where you realize you needed something five chapters back and now. . .well, now what? But five chapters back I didn't know I needed it, and carpet bombing details into a story "just in case" doesn't seem like a good idea to me. Writing a serial is different from writing a novel or something all in one go, but. . .how do I put this? When I put a detail into a story, my brain is always looking to hang something off of it, to hook it into other things. So for me, I find it easier to go back and massage something into a story rather than trying to rip something out. Once a detail gets in there, it roots itself into so many other things that tearing it out can easily make a big mess.

 

On 7/13/2017 at 9:08 AM, 0111narwhalz said:

Atomic Rockets advises that you start with effects (based on the kind of story you want to write) and work backwards to their cause. But that's not as much fun, I feel, as starting with causes and letting the resultant world tell its own story.

I tend to agree with Atomic Rockets here, though I think it's best to use both approaches. Start with effect, and work backwards to cause. . .and then work forwards again to effect. Back and forth, like a wood planer, until you've sanded things down to your liking. Gee, it would be really nice to have a magic machine that would stamp out rocket parts so I don't have to deal with the manufacturing side of this. Great, but that's silly. . .there's no demand for that much rocket. Maybe a pipeline? Great! But why isn't it building pipes anymore? Well maybe something happens and the original company goes bankrupt. Great! But how would rocket engineers get a hold of this thing? Well, maybe there isn't much other work around? I dunno. . .that sounds a little contrived. That sounds a lot contrived. What if there's a government project that was supposed to be paid for with tax proceeds from the pipeline? What if the government seizes the magic pipe machine and gives it to the project managers in lieu of the cash they were supposed to have but don't? And what if the new, unwitting owners are willing to try something wild in an effort to keep the lights on while they figure out how they're going to get out from under this mess? So they go find the rocket engineers! Better, but what about. . .

Back and forth goes the sander. When it stops looking ridiculous, it's time to start writing.

 

On 7/13/2017 at 7:11 AM, adsii1970 said:

I made the conscious decision to dabble in Kerbin politics and government for a reason. As a professional historian, that's what I do - study things. So when I began this project, I decided I would build Kerbin with the best (and worst) social attributes out there.

"Write what you know" is never a bad move. . .it's what keeps all these stories unique and interesting.

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, Ten Key said:

Once a detail gets in there, it roots itself into so many other things that tearing it out can easily make a big mess.

So you're saying you were... an-Kerm? 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Ten Key said:

World building is a necessary part of storytelling. . .it provides both a framework for character development, and context for character background. Behavior that would be shocking in one setting might be perfectly normal in another. But I dislike putting too much information up on the table too soon. Not only do you run the risk of infodumping, but you also limit yourself for no good reason. 

Science fiction and fantasy certainly do lend themselves to worldbuilding and its unfortunate side effect, the infodump. When is too much too much? It depends on what the story is about. And I used those italics to stress that I don't mean the about in "this story is about a pilot and his really cool ship", I mean the about in "this story is about a conflict between duty and friendship". 

So, if the story is about a feature of our world and how we humans interact with it that you are choosing to explore by creating a dystopian or utopian alternate one, then skillful and deep worldbuilding is a must. If the story is about something else, then excessive worldbuilding makes the story about the cool world and distracts from what the story is about...that is, if the story is really about anything in the first place.

TL;dr: This is literature we're doing here, not Minecraft.

Edited July 14, 2017 by Kuzzter

[adsii1970]

1 hour ago, Ten Key said:

World building is a necessary part of storytelling. . .it provides both a framework for character development, and context for character background. Behavior that would be shocking in one setting might be perfectly normal in another. But I dislike putting too much information up on the table too soon. Not only do you run the risk of infodumping, but you also limit yourself for no good reason. 

A simple rule of thumb that I use: put enough detail so that you can rely on the reader to "fill in the blanks" so to speak. I use a method similar to Isaac Asimov and Frank Herbert - I allude to excerpts from "academic" works of Kerbin society to point the reader into the direction I want their imaginations to go.

 

8 minutes ago, Kuzzter said:

Science fiction and fantasy certainly do lend themselves to worldbuilding and its unfortunate side effect, the infodump. When is too much too much? It depends on what the story is about. And I used those italics to stress that I don't mean the about in "this story is about a pilot and his really cool ship", I mean the about in "this story is about a conflict between duty and friendship". 

So, if the story is about a feature of our world and how we humans interact with it that you are choosing to explore by creating a dystopian or utopian alternate one, then skillful and deep worldbuilding is a must. If the story is about something else, then excessive worldbuilding makes the story about the cool world and distracts from what the story is about...that is, if the story is really about anything in the first place.

[Edited by adsii1970]

(Sorry about that, folks - slow moving fingers and a warp speed brain meant I hit the save before I realized what I was doing!)

Exactly... and there are times where I know I have come close to infodumping, or as I call it "fact saturation". Too many such facts and you end up with a sort of KSP driven history book. Too few facts and the reader has no idea what you're even trying to do. Finding the right balance can be difficult and is something I am still learning how to do.

And the about that @Kuzzter refers to has to have an identifiable about. No, it does not have to be stated as such but it does have to be fairly evident to the audience. And it is acceptable to have sub-abouts providing that the sub-abouts support the central "about". Using Kuzzter's example of the story being about a conflict between duty and friendship, a sub-about could include several smaller ideas:

• The character's dislike of some certain part of their duty or routine. (In Kerny's journal, he's not one for military formality - fun to play with, but because he doesn't see himself as a main character in the big scheme of things).
• The character's own flaws and other imperfections - don't be afraid to exploit these whenever possible.
• The character's own ambitions and desires - how they relate to "duty and friendship" (is it more important to protect and maintain loyalty to the close friend OR the gaining of their own command in Kerbfleet?)

Edited July 14, 2017 by adsii1970

[Just Jim]

3 hours ago, Ten Key said:

We may have different opinions on what constitutes a "mystery novel". I'm with Kuzzter on this one. . .there are an awful lot of adventure novels out there masquerading as mysteries.

I'm with both of you on this.... I watched a classic Sherlock Holmes (with Basil Rathbone) a couple weeks ago... and while it was a great movie, it was anything but a real mystery.

 

[Just Jim]

2 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

Science fiction and fantasy certainly do lend themselves to worldbuilding and its unfortunate side effect, the infodump. When is too much too much? It depends on what the story is about. And I used those italics to stress that I don't mean the about in "this story is about a pilot and his really cool ship", I mean the about in "this story is about a conflict between duty and friendship". 

So, if the story is about a feature of our world and how we humans interact with it that you are choosing to explore by creating a dystopian or utopian alternate one, then skillful and deep worldbuilding is a must. If the story is about something else, then excessive worldbuilding makes the story about the cool world and distracts from what the story is about...that is, if the story is really about anything in the first place.

I worry about this "infodumping" a lot, especially in long chapters. Mostly because, to be totally honest, I'm never really sure what I'm doing... lol.... I change things so often and fast I'm not sure myself what's going happen down the road... so I don't want to lock myself in by saying too much too soon... does that make sense? 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Just can't seem to get time to give this arc a proper response. 

3 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Too many such facts and you end up with a sort of KSP driven history book.

I came up against this very thing, myself. With no better options, I simply hung a lampshade on it, called the chapter "A History Lesson," and presented it in a delightful Scottish Gednalnan brogue by one of the more... colorful characters. 

[ZooNamedGames]

I finally updated the OP of my story series  . Might update it once more to add my other series... but I'll do that later.

[KSK]

3 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Just can't seem to get time to give this arc a proper response. 

I came up against this very thing, myself. With no better options, I simply hung a lampshade on it, called the chapter "A History Lesson," and presented it in a delightful Scottish Gednalnan brogue by one of the more... colorful characters. 

Och it wisnae such a bad option. We got a braw wee lesson too.

6 hours ago, Kuzzter said:

So, if the story is about a feature of our world and how we humans interact with it that you are choosing to explore by creating a dystopian or utopian alternate one, then skillful and deep worldbuilding is a must. If the story is about something else, then excessive worldbuilding makes the story about the cool world and distracts from what the story is about...that is, if the story is really about anything in the first place.

I think this is where serials can get unstuck because you've got to know what your story is about from the outset which can be tricky - although I take my hat off to the writers here that seem to manage it. With a novel you can (or at least I imagine you can), get the whole first draft down, read, review, pick out the big themes that have hopefully developed over the course of the story and then sharpen them up during revision. 

7 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Exactly... and there are times where I know I have come close to infodumping, or as I call it "fact saturation". Too many such facts and you end up with a sort of KSP driven history book. Too few facts and the reader has no idea what you're even trying to do. Finding the right balance can be difficult and is something I am still learning how to do.

Hmmm, I think that KSP history book was largely what the first part of my story was about. It certainly concluded with an infodump (or a pretty good facsimile of one) but hopefully that dump was a contextualisation (that's a big word to be using this early in the morning) of various ideas that had been introduced up until that point, rather than a big indigestible mass of what. That was the idea anyhow.

[KSK]

It's been a while since anything was posted here, so hopefully this won't count as a necro.

Anyhow - I was reading some of the comments on @Scarecrow's ToTM video about dramatic music and it got me thinking - because writing to music is something I do sometimes. Not in the sense of sticking a CD on the stereo to block out the background noise but in the sense of having a bit of music playing in your head - and then trying (emphasis on the 'try'  ) to capture the feel of that music in a scene that I'm writing. Or at least to capture the way the music makes me feel.

Quick example - A Kind of Magic by Queen. I have that intro in my head and the opening lyrics: "One dream...one soul. One prize... one goal. One golden glance. Of what should be." And all I can picture is Jeb sitting in his primitive Moho capsule watching his first sunrise from orbit.

Of course, that particular picture arrived too late to be useful in writing about Jeb's first orbital flight but it did come in useful later on for writing about Wernher's voyage for the ages. And the final line of the preceding chapter was directly inspired by the Queen lyrics:

Quote

Jeb sat bolt upright. “Well they can pillage those rockets from some other spaceship parts company," he said flatly. “Decision made, Gene. I'll ring Ademone now. If Rockomax are still in, we call a general meeting first thing tomorrow morning. Anybody that wants to go back to their Groves, or bail out for any other reason, goes with our sincere thanks and best wishes. If enough of the team are left - we launch! Too bad we never got to build the lander but If this ends up being our final flight, then lets give them all a glimpse of what should have been."

I'm also not too proud to admit that I find the Top Gun soundtrack to be a very useful earworm when writing any sort of air combat scene, or the prelude to one!

So - do any of the the other forum writers out there do this, or is it just me?  

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2017 by KSK

[Just Jim]

12 hours ago, KSK said:

So - do any of the the other forum writers out there do this, or is it just me?  

Yes and no... I don't like any kind of background noise when I'm actually typing... But I almost always have a song that gets me in the mood to start and will be running through my head when I'm typing... And a lot of times I'll name the chapter after that song, and also start a chapter with a quote from it.

For example, I recently did a chapter entitled "In The Dark"... That's the chapter where Werhner von Kerman nearly poofed... 

And this is the song "In The Dark", done by The Birthday Massacre, that was running through my head while I was writing it:
FYI, the lead singer's name is Chibi... 
Warning... it's a little dark... and will explain quite clearly what kind of mood I was in when I was writing... bwaahahaha 

Spoiler

 

The more I've gotten into writing Emiko, the more each chapter has a song, and theme based on it... and several are even weirder than this one.

 

Edited October 7, 2017 by Just Jim

[Ten Key]

12 hours ago, KSK said:

So - do any of the the other forum writers out there do this, or is it just me?

Yes, there is at least one other crazy person out there.

 

12 hours ago, KSK said:

And all I can picture is Jeb Bob sitting in his primitive Moho Addle capsule watching his first sunrise from orbit.

Addle One

 

---

Borrowed Time

Spoiler

A wash of noise filled the terminal, the drone of voices and thump of work boots echoing oddly along the high wooden ceiling. Jeb kept back from the press, scanned the framed news-sheet clippings on the far wall with feigned interest. He tried to focus his mind on the details of the contract, the points he needed to push for if the effort was to be worth his while. And he desperately needed it to be. Jeb had six trundles to his name now, but only two of them had motors. The other four were old, manually powered models that were barely adequate for hauling even modest loads. The labor pool in the small mountain community seemed to trickle lower every day, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hire the mechanics necessary to keep the trundles working, never mind finding kerbals actually willing to drive the pedal-crank machines. Jeb's waste disposal business was in trouble, and he needed this job if he was going to keep the lights on. It was either that, or cash out and go to work in the mines, and that was something he swore he'd never do. . .

---

William Kerman had spared few expenses on his private railcar, a concession to frequent and lengthy trips necessary for keeping his company running smoothly. Many of the major rail depots had telegraph stations now, and the pipeline complex had two. There was even talk of building one specifically for the Rockomax ore cracking facility that had produced the bulk of the raw material his train was currently carrying. Many of his peers had left their trains in the hands of subordinates and moved into large office suites with ready access to the telegraph lines, but he had resisted that so far. There was just too much happening right now for him to risk getting fat and happy in some office back where he couldn't see his operation with his own two eyes. . .

---

Bob Kerman had attended a well funded engineering academy in the heart of the capital, only two blocks away from the sprawling structure that gave the city its name. The coursework had been challenging and thorough, but most of the emphasis had been on irrigation and transport systems for the inland potato plantations, or on mining techniques and refining processes. And there was always plenty of need for the steam engineers who worked for the rail companies. Bob had focused instead oceanography, had completed his Kermanship with an analysis of deep sea diving techniques. There certainly hadn't been much call for that kind of work, but Bob had distinguished himself by being one of the few kerbals willing to operate the primitive diving bells in use at the time. He'd made his way well enough as a contractor, moving from job to job and trusting those who stayed on the surface to do their best to keep him alive on the cold dark of the ocean floor. . .

 

---

On Rails

Spoiler

"Now, ain't that the oddest thing you ever did see?"

"Well, I dunno. . ."

"Ha! I knew it! Pay up friend, a bet's a bet, fair and. . .square?"

They both turned at the sound of a train coming around the bend at the base of the rise. It was pushing a bizarre contraption, and on that contraption stood a kerbal, dancing vigorously to some unheard tune and wearing nothing but an old fedora and a huge smile. 

"Aw, dang it!"

The locomotive's whistle blew loud and long, carrying from one end of the valley to the other. 

 

---

 

"You fellas gonna clean up your mess this time?"

Jeb stood back from the pad, smiled, waited while Bob set the ignition coils into the Kestes motors. "Maybe. How much is it worth to you?"

"You'd better not hit any of our equipment!"

"No promises." Jeb shielded his eyes, stared out over the water at the rising sun.

"Better step back fellas, it May Crash." The Farlight crew laughed.

"Could be." Jeb smiled, made eye contact with each of them, one by one. "Then again, it May Fly." Bob walked up, nodded to Jeb, flipped a switch on their cobbled together control panel. 

Deep inside the probe core, an unused mechanical relay clicked a quarter turn counter clockwise. As far as the computer was concerned, the relay did nothing, but the rotation pulled at a slender metal cable welded onto the cylinder. The cable passed through a freshly drilled hole in the core's casing, and then through a similar hole in the back of the cockpit, before finally ending in a loop that had been fixed to a switch on the control panel in front of the Mayfly's seat. The cable tugged, the switch flipped, and the K2's mechanical autopilot engaged. 

"Well Bob, I guess we'd better get this over with, huh?" More laughter behind them. Bob smiled slowly. Jeb hit the ignition switch. 

 

 

The Mayfly leapt off the firing pad, straight up and way up, without the slightest hint of a twitch or wobble. It looked for all the world like it was mounted on rails. 

"Huh, that's weird." Jeb's tone suggested it was anything but. 

"You! How!" Jeb thought the poor woman's jaw was going to drop off of her face. "How did you do that!?"

"Magic." 

Kinsey stared, too dumbfounded to even get angry. Jeb seemed to have a change of heart, leaned in closer, lowered his voice. 

"Space magic." He winked and turned back to the controls. 

 

---

Golden Wings

Spoiler

"T minus 60 seconds and counting."

Ansted could hear the beast stalking closer, could hear it huffing, could feel the growl of it in her chest as the turbopump spun through a test sequence . She kept her composure in an iron grip, aware of the gaze of the camera, forced a little bit of swagger into her smile. It was time to put on a good show for her fans.

"T minus 45 seconds. Starchaser on internal power."

Jeb had taken over the countdown, his voice now pacing out the steps of the beast. It rounded the corner, locked eyes with her and barred its teeth. She could hear the glee in Jeb's voice, the rising excitement goading the beast forward, and she knew that this time it would not stop, that it would lunge for her and she would lunge back, and only one of them would walk away.

"T minus 30 seconds, stability assist to active."

The first five seconds of the flight were the most dangerous. There were no abort options-- if the casing on the probe core failed, or if the Starchaser's control surfaces couldn't keep the machine reasonably straight, she would have just enough time to regret her decision before the end. But Ansted had heard and seen enough to know that the gold wings would be rare and coveted, and with no other new vehicles in the pipeline this was likely her one shot. 

"T minus 15, ignition coils armed."

This should have been Corfel's flight, but he hadn't been fast enough. Now all she had to do was survive it. The beast shrieked and slavered, broke into a run. 

"T minus 10. . ."

"Nine. . ."

"Eight. . ."

 

---

With a Little Help From My Friends -- Light Whispers of the Kraken spoiler ahead!!

Spoiler

"Beginning ignition sequence. Sixty. Fifty-nine. Fifty-eight. . ."

Valentina worked her shoulders in long, practiced circles, arrested her slow tumble with the slightest adjustment of posture. Her arms came up, balled fists and furrowed brow, a tight smile that did little to hide her barred teeth.

"Fifty-six. Fifty-five."

"Come at me now. . ." One foot slid back to rest lightly on the forward bulkhead. "I break you."

 

---

 

I will also admit that quite a few of my characters have their own personal theme music. Just to keep everything straight in my head, you see. . .

 

Spoiler

The rep didn't quite know what to make of the long list of false starts and bizarre triumphs that littered the dossier of this "Jebediah" fellow. He reread one of the entries, a dubious account of an arrest for a minor crime that ended with "JT Kerman" spending six months as a deputy sheriff for the same department that had arrested him. There were dozens of entries just like it, one random misadventure after the next. . . 

 

 

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

I'm with @Just Jim here, I can't put anything coherent down without some measure of silence, but I'll usually have something going thru my head while I'm doing so, or while "mind-writing." Some of my chapters end extremely song driven, the second act of Whispers took this quite to the point of ridiculousness then hung a big ol' lampshade on it, and of course there's no way I could write about a motley crew in an open-sided transport zipping over a jungle without the soundtrack from China Beach playing in my head. 

15 hours ago, KSK said:

I'm also not too proud to admit that I find the Top Gun soundtrack to be a very useful earworm when writing any sort of air combat scene, or the prelude to one!

For me, this always lost out to:

2 hours ago, Ten Key said:

 

Quite possibly one of the best bad movies ever made, gaining several levels of awesome for the soundtrack alone. Rediscovering it a couple months holey crap years ago, I actually had to walk into a brick & mortar store and by a physical CD. Barbaric, I know. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Oh, and of course there’s my odd little proclivity to blare Lindsay Sterling as a pre-writing de-stress. 

[Cydonian Monk]

I’m a bit opposite of @Just Jim in this respect - I always listen to music of some sort. Same when I work, in that I’ve conditioned my brain to crank out [stuff] when music is playing. IIRC, music stimulates the same parts of the brain as are needed for my work.

It’s mostly classical / incidental music, mind you, or some new age-ish atmospheric music. And maybe some metal. And some rock. And lots of electronica. But usually just incidentals and (not overly bombastic) orchestral soundtracks.

Much of Forgotten was written to the varied sounds of Springsteen.

 

Quote

I actually had to walk into a brick & mortar store and by a physical CD. Barbaric, I know. 

The only correct response to that is “We’re not gonna take it.” (Which somehow didn’t make the cut for the official soundtrack....) The “score” soundtrack for Iron Iggle is nice too. 

Edited October 13, 2017 by Cydonian Monk

[SiriusRocketry]

Hi, I am relatively new to the forums and probably going to writes KSP fanfiction at some point. Any tips?

[KSK]

Thanks for the replies folks! Glad I'm not the only one who writes to the music in their head - external music being optional.

@CatastrophicFailure - I don't descend into those depths of barbarity but I still have a magpie-like fondness for shiny discs (bought offa Amazon for the most part) rather than impersonal files on my computer.  Speaking of which, it seems that Amazon has both soundtracks available so I'm thinking my morning commute may be getting rather more 80s in the near future.

 

[KSK]

3 hours ago, SiriusRocketry said:

Hi, I am relatively new to the forums and probably going to writes KSP fanfiction at some point. Any tips?

For me it would depend how much writing you've already done. If you've written other stuff and are just looking for tips on writing about KSP then I don't have a lot to offer. I could tell you about the kind of stories I prefer but that's not remotely helpful.  Just dive in and write what you want. 

If you're looking for more general tips on writing - that's tricky because what works for me may not work for you at all. Plus my own KSP fan-fic (warts, unfocused detours, excess adverbs and all) is pretty much the sum total of my experience as  a writer, so my 'tips' should probably be taken with a large grain of salt. Also, my writing is also almost entirely prose - if you're planning to do something with a lot of screenshots or other illustrations in, then I'm definitely not the person to talk to about tips. Happily there are several others on this thread who may be able to oblige. 

But if all that hasn't put you off:

• Try and start with something fairly short and contained that you think you'll be able to finish in a reasonable timescale. You can always use that as a springboard to a longer piece if you feel so inclined.  When you're writing about something as open-ended as KSP, its very easy to bite off more than you can chew, or at least to to end up with a project that's way bigger than you thought it was going to be. Believe me, this is something that I do know about . 
• Have a plan (but not too much of a plan) and don't be afraid to change it if its not working. This one is very personal but I find that having some idea of where I'm going is helpful but too much planning leaves me writing on rails which just isn't fun. On the other hand, my story started off as a travelogue (that wasn't going to work), segued into a Space Race (which turned out not to feel right) and then morphed into its current form. Which has had its share of twists, turns and unplanned detours too!
• Write something (anything) and then revise it rather than tying yourself in knots trying to get everything right first time. 
• Good luck and have fun!

Edited October 14, 2017 by KSK

[steuben]

On ‎2017‎-‎10‎-‎14 at 3:20 AM, SiriusRocketry said:

Hi, I am relatively new to the forums and probably going to writes KSP fanfiction at some point. Any tips?

Read. Read through library up at the top of the forum. Read fiction generally. Read how to write books. We can give you a few recommendations if needed. And read Tvtropes... carefully... with a safety line... and a friend with an axe positioned over the power cable to your computer.

I'm going to second having a plan. Especially if you are going over a few thousand words, or are going to be stringing together multiple stories in the same verse.

Ask questions, but try to focus them a bit. Ask for reviews, but read them with a bit of thick skin sometimes they can sting a bit.

 

 

[SiriusRocketry]

It'll only be a short story first (2,000 words or so) but if people like it, I will expand. Looking at having it up on Sunday.

[KSK]

Cool! Look forward to it.

[SiriusRocketry]

Done! Here's the link:

 

[SiriusRocketry]

Can somebody read my fanfiction? I would appreciate some feedback

 

Thanks

[Ten Key]

4 hours ago, SiriusRocketry said:

Can somebody read my fanfiction? I would appreciate some feedback

Hi Sirius.

I'm on mobile at the moment so I need to keep this short. I've finished reading your story and should be back to you with comments in the next day or two.

Before I do though, I'd like to ask you. . .what's your story about? I'm talking about theme(s) here, not plot. 

I find short stories more difficult to write than longer works. . .by nature the writing has to be more efficient to get its point across. And I feel like themes are usually something a writer finds after the first draft is finished. So now that you've got your story down and can step back from it a bit. . .what's it about?

Edited October 31, 2017 by Ten Key

[steuben]

7 hours ago, SiriusRocketry said:

Can somebody read my fanfiction? I would appreciate some feedback

 

Thanks

any specific direction of feedback you're looking for?