Watcha Writin'?

[Zkribbler]

Earlier I described the rapidly rotating iron core of the planet, which creates a mega-powerful magnetic field. Earth's core is molten because of the weight of the mantle. My planet's (Ilpleure) core is molten because of the hyper-magnetism on itself.

My original vision was for a gas giant, but now I don't know if I actually need a gas giant planet. I just need lots of air. This is like when my original vision called for a blue-white giant sun, but Valka pointed out this was impossible. All my story really needs is a high-radiation sun.

The goal is to get planetwide, persistent auroras...with neither land nor sea.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Earlier I described the rapidly rotating iron core of the planet, which creates a mega-powerful magnetic field. Earth's core is molten because of the weight of the mantle. My planet's (Ilpleure) core is molten because of the hyper-magnetism on itself.

My original vision was for a gas giant, but now I don't know if I actually need a gas giant planet. I just need lots of air. This is like when my original vision called for a blue-white giant sun, but Valka pointed out this was impossible. All my story really needs is a high-radiation sun.

The goal is to get planetwide, persistent auroras...with neither land nor sea.

They've discovered that Saturn and the other gas giants get auroras: https://www.sciencealert.com/saturn-aurora-hubble-space-telescope-cassini-grand-finale


@Zkribbler, I have some SF-centric writing books to recommend:

World-Building: A writer's guide to constructing star systems and life-supporting planets, by Stephen L. Gillett

The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells, by Ben Bova

Aliens and Alien Societies: A writer's guide to creating extraterrestrial life-forms, by Stanley Schmidt

The first book has some very helpful information, but of course it's best to also keep up with current discoveries and hypotheses.

 

[Zkribbler]

World-Building: A writer's guide to constructing star systems and life-supporting planets, by Stephen L. Gillett

The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells, by Ben Bova

Thanks.

I'm trying to get Amazon to let me add my shiny new laptop to my Amazon & Kindle account, but it's being uncooperative. I did manage to wrestle paperback copies of these into my Amazon cart so I don't forget them.

Your third recommendation pretty much duplicates mat'l in a book I already have.

PS I might have killed my Amazon account for my old, decrepit laptop too.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Thanks.

I'm trying to get Amazon to let me add my shiny new laptop to my Amazon & Kindle account, but it's being uncooperative. I did manage to wrestle paperback copies of these into my Amazon cart so I don't forget them.

Your third recommendation pretty much duplicates mat'l in a book I already have.

PS I might have killed my Amazon account for my old, decrepit laptop too.

You're welcome.

For some reason Firefox doesn't want me logging in to my Amazon account. On the one hand, it's meant I haven't ordered any books lately. On the other hand, that's annoying because there are several I intend to give myself for Christmas and would have preferred not to have to muck around with another browser right now.

I've been getting deluged with emails from NaNoWriMo, offering discounts on writing books and software... 20-30% for participants, and 50% for winners. I'll look into them after November 30, as the discounts are good until about a week or so into December.

 

[Zkribbler]

For some reason Firefox doesn't want me logging in to my Amazon account.

I also have Firefox.

 

[Zkribbler]

Chap 13 of my Monte Banco parody done.

Years ago, I wrote a similar story. I thought I could cannibalize it to write Chap 14, but I've located it, and very little is useable.

 

[Zkribbler]

I have my editor evaluating the first part of my orc trilogy.
I have a pretty good idea of what happens in the second part.
However, I am clueless as to the third part.

Is there any such thing as a two-part trilogy...a "bilogy" as it were?

I've also been taking a look at Eternity," the sequel to "Wee," which is about 1/4 done. I stopped writing because I thought it was getting too confusing & boring. But now I think it's okay.

At first, I envisioned the world as a disc, with one character attempting to circumnavigating the rim. There's also much talk of an island in the middle of the world. Now I envision the world on a mobius strip. The character can still circumnavigate the rim, but planting the island in the middle of the world becomes problematic.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Is there any such thing as a two-part trilogy...a "bilogy" as it were?

The proper term is "duology" and yes, there are such things. I have some in my collection.

A good example would be Ben Bova's novels Moonrise and Moonwar. They are a duology about creating a viable lunar colony that is politically independent of any country on Earth (necessary because nanotechnology is outlawed on Earth, yet crucial to maintain various infrastructure and other systems in the fledgling Moon colony). These two novels are part of Bova's overall Grand Tour series. Other examples within the Grand Tour are Jupiter/Leviathans of Jupiter and Saturn/Titan.

 

[Zkribbler]

Thank you, Valka.

In my Count of Monte Banco story I'm to the final confrontation between good guy & main bad guy. I know why good guy wants to destroy bad guy, but my bad guy currently sees the good guy as an irrelevancy. That's no basis for a climatic battle. I need to do some re-writing.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Thank you, Valka.

In my Count of Monte Banco story I'm to the final confrontation between good guy & main bad guy. I know why good guy wants to destroy bad guy, but my bad guy currently sees the good guy as an irrelevancy. That's no basis for a climatic battle. I need to do some re-writing.

You're welcome.

As for your good guy being seen as irrelevant by the bad guy, what about making the bad guy see him as annoying?

It always worked in the Columbo movies...

 

[Zkribbler]

In Chap 8, there was a discussion of his motivation. I must focus on it, have my main character thwart it, and in Chap 14, have the bad guy discover it was my main character who did the thwarting.

 

[Zkribbler]

The proper term is "duology"

The structure of my former orc trilogy is now solidifying. My work is: The Orc Duology.
Scroll One is Orcs and Their Ilk, which has just been shipped off to my editor for her analysis & suggestions.
Scroll Two is Orcs Exalted.

Orcs and Their Ilk is just shy of 43,000 words. I anticipate that Orcs Exalted will be about the same.
Chapter 1 & half of 2 [~3,500 words] have been done for some time.

 

[Zkribbler]

Valka, I haven't heard from from you about what you're doing since NaMoWriMo began. S'goin' on?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Valka, I haven't heard from from you about what you're doing since NaMoWriMo began. S'goin' on?

Drop by the NaNoWriMo thread. I post there when I'm complainingtalking about my story.

But basically I hit a creative roadblock with the Park Ranger story, and decided that since Kingmaker: Rise to the Throne has been running through my head since late August, I'm going to go ahead with it. After all, I've got pages of notes for it and am getting a better handle on the "what happened between the game scenes" stuff. I've also created several new characters (one of which should please another person with whom I've been talking about this, as she really likes one of the characters - not the same who's my favorite, but it did give me a reason to give it some thought and hey presto, he acquired a new family member!).

Word count-wise, I'm badly behind. I have a lot of catching up to do, after having mucked around for 3 days with a story that pretty much went nowhere. It's not that the story has nowhere to go, just that I don't have the mindspace to take it there this time. Maybe it's the sort of project that's more suitable for short sessions like the Camp events (appropriate, since it does take place in a campground! ).

 

[Zkribbler]

Drop by the NaNoWriMo thread. I post there when I'm complainingtalking about my story.

Egad! I utterly missed that!

 

[Zkribbler]

In Chap 8, there was a discussion of his motivation. I must focus on it, have my main character thwart it, and in Chap 14, have the bad guy discover it was my main character who did the thwarting.

Chap 12 forms the foundation for my remaining chapters. I have to write them before I can figure out what foundation they need in Chap 12. Nevertheless, I got a big chuck of 12 done today.
Chap 13 is already done.
Chap 14 is half done.
Chap. 15 is half done.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

You're making better progress than I am, then. I did a whopping 363 words yesterday, which isn't even good enough for Camp NaNoWriMo.

However, I did get distracted by Remembrance Day stuff on TV and on the news site I post on.

 

[Zkribbler]

I won Honorable Mention in the latest Writers of the Future Contest for my short story "Bethlehem Delictum."
No money no publication but a certificate.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I won Honorable Mention in the latest Writers of the Future Contest for my short story "Bethlehem Delictum."
No money no publication but a certificate.

Congratulations!

Are you going to submit it anywhere?

 

[Zkribbler]

Congratulations!

Are you going to submit it anywhere?

Yep. I recently found a list of magazines which buy SSF stories. I now have to go back through my records of previous submissions to avoid any re-submissions. My best guess is that my first target will be The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

https://www.writersincharge.com/fantasy-sci-fi-magazines-that-pay/

One problem I now face is that "Bethlehem Delictum" is a Christmas story. Most magazines choose what Christmas story they want around August-October. So I'm really late or really early.