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The theme?
Why, my upcoming release of The Ankulen.
Hast thou, my loyal readers, any burning questions about this lovely story that shall soon be infiltrating Amazons near you? Do you wish to know how many characters are in the book? Which one surprised me the most? Do you want me to tell you how many boxes of tic-tacs I consumed? Would you like to know how much pencil lead I used in writing draft two?
Ask away!
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The first book will be Sci-fi. I was going to write the fantasy first, but for reasons of my own, I decided that the sci-fi would make the most logical beginning. (It may or may not have anything to do with Spock) One thing my readers will have noted is that I like to play with cliche, and this series will be no exception. Problem is, I haven't read enough sci-fi, beyond Star Trek, to know what IS cliche. So any of my dear readers who are interested in sci-fi, would you please tell me what are the must-haves. I already know I need towels. (A friend at church lent me a single volume of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe, which I'm working on reading through.) And I know that phasers and light sabers are a must ... but please, my dear readers, tell me what else I need. (And recommend for me books to read and movies to watch. Help me get into the feel of this world).
Thanks so much!
Yes to all of those questions. =) And I'll add a few myself (though you don't have to answer them all)... How many notebooks did you go through? How many drafts? How many words is the (nearly) finished product? Was this your biggest most difficult writing project yet? Which character gave you the hardest time?
ReplyDeleteOoooo I'm interested about your new idea! And you came to the right person to ask about sci-fi... First some resources (TV shows, movies, and books) then some clichés:
There are so many classic sci-fi movies. Here are some of them (and I’d advise looking at a content advisory for most of these since I haven’t seen them all and you never know what’s going to be in them):
Star Wars and Star Trek (definitely).
Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. which are Steven Spielberg films. Definitely classics.
Forbidden Planet. This is a really old film, but great. It has the bonus of a robot!
2001: A Space Odyssey. This has the song Also Sprach Zarathustra in it, which I think is a sci-fi song cliché.
Blade Runner… Though I’ve heard that this one has a lot of content.
The Back to the Future movies.
Also Solyent Green and The Time Machine (which are both older movies, but classics).
Books: There are enough Star Wars, Star Trek, and Doctor Who novels to keep one busy reading until they die. But with the Star Trek ones, I’d just as soon watch the episodes because it takes less time (and Star Trek.com has every episode of Star Trek ever on their website for free – and you don’t even have to have an account!).
Isaac Asimov is a pretty big sci-fi author. He has a collection of sci-fi short stories called I, Robot. And he has two sci-fi series (one about robots and one called Foundation).
H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are great classic sci-fi writers.
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. This is being made into a movie.
The Martian Chronicles or Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury… Though I thought the later was more dystopian than sci-fi. I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet.
Clichés: GALAXY QUEST! Oh my word, this movie is so full of clichés (probably because it’s a spoof on Star Trek).
Lightsabres… phasers… towels… 42... Yoda’s speech. Also, the dreaded Countdown. The ship is going to explode in one hour unless we can turn off this device! And they turn it off two seconds before the ship explodes.
Also, sci-fi guys seem to lose their shirts quite a bit. And if you wear a red shirt, you’re dead. Outlandish spacesuits. Pretty girls who need to be protected and who don’t wear much clothing. Robots/androids. All cliché.
When aliens come to earth, it’s never for peaceful reasons, it’s always so that they can destroy the planet. In an episode of Star Trek (Little Green Men) three alien characters get thrown back in time to Roswell in 1947, when aliens supposedly landed there (and the government covered it up. Said it was a weather balloon. If you’re into conspiracy theories). The characters want to trade with earth, but earth thinks that they are lying and that they are there to attack and kill everyone. That, along with the government trying to hide alien encounters, and humans wanting to do experiments on aliens, is cliché.
And if you want more Star Trek related clichés… the documentary Trekkies is really good (though there is a segment that should be skipped).
The only bad thing about sci-fi as a genre, is that it is so broad. After all, “space” is “the final frontier.” We have to “explore new worlds and new civilizations… go where no man has gone before!” (Though personally, I think that the deep ocean is the final frontier). You can literally do anything with sci-fi and it will be alright. Since the field is so broad, you can do your searching by what interests you. Good luck sifting through all of that! I can’t wait to hear more about your idea.
Thanks for commenting on my blog! I'm enjoying reading some of your posts, and am quite interested in getting my hands on your books :)
ReplyDeleteI second the Ender recommendation (though I prefer the Ender's Shadow and ensuing saga than the Ender's Game half of the series)
I LOVE the Star Wars books.
Anything by Timothy Zahn is pretty spectacular (he's where I tend to reside, as I read more fantasy than sci-fi).
Star of the Guardians by Weis and Hickman is my favorite sci-fi trilogy ever.
Stephen Lawhead has a duology that's good as well, can't remember the titles off the top of my head, though.
Good luck on your ventures into space! My third series is going to be sci-fi as well (I'm still working on series 2, so it'll be a while) but I'm really looking forward to it.
As an addition to what's already been listed, I'd recommend the classic Doctor Who series up through the 4th Doctor (much past that, and the show starts going downhill). Time-travel, killer aliens, cyborgs and psycho robots...and of course, the Sonic Screwdriver!
ReplyDeleteA word of caution, though--be careful not to get too specific with your cliches. Copyright and all that rot. /WARNING
Have fun researching, and happy writing!
God bless,
~"Tom Wild Rose"~