#interstellar interloper

Another day of frenzied typing. I now estimate that in terms of pure wordcount, the first story could be as much as 3/4 done. That's not taking into the consideration the vast level of work that will still need doing, but as a simple lump of text, that's where we stand.

I actually found that listening to obscenely pretty space music like this while writing was calming and got me in the right mindset. Another example is the soundtrack to the crazy Dune movie, which is incredibly awesome and sounds utterly unlike what you'd likely hear in any mainstream modern sci-fi macgubbin, with the possible exception of those really pretentious ones like Sunshine, which I admit to kinda liking, even though it gets pretty damn weird. Or maybe because it gets pretty damn weird.

At any rate, you could have a rough draft of my first ickle story any day now, depending how well I can resist such distractions as the half-dozen DS9 episodes I have on the box at the moment. Speaking of which...

Perhaps you've been wondering why I've gone all quiet on the Interstellar Interloper front. Well, I've been doing some thinking. And some reading. And this reading has led to more thinking, which has finally led to a conclusion: I must stop attempting to fly before I can crawl.

Fun fact: I've never finished any of my multitude of attempted novels. You know why? Because I always have a single cool idea that isn't enough to create something of the length required. I'm not saying I might never work up the willpower to find a concept worthy of an epic story, but trying to do that before something more reasonable can only be called madness.

As such, I'm taking the ideas I have and downsizing the operation. See, I've been getting into that Complete Chronicles of Conan I borrowed and I'm really grooving on the episodic format: same character, same universe, but short stories focusing on individual adventures. You can still have interesting personalities and places, just with a faster pace and less padding. Given how I frequently have trouble with scenes that seem too short, having a semi-excuse like that is awfully nice.

Today, I sat down and started again. I've now done three thousand words of the first little tale, whose current title is Thirst, but I'll likely replace it like I always do. It's an adapted version of the vision I had for Interstellar Interloper, whose name I thought could act as a title for the series, if indeed a series is made.

I'm not under the impression that merely switching to short stories will make writing fun stuff infinitely easier, but I'm already finding that not having the pressure of fifteen billion words that need writing is a massive load off my shoulders. And, again, getting at least one smaller project finished is the first step towards having the confidence to aim higher.

I've always loved sci-fi. I've always loved writing. I want to take my unique brand of madness, created from a lifetime of reading and watching galactic adventures, and put it to paper for the world to see. If that means going smallscale, so be it. I'm taking a break for the rest of the evening, given how I was writing half the day, but really want to push myself into getting something done. I've got a hard drive's worth of aborted babies and some have been lost to time forever, existing only in memory or scraps of printed versions I can find. Interstellar Interloper will live. It will be my contribution to humanity et cetera.

Interstellar Interloper is onto its third chapter. I must say I really like what I've got so far, which probably sounds pompous but that's only because it is.

I'm really running out of titles for these posts. Anyway, I made a sizable edit to the first chapter of my fledgling sci-fi story yesterday and also did a bit of the second one. The reception from my close circle of trusted comrades has been positive, even from the bloke who never seemed that impressed with Cosmic Conundrum, so I'm definitely being sufficiently encouraged.

For the record, to avoid confusion, I'll hereby refer to the original (now discontinued) story by its original title, Cosmic Conundrum, and call the new and improved tale the superior title, Interstellar Interloper. Seriously, I'm so proud of that name.

Regardless, I spent most of the day writing and have finished a rough version of the first chapter! 3 1/2 pages, to be exact. I'm still proof-reading and there'll doubtless be extra changes down the line, but we've got a fully functioning chapter here, establishing the character and the world he inhabits.

Now, I realise my high-profile abandonment of my attempted novel was rather humiliating, but I've actually been contemplating what when wrong all this time and come up with some ideas for possible improvements. I shan't mention exactly what changes I'll make for fear of teh spoilahz, but I think we can all agree on keeping dialogue to a minimum in order to avoid my remarkable knack of having every conversation sound stilted and artificial.

Also, I originally made the main character human as a deliberate attempt at giving the audience an identifiable anchor to cling onto, so all the weird stuff I'd later start throwing at them could be handled better. Having pondered it some more, though, I kind of think I might change that. See, I always thought that the entertaining personality of Jahn Trak (whose name I'm quite proud of) was the main appeal, so keeping my beloved unique voice trapped inside a boring human shell was a crime against fun. Again, not gonna say what I'm considering, but something other than human is very likely.

I'd surely continue the homages to sci-fi things I love, but that's all they'd be. I wanna craft my own tale to tell, and anything more than respectful nods in the direction of things that helped inspire me wouldn't be in the spirit of things.

Lastly, the scope of the story was quite disastrously overly huge. I wanted to create a whole universe of interesting things in order to make the setting seem interesting and epic, but ironically created the opposite effect by not dwelling on most things long enough to let them give a decent display. It's like spending five minutes at all the world's landmarks instead of going to a couple and taking the time to admire them. As such, I'm attempting to envisage a particular location that would still give me room for cool stuff without being insanely massive. A single planet is probably more than sufficient, though I still want there to be regular references to the galaxy beyond. Drip-feed information to make the universe appear exciting. Keep a few enigmas. Let the reader's imagination take the brunt of the work.

I've put far too much effort into the original story to just scrap it entirely, so there may be traces left over in the form of plot elements, not to mention the fact that the protagonist's distinctive rambling charm should survive intact. Another trippy madness scene wouldn't hurt, either.

It'd be a true shame to let my life conclude without sending a package of my natural wit and love of sci-fi fall into the ocean of culture, so it should be my life's goal to get something like this done. My previous life goal was to eat a deep-fried Mars bar, but since that's been taken care of, far grander gears are now turning in my big head.