Announcement: My novels Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness are about to be published. I write this blog about 2 months prior to its publication. I just heard that the proofs will be here soon--likely before the end of the week. My publisher also wants to put the entire set of novels based on Aegypt on contract--that's 5 more novels for 8 total. They also want to put my other novels on contract. The release schedule should be one novel every 2 months. I'll keep you updated.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.
The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:
1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
I am writing about the extrapolation of science and technology to be able to write science fiction. I made the point that it is almost meaningless to try to fully extrapolate a universe (world) that is 10,000 years in the future (and maybe 1,000 years in the future) without applying some cultural and technological shaping.
By shaping the cultures of your science fiction universe, you can shape the science and technology that is extrapolated. Here is how I culturally shaped the universe of The Chronicles of the Dragon and the Fox to make the 10,000 year extrapolation work.
The market (capitalism), freedom (Constrained Constitutional Republic), and technology are in a constant upward dance. The more constrained capitalism is, the more constrained will be your technology. We see this today in the aviation marketplace where regulations have taken the place of common sense and are throttling the life out of aviation technology. Cost drives markets and governments of all kinds can drive the costs through regulation. Markets respond to cost by reducing or increasing surplus. This is a truth that the Soviet Union along with many other socialist countries learned the hard way.
This is the way economics works. The cost of an item is always set by the market--it is what a person will pay for the item. Businesses respond by pricing the item at what they think is the market value. If there is a surplus of the item, the price goes down. If there is a scarcity of the item, the price goes up. All this has nothing to do with profit, the actual cost to make the item, or anything else except the value of the item in the marketplace.
When a government attempts to interject itself into the marketplace, it can affect the price or the amount. It cannot affect both. If a government attempts price controls either intentionally by decree or unintentionally by taxes and regulations, the price of the item is affected. If the price is higher than market value, no one will buy the product and the government will have killed or maimed that technology development. If the price is lower than market value, the sellers will either stop selling and the producers stop producing. The item will be bought out and soon no one will be able to get any. Price lower than market results in scarcity which in a market brings the price up--unless the government has controlled it. In the cases of taxes and regulations, the government is usually to stupid to understand that their magic money and special regulations are causing the price to increase. They imagine that taxes and regulations do not affect the marketplace--this is called corporate government stupidity. The government's involvement in any market is bad for technology.
Then you write about different types of governments in your science fiction, realize that the more control and controlling, the less the technological increase. Your brilliant socialists (Asimov) will be living in bear skins with stone knives while your freedom loving capitalists will have smart phones and flying cars. By the way, government regulation is why you don't have your flying cars right now.
More tomorrow.
Also remember, I'm trying to show you and give you examples of how to write a science fiction theme statement and turn it into a plot.
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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