17 July 2024, Writing - part xxx748 Reflected Worldview, Interpolation
Announcement: I still need a new publisher. However, I’ve taken the step to
republish my previously published novels.
I’m starting with Centurion, and we’ll see from there. Since previously published novels have little
chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I
might as well get those older novels back out.
I’m going through Amazon Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to
you.
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.
Today’s Blog: To see the steps in the publication process,
visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.
The four plus two
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.
4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage
of the novel.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of
your writing.
6. The initial scene is the most
important scene.
These are the steps I use to write a
novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:
1. Design the initial
scene
2.
Develop
a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or
antagonist, action statement)
a. Research as required
b. Develop the initial
setting
c. Develop the
characters
d. Identify the telic
flaw (internal and external)
3.
Write
the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters,
implied action movement)
4.
Write
the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)
5.
Write
the climax scene
6.
Write
the falling action scene(s)
7. Write the dénouement
scene
I finished writing my 31st
novel, working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors. The theme statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha
are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult
mysteries, people, and events.
I finished writing my 34th
novel (actually my 32nd completed novel), Seoirse, potential
title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment. The theme statement is: Seoirse is assigned
to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five
goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.
Here is the cover
proposal for the third edition of Centurion:
|
|
|
Cover
Proposal |
The most important
scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to
the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel,
working title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel, working
title Detective. I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior. I just finished my 32nd novel and
33rd novel: Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse:
Enchantment and the Assignment.
How to begin a novel. Number one thought, we need an entertaining
idea. I usually encapsulate such an idea
with a theme statement. Since I’m
writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement. Here is an initial cut.
For novel 30: Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the
X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns
about freedom, and is redeemed.
For Novel 32: Shiggy Tash finds a lost girl in the isolated
Scottish safe house her organization gives her for her latest assignment: Rose
Craigie has nothing, is alone, and needs someone or something to rescue and acknowledge
her as a human being.
For novel 33, Book girl: Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they
are both attending Kilgraston School in Scotland when Morven loses everything,
her wealth, position, and friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to
befriend and help her discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family
and existence.
For novel 34: Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector
and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork;
unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.
For novel 35: Eoghan,
a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem
in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and
accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and
Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.
Here
is the scene development outline:
1.
Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)
2.
Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)
3.
Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and
develop the tension and release.
4.
Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.
5.
Write the release
6.
Write the kicker
Today:
Let me tell you a little about writing.
Writing isn’t so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime. Writing is a habit and an obsession. We who love to write love to write.
If
you love to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well. We want to write well enough to have others
enjoy our writing. This is
important. No one writes just for
themselves the idea is absolutely irrational and silly. I can prove why.
In
the first place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only
purpose. Writing is the abstract
communication of the mind through symbols.
As time goes by, we as writers gain more and better tools and our
readers gain more and better appreciation for those tools and skills—even if
they have no idea what they are.
We
are in the modern era. In this time, the
action and dialog style along with the push of technology forced novels into
the form of third person, past tense, action and dialog style, implying the
future. This is the modern style of the
novel. I also showed how the end of
literature created the reflected worldview.
We have three possible worldviews for a novel: the real, the reflected,
and the created. I choose to work in the
reflected worldview.
Why
don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel? I can tell you what I do, and show you how I
go about putting a novel together. We
can start with developing an idea then move into the details of the
writing.
Ideas.
We need ideas. Ideas allow us to
figure out the protagonist and the telic flaw.
Ideas don’t come fully armed from the mind of Zeus. We need to cultivate ideas.
1. Read novels.
2.
Fill
your mind with good stuff—basically the stuff you want to write about.
3.
Figure
out what will build ideas in your mind and what will kill ideas in your mind.
4.
Study.
5.
Teach.
6.
Make
the catharsis.
7. Write.
The development of ideas is based on
study and research, but it is also based on creativity. Creativity is the extrapolation of older
ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form. It is a reflection of something new created
with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect). Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and
producing.
If we have filled our mind with all
kinds of information and ideas, we are ready to become creative. Creativity means the extrapolation of older
ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form. Literally, we are seeing the world in a new
way, or actually, we are seeing some part of the world in a new way.
The beginning of creativity is study
and effort. We can use this to
extrapolate to creativity. In addition,
we need to look at recording ideas and working with ideas.
With that said, where should we
go? Should I delve into ideas and
creativity again, or should we just move into the novel again? Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we
know, will result in a new novel. I’ve
got an idea, but it went stale. Let’s
look at the outline for a novel again:
1.
The initial scene
2.
The rising action
scenes
3.
The climax scene
4.
The falling action
scene(s)
5.
The dénouement scene(s)
The initial scene is the most important
scene and part of any novel. To get to
the initial scene, you don’t need a plot, you need a protagonist.
My main focus, at the moment, is
marketing my novels. That specifically
means submissions. I’m aiming for agents
because if I can get an agent, I think that might give me more contacts with
publishers plus a let up in the business.
I would like to write another novel, but I’m holding off and editing one
of my older novels Shadow of Darkness.
I thought that novel would have fit perfectly with one potential agent
who said they were looking for Jewish based and non-Western mythology in
fantasy. That’s exactly what Shadow
of Darkness is, but they passed on it.
In any case, I’m looking for an agent who will fall in love with my
writing and then promote it to publishers.
That’s the goal.
Most of my writing has a very strongly
historical basis in a reflected worldview.
This short statement needs some definition and description. In writing, there are three overall
worldviews. The first is a real
worldview. I consider Centurion to
have been written in a real worldview. A
pure historical worldview is a real worldview.
The real worldview is the worldview accepted by most as the world as it
is. Knowing the world as it is, perhaps
real is the wrong word, but this will stand.
Real is the basic and non-fantastic world we experience every day. I’m not certain there is a better or more expressive
way to define the real worldview. As a
contrast let’s look at the created worldview.
The created worldview is mostly defined as
fantasy and science fiction; however, it’s a bit more complex than that. A created worldview is a worldview that was
created by the author for a novel or a series of novels. The created worldview is related to a real
worldview, but not in its details only in its reflection of usually humanity or
even nonhumanity. In general, a created
worldview is based in a world completely unrelated to the real. What does that mean? As I mentioned, the most common understanding
of a created worldview is science fiction or fantasy world, but this doesn’t
completely define the created worldview.
In a created worldview, the writer usually creates the history, the
basis, the features, and the settings of the worldview to fit the fantasy or
the science fiction plot and point. For
example, in a created science fiction worldview, the author might describe a
colony on Mars or on some other planet.
Since there has never been a human colony on any planet, this must be a
created worldview. Likewise, in a
fantasy setting, a fantasy world unrelated to anything defined by history or in
myth would also be a created worldview.
I consider Harry Potty a created worldview. The reason is because many of the creatures
and the magic in the Harry Potty novels as well as the settings and the history
are unrelated to myth or history. Jack
Vance’s Green Pearl novels are also a created worldview. The magic, settings, and history are
completely unrelated to anything in the real world. They are a created worldview and a fantasy
genre and world. Likewise, the Sparkly
Vampire novels are a created worldview.
The reason is that the vampires don’t resemble classic historical
vampires much at all. It’s okay for
mythic characters to vary in some degree from their classic characteristics,
they are mythic after all, but not so much that they can’t be recognized or
they don’t follow the basis for their historical understanding or basis. Bram Stoker defined the classic vampire. You can vary your vampires to some degree
from this classic basis, but if you go too far, you have created a
worldview. That brings us to the
reflected worldview. That worldview
based on the real but not created.
I’ll get to the reflected worldview, next.
This gets a little complex, but in our world
there are many things that we consider not real although there is plenty of
history as well as stories to support them.
For example, vampires. I’m not
sure anyone really believes in vampires, but vampires are a part of human
history and myth. If you look up
vampire, you will find a host of information.
Much of is, or maybe most of it is all fiction, or is it? The vampire is a part of human lore and human
culture than is well accepted and to some degree believed, but is it real? The same is true of all kinds of mythic
creatures as well as the supernatural and the gods and goddesses. There is much much more to these creatures,
beings, and places (like Atlantis) but we don’t consider them to be part of the
real world. I call this the reflected
world. The reason is that the reflected
world reflects what people believe and not what they think is real.
You might say, this is a kind of schizophrenic
view of the world, part real and part reflected. I say it is just normal human
understanding. When my grandchildren or
children ask if dragons are real? My
answer is I hope so. A real worldview
novel can’t include dragons, but a reflected worldview novel can. This is the worldview I write in. I write in the reflected worldview.
I’ll give you more information about this
kind of writing and worldview.
Personally, I consider the reflected
worldview a more real worldview and way or writing than the real
worldview. The reason is that what
people imagine and what they think about the world is sometimes more important than
what we see in the real world. We see
this all the time. For example, in
religion, the expression of belief is part of the reflected worldview. Religion is by nature supernatural. It depends on the idea of a God or of gods as
well as a supernatural understanding of the world. Is this real?
In the sense of a worldview it is a reflected worldview, but it is still
accepted as part of the real. Unfortunately,
the idea of the real and the reflected overlap one another, and we see some of
this in real worldview writing. For
example, an author writing about a military action or campaign might wax
eloquent about the spiritual ideas of the people or about the spiritual past
that formatted the nation as a whole.
Now, about the reflected worldview. I want to write in an obvious reflected
worldview because I want to show not just the real world but rather the
spiritual and supernatural depths of the world.
To me, putting words into the mouth of dragons, or into the mouths of
the Fae, or into the demigods and gods and goddesses of myth is really fun and
exciting. More than that, the
interaction of humans in the world with these supernatural beings is even more
exciting. This builds in the
entertainment of the novel and the world of the novel.
I’ll expand more on the writing and writing
in the reflected worldview.
The reflected worldview is different than the
created worldview and perhaps most similar to the real worldview. In fact, the reflected worldview is the
actual worldview most people live in. When
I study to write in a reflected worldview, I research the subject matter extensively. For example, when I wrote Valeska:
Enchantment and the Vampire, I studied and researched vampires for
months. I gathered all the data I could
on them, their history, and their settings.
I didn’t use all the information I discovered, and I used some
information selectively, but if you look up my vampires, they will fit with
history and myth. That is all you have
to do to figure out my vampires is to look them up in books or on the
internet. My view of vampires is the
classic worldview myth of vampires. The
point is what you know about vampires is what you will find in my novels, and
specifically in that novel. This is true
of all reflected worldview subjects, but not true of created worldview
subjects.
One of the main ways you can check if a novel
or an idea is created versus reflected worldview is just make an internet
search. For example, if you did a search
about Harry Potty, today, you will find an enormous amount of information about
Harry Potty—those novels and creations are a bestseller phenomena. You won’t find anything about the world of
Hogwarts or Harry Potty prior to the publication of the first novel. This is a created worldview. You won’t find anything about the magic
system and magic theory of Harry Potty until the novel. The magic and magic theory isn’t based on any
system from myth or the past, and many of the creatures in the novel came from
the mind of the author. They are created
worldview. This isn’t bad, it’s just not
the reflected worldview.
What makes the reflected worldview so
great? That’s next.
The main point of the reflected worldview is
to present your readers not what is real in the world, but what could be or
what they can imagine as real. This is
pushing deeply into the suspension of disbelief.
If you notice, to develop a great created
worldview, the author must design an entire world, or at least parts of it,
that will suspend the disbelief of the reader.
In the real worldview, the author just has to take the elements of the
normal world and present them—the plot and characters then are what must
suspend the disbelief of the readers. In
the reflected worldview, it is the same.
The reflected worldview is similar to the real worldview, but with all
the elements of the real or rather reflected worldview that people know of, but
don’t necessarily believe in. How
difficult is it to get a reader to accept a classic vampire—not very, based on
all the vampires in novels. On the other
hand, the non-classic vampire is a bit more difficult to believe in. It takes a well and carefully written novel
to build the trust and belief of the reader for that. On the other hand, if the vampire is the kind
of vampire the readers are expecting, or close enough to the standard model,
they will readily accept them as a character or a trope. That’s the main point. The suspension of disbelief is already
accomplished as long as the author doesn’t screw it up too much.
On the other hand, the Harry Potty novels
invented all kinds of creatures, beings, and spirits, like for instance, Thestrals. Thestrals are not creatures of myth or any
human culture. They are one of the many
created creatures of the wizarding world that Rowling beneficently gifted
us. Thestrals, like many other
inventions of Rowling are potentially on their way to becoming mythic
creatures, or maybe not. Jack Vance
created many more and many better developed creatures in his novels, both
fantasy and science fiction, but they haven’t crept into the cultures. On the other hand, many of Rowling’s
inventions might. Or they might
not.
A real problem with Rowling’s creatures is
that many are just silly. The novels are
all for Young Adults—they aren’t to be taken too seriously. They are missing one of the most important
ideas from a magic standpoint. An idea
that a thinking adult or young adult can’t miss if they have any degree of
education and reason—where does the magic come from? Ancillary to that question is the great rational
of C.S. Lewis. Magic must come from
inside of creation while miracles come from outside of creation. This always points to God and the
supernatural. In fact, the supernatural
always points to God. God is
supernatural. This is the real power of
the reflected worldview. Perhaps we can
look at this and look at the power of the reflected worldview to the author,
next.
The strength of the reflected worldview is
that it is already created for the author.
It’s similar to the real worldview in that regard. Haven’t you noticed that the made up Harry
Potty creatures are kind of stupid? This
is true of many authors in fantasy and science fiction. A real mater like Jack Vance creates
marvelous creatures and beings without any seeming effort, but let me tell you
about it.
As a science fiction author myself, I approach
the creation of the science fiction worldview in the same way I would the
fantasy worldview, but not the reflected worldview. How’s that?
If you are going to write about aeronautical
science and how aircraft fly, you better do some intense study on the
subject. The same is true is you intend
to invent science fiction with extrapolated technology on, let’s say,
aircraft. Space craft are the same. Biological creatures are even more
complex. Science is science, but biomes
are not just biomes. When I created the
shinobi fly for my novel Regia Anglorum I had to create an entire biome
to support it. I didn’t detail the
entire world or the world of the biome, I just introduced two creatures I
thought might integrate into the world of El Rashad. They were the scarcats and the shinobi
fly. As I noted, I didn’t relate the
entire biome in my novel—I did in my notes.
Both creatures are very dangerous to humans. The shinobi fly larva ire poisonous as are
the shinobi flies to humans. In
addition, the scarcats look like kittens, but are very well armed. In any case, my point is this, I developed
entire creatures with a lifecycle and an existence in a biome as side creatures
in my novel. I spent at least a month on
the design of the world and the biome I was describing including drawings and
maps. Now, compare that to some of the
fantasy world creatures that just exist.
They are all based on an illogical magic system that allows such things
to just exist. My point is that in a
created worldview, you better really do your research and develop your
creatures, world, and science. The
science should be based on the science we know at this moment, and not wild
magical conjecture. The reflected
worldview requires significant research, but you don’t have to make anything
up.
What do I mean? If you need a vampire or any other creature
for a reflected worldview novels, all you need to do is research the literature
and myth. You don’t need to make
anything up. I would recommend not borrowing anything from modern or fictional
sources. Use real sources and historical
sources. Don’t just make something up—if
you do, you are in a created worldview.
Plus, the advantage of the reflected worldview is that with the very
well educated, they will immediately know your reference. For example, almost every educated reader
will know about a dragon or a vampire or a zombie. A very astute reader who is familiar with
Gaelic or Celtic myth will know who Aine is or other mythic gods and
goddesses. In your novel, you will need
to illustrate and explain—that’s your job, but the very astute reader might
already know some of the story, while others will run across the information in
other literature or perhaps in their studies.
The reflected worldview simply reflects the world as it exists, but in myth
and historical information. I hate to
write historical fiction—we aren’t writing about fiction except in the result. The point of the reflected worldview is that
it exists in human knowledge lying on the edge of the real or actual and the
not as real or measurable. More on this
and more on research, next.
As I wrote, the writer needs to use care in
researching the reflected. The reason is
that all kinds of fiction has cropped up across the internet and in popular
literature that can counterfeit as reflected.
If after about 250 years the information comes into the popular
knowledge of the culture, perhaps we can call something the reflected
worldview. However, I can assure you, if
real historical people like actors, actresses, singers, and dancers are
forgotten by the reflected culture, most of Harry Potty will too.
I’m a connoisseur of Victorian Era,
especially, late Victorian Era novels.
These were the best sellers of their time and popular all over the
English-speaking world. These novels
literally created a genre and brought thousands if not millions of young people
into the modern and educated world.
Today, these novels and their authors and characters are all but
forgotten. You can find them in the Guttenberg
Project books, but almost nowhere else. My
point is that these great novels, supper popular and best sellers for their
time never made it into the reflected worldview. They are part of history, so in a modern
novel, you can use them and address them in context. Just like, in the future, you’ll be able to
address the Harry Potty novels in context or the Beetles in context. The main point however, is this: unless a
creature or an idea in a Harry Potty novel has some kind of context beyond a
Harry Potty novel, it will not be able to be used in a reflected worldview.
There is the possibility that the Thestrals
become a creature of modern myth. There
is equally a much larger chance they will not make it past Harry Potty or the Twenty-first
century. Such is the problem of the
created worldview. This is the main
problem with researching the reflected.
In researching the reflected world, you need
to ensure the validity and the worth of the information and the source. For example, in researching Aine, Aine is a
very undocumented goddess. A lot of
information is sparse, but little has been written about her. Almost all the information about Aine is very
old and very tenuous. This is actually
great. Anyone searching for Aine will
find something similar. The power of
this is that with multiple stories and information on Aine, as the author, I
can pick and choose what I want to represent as real. I can make and write the life and character
of Aine as I desire as long as I keep to the basics and explain the rest
away. This is what writers do, both the
real and the reflective.
I’ll write about this next—that is how an
author takes an historical or a reflective person, creature, or being and makes
them their own yet holds true to the historical and mythical facts.
If you are just going to make up something,
do it. Lovecraft made up all kinds of really
great creatures and beings. If you do
and you want great success, you need to really research what you are
about. That’s what all the great science
fiction and fantasy writers did who work in a created worldview. It’s like Dune. Dune is likely the best and most developed
work of recent times. I’d like to say my
science fiction is similar in research and development, but not necessarily
scope. My science fiction worlds are
different and not quite the same as the world and length of expression in Dune. This is the created worldview and not the
reflected worldview. Perhaps I should
explain this a little more in depth.
Almost all science fiction is a created
worldview. This is necessary because
science fiction usually moves in future sense rather than in the current
times. The purpose of science fiction is
to extrapolate technology into the future.
In my created worldview, humans had problems
initially with intragalactic exploration and colonization, so they developed
the skills and people they needed genetically.
In my future world, the royalty were genetically created for rule, and
their laws forced them to continue the genetic lines for the good of
mankind. I don’t get much into the other
genetic groups because the system has been operating and working for a long
time and the overall system is slowly degrading. Additionally, I based my created worldview
roughly on the Anglo-Saxon culture for not other reason than it made for really
great names for the warriors, leadership, and groups.
This basis for the culture and society of the
Human Galactic Empire is all in my novels as background. The real power in the created worldview is
the extrapolation of the technology, and this is perhaps the most important
part of research and creativity in the science fiction author and world. To extrapolate technology, you must
understand it.
In my earliest science fiction, The
Chronicles of the Dragon and the Fox, I have a little biological
information and development, but not much.
The main worlds and the interaction is in cityscapes and in space. There is little need for much on the biomes
or the biology plus most of it is presumed to be terraformed and from the
original earth. This approach didn’t
require me to make much to do with the biological differences of the
worlds. There is some, but as I wrote,
most of the biomes are terra-normal biomes and therefore require little detail
or explanation.
In my later novels, The Ghostship
Chronicles, which are not published yet, the older universe has a greater
diversity of biomes. Most are
terra-normal and modified from terra forms, but a few include other creatures
and animals all based on something else.
A similar carbon based life development, but poisonous to terra-normal
and terrans. I don’t have any aliens in
my science fiction world, just modified humans.
The point is that in science fiction, we are
extrapolating technology, creating worlds and biology, and creating cultures
and societies. In the Dune model,
the author created everything, or you might say, extrapolated everything from
politics to religion as well as biology and technology. We are creating nearly everything. There are ways to help abbreviate this
process. I look at this, next.
Yes, I’m looking at the created worldview,
but my ultimate point is the reflected worldview. I think that if I show you how the created
worldview is developed, you will see why a reflected worldview for certain types
of novels is better. Of course, for
science fiction novels, the created worldview is unavoidable, and this is also
true for some but not all fantasy novels.
We are already seeing how the reflected worldview can fit wonderfully
into a fantasy world. Now, to building
the created worldview.
In the created worldview, we are usually
extrapolating, or in some cases interpolating technology, biology, the setting,
and objects in the setting. Let’s look
at some basic extrapolation.
Technological extrapolation is the basis for most
science fiction. If I need a spaceport,
I simply take an airport or a nautical port and extrapolate that to space
vehicles. That’s all there is to
it. In the simplest extrapolation, we
might take an airport or a nautical port and add spaceships, structures, and
all, but it gets a bit more complicated and less complicated than that. It depends on how in depth and how detailed
the author can and wants to be. For
example, what types of fuel does your spaceships use? From the model of modern aviation, you might
have more than one type of fuel. With
fuels, you need fuel storage, fueling systems, fuelers, perhaps protection from
the fuel or types of fuel. Add to this,
what kind of spacing are we talking about?
Do we have some type of FTL (Faster than
Light) travel? Is it warping? In my novels, the spacecraft use complex
warping by following gravity waves and gravity holes to calculate the
intragalactic travel with hydrogen fuel.
Most of the hydrogen fuel is captured from gaseous planets by the ships
or harvesting ships. Intrasystem, my
ships use nuclear acceleration of the hydrogen fuel for movement. Shuttles are generally used to move
planetside. My systems and extrapolated technology
is pretty complex because I’m an aerospace engineer. I understand this kind of stuff at a pretty
low level. The rest came from other
science fiction or from my imagination.
In any case, I think you can see the way the
extrapolation of technology works. I’ll
move to the extrapolation of biology, next.
Biology extrapolation is even more complex
and detailed than technological extrapolation.
You can just wang it and have Star Trek dreck and Star Borz. For example, you can go with some very
illogical and implausible science. I’ll
go with parallel carbon based evolution, but even with parallel evolution, you
can’t expect to ever be able to eat or interact safely with the creatures and
plants of another planet. Why? If you know anything about the science of
biology, you know that biology is based on stereo isomers. For example, vitamin C is a single isomer of
the vitamin C molecule. If the molecule is
not the correct handed stereo isomer, no animal can use it. It is worthless to the plant or animal. If just the handedness of the molecule is
this sensitive, what do you think will happen for more critical molecules like
DNA, proteins, RNA, and others. That’s
why as a basis, you can expect all alien plants and animals to be normally
poisonous and at the best a purgative.
Just to be clear. It is impossible for alien plants and animals
to interact safely on any level. The
chances of a human being to reproduce with a Vulcan is the same as a human
being reproducing with a bulldozer (I think Aurther C. Clark said this but it
might have been Asimov). I’d say, it
would be more likely for a bulldozer to reproduce with a human than any
alien. The idea isn’t just silly, it is
scientifically impossible. Even the idea
of colonizers taking early humans to some planet and then expecting them to be
able to reproduce is pretty silly. If
you need to propose anything like this, you are indeed writing in a
nonscientific created worldview. That’s
why Star Trek is dreck—and this is why many science fiction writers write
dreck. It’s cute fantasy, but it’s not
science.
For my science fiction, I presume, like many
scientists, that there is lower level life in the galaxy, but not any other
higher level intelligent life. The lower
level life can’t accommodate humans or terran life. I have most of the worlds terraformed to make
them able to support humans. In some
cases, I do have humans that have evolved or been genetically changed to
accommodate their environment. In my
novels, this was common in the Human Galactic Empire, but less so in the
Confederacy of Space.
So, as a science fiction author,
extrapolating biology is very complex and difficult. I suggest you get a good education in biology
before you touch the subject in your fiction.
This is true of other fiction as well as science fiction. The extrapolation of biology and biomes is
difficult and filled with mines.
What I should look at next is extrapolating
the setting.
I think extrapolating technology for a
scientist is easy. Extrapolating biomes
on the other hand is very difficult. If
you don’t understand biology and aren’t supper informed and into the genre, I
wouldn’t even try. You’ll end up like
Star Drek with Vulcan/Human hybrids—you might as well have human bulldozer
hybrids. That’s actually more
logical. Ha ha. Now, to settings.
I actually wrote this really cool program
when I was younger to make up and parse solar systems and planets based on
astronomical data and probability. The
program was extensive very fun and produced some great solar systems. The problem is that I compiled it in MS-DOS
as an exe file. Nothing wrong with that
except it won’t run anymore. Ouch. All that work and it needs a rewrite and
recompile. So is life. Not to worry, you don’t need a program to
develop planet and solar system settings, but it helps.
The reason it helps is to get your
imagination fired up and your setting ideas more varied. You also need to know something about the
science of planets and solar systems, at least based on what we know to build
good science fiction settings. Now, you
can just base everything off the solar system and planets as we know them, but
that is pretty distressing and unhappy. In
the first place, you want a planet near or in the life zone of the solar
system. In our solar system, only terra,
the earth is in this zone. Venus is too
hot and Mars is too cold. The two hot is
almost insurmountable. The too cold can
be worked a little.
The life zone is where the sun/star makes
water be in the liquid state on the surface of the planet. Without water, you can’t support or have
life, and I’m not just writing about life as in alien life, I mean human life,
plants, and animals. Liquid water is
necessary for life, and a planet must be in the life zone or
terraformed/manipulated in some way to be warm enough to be in the life zone. That is if your life is based on carbon. If your life forms are based in another atom,
things might be different. For ease of
explanation, let’s stick with carbon-based and terra-based life. This is what I use in my science fiction
anyway.
You need to stick your planet, and it needs
to be a carbon-based planet, a gas based or gas giant won’t do, in the life
zone. You can have hot planets and
cooler planets, but realize, planets include many biomes based on, in this
case, similar carbon, DNA, based molecules.
In other words, there really cannot be Dune type planets with as single
biome unless you have something else in play.
I have a planet Neuterra which is the moon of a gas giant Asa-Thor. The planet gets a very even heating from it’s
star Asa and its planet Asa-Thor. The
result is a nearly singular biome. The
secret is to apply a little science to develop your setting as you need and
desire. Plus, we are applying the
suspension of disbelief to our setting and our science fiction. Make it seem logical and feasible, and it
mostly will be logical and feasible.
Don’t go non-science nutso. There
are other things we can look at in settings like space ports and non-life type
planets. This includes gas giants and
carbon based worlds. We should look at that too, next.
In our solar system and we presume other
solar systems, you find gas planets, mostly large ones, and carbon based
planets mostly small and dense ones. Our
planet, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Pluto, and all the moons and asteroids in our
solar system are carbon-based planets.
What’s that got to do with anything?
They are basically dense planets with reasonable gravity. You can walk around on them. Gas planets are gas, and until you get to the
hard frozen core, you ain’t walking on anything.
There is a lot more we can write about
planets, but as I wrote, space ports and non-life zone planets have great worth
in science fiction. In my science
fiction, the gaseous planets are used for refueling. Some ships have refueling scoops that allow
them to capture hydrogen, mostly, for propulsion. These types of ships can use other gases for
propulsion, but hydrogen is the normal gas found in gas giants. You have to get really deep in the planet to
get much heavier gases. Most of the
time, a ship will scoop hydrogen from the surface of the gas giant. I didn’t invent this idea—it’s pretty normal in
science fiction extrapolated technology.
As a sideline, most ships use nuclear fusion
or fission for propulsion. The hydrogen
either provides the fuel for the fusion or fission, and there are other methods
of propulsion that have been proposed.
One method of early propulsion before fusion was to use the fission
nuclear reactor to accelerate the hydrogen and propel the ship.
Of similar note are space ports and other
facilities found throughout populated solar systems. You have space traffic control, military
outposts, mining and industrial facilities, refueling and refitting facilities,
port facilities. For space ports just
imagine an airport and everything in them.
You might modify the space port based on current political and social
mores and events. For example, most of
our airports are locked down to prevent terrorism. This may or may not be true in the future or
with space ports. Future technology may
have made terrorism nearly impossible in space—or not. The world you create for your science fiction
or fantasy needs to be completely logic based.
If you can make it fit logically and scientifically, you have hit the
sweet spot for science fiction. Of
course, the reading public for science fiction is usually pretty astute. The young adult and fantasy/magic realism
group may not be.
That’s a side of the created worldview worth
looking at, next.
I mentioned this before, and I will
again. One of the main reasons I use the
reflected worldview for my novels is because I don’t want to look stupid. It’s always true that in every novel you
write and publish, there will be problems.
There will be misspellings, grammar issues, punctuation issues, style
issues, logic issues, and potentially historical issues. Knowing this, I want to reduce the logic,
reasoning, and historical issues to the lowest point. The other issues are all questions of editing
and style, logic reasoning, and historical are issues of research and
knowledge. This is my biggest problem
with modern created worldview fantasy and magic realism.
If you base, for instance, your magic on an
already developed system like from the Golden Bough or Bonewitz (same thing)
you will have very little problem with the logic and reasoning in the magic
system. Now, the main question: isn’t
magic just fiction?
Magic is indeed fiction unless you meet a
person who wholly believes in actual magic.
Then you will find they are familiar with the ideas on magic from the
Golden Bough. I should italicize The
Golden Bough. Here is the main
concept. If, like Dune and
politics and society, you spend years developing your magic system, you will
likely have a magic system that will face muster with readers. On the other hand, if you don’t or the logic
of your system is lacking, you will end up with a hodge-podge like many young
adult novels. This is why I write in a
reflected worldview. I don’t want to
reinvent the wheel every time I bring up an important idea or subject.
When I mention a vampire, I don’t want to
explain myself. Now, for good writing
and understanding, we might have to explain certain ideas or concepts about a
vampire, but how great is it to base that information on what has gone
before.
Creativity is the extrapolation and
interpolation of the ideas of the past.
The reflected worldview is simply a form of creativity. I could also argue that the created worldview
is creativity, and it is, but think of it this way. If I need a kitchen from 1990, do I make it
up in my mind, or do I find a picture of a kitchen from 1990 and use that for
my creative interpolation. The answer
should be obvious. This is the question
I ask all the time in the reflected worldview.
My answer is always to me, research what I need.
When I need a god, goddess, creature, person,
being, idea, myth, concept, and all, my first step is research. I find something in the record of human
history and existence that will fit the needs of my novel. As I mentioned before, I want to entertain
and I believe the best means of entertainment is through existing human ideas
that are turned through extrapolation and interpolation into something new or
newly creative (not necessarily in the sense of the created worldview).
What I should do next is look at the created
worldview from the sense of proper extrapolation and interpolation.
When I teach classes on extrapolating
technology, as a scientist, I think it’s pretty easy. After all, I invented the idea of the
electronic book in 1984, but because technology couldn’t make one, I was stuck
without a patent but with an idea I put in my science fiction novels and also
tried to sell as an idea. I also called
it an ebook, go figure. In any case, the
extrapolation and interpolation of ideas for the created as well as the interpolation
of ideas for the reflected worldview are critical. This is why I repeatedly wrote to start with
what we know.
The best example is the nautical port to
airport to spaceport. This is extrapolation
until we actually have real spaceports. There
are all kinds of other extrapolations.
What you as a writer need to understand is stones are still around even
after the stone age and technology almost always starts as entertainment.
One of the greatest examples of this is the
extrapolation of technology. I can
assure you we will eventually have flying cars.
We would have had them much sooner, but the government keeps them
down. My favorite bit of history is that
in 1956 when Ford Motor Company came to the USG (US government) to propose five
factories to build flying cars, the USG came out with the private pilot
licensing rules the day after. The USG
killed flying cars in 1956 by making pilot training requirements that could
only be fulfilled with extensive training.
That’s the government way. Today,
you all get to be placed in cattle cars (aircraft busses) at the mercy of the
USG and airline companies. Only the
trained and the wealthy can afford air taxis (air charter), and every time air
charter reaches an affordability milestone, the airlines and the USG make new
rules to keep it expensive. Eventually,
you will have a flying car, but the government won’t like it, and as always,
the wealthy will be the only ones who can afford them for a while.
My point is that even when we have flying
cars, there will be stones, ground vehicles all around. First, they will be the cars of the less
wealthy, poor, and goods transportation.
Eventually, they will be ground transportation. However, once air cars are ubiquitous, it
will be less cost effective to have roads and other means of non-air based
transportation. The government will
charge you for roads for the next thousand years even if no one is using
them.
I gave some ideas in regards to
transportation and extrapolation. There
is much much more in the extrapolation of technology, but let’s look a the
interpolation of technology and ideas.
I’ll just mention a little along these lines and then work toward the
reflected worldview.
Let’s say we want to have a magic based
system for a created or a reflected worldview.
I would advise you to stick with The Golden Bough and design your
magic system from there. It will be
logical and reasonable if you understand the basics of magic. You can also base a magic system on miracles,
I would also advise that. What is the
difference?
Magic is the manipulation of so-called
natural laws within the universe or creation to achieve unexpected
results. For example, the use of symbols
and magic rules to cause something to occur that seems reasonable, but that we
know is usually impossible. I’ll give an
example. The idea of making a doll to
represent another person, placing a bit of hair or fingernail from the person
into the doll, and then manipulating the doll to force the person the act or be
affected like the doll. This is the use
of symbolic, similarity, and representative magic to cause a result. Does it work?
Some magic practitioners claim it does.
On the other hand, miracles come from outside
the creation. The point of miracles is
that they are not controlled by those who just desire to make them happen, but
rather that certain people, creatures, or things can cause things to happen
that are outside the bounds of the normal universe. Magic is always from within the world. Miracles are always from outside the world
and miracles overcome the real world. In
other words miracles can make things happen in the real world that are at odds
with science and physics. Magic can’t do
this although the means of magic are at odds with science and physics, the
results of magic are common, they are just unexpected.
As I wrote, I should move over to the
reflected worldview and interpolation.
Really, there should be no such thing as
developing or designing a reflected worldview.
However, in some regards, an author may be actually reflecting the world
not designing. What do I mean by that?
The best example is the way I designed the Organization
and Stela into my reflected worldview novels.
If you make a search for the Organization or Stela, you likely won’t
find anything. On the other hand, if you
search for the MI structure or British intelligence, you will find MI19 as well
as the other MIs from World War Two.
In World War Two, there were 19 Military
Intelligence agencies in the British government. The went from MI1 to MI19 excluding MI13 and
MI17. MI19 was the interrogation and
foreign language branch of the MI structure.
I’ve worked in MI and most specifically in covert and overt military
operations. In my day overt was special
operations and covert was special missions.
Today, I have no idea, and I don’t write about US special military
operations—I write about the British and French.
The big deal is that covert military
operations has a great deal to do with languages and language
intelligence. It isn’t the 007 kind of
silliness you see on the silver screen.
MI19 was all about interrogations and languages. In the world of intelligence, you have three
basic levels of language expertise. You
have those who are trained to translate and many times speak the language. You have those who are experts in the
language and culture who can infiltrate the culture. Then you finally have those who know the
language and culture intimately, but could never be able to infiltrate that
culture. These final language experts
can for example, look exactly like good British boys and girls, but nothing
like they can speak and understand Chinese, Russian, Japanese, French, or any
other foreign tongue.
In the old days, they recruited these gems
like they did Kim from the novel by Rudyard Kipling. Kim’s father and mother were British
citizens, but he lived in the Indian culture and knew their as well as the
British tongue perfectly. This was the
first generation of language and cultural spies. After the era of Kim and with the breakup of
the British Empire, these language experts came mainly from missionaries and
the diplomatic corps. Children of
missionaries as well as those of diplomates tend to learn a language at the
street and cultural level. They also are
either bullied or forced to fit into a culture which makes them excellent for
language intelligence.
The reason they are perfect for their roles
is they don’t look like they have any familiarity with the culture or language at
all. They look like common British
citizens. Standing next to any
diplomate, emissary, or ambassador, they are the most effective and dangerous agent
possible. They know what the adversary
or other culture is saying and meaning.
They can spot errors in translations, in translators, and they can
overhear words and unintended and intended meanings in words and actions. These are the most powerful agents in a
nation’s arsenal. The ability to
understand cultures and languages is perhaps the most effective and most efficient
way to check the information you are getting as well as the information you may
discover. That’s not to say the lower
level translators are not very important, but as I wrote, there are three
distinct levels of language experts in covert operations. MI19 during World War Two had them all, or so
we are led to believe. This is the
position I take in my reflected worldview intelligence structure.
More, next.
I want to write another book based on
Rose and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s
my plan. Before I get to that, I want to
write another novel about dependency as a theme. We shall see.
More
tomorrow.
For more information, you can visit my
author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual
novel websites:
http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
fiction, theme, plot,
story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel,
book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea,
logic
No comments:
Post a Comment