No space opera is complete without some gun play, just look at Star Wars…

Anyway, while looking for photo stock recently I came across a few good gun pictures that are relevant to the science fiction genre.  Normally sci-fi likes to present itself as using cutting edge technology or show what is only possible in the far future.  Sometimes that technology is anything but “modern”, whatever that means.

Cyberpunk Gun Cam’s

In a number of cyberpunk works crimes are solved by retrieving images from gun cameras and enhancing them on a computer etc.  This is kind of a yawn plot device as if someone used the gun and knew it had a camera in it when they committed a crime, then the destruction of the gun and camera would be a priority, but I digress.

Cyberpunk readers’ demand that technology be used extensively in stories and so what if the use is an unlikely one?  I mean it is all SF isn’t it?  Well, unfortunately the “modern” technology of gun cameras is anything but, as this photo proves.

In case you are wondering, the photo dates from 1938.

The Lesson for a Writer

There is a lesson here for any aspiring author and that is to truly do your research.

If you want to be a professional writer then you had better believe that people will pull you up on the smallest and normally irrelevant details.  This is what a good editor is there for, annoying as it sometimes can be.   If the person that catches you out is an influential critic rather than your editor then wave bye bye to your book sales.  Better by far to have corrections made before the work is published

If you wax lyrical about the “new technology” of gun camera’s in your stories then please make sure that it actually is new.  If you aren’t sure or cannot find accurate information then at least talk about the “recently widely adopted technology of ‘X’ “, or similar phrases and then no matter how old it is no one will care.

Lack of research and credibility is one thing that hampers science fiction as a genre.  Make sure it doesn’t hamper you.

Dave Felton

The original aim of this blog was to show the process by which I changed from being an aspiring writer to the point where I became a professional author.   The idea behind this is simple: There are many aspiring authors out there.  By sharing, I hope to help and encourage others who are involved in the same activity.

Over time my personal goals have remained the same, but the methods of achieving them have changed.  For instance, most of my writing these days is freelance and this is an unexpected direction for me to have taken.  While I will always consider myself a “wannabe” author until my first book is published I can no longer say that I am inexperienced as a writer.  So, progress has been made, but is it in the right direction?

Freelance Activities

Most of my recent activities have involved either writing “copy” for others, or developing websites – which is really also copywriting, but with me as the client.  Writing copy as a freelance is actually more dependable than any other form of writing I have tried so far.  Even though I feel my standard of English and grammar usage is still lacking, it is possible to make some money.  The income is small, but at least it is there.  It will no doubt grow over time.

I still want to be a science fiction author, but I really have no control over when this will occur.  It depends on when an editor thinks my work is worthy of publishing.  So, unless I want to write a blog about rejection letters received from publishers, there needs to be content produced on other subjects.

This is a Science Fiction Writing Blog, or is it?

Regular readers of this blog will know that I recently changed a number of things in order to speed up page load times and make the blog more user-friendly generally.   While I was carrying this out I had a look at the blog using Google webmaster tools.  This tool gives you an idea how Google sees your blog and thereby how likely it is that folks interested in the activities of an aspiring science fiction writer will find your site.

What I found out shocked me.

This site ranks best in Google for…chess clothing!  OMG!

(I don’t normally use net abbreviations while writing this blog, but here it is probably for the best.  What I actually said is unprintable.)

How Can Science Fiction and Chess be Confused?

So how can a science fiction writer’s blog rank best for chess clothing?  Well, quite easily apparently.

I allowed myself to go off topic in two areas:  I posted about the subject of chess clothing a few times and secondly I have more chess links on the site than writing links.  [Note: Shortly after this post goes live I will be removing the offending links.]  The reason I included them at all (before I knew better) was that I wanted to show other aspects of who I am.  A pure writing blog seemed a bit one dimensional.  I now realise that writing about wider areas has a strange effect on Google’s search bot.  Alas, although the search algorithms in use by Google are designed by highly intelligent people, there is still no AI – it remains science fiction!

New Computer Chess Blog – Coming soon!

During recent weeks I have opened a number of new websites and so the process has become increasingly easy and straightforward.  When I realised that my interest in chess was taking the site “off message”, as the politicians are fond of saying, I decided to correct it by opening a new blog site about computer chess.  The cost of doing so is merely the price of a domain registration as I already pay for hosting.

This new site should mean that I can still say the things I want to on the subject of computer chess, but this blog will be better focussed on what it was originally set up to do:  Detail the process of growing from a science fiction “wannabe” into a full-time, professional writer.

Of course, right now the site is merely a few lines of blue text, but then this page started life like that too.

Wish me luck.

Dave Felton

This week has been so busy.  To be honest about it, I was unprepared for the amount of work this new direction would entail.

Internet marketing has a bad reputation because so many people running the courses are scam artists teaching bad information or maybe nothing at all.  I have been lucky in that the people I am involved with seem genuine and the information supplied checks out, at least so far.  It has been refreshing to have it explained why it takes so much work to be successful.

So, as I am so happy with my new associates am I going to name them?  The short answer is “No”.  The reason why is that until a cheque is cashed and in my bank account it could well all be wrong and it would be incorrect of me to promote an unproven idea.  I hope you understand.

Developing the New Websites

My last post mentioned that I am now the proud owner of six new websites.  This actually isn’t quite factual.  What I should have said is “I now own six new domains”.  This difference doesn’t sound like much does it?  So what is the difference?

The difference is about 60,000 words!  Yes, you read that correctly.

What is more remarkable is that the majority of those words are used in marketing the sites, not in content on the actual pages.  Content on the six sites will be maybe 25-30% of that total.  Or at least this percentage will remain true during the time it takes for the sites to establish themselves.  While I am grateful for the new knowledge that I have gained about making money on the internet, I do wonder if just writing that novel would have been easier!

To put things in perspective, minimum manuscript length for science fiction novels tends to be about 85,000 words.  A short story, suitable for submission to a professional magazine like Fantasy and Science Fiction starts at around 5,000 words.  Writing articles of this length is starting to look very reasonable recently!

This last week has seen two of the sites come into existence.  It is far too early to say if they will bring any real income but they are at least up on the web and the initial phase is finished.

The Search for Financial Security

So why do all this work?  Well, two reasons.  Firstly, I hope that in the long term I can make a small residual income from the advertising on these websites.  Second, if this happens, then it will take the pressure off my personal financial situation following my hospitalisation and all that goes with it.

Financial security will enable me to write that darned elusive novel with a clean conscience.

That is the plan anyway…

Dave

February is at an end, Spring is almost upon us and it is time for an honest assessment of the story blog so far.

I know I have kept quiet about my goals for this month, but that is because if I failed horribly it would at least be a purely personal humiliation and also because I think that some goals have more energy if they are kept to oneself.

Goals of this Blog

My initial goals were:

1. One post a day
2. Make the post useful and relevant to writing, or show personal growth that is relevant to other aspiring writers
3. Check facts
4. Be honest
5. Try to make posts of 500+ words of decent English

For the most part these goals have been realised.

1. A few posts have been missed, due to ill health or other real world events, but mostly these gaps have been later filled in.
2. I hope that the posts I have made have been useful to others but only my readers can answer that one.  As visitor numbers to the site are still growing, I assume some of what is here has been found useful by others.
3. As far as I am aware the facts in the posts are correct and no one has contacted me to say otherwise.
4. I believe that all posts have been honest.  Although the site is “monetised” (Amazon, Adsense etc.), I have not and will not recommend a book or other product merely because it gives me an affiliate link.  Frankly, there are better ways to make money through writing and I will not “sell” my integrity that way.  Given the choice, I would probably prefer to have this site 100% ad-free, but following my hospitalisation this is not an option as I need to make money from writing.  If I ever make enough money from other writing activities to replace a living wage, rest assured that ads will be completely removed from this site.
5. The final goal originated from advice in the books of Stephen King and Dorothea Brande.  Basically this advice amounted to “make sure you write daily”.  I thought 500 words was a reasonable goal, if time was taken to also research the post.  Better to achieve a small goal, than to fail in a large one.

As it turns out this final point is the single most important aspect of this month’s activities.

Secrets of Successful Writing

Due to the success of the goal of writing a small fixed amount, I have actually been driven to write well over three thousand words a day.  Compared to my old level of output this is not much shy of a miracle.

Thank you Dorothea!

This level of activity has also enabled me to have a few articles published and has changed my attitude to writing professionally, along with the whole process of becoming a writer.  In the past, settling down to write has occasionally been difficult, but now it is a pleasure that I look forward to each day.

Writing Goals for Next Month

So, what are the goals for next month?

Well, my meta-goal remains to have my science fiction novel published.  Until this happens I will remain a “wannabe”.

However, back in the real world, I still need to make money from writing to provide a living wage.  There are many ways to make money from writing and I will be exploring and blogging about them next month.

Dave Felton.

Here is a test: walk into a real world bookstore, preferably a major chain like Waterstones, and stand by the door.  Look around carefully (hopefully avoiding being approached by the store detectives) and try to find the Science Fiction section without moving.

I will give you even odds that you cannot find it and I am not normally a betting man.

Of course, if you go into a specialty bookstore the case is different, but in a mainstream bookstore with active management of stock you are very unlikely to see a row of books marked Science Fiction (SF).  Why should this be so?  Have all science fiction writers suddenly acquired writers block, retired, died, or merely rebranded?

Rebranding of Science Fiction

Oh dear.  It seems that I might have hit on something.

Standing by that same doorway you may well be able to see “The Time Travellers Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger, or “Next” by Michael Crichton or maybe even “Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood.  All of these books have solid SF themes but avoid the label or any of the usual symbols associated with the genre.  Even a modern hero of British SF, Iain Bank’s, steadfastly refuses to be classed as a science fiction writer.

The problem with SF appears to be that in large part it is about future technology and mostly that future is already here.

The Victory of Science Fact

Want to write about super computers, nanotechnology, gene alteration, atomic energy or space exploration?  Many of these technologies are now well-developed and the research currently happening in those fields easily surpasses the wild imaginings of SF writers of earlier decades.  If you doubt this, go read Scientific American or any other significant technology-based magazine.

The only one of those fields that present or near future technology does not appear to have fully developed is space exploration.  The fact still remains that man has not been past the moon and space programs are currently suffering large cutbacks.  There is scope to write about something fantastic, but will an audience educated in Einsteinian physics buy it?  Probably not.

Instead we see age old SF themes, such as time travel, being weaved into a romance plot and entering the best seller lists as “chick-lit”.  Michael Crichton’s “Next”, despite its heavy use of genetic technology, is often billed as a “techno-thriller”.  And finally, Margaret Atwood was once offended that “Oryx and Crake” was referred to as a science fiction novel, although she later amended this statement.  If professional writers of this stature seek to avoid the SF label, then maybe science fiction really is a failing genre, at least for the moment.

So, for the time being, science fiction writers will have to remain unseen and undercover.  Slowly, silently, plotting, making their plans against us…

Regards,

Dave Felton – wannabe science fiction writer and endangered species member.

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