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I am surrounded by books on writing that are gathering dust, waiting to be read. Books on creating plots, types of plots, how to create, how to edit, how space travel works, how bodies get injured and how to turn pro.
All sitting there waiting. With National Novel Writing Month fast approaching, I need to get serious and focus my mind of getting ready and working hard on my preparation for the task of getting 50,000 coherent words in place in 31 days. That's about 1,600 words a day without fail. A daunting task indeed.
But one that's important to me. It has been 17 years since GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces hit the shelves. I want that feeling again. I want to hold something I created in my hands and take people to a world that lives only in my head. I want to entertain people.
I want to write.
Admittedly, I'm a complete failure at the Larry Niven School of Being a Successful Science-Fiction Writer. I wasn't born rich and I didn't start young. But Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was in her late 70s, so I have no excuse. The words are in me, somewhere, I just have to find the way to get them out.
Fantasies of winning the Hugo aside, I'm realistic about this novel of mine. Odds are, it will sell maybe a few hundred copies. People will hopefully like it and maybe want a sequel. The probability is that my book will fall into the vast abyss of self-published SF and exist only as a base of the Amazon sales pyramid, coming in at 3,658,108 in Science Fiction this week!
Seriously, if I make enough money for a Chili's and movie night with Kirsten, I'll be satisfied. Look for me sitting behind a pile of trade paperbacks at Baycon!
But somewhere in the locked corner of my heart where my dreams still hold out, I hold the slightest flame of hope that Task Force Khanda (I've changed the name) will be *good* in that special way. That I'll have written a really good Space Opera. That it will be noticed. That a real publisher might pay for the rights. That I might be an author in name as well as intention.
Why now? Because it is time for me to start moving again. I'm at a point where I'm maintaining my health. I'm not getting better. I am painfully aware that I have a limited time to leave a mark on the planet. I have no kids except for a possible son who would be pushing 30 at this point and has never attempted to make contact. I've done no great thing to get me into the history books. There will never be a statue of me in the park for pigeons to poop on. Ground Forces is out of print. I'm searching for both validation and a legacy, and I have a story to tell.
Starting now the work begins. I'm going to get the ship lists together, crew them, sit down with my stellar atlas to plot the moves of the several squadrons and ships involved, and outline the three major plot lines I'm planning on, with all the complications.
I have the tools. Libre Office is my word processor of choice, I have Grammarly to catch my mistakes, Scrivener for plot whiteboarding and editing, and Dragon speech recognition if I just want to cut out the keyboard and try speaking a chapter or scene. That should be faster in getting thoughts out, although it will mean a lot of cleaning up, as Dragon sometimes gets things wrong. Still, it's worth a shot.
For those not up on this project, I'm taking the actions of the German Imperial Navy's Far East Squadron in WWI and transferring it to deep space. The feel is going to be claustrophobic in the ships while a chess game is played between the two commanders. Travel using the faster than light drives is hard on people and electrical equipment, and ships can only enter or level hyperspace when the local gravity is above a certain level. So the chase is going to be guessing where the fugitive fleet is going, while the runners try to trick their pursuers.
A couple of big fights, lots of tension on the ships, and a few surprises. And I'm not a big fan of happy endings in war stories. I just have to make it happen. I may be asking for people to comment on chapters as I go. If you'd be interested in both picking apart my grammar as well as commenting on the flow of the story, let me know.
All sitting there waiting. With National Novel Writing Month fast approaching, I need to get serious and focus my mind of getting ready and working hard on my preparation for the task of getting 50,000 coherent words in place in 31 days. That's about 1,600 words a day without fail. A daunting task indeed.
But one that's important to me. It has been 17 years since GURPS Traveller: Ground Forces hit the shelves. I want that feeling again. I want to hold something I created in my hands and take people to a world that lives only in my head. I want to entertain people.
I want to write.
Admittedly, I'm a complete failure at the Larry Niven School of Being a Successful Science-Fiction Writer. I wasn't born rich and I didn't start young. But Grandma Moses didn't start painting until she was in her late 70s, so I have no excuse. The words are in me, somewhere, I just have to find the way to get them out.
Fantasies of winning the Hugo aside, I'm realistic about this novel of mine. Odds are, it will sell maybe a few hundred copies. People will hopefully like it and maybe want a sequel. The probability is that my book will fall into the vast abyss of self-published SF and exist only as a base of the Amazon sales pyramid, coming in at 3,658,108 in Science Fiction this week!
Seriously, if I make enough money for a Chili's and movie night with Kirsten, I'll be satisfied. Look for me sitting behind a pile of trade paperbacks at Baycon!
But somewhere in the locked corner of my heart where my dreams still hold out, I hold the slightest flame of hope that Task Force Khanda (I've changed the name) will be *good* in that special way. That I'll have written a really good Space Opera. That it will be noticed. That a real publisher might pay for the rights. That I might be an author in name as well as intention.
Why now? Because it is time for me to start moving again. I'm at a point where I'm maintaining my health. I'm not getting better. I am painfully aware that I have a limited time to leave a mark on the planet. I have no kids except for a possible son who would be pushing 30 at this point and has never attempted to make contact. I've done no great thing to get me into the history books. There will never be a statue of me in the park for pigeons to poop on. Ground Forces is out of print. I'm searching for both validation and a legacy, and I have a story to tell.
Starting now the work begins. I'm going to get the ship lists together, crew them, sit down with my stellar atlas to plot the moves of the several squadrons and ships involved, and outline the three major plot lines I'm planning on, with all the complications.
I have the tools. Libre Office is my word processor of choice, I have Grammarly to catch my mistakes, Scrivener for plot whiteboarding and editing, and Dragon speech recognition if I just want to cut out the keyboard and try speaking a chapter or scene. That should be faster in getting thoughts out, although it will mean a lot of cleaning up, as Dragon sometimes gets things wrong. Still, it's worth a shot.
For those not up on this project, I'm taking the actions of the German Imperial Navy's Far East Squadron in WWI and transferring it to deep space. The feel is going to be claustrophobic in the ships while a chess game is played between the two commanders. Travel using the faster than light drives is hard on people and electrical equipment, and ships can only enter or level hyperspace when the local gravity is above a certain level. So the chase is going to be guessing where the fugitive fleet is going, while the runners try to trick their pursuers.
A couple of big fights, lots of tension on the ships, and a few surprises. And I'm not a big fan of happy endings in war stories. I just have to make it happen. I may be asking for people to comment on chapters as I go. If you'd be interested in both picking apart my grammar as well as commenting on the flow of the story, let me know.
