Interesting Comments! Writing Update (And Balticon schedule)

[jpskewedthrone]

Some very interesting comments on my post about the reason SF has declined and Fantasy has taken over. I was going to answer all of the comments individually from the previous post, but felt that a general post would be more effective, since many of you said similiar things. I wasn't around back in the heyday of SF, so (as some of you pointed out) I may not have the mood of the times correct. The media and history tends to portray that time as being one of social upheaval, especially the 60s, which is what I was basing my random thought on. However, it seems that even with all of that social upheaval, most of you think that the MOOD of the time was one of hope, and that the belief was that people could make a difference and change the world. You don't get that from most of the historical things you read, say, in high school history classes. Or even from the movies really. So perhaps my supposition is flawed.

I also believe that the marketing tactics that others pointed out has an effect on sales. I've seen marketing in action (and not in action) regarding my own experiences in the publishing industry and seen that it can be a powerful factor in whether or not a book sells well or not. I've read some books that got a huge marketing push . . . and felt they sucked. And I've read books that had NO marketing and thought they were the best things I've read in years. It's unfortunate that marketing plays such a huge roll in the success of novels, because there are some good writers out there that fade away. It would be nice if book success (and everything in the world--job success, etc) depended only on the quality of the writing. And SF doesn't get the marketing push that Fantasy does, in general, from what I've seen. Has anyone heard about Marseguro [Amazon] by Edward Willett? Or the Tour of the Merrimack series by R.M. Meluch (contisting of the books The Myriad [Amazon], Wolf Star [Amazon], and The Sagittarius Command [Amazon])? I haven't read them myself, but I only found them by scanning the shelf. Wolf Star got a starred review in Publisher's Weekly, so why hadn't I heard about it before? I ended up buying all of them. (If you like SF, check them out!)

I also think it's harder to wow people with technology now because we're so used to having such high tech toys. I've run into this problem because I have an idea for an SF novel, but I don't have that key SF element for it yet. I have the story and the universe, but not that cool idea that will make the story gel for me. If I tried to write it now, it would end up being just "fantasy in space", which is not what I want. And what most of you pointed out is what what most SF really is today.

In any case, you guys all provided some really interesting things to think about regarding SF. Thanks!

And WHILE you providing such interesting comments, I was finishing up Chapter 21 of the Well of Sorrows. It was slightly shorter than most chapters, but not by much. I hope to finish Chapter 22 by the end of this week. But here's the current word count for the Meganovel:

166,750 / 100,000 (166.8%)

Well of Sorrows

And lastly, there's the Balticon thing I'm going to this weekend. Here's my schedule, reposted for those who missed it last time. For all of those intending to be there, hope to see you at my reading or autographing, or perhaps in the bar!

Friday 7 pm : The Outlaw Panel - Let pirates, highwaymen, and bandits assemble! Why do we like them and turn them into heroes by rewriting their history?

Friday 8 pm : Opening Ceremonies (assuming pbray and I can get there on time)

Saturday 1 pm : Writing the economics of magic

Saturday 3 pm : Reading

Saturday 6 pm : Autograph table - Hotel Bar Lobby

Saturday 9 pm : How Not to Make the Second Book of Your Trilogy a Letdown for Readers. Create a plot that continues the story.

Sunday 10 am : Playing in Someone Else's Sandbox: What can you expect if you write
stories for a tie-in/shared world created by another writer? Tell us how this
works for an interested writer!

Sunday Noon : Getting Published: Learn about how to handle query letters, fiction and
non fiction book proposals!

ETA: Changed the time for the authographing due to Patricia Bray noticing that they'd changed it on the pocket programming.

Comments

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Check the pocket program on the Balticon website-- I think the time of your autographing changed. Looks to me like you're now on at 6PM, right after suricattus and myself.

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. I can sneak you two drinks during your session, and then you can return the favor.

If we're still planning on doing the movie (and dinner at Carrabba's), Sunday looks like the best bet. I'm finished after 1pm, and you have nothing. Not sure about suricattus's schedule.

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Just popping in because I couldn't resist...
(warning, this is going to be long)
I'm an engineer working in defence, so I do get a fair bit of aerospace stuff passing my way--and I also have a pretty good scientific culture by dint of my training. (In my spare time, however, I moonlight as a fantasy writer, but that's largely irrelevant to my post).

My feeling about the whole "fantasy in space" thing is that it's really hard to draw a line between "plausible" and "cool, but wildly out there". As an engineer, I tend to draw that line rather close to today's science.
I don't consider much of SF plausible: with the possible exception of Kim Stanley Robinson, most of the stuff I've read has involved stuff that we don't know how to do because of very serious technological hurdles. That's why I get bored by hard SF: there's no point in explaining to me how you'd put together a space station in orbit around the sun, because it involves lots of things we can't do--and that we very possibly won't ever know how to do.
To me, hard SF tends to read much like fantasy: it's impossible, and I don't believe it will be possible. The main thing, I think, about scientific breakthroughs is that they're seldom predictable. Oh sure, you'll get plenty of people who'll argue about how everything fell neatly into place, but how many people predicted the rise of the Net twenty years ago? How many people could foresee the discovery of penicillin? SF has a bad record at accuracy: just read the Golden Age stuff and you'll see that they're wildly off the mark.
I'm not asking it to be a plausible future in the sense that it could come to pass (I don't think we can do that; unless we have some kind of psychic talents). I'm just asking the writer to be good enough to handwave it past me.
My point of view on the matter is just that if I'm taken for a ride into the future, I'd rather have fun and a good plot (and if possible, not horribly wrong science), than something "plausible" and not "fantasy in space".

That said, I do have a certain amount of knowledge I bet most people don't have, which makes SF a very different reading experience for me. I don't pretend to hold the gospel, but that's the way I see the whole question of plausibility in SF. At some level, all of SF is implausible anyway--or it's just boring because it's too much like what we have now.
(there is actually very little innovation in the engineering jobs I'm doing, because it's better to be safe than wildly creative).

[(Anonymous)]

Hey, Aliette. Your reply is the most articulate explanation I've seen yet of the similar reasons that I as a chemist can't get into SF. Most all the attempts to be scientifically plausible in SF strike me as laughable or boring. In fantasy, it's usually not trying to be plausible, and as a reader I'm not examining the plausibility, so I can focus on whether the characters are captivating or the plot is exciting.

Scott H. Andrews
www.scotthandrews.com

[aliettedb.livejournal.com]

Most all the attempts to be scientifically plausible in SF strike me as laughable or boring
Yep. There are exceptions (Kim Stanley Robinson handles it particularly well, though I did get bored), but by and large that's my feeling as well.
Glad to know I'm not the only one ;-) (though I suspect Medievalists are tearing their hair out when they read our fantasy...)

[ruthannereid.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, Marketing... the Beast. Of course, one has to wonder then what it is that spurs Marketing into one phase or another. :D Maybe the influential attitudes you were describing are present in the marketing people - just not in general culture.