My Novel's Journey: The Old Man in the Void--Lessons Learned

It's been a little over a week since I finished the Old Man in the Void (which I think I may change to Dex's Way.)  The past week has been full of guest blogging and e-mailing and organizing the Live and Let Fly book tour (48 stops and counting!) and writing school planners for a company I work for.  I've hardly given the book a moment's thought, except as one remembers a terrific friend.  But today, I'm thinking about what I learned from my friend.

Most of you know this, but to summarize:  The Old Man in the Void grew from a discussion my husband and I had on a family trip to Moab.  I was holding off finishing Neeta Lyffe 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco because I needed to talk to some sources.  I wanted to do something different to stretch myself as a writer--nd we'd heard that Tor was looking for Space opera.  I thought it would be fun to do a sci-fi based on a classic novel (kind of like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies).  Rob suggested Hemingway, who wrote a lot of great, Manly adventures, like The Old Man and the Sea.  I was a math major in college; I'd never read Hemingway.  So it sounded like an excellent challenge.

Lesson #1:  Look for challenges.  They stretch your imaginations and your skills.  You'll be thrilled if you succeed; and if you fail, you will still have learned.

Lesson #2:  I can think as a plotter.  I've been a seat-of-the-pants writer almost from the beginning of my career.  But to follow The Old Man and the Sea, I had follow Hemingway's plot, but with my own characters and universe.  I plotted the novel out as I read his book, trying to match major event and theme, and for the most part, I feel I succeeded.  however...

Lesson #3:  My characters and stories will not stay bound.  Even though I followed the plot I'd written for the most part, I could not stay bound just to that plot.  (Good thing, too, or it would be a novella.)  New characters showed up; subplots came out of the blue:  Dex having visions?  Alien gods playing tricks on each other and him?    And of course, once I got to the end of the plot, when Dex should have just gotten Santiago back, nice and easy, found a new apprentice and gone on his way, he takes over the book and changes so much!  however....

Lesson #4:  If I trust my characters, they will tie things together.  All the myths of Elomij and Hudon on the Bloody Road were just some interesting mythology--or so I thought as I was writing along the plot.  When that path ended, however, and the next part of the story began, they informed everything that happened next--how the future aliens treated Dex; how the alien culture developed; even Dex's romance.  I may go back and strengthen some of the ties, because when I was writing the first part, I had no idea those little extras were going to be so important.  Finally...

Lesson #5:  My writing had been getting stale.  Because I was writing comedy, with lots of fun and fast-moving jokes leavened with some heartfelt scenes, my phraseology was more about getting to the point and moving on to the next fun bit.  The slower pace of this story, however, plus the serious tone, demanded a different narration style.  I read other books, harder or military sci-fi, in order to absorb some of that.  As with plot, I'm sure it morphed into something different as well, but now I've stretched myself that way, too, and I have those in my writer's toolbox for use later.

No matter how much experience you have as a writer, there are still things to learn--and sometimes, the best way is to check out how other writers did it--and then jump in and try it yourself.

Next week, I hope, I will start editing Neeta Lyffe 2.  I think I'll do some short stories, maybe revisit the collaboration story a friend and I are doing for fun, then in April, I'll start on Gapman!

My Novel's Journey: Old Man in the Void - Surprise!

One day last week, I wrote 6300 words in a day. goes to show what happens when characters take over.

I had a terrific writing week, one the shows that no matter how deeply I outline, my characters just have to hit me with something new.

For those who have not read previous blogs about The Old Man in the Void, I am writing this on the challenge of my husband, Rob.  Rob suggested I pattern a sci-fi novel on the classic, The Old Man and the Sea.  To prepare, I read the book and a literary analysis of the themes and critical points, and carefully outlined my adaptation to the book.  The primary change, of course, was to put it in a deep space/far future setting, so Dex Hollister and his ship the Santiago hunt the relics of ancient starships from two civilizations that destroyed themselves in a war that created a black hole.  When one of the ships they capture becomes operational, it drags them across the event horizon, where the war is still being fought, and Dex and his ship have to find a way back out, preferably with the captured ship, before they are killed themselves.

It's a pretty straightforward book, actually, and I didn't know where it would take me.  As you've seen if you've been reading along, Dex is not like Hemingway's fisherman.  Dex has more moods, more frailties, and more relationships that affect him, even though the people he loves are not with him.  And he and his ship are a team.  Santiago (the ship's AI) has a definite personality and does his best to protect Dex as well.  Even more fun, I introduced myths about the species who fought this war (only automated warships are left, continuing the battle) and in the process, Dex has some very vivid visions during the conflict.

Well, this week, in the big climactic scene reminiscent of Hemingway's Santiago fighting off he pod of sharks, my Santiago and Dex fight off drones and escape the black hole--at the destruction of both the captured alien ship and the Santiago itself.  That, of course, was in my outline, and from here, it was supposed to be a simple wrap-up of Dex awakening in a hospital, finding he'd lost everything yet returning to his life as a relic hunter wiser for the experience.

Weeeellllll...

• Dex woke up in a hospital, all right--as an Elomij/Human hybrid.  They could only save him by introducing alien DNA to repair his.
• The historian brought in to re-introduce him to modern times hired a kind of private investigator to find out what happened to the wreckage of the ships.  Dolon is smart, savvy, and attractive, and Dex starts flirting with her.  
• All those visions?  Not just his imagination!  There's a whole book of myths about Huntradex, the mortal spirit who dared defy Hudon and turned down Elomij's affections.  
• He meets a navigator who might have a lead to finding the hardware that houses Santiago's AI program.

I'm telling you--these are NOT in my outline, were not in my plans, and just sort of came out as I typed.  And I love them all.

So, now I'm in a quandry.  I could attempt to according to my outline--or I could let Dex explore his new world, get into a little trouble trying to track down Santiago on his own, and have some romance with an alien.  It will change the book, and I may need to go back and revise some of the original if I do so.

I think you know what I plan on doing.  I've never been good following outlines, and I never intended to rewrite Hemingway, but to write Hemingway-inspired Fabian.  I'd be lousy as writing Hemingway, anyhow.  But when I let my characters live their stories, I write really good Fabian

My Novel's Journey: Old Man in the Void - Clawing out of the Information Well

I'm back to writing The Old Man in the Void, which (to refresh memories) is a science fiction novel based loosely on Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea.  Instead of a hero's journey like most modern novels, this is a man-against-nature adventure, in which relic hunter Dex Hollister gets pulled into a black hole by a ship he captures. 

I'm having a lot of fun with it, but because I put it away for a month to finish up Neeta Lyffe 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco, it's been a rough week getting back into the astrophysical saddle.  Not only did I have to re-familiarize myself with the plot, but I had to remember all the information about black holes that I'd immersed myself in in the Autumn.  In fact, I'm still feeling shaky on it.  Right now, I've not had to worry overmuch, because the scenes are taking place inside the ship, but I feel like soon I'll need to re-read all my notes, including following all the links to articles and videos about black holes.  (The videos are especially helpful.  I'm so glad some folks with better visualization skills than I are thinking about this stuff and taking the time to help others see it, too.)

I must admit, my favorite scene this week was the mythology scene, even though I had to go back three times to look up the names of the god and goddess.  My memory has never been great, but as I move through 40 into 50, it's getting worse.

I'm making slower but steady progress.  I think once I am back into the characters and the setting, I'll be moving ahead more comfortably.  In the meantime, just like Dex and Santiago, I'm feeling my way as I try to claw out of the information well.

My Novel's Journey: Old Man and the Void

Neeta Lyffe II is on hold until I can talk with someone at an oil refinery about how radical environmentalist zombies could wreck havoc.  In the meantime, I've started on a new project, another serious science fiction.

I decided to do something completely different for me.  Rather than come up with an idea and run with it, seat-of-the-pants style, I was going to take a more methodical approach, and take a tip from some successful authors--rip off a classic.

On the long trip to Moab, I mentioned this to my idea man, Rob, who suggested Old Man and the Sea.  He wasn't especially impressed with the book, which he read at the Academy, but thought the whole Man-Against-Nature was a sci-fi angle not really looked at in current novels.  We talked about the book awhile (I'd not read it yet) and decided to move the story to a black hole with an ancient alien ship as the marlin.

The first thing I did was go to SparkNotes and take notes on the important themes and events.  This will not be a knock-off of Hemingway--I can't mimic that well--but I want to capture the spirit of the book.  The exciting thing was by reading the notes and the important quotes, I got a lot of interesting ideas.

Next, I bought a copy of the book and read it through slowly, outlining my own novel as I went along.  Hemingway provides the basic sequence of events, though the pacing will differ. There will be other differences as well.  I'll talk about those later.  Thirty handwritten pages later, I was ready to be begin.

I've also been doing research about black holes. Incidentally, if any of you know someone who studies these and would talk to me, I'd love an introduction!

I've written about 2000 words, and I'm already loving it.