From Hobby to Novel - Guest Post by Joshua Johnston

Joshua Johnston was raised on science fiction television and film before being introduced, in his teenage years, to the wider universe of science fiction literature. In addition to his daily work teaching American history and American government, he is an occasional writer on a variety of topics, including video games and parenting. His debut novel, the science fiction epic Edge of Oblivion, released with Enclave Publishing in April 2016. You can find him online at www.joshuaajohnston.com

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Anyone who writes fiction for a hobby inevitably reaches a crossroads: do I want to take the next step and try to become a published author? The answer will be different for each person, and there are tradeoffs for each. Ahead are five questions that a prospective novelist should try to think about:

1. Do I want this to be a “hobby” or a “business?” In general, the IRS views a “hobby” as something that ultimately loses money, while a “business” is something that ultimately makes money (even by a small amount). Some fiction writers are content to pay someone to print their work just as a fun or valuable project, knowing they will never recoup their costs, while others write with the hope that their work sells enough to clear and exceed the investment they put into it. If your answer is a “hobby,” the next questions are useful. If you answer is a “business,” the next questions are crucial. 
2. Am I willing to surround myself with talent? While Google and how-to books are fantastic resources for answering questions, inevitably every aspiring author is going to need people around them. Depending on one’s skillset, an author may need help building a website, for example, or securing a quality professional photograph. And every author benefits from people who can give them feedback on their writing. 
3. Am I willing to respond to feedback and criticism? No author likes being told to make changes to a novel they’ve worked so hard to craft. It’s our baby, we have a vision for it, and change is both disappointing and time-consuming. And what if, you worry, they give bad advice? Ask any published author of even modest success and they’ll tell you two things: 1) that criticism is hard and 2) that most of the feedback they received made their writing better. My science fiction novel, Edge of Oblivion, went through beta readers (some authors, some just fans of sci-fi) as well as the publisher’s professional macro and line edits; I would estimate that about 90-95% of the advice I got across the board was not only spot-on in hindsight, but was corroborated by other people giving me feedback. That’s a lot more good than bad. 
4. Should I query an agent, pitch directly to publishers, or self-publish? There are plenty of articles espousing the virtues of one single approach, but the honest truth is that each has their own pros and cons. Securing an agent can help access bigger publishers but can make the process longer; self-publishing can shorten the process dramatically but places all the logistics – and their costs – on the writer. What is best for you depends on many things, including your writing credits and your preferences. Whatever course you take, you need to research it carefully: if you submit an unsolicited manuscript to a small publisher, for example, make sure you’ve got a proposal that tells them exactly what they want to know along with a complete, polished manuscript ready to go. 
5. Do I have the time and will to build a platform? For aspiring authors, it can feel a little awkward to establish a platform before you have a product. It’s worth the trouble; whether you’re self-published or under contract with a massive publishing conglomerate, the more ways readers can find and interact with you (including before you have a product!), the more credible and ultimately the more successful you’ll be. If you don’t believe me, try finding a reasonably successful author who doesn’t have some sort of online presence. As with many things, everyone has an opinion on what is “best,” whether it be blogging, specific social media sites, or some special sauce to put into a website. Every author needs to evaluate what they have the resources and will to do, but it’s a given that having something resembling a hub to interact with readers is a given. 

About Edge of Oblivion: 
Earth has emerged from a cataclysmic dark age with little knowledge of its past. Aided by the discovery of advanced alien technology, humanity ventures into the stars, joining other sentient races in a sprawling, prosperous interstellar Confederacy. That peace is soon shattered. Without warning, the Confederacy comes under attack by an unstoppable alien force from the unknown regions. With hopes for civilization’s survival dwindling, Commander Jared Carter is sent to pursue an unlikely lead: a collection of ancient alien religious fragments which may – or may not – hold the key to their salvation … Book one of The Chronicles of Sarco series.

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Ronie Kendig is an award-winning, bestselling author who grew up an Army brat. After twenty-five years of marriage, she and her hunky hero husband have a full life with their children, a Maltese Menace, and a retired military working dog in Northern Virginia. She can be found at:
     www.roniekendig.com
     Facebook (www.facebook.com/rapidfirefiction)
     Twitter (@roniekendig)
     Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/RonieK)
     Instagram (@kendigronie)
     Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/roniek/)!

Reviewers call Ronie's newest release, EMBERS, "Simply amazing!" 

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Tips for Writing Speculative Fiction

Ronie Kendig is an award-winning, bestselling author who grew up an Army brat. After twenty-five years of marriage, she and her hunky hero husband have a full life with their children, a Maltese Menace, and a retired military working dog in Northern Virginia. She can be found at:
     www.roniekendig.com
     Facebook (www.facebook.com/rapidfirefiction)
     Twitter (@roniekendig)
     Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/RonieK)
     Instagram (@kendigronie)
     Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/roniek/)!

Reviewers call Ronie's newest release, EMBERS, "Simply amazing!" 

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For some, the term "speculative" fiction may be new. For others, it's an all-inclusive term indicating stories that are fantasy, science fiction, supernatural/paranormal, etc. I've written twelve novels and nearly a half-dozen novellas in the last five years since my first title debuted, but now I'm also delighted for my speculative novels see the ink of publication. In doing so, I've become more aware than ever that there is always something new to learn. 

So, I invited several friends, who are writing or have written speculative fiction, to share a tip for writing in this unique genre. It's kind of interesting, seeing their answers. None of them knew what the other would write, and it might appear that some contradict each other  But I say--Not so!! For each writer, there is a "perfect" way to write. Hopefully some of these tips will resonate with your style and give you a boost. They sure helped me! 

Speculative Writing Tips

Tosca Lee - New York Times Best-Selling author

Here’s the thing about this genre. It’s so easy to get lost in world-building and research (and don’t let anyone tell you there isn’t research in speculative fiction!). But at some point, it has to stop. Give yourself a time limit and stick to it. Go absolutely crazy crafting your world’s culture, technology, history and language—but stop at the end of the allotted time. Setting the stage is vitally important—but it’s what happens on that stage that counts.

R.J. Anderson - YA Fiction
Author of Rebel

My tip for spec fic writers would be that in all the big sweeping, epic events of your story, don't forget the small, everyday details -- the food your characters eat, the clothes they wear, the way they squabble with other family members or banter with friends, and so on. Because it's those little things that convince readers to suspend their disbelief, and make your characters' lives and experiences feel real. Even in books as tightly written as C.S. Lewis's series, for instance, which are a lot shorter than most modern fantasy, we have descriptions of the miserable tedious hotness of crossing a desert on foot, the squelchy way packets of freshly cut up bear meat feel in one's pockets (Prince Caspian), and a lesson in the importance of cleaning your sword after a battle (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe). Those moments may not seem to advance the story, but they anchor it and ground it for the reader. An ounce of reality is worth a pound of made-up technobabble.

Joseph Bentz - Fantasy 
Author of Dreams of Caladria

Each type of speculative fiction has its own challenges, but when it comes to fantasy, which is the category in which my novel, Dreams of Caladria (Enclave, 2015) fits, the first tip I would give is to not let the world you create get out of control. Rather than telling a story set within a world that already exists, most fantasy writers are creating a new world from the ground up, and the temptation is to want to tell everything about that world and to let the story sprawl. The first draft of my novel was more than 1,200 pages long, not because the story itself needed to be that long, but because I loved this world and wanted to immerse myself and the reader in it in every way possible. I took those 1,200 pages and rewrote the story from scratch, focusing the plot much more carefully. The shorter version made a much better book. The leftover material is not wasted. It’s still there for use—or at least inspiration—for future books.  

J. Wesley Bush - Science Fiction 

Author of Knox's Irregulars

I think one key to writing speculative fiction, particularly fantasy, urban fantasy, or superheroic fiction, is to strike a balance between the classic and the new. If a novel relies too much on standard tropes, it feels stale, but if nothing is familiar, the reader can easily grow disoriented and frustrated. In my latest fantasy novel, I've included a fair number of classic fantasy creatures, and elements of ancient and medieval cultures, but with a strict rule: any genre tropes have to be given a fresh, creative twist. My dwarves are 'dweorgs,' a cursed race devoid of music or joy and covered in rocky exoskeletons. My hero belongs to a nation of horse lords, but they roam a savanna rather than the steppe. It's great to build your world with classic parts, but be sure to give them a fresh polishing first.

Morgan Busse - Fantasy
Author of the Follower of the Word series

Enjoy “imagining” when writing your speculative novel. That is one of things I love best about writing fantasy or steampunk or even science fiction: asking "what if?" and then placing it in my story. What if there was a race of people who could feel the moods of the ocean and their eyes changed color? What if you could visit other people’s dreams? What if you were the last unicorn? It doesn’t have to be the main part of the plot, it can just be a small aspect of your novel. Maybe dogs can talk in your otherwise contemporary romance novella. Whatever the case, don’t be afraid to open yourself to your imagination and dream!

Serena Chase - Fantasy 
Author of The Sunken Realm

No matter how far “out-there” we go with our settings, characters, and plots, our wild and wily weirdness has to be countered by something relatable to the reader’s concrete reality. This is most easily done relationally, but for a story to satisfy in an emotive and reader-inclusive way, a reader’s known reality also needs to be revisited in moments—in beats and pauses—in which the establishing of daily habits and rituals within the characters’ (or the world’s) reality identify a slightly displaced or mirrored “normal” the reader already knows. Even hardcore high-spec readers who easily adapt to strange spellings and all manner of otherworldliness will abandon a series if they can’t find a familiar door by which they can enter the heart of the world and its main characters. Balancing the far-reaches of imagination with the at-home reality of habit and ritual invites readers into your world.

Shannon Dittemore - YA Fiction
Author of Dark Halo  

When you feel like the least creative soul on the planet, when sitting and writing feel like a waste, give your fingers a chance to prove you wrong. 
We absorb so many moments in our day-to-day living and when filtered through the unique sieve we each carry between our ears, it's often the simple commitment of time that proves we do, in fact, have a little magic stored up inside.

Sharon Hinck - Contemporary Fantasy
Author of The Deliverer

Writers of historical fiction are familiar with the hazards of gathering piles of fascinating research -- so fascinating that they want to include it all in the novel. The best writers are careful to ration the details to those that directly enrich the story without bogging down the pace or showing off the research. Speculative fiction has a similar hazard. We create complex worlds with their own geography, politics, science, and cultures. We draw maps for ourselves, develop richly woven histories. But if we include too much of that detail in the story we can lose the engagement with characters and the emotional impact of the story. It's wonderful for the author to create reams of detailed information--and then NOT include it all in the book. Include only the details that serve the story and the reader.

Ronie Kendig - Speculative Fiction 
Author of Embers

RULES. It might seem counter-intuitive, but make sure you have rules to the unique world you're building. For example, in Embers, my characters can harness and wield heat/fire, but there are rules that guide their wielding, both how and where. I confess when I first starting writing this story, I simply wanted to enjoy the story, so much of the editing process with my amazing editor (waving to Reagan!!) was pushing me to define the rules of the world my characters live in. So, now, I encourage writers to define those as you go and save yourself heartache (and desperate need for chocolate and Starbucks) later! 

Sarah E. Morin
Author of Waking Beauty

Draw maps. I resisted the urge for years, even though many fantasy novels I read began with gorgeous, oldey-timey maps. Why? It felt – pretentious? Maybe I was simply intimidated. But building your world includes geography. My two main kingdoms were at war over an enchanted forest. Well, what stopped the mightier one from simply invading? A mountain range? Lack of seaports? A cold climate could affect what plants and animals thrived there, therefore what they wore, ate, their houses. Midway through writing Waking Beauty, I slapped together a map with purple triangles for mountains and green circles for trees, and slid the shapes around until the plot points meshed. Would my map ever appear in a book? No. But the exercise made me rewrite some key details. You don’t have to be a cartographer to benefit from this exercise. And don’t forget to throw in the occasional, “Here there be dragons.”

John Otte - Science Fiction
Author of The Hive

When you’re writing a speculative fiction story, you’re going to create a fantastical world filled with wonder and awesomeness. If you’ve done your world-building right, you’ll want to share your incredible creation with your readers, every single little corner of it. In a word, don’t. Resist the urge to explain every little facet of your magic system, world history, culture and language. Let the readers explore it on their own and figure out how it works. Brandon Sanderson did this in his Mistborn trilogy. He showed us mistborn and metalminds at work before he gave us any sort of explanation. Do the same thing. Let your readers go on a journey with your characters and discover the world you’ve created with them.

Paul Regnier - Science Fiction 
Author of Space Drifters - The Emerald Enigma

Instructional books on speculative fiction writing can be a valuable step in your writing journey. However, sometimes all the “rules” can leave you a little dizzy. If you’ve ever tried to implement the litany of techniques needed for a perfect baseball or golf swing and ended up with a rigid, mechanical effort, you know the feeling. 

Sometimes writers have that same rigid feeling with their stories. The desire to follow all the recommended techniques is daunting and leaves the stories sounding a bit too assembled. 

When that kind of “writer’s stiffness” sets in, I recommend returning to that state of mind you had when you first started writing. The pure joy of diving into a story before you knew all the rules.

I’m not suggesting discarding the guidelines for proper and powerful fiction. Just don’t forget to stick close to the reason you started writing in the first place.

Jill Williamson - Fantasy 
Author of Darkness Reigns (free e-book)

The point of writing fiction is to entertain. Readers won’t care much for your amazing storyworld if you don’t have interesting characters and an engaging plot. So build storyworld elements around plot and characters, and write your story as if your reader already knows your world. This should keep you from info-dumping storyworld elements. You might have to add some details here and there during the rewrite stage, but starting with less should keep you from overdoing it. 

When you rewrite, make a list of elements that still need to be added in, then brainstorm ways that each might tie in with characters, the overall plot, or subplots, then work in those that feel natural. But keep in mind that some elements might not find a place. And that’s okay. Use what fits naturally and doesn’t feel forced. Leave the rest out.

Are you a speculative author and have a tip? Please share in the comments!

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What Does it Take to Write A Story Set in Space?

by Tess Gerritsen

Those of us who make our living as writers know the basics of storytelling: plot, character, conflict, build-up, crisis, resolution. With those tools in our kit, we can tackle any project. So telling a story that just happens to be set in space should be a piece of cake. Just move your usual characters onto a spacecraft or space station, pit them against an antagonist, and churn out your story. Easy, right?

Well, maybe if you’re writing a space opera in which real science and technology 

takes a back seat. In space opera, a writer’s only limit is his imagination. 

Space stations with artificial gravity? No problem. Spacecraft that travel at warp speed? 

No problem. 

Transporters and death rays? Old hat. Readers aren’t going to question the technology because they understand it’s all speculative. Readers are willing to suspend disbelief and accept that the Starship Enterprise and the Millennium Falcon are possible because they understand that technology isn’t the point. The story is, and any writer can tell a story.

But what if you are writing a space story set in the present or near future, a story told within the confines of real science, and your story is about the technology? That challenge requires far more than just a writer’s imagination; it requires a working knowledge of what’s possible and what’s not. Suddenly you’re not just writing a story — you’re also writing about, and translating, science. This is something you don’t pick up by just surfing the internet. It requires months, if not years, of specific research. Even with my advanced degree in science, the prospect was more than just daunting — it was frightening.

But that was precisely my challenge a decade and a half ago, when I wrote my book GRAVITY. In a 1999 interview with Barnes and Noble, I described how I approached the research. Here’s an excerpt from that interview:

Barnes & Noble.com: Tess, thanks for taking the time to share with us some of your thoughts and experiences with regard to your latest thriller, Gravity. The concept you’ve created here is both fascinating and horrifying and utilizes science from the fields of molecular biology, virology, medical technology, space exploration, and marine biology, to name a few. It appears you’ve done a great deal of homework researching both the facts and the possibilities. Without giving away the true horror behind the menace in Gravity, can you speculate on just how feasible the scenario you created might be in real life?

Tess Gerritsen: When I wrote Gravity, my No. 1 goal was to create a scenario that was completely plausible. With that in mind, I made certain that everything that goes wrong aboard the space station actually could go wrong in real life, from the escape of the organism into the space station’s air to the series of disasters that befall the station and later the orbiter, to the political crisis that envelops NASA as a result…

The details about NASA, the shuttle, and the space station were all based on months of research and conversations with NASA sources. The space station in Gravity is based on the blueprints of the actual International Space Station, which is now being launched in increments. The details about environmental control, orbital docking, commercial rockets, EVA’s are all based on fact. The book has since been read by a NASA engineer and a flight surgeon, and both of them have told me how amazed they are that I managed to get it right. As the engineer said about my scenes in Mission Control, “I’ve been there, done that, and that’s how it is!”

bn.com: It’s certainly effective! You’ve combined some very graphic horror — such as dead bodies, blood and guts, and a few hair-raising descriptions of some pretty nasty ways to die — with cerebral horrors like the anticipation of certain death, isolation, loneliness, helplessness, and fighting an enemy one can neither see nor understand. So what scares Tess Gerritsen?

TG: Airplanes! Heights! I’m definitely a land-based humanoid.

bn.com: Several of the characters in Gravity have had a lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut and traveling the stars. Would you go to space if you were given the chance?

TG: Okay, I confess. Despite my fear of heights, I wanted to be an astronaut! I think most of us have had that dream, especially those of us who spent many happy hours as children watching Star Trek… I can also say that the risks would make me think long and hard about it. Space is not a place for amateurs and certainly not a place for starry-eyed novelists. It takes training and skills to be an astronaut. To say that anyone can just strap himself or herself in and lift off is like saying anyone can perform brain surgery in ten easy lessons. Space travel, as it now exists, is a job for professionals.

bn.com: By placing a lot of your action on a space station where help and rescue are days away, escape is impossible, and the lack of gravity adds a new layer of terror to some of the more graphic scenes, you add a whole new dimension to the “ordinary” horrors of medicine and science run amok. Where did you get the idea to combine all these elements?

TG: I’ve always been fascinated by the space program. I vividly recall hearing the broadcast of Neil Armstrong taking his first steps on the moon, and even now, just thinking about that moment can still bring tears to my eyes. Then, about two years ago, I was traveling in Europe when I heard news about the collision between Progress and Mir. I remember thinking: Three men are about to die up there. And it occurred to me that that must be the ultimate horror, to be facing the prospect of your own death, trapped in space, while the whole world can follow the final moments of your life. With more research came more elements of horror: What is it like to die of explosive decompression? How do you deal with a medical emergency in weightlessness? What happens to blood as it pours out of an exsanguinating body in a space station? Earthbound horrors are magnified in the hostile environment of space.

bn.com: They certainly are! Your descriptions of the way things behave in a weightless environment (some of them things we wouldn’t want to encounter in any environment!) were very vivid and often quite spooky. What sort of research did you do to create those scenes?

TG: I read everything there was to read about life in microgravity. I read astronauts’ accounts, NASA reports, space medicine textbooks. I combed research publications about microbial and tissue culture behavior in space. I spoke to flight surgeons about emergency medicine in orbit. After a while, I actually began to dream about weightlessness (those were amazing dreams, too!), and when writing a scene that takes place aboard the station, it became second nature to me to envision everything without gravity. After I finished the book, it took months for those dreams of weightlessness to go away.

bn.com: Obviously there was a lot of hard work and lengthy research that went into the writing of this book. What parts of the writing process were the most fun? And which parts were the most drudgery?

TG: The research for Gravity was absolutely the most fun part of creating the story. Since I have such a deep interest in the space program, digging into the details of NASA was like playtime for me. Getting the inside tour of Mission Control, having the chance to talk to people at Johnson Space Center — these are the sorts of experiences that remind me how lucky I am to be a writer!

For those of you who are interested in science-y novels like GRAVITY, I can recommend a particularly fun book that recently came out: THE MARTIAN, by Andy Weir. While it is speculative (it’s set in the future, when we have manned missions to Mars) and it proposes certain technological advances, all those advances are theoretically possible, and the research that went into Weir’s storytelling shines through on every page.

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