Voorwerp

I realize I'd been moping. I was going to write a cranky blog entry about not having a character for my new space opera -- when said character finally came together. Cue a mad burst of energy, cleaning house and cooking at home, even.

That is, I think I solved the character issue. I have yet to actually write her. That is, doing something other than looking out a window.

I went back to work on the opening scene. Got  sidetracked into reading about strange astronomical objects, and it turns out there are several things out there which are well known for being green. And one of them glows for no good reason (the prime theory for Voorwerpjes is that they are a quasar ionization echo. As in, a very bright but short-lived object shot them the hell full of energy but is no longer bright and visible itself.  Since these things are "the size of a small galaxy" there's at least 20,000 years to play with in the timing there.

Oh, and there's evidence for "dark matter highways." Related from Atomic Rockets, who are even more writer-friendly these days, so much so that for every possibly plausible bit of science, there's some wild hypothesis that probably isn't going to prove out, but could make a heck of a story.

Anyhow.

That rant would have been about another stupid choice. Like thinking writing an archaeological adventure would be a quick-and-easy book (well -- I did finish in a year). I wanted to do something with used furniture so I didn't get bogged down in world-building and research. So, probably space opera. And I've always sort of wanted to do a Horatio-esque. My trunk novel has a young crew person on an interstellar "shop truck" -- even if her career goes in rather different directions.

Maybe it is just the vibe. Too much Star Trek in my formative years; that comfy split-level bridge, the uniforms, the wonderful toys.

In any case, the field has moved on. Space Opera is no longer a pejorative. The near-future or otherwise Gernsbackian SF has become consciously deconstructive, even played for irony, as that lunar colony (and those jet packs) never quite arrived in the real world.

Still, SF is still more about the world, the science, the tech, and less about the character. Even in the most unabashed Planetary Romance the setting and costumes and fun details are more important than nuanced character or rigorous plot.

Not that I'm exactly ace at the latter two myself. The Athena Fox stories had bare-bones plots and just enough fun character stuff to keep it from being entirely travelogue/history lecture.

Look, I see plenty of stuff out there -- the comfort food of long-runner space opera series -- that didn't sweat the science. But they are still offering to the reader something creative in the world. Maybe too much so; I almost feel I am seeing writers trying too hard with fantastical settings that are just a little too fantastical to quite grasp.

Anyhow. 71,500 words of notes in the Scrivener folder. I just finished breaking out the more germane stuff and the actual useful notes on the Klathi (the primary alien antagonists of the first book) is a mere 1,500.

That is because I use my notes Socratically. I argue stuff out in them, circling around ideas. That bit about "finally" understanding the character? I took down that note three times previous before it finally landed.

Not an efficient method, I think. Not much of a point of using Obsidian to jot it all down, either. Because the core concepts are stuff I remember now. I've never really needed to consult my notes on a character, not for how they behave. Besides, half the fun of these various aliens is how they bounce off each other, and that can't be efficiently notated in a system that compartmentalizes them.

Sigh. I still have to crunch through a bunch of different references and nail down the positions, job titles, and ranks. I got this close to Blue finally meeting the crew of "Tammie," but is that guy really called Chief Jenkins? (It isn't just a name thing that I could use a placeholder while I get through a rough draft. I'm past that point now. What I need is the underlying organization of the ship because half of what happens in the next few scenes is based on that.)