How I began to write a book:

Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.
Edward Gibbon (1737 - 1794)

And what is the obvious thing to be learned from that quote? Why, of course - Nothing ever changes.

I told you in my Out of this World... post, that I had resolved to write a book. But what in the world was I going to write about? First, I had to decide on a time period. A writer, like the dragons of Pern, must know when she writing. I didn't want to write a Contemporary. I already had enough troubles in my own Contemporary without focusing on my characters' troubles. I needed to distance myself from any troubles with which I could even remotely identify.

Hmm. What about a Historical? NO! Sure as God made little green onions, the first person to read my story would turn to me and say, "That word was not even invented until a hundred years later! How dare you?" At the time that I was conceiving this idea of writing a book, I didn't feel like doing the research, much less the results of my errors.

Therefore: I decided to write a Science Fiction Romance, set so far out in the future that no one could say that it wasn't possible. I should be safe, right? No. I have always hated plot holes and I began to research astronomy and to read articles on astro-physics. The very thing I had tried to avoid, now became an obsession. Hoist upon mine own petard!

Aspiring writers, heed this cautionary tale. Even worse is to come.

Frances

Writing Science Fiction Romance
Real Love in a Real Future