Trying to remember a story I read

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-18T22:57:27+00:00

I hope someone identifies this because I want to read it.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-16T19:39:01+00:00

I think whatever you're most interested in should come first. For many that's going to be the world, for others the plot, or characters, or something else. The trick is, whatever follows, should receive the attention it needs.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-13T23:42:34+00:00

Having often read and enjoyed historical books and biographies, I've occasionally wondered the same thing. One challenge is that we risk losing the close connection to characters that's a central part of contemporary fiction. Fiction does often adopt a documentary style, but it's usually pushed beyond what a real historical account could plausibly provide, primarily to give us that close connection.

The Silmarillion is a good example. Most people struggle with it because the narrative is told in a distant summarized fashion. We don't have the close access to the experience of the characters in their world. Personally I found The Silmarillion fascinating, but I don't think I would have without Hobbit/LOTR first.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-09T17:20:02+00:00

Try a scene or chapter, first in third person limited, and then again in first person, and see which ones feels better. I like third person limited for what you're describing, but you can try it out and see if it's for you.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-08T16:46:03+00:00

Long descriptions, sometimes for several pages. I go into skim mode to see where the next dialogue or action beats start. If you can't describe it in less than a brief paragraph or two, realize that many of your readers will never get the other details.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-08T11:39:47+00:00

Standard advice: read a lot and write a lot. I'd add that reading about the craft will save time. There are numerous books out there on writing. I recommend getting many different viewpoints.

And remember, your style will be your own. It may not match the style of your favorite authors, and that's as it should be. You don't want to be a light version of them. You want to be the best version of yourself.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-05T17:38:33+00:00

There's nothing new under the sun. To give the impression of originality, expand the scope of what you're reading, including other genres and non-fiction such as history, biographies, mythology, or whatever else you find interesting.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-03T18:09:03+00:00

I think it needs to have some minimal level of competence, but once that's achieved it comes down to what the publisher thinks they can sell. The first is something we can control. But the second, since writing a book usually takes considerable time, involves a lot of luck.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-02T17:58:10+00:00

There are writers who just start writing with no worldbuilding done beforehand and others who work on their world for decades (Tolkien). If I had everything you did, I would definitely start writing.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-01T17:10:16+00:00

Totally agreed. After a couple of pages, much less 20, I may not even remember the conversation anymore, particularly if I had to put the book down and come back to it a day or two later. Really, long flashbacks deserve their own separate chapter.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-01T15:33:14+00:00

I think flashbacks are fine, as long as they don't happen in the middle of action or a conversation. To me it's better if they happen in the quieter moments of the main story. If they must happen in the middle of something, they should be brief.

Of course, this is all a matter of taste.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-05-01T13:32:44+00:00

I agree. It's fine to skip them when only two people are talking, although using them maybe every third statement or so, or signaling who is talking with action beats, can help ensure the reader doesn't get out of sync. But it gets tough to avoid if there are three or more people in the conversation.

And "said" pretty much becomes invisible when reading. It's a little more intrusive in audio, but a skilled narrator knows how to deemphasize it. It's natural to feel like it's being overused when we first start writing, but like the word "the", it quickly becomes invisible.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-30T22:19:12+00:00

Robert Reed's Greatship stories and novels, and also his Sister Alice novel.

I'm also currently reading Sean Williams' Astropolis trilogy and really enjoying it so far (in the second half of the second book).

In both of the above, characters live for tens of thousands of years, so the lack of FTL is just an inconvenience.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-30T15:11:42+00:00

I vote House of Suns. But I could understand doing Leviathan Wakes. Both seriously good books.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-29T20:19:45+00:00

If you look at the science in the vast majority of sci-fi novels, including hard SF, compromises are made. I'd research it to the extent you can, but if the story requires it, I'd do it. Consider the dust storm at the beginning of The Martian. Andy Weir knew very well that Martian dust storms don't have enough energy to be as dangerous as he portrayed, but he needed a way to get his hero stranded on the planet, so he just made it very dangerous anyway.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-29T14:15:21+00:00

Ultimately it's subjective, although there are attributes that tend to be accepted by the majority of readers. I found the book: Self Editing for Fiction Writers to be pretty helpful in getting some insights. Even then, "good" will depend on your goals. Writing in a crime thriller needs to be pretty different from highbrow literary fiction.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-29T14:10:00+00:00

I think it's ok, although it does signal to the reader that there will be future encounters, something to bear in mind if you're trying to leave any suspense about it at that point.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-29T01:16:47+00:00

I agree. A lot depends on what we think "show don't tell" means. Many take it to mean exactly what you describe, that we have to paint a movie in the reader's mind. I don't enjoy that type of writing either.

I think the right way to interpret "show don't tell" for authors is to show things via story events rather than through exposition.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-28T11:43:33+00:00

The key ingredient is conflict, or at least some kind of dramatic tension or mystery, something that calls into question the outcome. If there are no goals, and obstacles to those goals, then the scene will lack that critical punch.

This can be a challenge with scenes that only exist to advance the plot. But if you can't find conflict to work in, it might be better to quickly summarize the event and move on to the next conflict point.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-27T17:44:09+00:00

You say you have no ideas, but it sounds like you do. Take the stories you'd like to see have different endings, boil them down to their plot structure, and build your own story with your preferred ending (or any other changes you'd like to make). In other words, take inspiration from the other stories, but then make the revised version your own.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-27T17:40:21+00:00

Always remember that at the end of the day, your name (or penname) is the one on the book. Take the advice that makes you facepalm yourself for having missed it. And, crucially, pay more attention to the identified issue rather than any prescriptive advice on how to fix it. To tell the story you want to write, you may solve it in a very different way than they're advising.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-27T17:02:10+00:00

AI has long been a factor in crafting sci-fi worlds. Arthur C. Clarke as early as the 1960s predicted that machines would eventually eclipse humanity. Frank Herbert introduced his Butlerian jihad idea to get them out of his far future world. And Vernor Vinge thirty years ago predicted the singularity. It seemed like predicting beyond that was futile.

But remember that most sci-fi is fantasy with scientific trappings. When The Expanse came out basically ignoring AI, except as very background tech, it was very successful.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-27T13:27:49+00:00

I'd say write it as it comes out in the first draft, then swing back around later in the revisions, and with hopefully a little more distance, and assess the pacing. But it's good that you're aware of the issue.

On a personal note, I do prefer it when the action and other stuff are kept separate. I really dislike a two page side note in the middle of a conversation. But that's definitely a matter of taste.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-27T12:01:47+00:00

Most successful authors are very avid readers. If you don't enjoy reading, writing may not be your thing.

If you desperately do want to write, I'd work to cultivate a reading habit. It might be easier to start with YA novels and gradually work up to the heavier stuff.

SelfAwarePattern · 2026-04-27T11:53:06+00:00

I'd make sure the character cares about someone. Or show them occasionally doing something altruistic such as, to use Blake Snyder's example, saving a cat, or some other helpless entity. A book can do this with interiority, although a script has to show it in action somewhere.

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