h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi
Just to get the ball rolling, I am a writer who has had some success in the horror field with shorter pieces. At present, I am writing a sit-com concept and opening episode for the BBC, a film script, 3 short horror tales, a novel and a novella - mostly humour, very dark.

Anyone else?

Glad to hear of someone with a bit of experience and as prolific as yourself. I personally have only just made the decision to return to writing, which I pretty much gave up when I finished school ten years ago, in favour of taking (Which I Do Not Condone In Any Way Whatsoever, It Was Purely A Statement Of Fact, I Swear (And When I Say Swear, I Refer Only To Making An Oath To Be Truthful, Not Cursing Or Defaming Anyone In Any Way (Can this Digression Ever End?))))
Ahhh. anyway, back to the point. While I was at school I had a shot at writing scripts for little comedy revues with my mates in Drama class, which were spoofs of the original series of Star Trek: It worked well to start with, and people laughed, but as with most ideas, after 5 shows it began to have the smell of a horse about it.
I have written a treatment for a screenplay that capitalised on my experiences over the last 10 years, and hopefully may get started soon on a new one with a much different direction, and hopefully funnier than the last, but that, besides numerous failed music projects, a bit of DJing, a cartoon for Private Eye (rejected),
and one article about my home town for the guide, is that.
I've finally got some motivation to go ahead and write, and I'm wondering - how do you that first page? I find I'm one of those people who starts well but gets delete-happy if I get so much as a sniff that it's not working.

P.S. I credit you with the intelligence to fill in the blanks, even if they don't.

Hi
Mail me at [email removed by moderator]then we can respond and commune at a faster rate - lots to discuss...
Best
Russ aka The Doctor

kidkitsch,

"how do you that first page? I find I'm one of those people who starts well but gets delete-happy if I get so much as a sniff that it's not working."

Approach that first page as a first draft, just an attempt to get down some ideas. It's important to leave revisions for later and just finish the first draft, or else you may find yourself revising forever and never finishing. Revision becomes an almost valid reason to put off finishing, so it has to be recognized when it's an obstacle, and ignored until the first draft is done.

Don't bother deleting anything, just add more or rewrite it later.

How does everybody here feel about the new BBC rules for retaining copyright to anything we post on h2g2? I'm reluctant to put up stories or chapters here now, because it diminishes the value slightly.

I think the italics said in one of the forums of the brainstorming boar that the bbc don't claim youy copyright, only a non-exclusive right to publish. I might be wrong however, and that could still sour any deal with a publisher. My recomendation is only to publish online if you are not going to publish anywhere else, as cross-over issues are always likely to crop up.

PS if anyone knows the name of a spellchecker for plain text files that doesn't think that we must all accept american spellings, then please tell me the name, and I will look for it online.

Yes, that's the part that would sour the deal. Most publishers want "exclusive first rights," because it makes your book or story less profitable if BBC can put out an anthology with your piece in it.

But you're probably right. Even posting it on the web, which is for most people equivalent to showing your manuscript to a few friends, would be seen as "publishing" it sort of, and would diminish the value of it in the eyes of a real publisher.

Oh well. Not that I've been published before anyway. So what am I worried about losing?

Of course, if you want to be published that way, you could talk to o'reily who make those awfully good linux books. they publish some books under the literary equivalent of the gnu public licence (GPL).

Writer? What does it mean when I say I'm a writer? (And I do.)

I've written a novel, so I'm a writer. I've written a song, so I'm a rock star... Publication is somehow relevant.

But I'm a writer because I write. Not every day but certainly several times a week. After all, I have to have something to read when I go to my writers' group meetings.

So is it just something you do, like fishing, or twisting your hair in a particular way? Or is it something which defines you, makes you a different kind of person?

Martin Amis says - in effect - that a writer can't be trusted because he (or she, but would MA think that way?) is always watching people, looking for material, so that relationships with a writer can never be what they seem?

Hmmm...

Mund

My favorite creative writing prof used to say that writers are even pre-occupied while making love -- "Oo, that was nice, how would I describe that?" -- always making mental notes to remember how this sex scene should go down on paper.

I find myself doing this at big events and happenings, already writing an article in my mind, even if there's no appropriate publisher for the topic.

(As for "making love," I can pretty much stick to the business at hand these days, leave writing out of my mind entirely. Then afterwards, while wifey is having a cigarette, I'm planning out that next scene in my Great American pirate Novel. But this is just when I'm stuck on a scene and haven't gotten around to writing it yet, always creeps into my thoughts when I'm trying to go to sleep.)

I'm told by people I respect (because they seem to like my writing... but unfortunately they have no links to agents or publishers...) that my latest attempt at a novel is my best. You would hope to improve as you go on.

Unlike my previous attempts, I can see flashes of my relatives, friends, the kids across the road in this one. Even more worrying, my audience can sometimes see me in it.

To get a publishable novel, will I have to disappear up my own word processor?

Ed

Another tidbit of wisdom from Dr. Cross, creative writing prof:

You don't need an agent until you're making enough money for someone to want ten percent of it.

"To get a publishable novel, will I have to disappear up my own word processor?"

Haven't you already?

Isn't it inevitable?
I thought the golden rule was write about what you know.
Any one person's experiences can be all that person has as a frame of reference - influences, and determines the perspectives that they bring to any observations of life or art or "what it is to be..." etc.
If I had a bit more confidence in my own, then I would be happy to be I/O port retentive?, and might actually get some product. I'm 25.

Write what you know?

So there'd be no science fiction, very little horror or historical writing, crime fiction would be written only by criminals...?

How about "write about what you THINK you know?"

After all, there are thousands of brilliant thinkers full of knowledge who just can't write eloquently. Even writing what you know won't necessarily turn out good.

The best we can do is write about what we think we know, research things we feel shaky on, and hope we fooled everybody.

This is simple advise, and hard to missunderstand. for example, the perry mason books were writen by a very good lawyer. So good in fact, that one D.A. found the answer to a tricky problem while reading the books. (even down to the case reference).
The sci-fi point is bunk as well. One of the most notable sci-fi authors, and inspiration for a lot of robotics, Isaac asimov wrote a massive amount of sci-fi. however his sci-fi was only about 1 per cent of his total writing, most of which was about science.
In fact, there is a notable paper that was writen by some sci-fi authors who also were research scientists that analysed the similarities and differences between their two professions, and found that to be good in either field took exactly the same type of thought processes, but a slightly different writing style.
Then you have arthur c clarke, inventer of the communications satalite, and war time radar researcher, who has a long history of putting stuff in sci-fi which gets made within 20-30 years.
Patricia cornwell writes about pathology, which she has close experience with. jerry pournelle writes sci-fi about space (he used to work at JPL). sir arthur conan doyle (sherlock holmes) worked for the earliest recorded forensic pathologist. hence holmes's methodology. edwina currie writes against a background of politics.
All of them wrote about what they knew, while at the same time writing good general fiction. Because they knew what they were writing about, they could spot when they were making things up, or just plain getting things wrong, without totally de-railing the story.