I'm now, (almost) an author...
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... well that's the "plan". I'm technically, between contracts - but, more realistically, probably at the end of the road of a forty year career in software development. So of course, I thought... I'll write a novel - a fiction novel, in fact. Doesn't everyone? Well it's not all fun and games trying to be an author. I started on a new chapter... five lines in and I'm thinking: 1. Does that look right? 2. Is this how it should start? 3. What happens next. 4. Is this really a chapter? Just like programming, I guess! :)
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... well that's the "plan". I'm technically, between contracts - but, more realistically, probably at the end of the road of a forty year career in software development. So of course, I thought... I'll write a novel - a fiction novel, in fact. Doesn't everyone? Well it's not all fun and games trying to be an author. I started on a new chapter... five lines in and I'm thinking: 1. Does that look right? 2. Is this how it should start? 3. What happens next. 4. Is this really a chapter? Just like programming, I guess! :)
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... well that's the "plan". I'm technically, between contracts - but, more realistically, probably at the end of the road of a forty year career in software development. So of course, I thought... I'll write a novel - a fiction novel, in fact. Doesn't everyone? Well it's not all fun and games trying to be an author. I started on a new chapter... five lines in and I'm thinking: 1. Does that look right? 2. Is this how it should start? 3. What happens next. 4. Is this really a chapter? Just like programming, I guess! :)
Are you a plotter or a planner?
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Are you a plotter or a planner?
I'm a plotter/planner - not a 'pantser'. Although that's not going exactly as I expected either. I had it all mapped out - down to the chapter level. And actually wrote the final chapter - so knew exactly where I was headed. And then... A few weeks back, someone asked: "How's the book going?" I replied: "Two more chapters to go." Since then, I've written four more chapters, (and revised some of the earlier ones), and I still have two more chapters to go! :confused: Again, very much like software development. :)
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I'm a plotter/planner - not a 'pantser'. Although that's not going exactly as I expected either. I had it all mapped out - down to the chapter level. And actually wrote the final chapter - so knew exactly where I was headed. And then... A few weeks back, someone asked: "How's the book going?" I replied: "Two more chapters to go." Since then, I've written four more chapters, (and revised some of the earlier ones), and I still have two more chapters to go! :confused: Again, very much like software development. :)
As you know, we in software development call that refactoring. I think most successful authors would tell you need to write, then re-write over and over again. It doesn't matter how detailed you plan is even before you start writing a single line. So, just like software development.
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As you know, we in software development call that refactoring. I think most successful authors would tell you need to write, then re-write over and over again. It doesn't matter how detailed you plan is even before you start writing a single line. So, just like software development.
dandy72 wrote:
As you know, we in software development call that refactoring Scope Creep
FTFY
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
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dandy72 wrote:
As you know, we in software development call that refactoring Scope Creep
FTFY
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
Mike Hankey wrote:
dandy72 wrote: As you know, we in software development call that refactoring Scope Creep FTFY
When I write "novels", scope creep it the very purpose of it. I don't write for anyone but myself; I will never try to have my texts published (or even show them to others). I started out writing about 25+ years ago, in frustration over my inability to fix my own car; I am completely dependent on car mechanics for everything; I know nothing about cars. My brain started churning on this: I know nothing about how soap is made. How to smoke meat and fish. How to use a chainsaw. ... So in my mind I created a scenario with noone around to help me (almost). A post-apocalyptic world where I would have to solve all problems on my own. I attacked one are at a time - and also asking myself: Do I really need to solve this problem - is is an essential one? To begin with, the specific problems and solutions were in focus. Then came the scope creep: With limited resources, what do I really want to give priority? What it truly valuable to me? In my imaginary post-apocalyptic world, I wasn't all alone: A group of kids had survived as well. So I had to justify my choices to them, and we had to organize a new society. How would I build and organize a society from a tabula rasa, when noone else restricts my choices? (The reason why I let a group of kids survive was to give myself more freedom: They would have few very firm ideas about what a society should be, but they would all the time be questioning my, and gradually their own, choices.) So the scope crept outward, to thoughts about society in general, how to relate to life and death, which morals can be justified for yourself and which can you impose on others, and so on. As the work progressed, I was surprised to learn how may questions I had never before given a single thought. Also, thinking them thoroughly over made me, in several areas, change my deepest convictions. It changed me as a human. Later, I have written a number of texts, as novels or (long) short stories, essentially by creating a scenario that I do not know how to handle. In order to make a trustworthy story, with people behaving and arguing in a way that makes sense, I have to do a lot of background studies. Almost always, it starts out with some very practical problem, like this group that gets involved in a new mining project: How do you get minerals out of the stone? I didn't have a clu
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Mike Hankey wrote:
dandy72 wrote: As you know, we in software development call that refactoring Scope Creep FTFY
When I write "novels", scope creep it the very purpose of it. I don't write for anyone but myself; I will never try to have my texts published (or even show them to others). I started out writing about 25+ years ago, in frustration over my inability to fix my own car; I am completely dependent on car mechanics for everything; I know nothing about cars. My brain started churning on this: I know nothing about how soap is made. How to smoke meat and fish. How to use a chainsaw. ... So in my mind I created a scenario with noone around to help me (almost). A post-apocalyptic world where I would have to solve all problems on my own. I attacked one are at a time - and also asking myself: Do I really need to solve this problem - is is an essential one? To begin with, the specific problems and solutions were in focus. Then came the scope creep: With limited resources, what do I really want to give priority? What it truly valuable to me? In my imaginary post-apocalyptic world, I wasn't all alone: A group of kids had survived as well. So I had to justify my choices to them, and we had to organize a new society. How would I build and organize a society from a tabula rasa, when noone else restricts my choices? (The reason why I let a group of kids survive was to give myself more freedom: They would have few very firm ideas about what a society should be, but they would all the time be questioning my, and gradually their own, choices.) So the scope crept outward, to thoughts about society in general, how to relate to life and death, which morals can be justified for yourself and which can you impose on others, and so on. As the work progressed, I was surprised to learn how may questions I had never before given a single thought. Also, thinking them thoroughly over made me, in several areas, change my deepest convictions. It changed me as a human. Later, I have written a number of texts, as novels or (long) short stories, essentially by creating a scenario that I do not know how to handle. In order to make a trustworthy story, with people behaving and arguing in a way that makes sense, I have to do a lot of background studies. Almost always, it starts out with some very practical problem, like this group that gets involved in a new mining project: How do you get minerals out of the stone? I didn't have a clu
The ideas and thoughts in your writings are yours, that's the whole point of writing and reading. I already know what I'm thinking (most of the time :)) so I want to read what others think and write. (I'm an avid reader (about 2 hours a day). If I don't like or agree with what someone writes I simply don't read it. If you don't like something I say or write about, ignore it. It's a pretty simple philosophy. As an aside, I have learned many professions over the years, mainly because I'm too poor to pay someone else to do it.
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
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The ideas and thoughts in your writings are yours, that's the whole point of writing and reading. I already know what I'm thinking (most of the time :)) so I want to read what others think and write. (I'm an avid reader (about 2 hours a day). If I don't like or agree with what someone writes I simply don't read it. If you don't like something I say or write about, ignore it. It's a pretty simple philosophy. As an aside, I have learned many professions over the years, mainly because I'm too poor to pay someone else to do it.
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
Mike Hankey wrote:
I already know what I'm thinking (most of the time :) )
Until you have had to (fiercely) defend your thoughts, you do not know for sure what you are thinking. In my student days, we were a group of 8-10 students meeting every weekend for all sorts of discussions - almost as if the very purpose was to disagree. Whatever one of us suggested, it was met by some counter arguments. That was extremely stimulating, and made us dig really deep to see if we could truly defend our opinions. We were truly disagreeing: A newborn Christian, a jew, a couple traditional protestants, most were non-believers, but we could discuss religious questions through the night. One wore a Mao Tse Tung button on his jacket sleeve at all times, another one would definitely support an alternate president if he was in the US now, some were green, some wanted more or less a theocracy: The morals of the Christian churches should control all aspects of society; this of course led to fierce debates. Yet, we were all close friends when all arrived at my little apartment, and equally close friends when the left at night. After we graduated, the group naturally dissolved. When I write, the main character(s) always have antagonist(s) opposing their ideas and thoughts. For me as an author, one of the most challenging tasks is to dig up all the counter arguments against the ideas held by the protagonists, which are 'obviously' the good, right ideas. No, that is not at all obvious. Then there would be no conflict around them. So I have to understand what makes the antagonists think the way they do. Therefore,
If I don't like or agree with what someone writes I simply don't read it.
This is very much contrary to my line of thought. I must know the counter arguments, the arguments for a completely different taste or judgement. First, it can strengthen my ability to defend my own opinions. Second: What if they are right? What if I really should change my opinions? I am open to that alternative! Finally: If you don't read what "someone" writes because you don't like it or disagree with it, how do you know that you don't like it or disagree with it? Is it due to a label that you or someone else has attached to the author, rather than the writings?
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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dandy72 wrote:
As you know, we in software development call that refactoring Scope Creep
FTFY
If you can't find time to do it right the first time, how are you going to find time to do it again? PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.4.0 (Many new features) JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
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Mike Hankey wrote:
dandy72 wrote: As you know, we in software development call that refactoring Scope Creep FTFY
When I write "novels", scope creep it the very purpose of it. I don't write for anyone but myself; I will never try to have my texts published (or even show them to others). I started out writing about 25+ years ago, in frustration over my inability to fix my own car; I am completely dependent on car mechanics for everything; I know nothing about cars. My brain started churning on this: I know nothing about how soap is made. How to smoke meat and fish. How to use a chainsaw. ... So in my mind I created a scenario with noone around to help me (almost). A post-apocalyptic world where I would have to solve all problems on my own. I attacked one are at a time - and also asking myself: Do I really need to solve this problem - is is an essential one? To begin with, the specific problems and solutions were in focus. Then came the scope creep: With limited resources, what do I really want to give priority? What it truly valuable to me? In my imaginary post-apocalyptic world, I wasn't all alone: A group of kids had survived as well. So I had to justify my choices to them, and we had to organize a new society. How would I build and organize a society from a tabula rasa, when noone else restricts my choices? (The reason why I let a group of kids survive was to give myself more freedom: They would have few very firm ideas about what a society should be, but they would all the time be questioning my, and gradually their own, choices.) So the scope crept outward, to thoughts about society in general, how to relate to life and death, which morals can be justified for yourself and which can you impose on others, and so on. As the work progressed, I was surprised to learn how may questions I had never before given a single thought. Also, thinking them thoroughly over made me, in several areas, change my deepest convictions. It changed me as a human. Later, I have written a number of texts, as novels or (long) short stories, essentially by creating a scenario that I do not know how to handle. In order to make a trustworthy story, with people behaving and arguing in a way that makes sense, I have to do a lot of background studies. Almost always, it starts out with some very practical problem, like this group that gets involved in a new mining project: How do you get minerals out of the stone? I didn't have a clu
I liked the News Feed novels (reporters during zombie apocalypse). The author had their text reviewed by experts in guns, biology, etc. to make sure all of it was at least plausible.
Bond Keep all things as simple as possible, but no simpler. -said someone, somewhere
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I liked the News Feed novels (reporters during zombie apocalypse). The author had their text reviewed by experts in guns, biology, etc. to make sure all of it was at least plausible.
Bond Keep all things as simple as possible, but no simpler. -said someone, somewhere
In these AI days ... One reason why James P. Hogan: The Two Faces of Tomorrow (1979) still holds up fairly well may be related to the Acknowledgement prefacing the novel, where he thanks the help and advice received from Prof. Marvin Minsky, Artificial Intelligence Unit, MIT. (If "Marvin Minsky" is unknown to you, look it up in Wikipedia!) Having experts review your manuscript is absolutely essential, for verifying anything that is not your own field of expertise. You might run into problems with an expert completely rejecting something you wrote, "It couldn't possibly have been like that, you have to completely rewrite that part of the story", the expert tearing down major part of your plot. I have read a few books like that. One author of 25 mystery novels, translated to 40 languages (according to Wikipedia) makes such grave mistakes, basing his plots on impossible assumptions, that I have come to reject his books completely. Fair enough: Some novels are declared to be counterfactual, but that is different from counterfactual physics and the workings of engineered mechanisms that in all ways are presented as factual.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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I'm a plotter/planner - not a 'pantser'. Although that's not going exactly as I expected either. I had it all mapped out - down to the chapter level. And actually wrote the final chapter - so knew exactly where I was headed. And then... A few weeks back, someone asked: "How's the book going?" I replied: "Two more chapters to go." Since then, I've written four more chapters, (and revised some of the earlier ones), and I still have two more chapters to go! :confused: Again, very much like software development. :)