Month: November 2009

bookmark_borderSynopsis Biopsis

Posted on by PaulaO

I hate writing synopsises…synopsi…those things.

The synopsis is smashing down the entire novel into a single paragraph or two into a summary. Part of its purpose is to tease the reader and publisher into wanting more. Think of the synopsis as what’s on the back cover of a book with just a wee bit more added in.

Another part is to help the writer to figure out just what the hell she is aiming for. Which is probably why I hate them.

Someone asked what this latest book of mine was about. And I couldn’t quite answer that question. “Earth is about to end, aliens come and rescue a bunch of people in time…you know.” I think that’s what I said.

I don’t think I can write a synopsis until the book is finished. Too many variables. Too many plot holes. Too many untied strings. But there comes a point when I feel the urge to start narrowing it down. Almost always it happens about 30K words. Exodus is at ~29K so I am feelin’ it. I am doing it in my head for now. It has helped to fix some of the problems I’m having.

One problem was the sheer numbers of people. The world’s population right now is just under 7 billion. I at first was thinking that maybe 22% of them would be genetically homosexual. And of that amount, 45% were lesbians. That came out to be 672,885,369 lesbians.

Think about it. 672.8 MILLION lesbians/humans. That’s a shit load of people. So I did some research on just what is the percentage of homosexuals? That number depends on the country/region. Some countries have a high percentage (up to 45%) and others have a really low one (as low as 2%). Then I was thinking that perhaps not everyone who identifies as being homosexual may not be genetic homosexuals. So I dropped the numbers down to half to 11%. Still left me with 336.4 million lesbians. Oy.

Okay, plot change. No way could they have gotten everyone. Yeah, sure they could have if all were put into cryogenic suspension. But still, what to do with all of them? So I changed the plot. They didn’t have time to take everyone off. I looked at 25% of all lesbians had been rescued (84 million) and of those, only 1% would be woken up (brought out of cryogenic suspension). They would help the aliens to decide what to do with them all. That meant 841,107 would be awake and moving around. Still a huge number but somewhat more manageable. Slightly more than the population of San Francisco.

Now my synopsis is starting to form. Plot knots are being combed out to nicer looking threads. Plot holes are being patched with more information. I still couldn’t write it out but it is there like a ghost. Just don’t ask me to come up with it.

Linkages:
What Percentage of Population is Gay? (Gallup poll)
Demographics of Sexual Orientation (Wikipedia)
Modern Survey Results (part of above article; interesting section)

bookmark_borderWriting Science Fiction

Posted on by PaulaO

I’m currently pounding out the first chapter or two of a science fiction (SF) novel. Eh, not too bad but it is far from perfect. Basically, I am just letting the story come to me as I write it. I have an idea of where I want it to go and a few things that have to happen along the way, but other than that, it is just going with the flow.

That’s normally how I write anyway. Well, when I write that is. But I am writing again and it feels good.

I’ve also started poking some on another SF novel. Remember my ramblings from earlier about possible ideas for this year’s NaNo? I kept rolling them around in my head and the piece I am working on now is the result. The idea is this: Aliens have been watching us for a while as they determine if we are worth saving. An anomaly called a rift–predictable but unstoppable–is going to happen near Earth. As the time gets closer, the location is pinpointed and Earth is in the middle of it. Just a few days prior, they make themselves known and zap everyone off the planet. They divide humankind into various groups and leave before the rift appears. Every lesbian, from infants to elderly, are “adopted” by an all-female race. Genetic markers are used to determine sexual preference. As the ship makes it way across space, the women must come to grips with their new realities.

The women have been placed into groups. Smaller groups of 12 are called Pods. 5 Pods make what is known as a Collective. All the Collectives make the Assembly. The story will remain with one Pod and follow when they first awaken until I say The End. Not sure just where that will happen yet. It feels very character driven. I mean, think about it. What would you do if this happened to you? What would happen if you were in the closet, even to yourself? Your genome may say “markers are positive for female homosexuality” but what if you never really thought about it? What about the infants and the young girls who have no freakin’ clue where there parents are or what homosexual even means? Or lesbians raising heterosexual kids?

Each Pod has a Leader (not come up with a title yet) and a Second. The Leader is awoken first, told what happened, and given the choice to be Leader or to go back to sleep, having the memory of the conversation erased. So far, I’ve gotten to the point where Karen Williams must decide if she is to be that Leader or to go back to sleep.

“If I choose not to be, what will happen? How much of my memory will I lose?”

“Before you awoke, I implanted a marker into the part of your brain that contains your memories. If you choose not to be the Captain, you will go back to bed, I will put you to sleep, and I will erase everything that happened after that marker. It, too, will be removed. When you awaken again, you will not have any recollection of this time.”

“Am I the first to be awakened?”

“No, you are the third. I have learned better through them as to what to look for in your minds. You are, however, the first to make it this far.” The Monitor looked away a moment. “The first woman I awakened did nothing but scream. The second lasted a little longer. I then took the time to examine all of you and determined you were the best option.”

“You have the Second already picked out?”

“I believe I do, yes. If you want to know, I picked you because your thoughts were the most organized. While they were full of fear and confusion, they were somewhat…less frantic? I think that is the word. What I had first thought was a highly active mind, and therefore more stable, was instead more fear and confusion in a…tangled mess.”