The Scafverse is taking on a new artistic challenge: writing a full-length Science Fiction novel!

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Writing a novel sounds easy– come up with a good plot, set it in a visually striking landscape, involve some characters and witty dialog, and POOF! you have a best-seller on your hands.

Except that we all know that for some reason it is NOT that easy.  Sitting in the audience  for whatever critically acclaimed hit Show is on one’s screen, repeatedly and accurately predicting story arcs, plot twists, “revealing” scenes, and even the next snippet of dialog, should imply that one has the fundamental means to write scripts for said Show– so what’s the issue?  In my experience, it is the narrative, the prose, the way the story is told that cannot be replicated– the plot, while necessary, is secondary.  What??

I wasn’t always a good writer, but became so in Business School and my career in Asset Management– and therein lies the problem– I’m not a Teacher or Lawyer called upon to expound upon a lesson or legal theory– prose is a liability in financial situations.  Presenting the very basic plot (we called that the “Net-net”) in the most minimalist form, while still readable, was all that mattered.  Adverbs, adjectives, interjections, heck!– any descriptors at all should be stripped from this style of writing.  Proposals in the form of spreadsheets on Post-It notes would be best, except that they had a way of sticking to some other piece of research and getting filed incorrectly, leaving no legitimate way to CYA when the witch hunt of cost cutting invariably shows up at your door in a few years.  So we, the Financial world, use normal-paper-sized memos:

As you can glean from that perfect example above– I was very good, some even said the greatest, at memo writing (feel free to use the template above to make your own requisition, whether it be a new set of colored pens or the latest ergonometric chair).

With such finely honed writing skills just oozing from my finger tips, I sat in front of my computer and hacked out a scene on the keyboard:

What??  Am I serious with this??!!

Ok, so I determined that the “good” business writing I had so finely honed definitely helps with story through line, character motivation and overall plotting but definitely not with prose and narrative.  As such, I am now embarking on a program of self-study of the fine craft of writing which will include a) an academic study of the art; b) an intense intellectual awareness of form, structure, and narrative (not just the story) in the books and shows I read and watch; and c) an exercise of writing various short stories each with a particular focus on some area of study.

If you are interested in my “academic course load”, feel free to check out my Goodreads page, and check the “Research” shelf.  If you have any good suggestions for additional books, please let me know.

Of the writing exercises, my first is a short story called, “Captain Oliver Has Lost His Drive,”  of which I’ve just completed the First Draft.  I’m going to change a bit of the narrative and many of the word choices for the second draft, but I should still be able to post it here in that (incomplete) form within the next few days.  Captain Oliver narrates the tale of an incident aboard a space merchant trading vessel.  While it will have some similar themes to the novel, it should fundamentally feel quite different:  Captain Oliver is written in the first person narrative versus the limited third person narrative of the novel, is a bit lighter in tone, far less scientifically accurate, set in the very distant future of a civilization like ours, and intentionally devoid of dialogue.

Enjoy!

(Constructive criticism is appreciated and requested!)