vilakins | Future novelist

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writing

Future novelist

Another meme gacked from astrogirl2's blog Maximum Verbosity. Actually I knew it already but I was interested to see if they'd get the right answer.

Yes, they got it right though I'm not sure how from those questions; I suspect the last one decided it.

GenreSciFi
SCI-FI! - Neuromancy and technical wizardry!
You are compelled to write of the future and
what might be a thousand years from now or
next week. Is it a visit to an alien culture? Or
a breathtaking new form of technology? Isaac
Asimov and William Gibson are your guides.

What Kind of Novel Should I Write?
brought to you by Quizilla

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I got Suspense, which is about right, given where I am in the novel.

Gina

Hah, it must be more accurate than the questions led me to think. :-)

It has me correctly pegged as Fantasy.

You should write us some then! Harry Potter, or even B7. I once read a very good story (in a zine unfortunately) in which Vila ends up in a fantasy world where he has to solve the locks to a castle, defeat the dragon with a riddle, and get the treasure. They asked him to stay and be their champion against other monsters but he decided Scorpio was safer. It was very funny and well-written; the wizard asked for a thief but assumed from Vila's clipgun that he was also a wizard with a powerful wand.

Oh that sounds fun! Can you remember the title and zine?

I think it was a Vilaworld zine. [goes to look at zine shelves] Oh, it's by someone I think you know--Narelle Harris, another Australian. It's called Dragonrider and it's in Interface 12. I really love how it uses the conventions of fantasy stories and subverts them; e.g. Vila objects to having to walk to the mountain.

"Does it have to take weeks? If it was possible for you to bring me though time and space, surely you could teleport us all to this Stone Mountain."

"But, Vila Restal, the journey is half the task..."

"Bull! I don't see how getting most of us killed on the way there can possibly be essential to the quest."

Gintar the wizard gives in and teleports them. :-)

And hey, I think you did the cover illo! [looks on title page] You did!

How very odd. Yes, I know I did the cover illo for one of the Interface zines, but I can't remember which one. And now that I look, I can't find my copy. I would have thought I would have remembered a story like that!

How odd.

Is it still in print, do you know? I may have to just get another copy to replace the one I can't find.

I wouldn't have a clue. I bought all my copies second-hand from various people. [goes to look] Hermit review it but don't offer it and Jim and Melody's Ugly Site (http://www.crossovers.net/makeitgoaway/fanzinehome.htm) don't have it. If you don't know them, they're good to deal with; they sell lots of fandoms. [checks Excel spreadsheet] Hah! I got it from them!

(looks at site)

What the heck! They're selling Refractions "new"!
(goes off to write a stongly-worded letter to these unauthorized potential pirates)

(!!!!!!!!)

(!)

Oh well, they're out of town, though I didn't discover that until after I sent the letter.

Ignore the 'new' and 'used' labels. The listsing look the same to me and they're all used.

Um, no, the listings are not the same. Refractions was definitely listed only in the "New" Mixed Media page, not the "Used" one.

We'll see what they say in a week or so...

That sounds like a story I'd like. I don't think I have the Interface zines, but I'll keep an eye out for that one. Thank you for telling me about it. :)

I do have some fantasy fics on my to-write list. I've got a B7/Labyrinth crossover started, and a Harry Potter/Buffy crossover AU in the plotting stages. And some B7 stories retold as fairy tales - 'Sleeping Beauty' is on the Web site already, and I'm about halfway through 'Blake and the Beanstalk', and have an idea for 'Rapunzel'. But I'm afraid those are all on hold until I finish the things that people are waiting on! Really, I've got to learn to write faster. :(

They sound fun. I must read 'Sleeping Beauty' but it's almost bedtime now and I have work tomorrow. I did do a B7 story, The Stuff of Legends (http://www.farsight.net.nz/fiction/legends.htm), with a dragon myself, but it wasn't really fantasy as the dragon was an alien. :-)

Sleeping Beauty may not be to your taste - it's based on Sarcophagus, which I seem to recall you don't care for, and the ending is a bit downbeat.

And I'll be sure to read The Stuff of Legends, because it sounds very much my thing - I actually prefer a blend of science fiction and fantasy to either one separately; it's only when I have to choose between them that fantasy wins out.

The dragon in 'Legends' is based on one from an original novel I'll probably never write. :-P

BTW what happened to Bayban? Kerril would have talked to him!

I think there are a bunch of us who are going to have to start working on original stuff. :-P

And yes, I have to do something with Bayban. Soon. But I've just been too exhausted.

Aww. Well hey, fannish play is meant to be fun, though at times it can come to feel like duty, can't it? I'd like to see Bayban doing a bit of raving when you're up to it.

Oddly enough, I got Literature. "LITERATURE! - You have a story... Oh yes you do! You are not quite sure what it is, but it burns! It burns to be poured onto the page! Write! Write I say! And thrill us with your unique view of the world. YOU are your own inspiration!"

I think it was correct to this degree: I have a story and I don't know what it is! 8-)

I thought you'd get SF too. I suppose the importance you give factors like romance and style affects the results.

And possibly that I consider character more important than world-building; but maybe that's because since I write mostly fanfic, the world is built already.

The romance questions were practically impossible to answer, because on the one hand, I'm perfectly happy if there ain't no romance at all, but on the other hand, when there is, I want it to be happy, true and honourable love.

And I was all over the place with style. I *like* atmosphere, but I don't write it well, I'm strong in dialogue, but I couldn't decide whether to pick "realistic but witty" or "melodramatic with hidden meaning".

I went for 'realistic but witty'. :-)

I'm totally with you on romance; it can be good if it's done right but even then I get annoyed when it takes over. I'm going to have a pairing in my PGP but it will be implied and mostly humorous. No mush or 'on-screen' sex. I think that was the problem with some of the questions--if I'd said what sort of romance I prefer, it would have implied it had a an importance in my writing which it doesn't.

I got Fantasy, which makes sense :)

I was also fantasy, for the record, and given how often the supernatural and the mystical tend to crop up in my fic, maybe it's got a point. :)

Yeah, I was thinking about that when I saw your result in your blog. You do write that more often than hard SF. Maybe you have too much science in your day already. :-P

Yeah, hard science feels like work to me. It's also harder to make relevant to characters, I think, and I am definitely a character-based writer.

Then again, I have been down to pull out the calculator and a table of energy conversions and calculate how much energy my mystical energy beings would have to have. :)

Then again, I have been down to pull out the calculator and a table of energy conversions and calculate how much energy my mystical energy beings would have to have.

Now, that's what I like to see! (grin)

I think hard science is hard work if you need to research it. Thinking of my original novels (still in my head) I prefer it applied: methods of FTL travel, gadgets etc as opposed to meticulously calculated trajectories and times of impact.

It seems more accurate than I thought. I sometimes found it hard to pick an option; some were too alike and other times, none quite fitted.

Write us some B7 fantasy! :-D

I got History, which seems right for me. But, in that case, why am I here?

Because you'd write history but enjoy reading other genres for relaxation?

When I'm not on-line I only seem to read history and poetry (and railway magazines)

Apart from the poetry, you'd get on so well with Greg. Next time we're in the UK, we'll have to meet, possibly at York and the NRM. :-D

I got Fantasy, though I might have expected SF to win by a short head.

Maybe when you like your SF more speculative, it can shade into fantasy? I'd have pegged you as SF too.

Shock! Horrors!

Okay, I have to take this one.

And what did you get?

"Liturateure"

Which as I say in my post strikes me as hilarious because I had a long plotty, Matrix Fanfic I'm on and off writing in mine while taking the test.

*grin* I wound up with Gothic! Do I seem gothic?? I don't think I've even read any gothics... unless you count the classics- Dracula, Frankenstein, Zacherly's Werewolf Stew....

No, I just remembered, it was 'Vulture' Stew. But there were werewolves in the book.

Yeah, me too; the first two anyway. Avon's a bit gothic though. He dresses and glowers the part.

Haven't you done vampires in B7, though? That seems a bit gothic...

Yes, I did a vampire story, and a tiny Ghostbusters crossover (that doesn't seem gothic), and I woke up with an idea for a B7 mummy story I hope to write in time for Halloween... so I guess they're not far off.

I got historicals. It was very interesting, because I've written and enjoyed writing everything except chicklit. I suppose my love of worldbuilding and research helped make it historical. I have always enjoyed writing historical stuff.

Hey, historical doesn't have to be chicklit. That's romance [shudder]. I enjoy stories about ancient times like I, Claudius, Claudius the God, Beacon at Alexandria, and the humorous but very well-researched Marcus Didius Falco series about the Roman investigator.

I know, chicklit is just the only genre covered that I have never written. My historical stuff includes Musketeer fanfic and the story of a small unit of men involved in the English Civil War and serving under Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

Ooh, there are people here who lust after Musketeer fic and anything baroque. Where is it? I'm impressed; I couldn't be bothered to do the research.

Ah, see what you mean now. Hmm, I don't write romance, porn, historical (easier to build a world than research one), horror (though one B7 story will have a touch) or occult, and out of that lot I'll only really read historical.

It's unfinished, so far. It's called "The Lion's Daughter" and is about Aramis getting entangled with a Venetian spy.

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