The Heavy Burden of Writing Scifi
How long does it take to write scifi? Here’s an example. In order to get it absolutely right, I just spent AN HOUR AND 5 MINUTES to write the following passage:
The Centro per il Calcolo Avanzato, also known as CCA, was a seven story, perfectly square bunker, with a ground floor at street level, and three floors above and below it. There were no windows. Above ground, the otherwise-featureless three floors were encircled by continuous panels of one-meter-high frieze work. The artistry depicted the history of computational science, from its birth with the invention of the abacus in 2700 BCE, to the latest [known] Sib, the history repository, preservation, evaluation, prediction, and alert machine, Sib Seldon. Sib Seldon was named for the psychohistorian in the timeless, distinguished science fiction series, Foundation, which had been written by Isaac Asimov, 112 years earlier.
Much of the third floor frieze work of the CCA was unfinished, to accommodate advances from the current year onward. By and large, a 3-meter by 3-meter panel was allocated to each year, though any year might have more than one panel, if it were a particularly productive and historic year for computational science development.
At night, the frieze work was illuminated from behind by cleverly-positioned, holographic projectors. To the passerby looking at the building, the entire chronicle of computational history appeared in 3D in the air before them, with the oldest, first-floor frieze work at knee-level, the next floor at chest level, and the third floor at eye level.
Three circuits around the building would display the entire history.
I had to look up time, dates, read articles with various opinions, translate English into Italian, look up authors and works I’ve actually read to get names, characters, titles, and timing right, spell-check, picture a visitor looking at my scene, and conclude the event – WHICH WAS THERE TO CREATE COLOR, BACKGROUND, AND DEPTH TO THE STORY!
What you see in bold is 231 words.
I once asked a friend, who wrote romance novels, how long it took her to write 5000 words in that genre.
She said that when she was most productive, she could write 5500 words in 8 hours, or 688 words/hour.
I am not a slow writer but I pay attention to details, because that’s what scifi readers expect. Like my friend, I also work 8 hours per day when I’m productive. In the time she or I could write 5500 words of a brainless genre like romance, I can write 1700 words of scifi.
For every 3.25, full-length, romance novels you write, you might be able to create be only 1 scifi novel. They sell for about the same per word.
Those of us who write science fiction, do it because we love the genre, not to make money.
The Centro per il Calcolo Avanzato, also known as CCA, was a seven story, perfectly square bunker, with a ground floor at street level, and three floors above and below it. There were no windows. Above ground, the otherwise-featureless three floors were encircled by continuous panels of one-meter-high frieze work. The artistry depicted the history of computational science, from its birth with the invention of the abacus in 2700 BCE, to the latest [known] Sib, the history repository, preservation, evaluation, prediction, and alert machine, Sib Seldon. Sib Seldon was named for the psychohistorian in the timeless, distinguished science fiction series, Foundation, which had been written by Isaac Asimov, 112 years earlier.
Much of the third floor frieze work of the CCA was unfinished, to accommodate advances from the current year onward. By and large, a 3-meter by 3-meter panel was allocated to each year, though any year might have more than one panel, if it were a particularly productive and historic year for computational science development.
At night, the frieze work was illuminated from behind by cleverly-positioned, holographic projectors. To the passerby looking at the building, the entire chronicle of computational history appeared in 3D in the air before them, with the oldest, first-floor frieze work at knee-level, the next floor at chest level, and the third floor at eye level.
Three circuits around the building would display the entire history.
I had to look up time, dates, read articles with various opinions, translate English into Italian, look up authors and works I’ve actually read to get names, characters, titles, and timing right, spell-check, picture a visitor looking at my scene, and conclude the event – WHICH WAS THERE TO CREATE COLOR, BACKGROUND, AND DEPTH TO THE STORY!
What you see in bold is 231 words.
I once asked a friend, who wrote romance novels, how long it took her to write 5000 words in that genre.
She said that when she was most productive, she could write 5500 words in 8 hours, or 688 words/hour.
I am not a slow writer but I pay attention to details, because that’s what scifi readers expect. Like my friend, I also work 8 hours per day when I’m productive. In the time she or I could write 5500 words of a brainless genre like romance, I can write 1700 words of scifi.
For every 3.25, full-length, romance novels you write, you might be able to create be only 1 scifi novel. They sell for about the same per word.
Those of us who write science fiction, do it because we love the genre, not to make money.
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