Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion
SEPTEMBER 2017 MICROSTORY CONTEST - COMMENTS ONLY
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Seem like an awful lot of parameters/requirements here, Greg. There has to be a pax of some sort, a misunderstanding, a discovery, then symbiosis and peace? So basically the plot's set out for us--?
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I was aiming for a rough framework, to have everyone fill in the scenery and characters. So the broad plot is defined, but not the details. If anyone finds this too confining, use the 4 elements (Discovery, Symbiosis, War and Peace) in any order. That will leave the door open for horror and destruction on a planetary scale, if desired.
Yes, the story can also start out as "two aliens walk into a bar..." :-)
So, I'll just put this here for anyone who might be interested.I've never actually published anything before and I'm looking to self publish an MG sci-fi adventure novel. I'd like to see if anyone in the group could read over my manuscript and give me a kind but honest critique. It's about 83,000 words and should be an easy, fun read. I only ask that you complete it within 30 days.
If anyone here is interested in reviewing it in confidence, please message me!
Thanks!
:)
Pax Galactica "A team of cosmic warriors who take it upon themselves to safeguard universal stability."I think my pax will be a group of sword wielding demigods defending the universe while riding unicorns!!
You know...just cuz.... :D :D :D
Wish I could, Chris, but too overloaded with clients' jobs; I bet it is a good book!Chris wrote: "So, I'll just put this here for anyone who might be interested.
I've never actually published anything before and I'm looking to self publish an MG sci-fi adventure novel. I'd like to see if anyon..."
Paula wrote: "Wish I could, Chris, but too overloaded with clients' jobs; I bet it is a good book!Chris wrote: "So, I'll just put this here for anyone who might be interested.
I've never actually published an..."
I know most people are pretty busy with their own projects, but thought I'd ask. :)
Mod
Mine's up. Yeah, a lot of elements, but I think I got them all.No offense to Greg, but I propose we go back to the old system of one general theme and two required elements. It's enough of a challenge, but leaves enough room for individual plotting.
Greg wrote: "If anyone finds this too confining, use the 4 elements (Discovery, Symbiosis, War and Peace) in any order. That will leave the door open for horror and destruction on a planetary scale, if desired. .."
Thanks Greg,
I appreciate the flexibility.
-C
Good point, Tom.If I get the opportunity in the future, I'll stick with a theme and two elements. I wouldn't want to limit creatively (although this month's stories are off to a great start) nor discourage anyone from voting for me out of fear of what I might do.
"With great power comes great responsibility."
Greg
Where are all the stories this month?Is everyone on vacation? Not Florida, I hope. . .
-C.
I've been tromping around the CO mountains so I've been out of the loop. Hoping to get my story in this week!
I'm slammed with free lance articles on tight deadlines and I'm setting up my sound studio so I can get into book narration. All of my time is getting soaked up with that stuff unfortunately. I do want to get something in but I'm also wrestling with the theme and elements.
Hi all! Back from some intense work and vacation from writing. I have one on the way. Just letting it cool off a bit before submitting.
Justin,See Greg's follow up comments, makes things a bit easier particularly the two aliens walk into a bar deal:
message 3: by Greg Aug 28, 2017 04:41PM
I was aiming for a rough framework, to have everyone fill in the scenery and characters. So the broad plot is defined, but not the details. If anyone finds this too confining, use the 4 elements (Discovery, Symbiosis, War and Peace) in any order.
That will leave the door open for horror and destruction on a planetary scale, if desired.
Yes, the story can also start out as "two aliens walk into a bar..." :-)
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Mod
In the process of publishing my 9/11 novel, Perpetual Words of Hatred. Should be out in the next few days.
Good work, Jot! Btw, if you've found any really excellent copyeditor and/or proofreader, please share the info with the group;==always good info to have. And let us know when you launch the book!
Way to go Jot! Getting my work published is something I really, really need to work on.Anyways C., I've had a brain-cloud on this one. I just can't seem to come up with a good story this month. I'm sure something will come to me.
Mod
Well, mine's up, such as it is. I'm not sure why I struggled so much with the prompt this month. Hope you guys/gals like it. :)
Hi Chris,Brain-cloud? Been there, done that, bought the tee shirt. Sometimes it helps to turn things upside-down, sometimes not... Lol.
I was thinking about the broad range of symbiotic relationships; from passive relationships like a pilot fish to a shark, to predatory relationships like a tarantula wasp to its unfortunate victim (real-life version of 'The Alien'). Quite a range to work with there, dude.
Maybe an advanced AI falls in love and joins with a chimp, and then they both walk into a bar?
AI: May I please have a drink?
Chimp: Oo oo oo
Bartender: What's with the "Oo oo oo?"
AI: Oh, that's my symbiote. He doesn't talk.
Bartender: But you're talking to me now.
AI: I'm an AI.
Chimp: Oo oo oo
Bartender: You better get out of here, buddy. You're pissing me off.
AI: I have just researched this establishment and determined you are not only behind on your federal and state tax payments, but your licensing is not in order and you could easily be closed down with a single, well placed email message.
Chimp: Oo oo oo
Bartender: One "Oo oo oo good" banana dackery coming right up!
: )
-C
Justin, funny that you responded so fast - lol. I was still tweaking it just a bit.
C. wrote: "Hi Chris,Brain-cloud? Been there, done that, bought the tee shirt. Sometimes it helps to turn things upside-down, sometimes not... Lol.
I was thinking about the broad range of symbiosis relation..."
Ha! That's what I needed this month! :D
Carrie, you're in my backyard and it's a great time for elk!Paula et al, I use Susan Strecker to edit my books. She does a great job and isn't too expensive. I'd be happy to forward/post contact info if anyone wants. Should also note, that's part of what Paula does, if she isn't swamped with work.
Good to know, Jack. What sort of editing does she primarily do--developmental/substantive? line editing? copyediting? And thank you for mentioning my editing; my schedule's full through October but after that may have openings. Jot, thank you for the kind remarks. Yes, after the editing the copyediting, and after the copyediting the proofreading, and after the . . . , . . ., and THEN the final proffreading. lol, and by that time one's really ready to let go one's book, for sure.
Jack, I'd like to know who did your audio book for Agents of the Undertow. I've just set up my sound booth and am working to fine tune my editing skills in Audacity. My goal is to get into Amazon book narration/reading for audio books. Did you read yours yourself? That's my plan for my two sci-fi novellas.
Justin, I did read my books and you should absolutely read the Cerulean series. There are some things I can tell you about the process. First, I've done narration for several client movies in the past, so it isn't completely foreign to me. Audible will tell you that customers love it when authors read their own books--when done well. A good friend listens to books all the time. He says in a lot of them the author puts too little effort into the reading there are too many extraneous noises (kids and dogs in the background). I'm not big on listening to books so I can't say.I use my Apple laptop (MacBook Pro) with Garageband to record. Originally, I tried recording on my iMac but the sound quality wasn't as good (weird, I know). Some of that came down to mobility (I'll explain in a bit). I did not use an external mic to record. I have one, I just liked the sound quality better without it.
Originally, I recorded at my office, as I have in the past. But I got too much reverb, even with the makeshift sound box we built and all of Garageband's controls and filters. So, one day I did a bunch of research and found an old--hilarious--solution. That evening I went into my walk-in closet with all of my clothes, hung a towel over the door and recorded a chapter. The result was fantastic! Clothes and the odd surface angles deaden any of the bounce back and reverb.
I've recorded both books there, in my closet, on the carpeted floor with my laptop sitting on top of an old shoebox, amongst loafers and soccer boots and suitcase or two. It's quite glamourous. I tried the library here in Parker, CO, but the results weren't too great. We have a new state-of-the-art library with a recording/sound room. The problem is it isn't insulated well enough and too many extraneous sounds find their way in.
Audible is very picky about approving books these days (they weren't before). You have to be within a certain decibel range and they don't allow any noises at the beginning or end of a chapter. Don't read too loudly. The mic picks up a lot.
Part of the conversation here recently has been around editing services. Here's great news on that front. Once your book is polished and you don't think there is one single comma out of place--go read it aloud and record it. You will find the last 5-7 issues. It's the best thing you can do as a final edit, in my experience.
About the reading: don't be afraid to express yourself. Everyone thinks their voice sucks. Listening as a third-party to yourself isn't easy at first, but you get used to it. And character voices--unless you have a real knack for it--are hard for everyone, especially in a book with a lot of characters and dialogue. Just do it. Several people I know bought my Audiobooks. I ran into two of them recently. They said the quality was great. It was just weird to have me reading to them since they know me. I get that.
Why record it? For my first two novels I took the same approach as a traditional publisher. (I chose to self-publish for a lot of reasons, primarily money. You can make a lot more on your own. I am a graphic and web designer by trade. I design several books and book covers a year, including ebooks. So, that part was easy and didn't cost me a thing.) Make every format available--printed (don't use Create Space unless absolutely necessary), eBook and Audible. (By the way, I also got critical reviews of the books. Thankfully, they've been really good. Agents Of Hope just received a 7.5 out of 10 from The BookLife Prize.) My view is to use every resource you have to make the book sell, now and later.
Creating the Audible version was the last thing I did in the process. I find it the most difficult thing of all. Agents Of Hope is 8.5 hours long--84,000 words--but it takes 3 times that to record. Exhausting, but worth it.
So, why record it? Easy, what happens if two years from now you write a Best Seller, or a book that just does well, and ALL of your books start selling a lot because you have developed a following? Would you want to limit future sales or have to scramble to get it done? According to industry reports, Audible sales account for upwards of 35% of sales for bestselling books. There's an old adage somewhere about planning to succeed ...
As a follow-up to the above, anyone interested in reading Agents Of Hope please let me know. I will get you an ebook version, if that's ok. I can't send out any more hardcopies, sorry, I'm out of the advance reader copies. All I ask is that you leave me a review on my author/book page here on Goodreads or on Amazon. The official release date is Sept 26.Thanks!
PaulaI find Susan to be great at copyediting, especially with weird things like how numbers are handled, always confusing to me. She's very good at proof-reading, as well.
Substantive Editing is a real strength of hers, I believe. I get about 2,000 words back in notes she leaves as she goes along. If she feels any issues she lets you know. However, she isn't a big SciFi reader and I would caution anyone with a real hard sci-fi book. My books barely qualify as sci-fi and she loves my female lead characters.
My books are pretty clean by the time she gets them. For Agents Of Hope there were whole chapters with no edits. My experience might be a bit different than some.
She is an award winning novelist herself and is published by St. Martin’s Press.
Jack wrote: "Justin, I did read my books and you should absolutely read the Cerulean series. There are some things I can tell you about the process. First, I've done narration for several client movies in the p..."Awesome feedback Jack, thank you! I think I'm well positioned to start. First, I just received an actual recording sound booth from a friend whose company didn't need it any more. Sound foam lined, It's 8 ft tall by 4 x 4. I have a boom mic set up right at my height (I'm 6'3) and another mic stand holds my iPad at the same level so I can read into the mic straight on. I'm recording through a little two channel mixing board that goes right into my Surface. The sound level in the booth is perfectly dead quiet with no extraneous noise. The sound levels on Audacity don't even move when I'm in there. I've been looking at Audible's technical specs and I don't think they will be an issue. I've done broadcast in the past, and I recently narrated an internal Boeing video. The director said it was the cleanest audio in terms of my mouth noise (no clicks, ticks, pops, smacks etc.) that he'd ever heard from someone not officially "voice talent." So I feel supremely confident in my ability to do it. I've just got to figure out a few things in Audacity. I've recorded the first chapter of my first book for practice and let my coworker who listens to hundreds of audio books give it a listen. So I've gotten some good feedback there. Anyway, sorry to go on and on here. I'm very excited to get into it, not just for my own books but reading other ones too. Thanks again!
Justin, now I'm jealous. I want toys like those! Very cool. I'm certain the recordings will be great.
Thanks Jack! Honestly, the booth just fell into my lap. I feel like it is my own personal TARDIS. I was going to be in a closet as well, but with this out in the garage (which is separate from my house), it is a great setup.
Guys,An audio/video expert pal of mine suggested using a cardioid mic instead of the usual condenser mic. I just asked him this the other day as I am starting to do voice over video recording. With a pop filter in front, he said it's the best setup for recording straight-on voice.
-C
Thanks for the advice C! On Audible, Amazon has a "wish list" of suggested equipment for doing voiceovers for them, so that's what I used. I believe it is a Rode condenser mic (uses phantom power) and it came on a shock mount with a pop filter. Thus far I am very pleased with how clean the sound is.
I've been following this. Definitely some good stuff to know here. I have four manuscripts I'm looking to get published, so I'm always looking for good info.
Mod
Challenging set of requirements this month.
Mine's posted, Haven't read the others yet; will soon. Tough getting all the elements in and still making decent prose. My attempt is slightly indecent.
Nice story, Kalifer!Eww. I threw out all the cheese in the refrigerator. Lol
-C
Good stories Jot and Kalifer! I liked them both.
Mine's up, finally! I think it meets this month's criteria. Anyway, whew!
Some great stories this month! Took your sweet time, eh? LolJustin's nightmares gave me nightmares. Wait. . . that sounds like Jot's recursive language!
Now, I'm developing a rash. Crap.
-C
Wish I had time to take!Good luck with the rash. I'll be in my safe room.
The following rules are from Jot Russell, moderator for this contest:
To help polish our skills and present a flavour of our art to other members in the group, I am continuing this friendly contest for those who would like to participate. There is no money involved, but there is also no telling what a little recognition and respect might generate. The rules are simple:
1) The story needs to be your own work and should be posted on the goodreads (GR) Discussion board, which is a public group. You maintain responsibility and ownership of your work to do with as you please. You may withdraw your story at any time.
2) The stories must be 750 words or less.
3) The stories have to be science fiction, follow a specific theme and potentially include reference to items as requested by the prior month's contest winner.
4) You have until midnight EST on the 22nd day of the month to post your story to the GR Science Fiction Microstory Contest discussion. One story per author per month.
5) After, anyone from the LI Sci-Fi group or the GR Science Fiction Microstory Discussion group has until midnight EST of the 25th day of the month to send me a single private vote (via GR or to author.jotrussell@gmail.com) for a story other than their own. This vote will be made public once voting is closed. Voting is required. If you do not vote, your story will be disqualified from the contest. You don't need a qualifying story to cast a vote, but must offer the reason for your vote if you don’t have an entry.
6) To win, a story needs at least half of the votes, or be the only one left after excluding those with the fewest votes. Runoffs will be run each day until a winner is declared. Stories with vote totals that add up to at least half, discarding those with the fewest votes, will be carried forward to the next runoff election. Prior votes will be carried forward to support runoff stories. If you voted for a story that did not make it into the runoff, you need to vote again before midnight EST of that day. Only people who voted in the initial round may vote in the runoffs.
7) Please have all posts abide by the rules of GR and the LI Sci-Fi group.
8) For each month, there will be three discussion threads:
a) Stories - For the stories and the contest results only.
b) Comments - For discussions about the stories and contest. Constructive criticism is okay, but please avoid any spoilers about the stories or degrading comments directed towards any individuals. If you want to suggest a change to the contest, feel free to start a discussion about the idea before making a formal motion. If another member seconds a motion, a vote can be held. I will abstain from voting, but will require a strong two-thirds majority to override my veto.
c) Critiques - Each member can provide at most one critique per story, with a single rebuttal by the author to thank the critic and/or comment to offer the readers the mind set of the story to account for issues raised by the critique. Critiques should be of a professional and constructive manner. Feel free to describe elements that you do and don't like, as these help us gain a better perspective of our potential readers. Remarks deemed inflammatory or derogatory will be flagged and/or removed by the moderator.
9) The winner has THREE days after the start of the new month to make a copy of these rules and post a new contest thread using the theme/items of their choosing. Otherwise, I will post the new contest threads.
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This month's theme:
Pax Galactica
Misunderstanding, leading to warfare.
A discovery, followed by Symbiosis and Peace.
The story can be about just Humans, just Aliens or Humans and Aliens involved in the conflict and symbiosis.
Symbiosis can be: An interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both or A mutually beneficial relationship between different people or groups.