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message 1: by Jason (new)

Jason (darkfiction) | 422 comments Please feel free to create a thread or two or ten to discuss your favorite science fiction authors.


message 2: by Janr (new)

Janr Ssor (janrssor) | 2 comments My favorite author is Issac Asimov. I love his character R. Daneel Olivaw as in the Robot and Foundation series: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots and Empire, Prelude to Foundation, Foundation and Earth. Is seems to me that Asimov created a new world, lived in it and shared his experiences with us.

I am relatively new author of sci-fi but I can identify with, what I believe, Asimov did to write his books. Which is live in the world of your writing and see what transpires.

Don't know if you ever noticed the talented kids in your middle school class who were drawing all kinds of great sketches while the teacher's monotonous voice droned on and on. Though you may have when the teacher ripped up their art and embarrassed them in public. These are the people who create great stories and art.

Orson Scott Card, created some of his best fiction by doodling and creating a symbolic world that just had to be lived in. Then finding characters to live there. Whether he was one of them I am not sure but he surely reported back us on their lives.

Like the doodlers, I have frequently lived in another world and for me it often happens at 2:00 a.m. Then I get a great idea and write it down for the time the sun comes up. The funny thing for me is I find my books write themselves in this way. Once I draw the landscape, as Orson Scott Card did, but in my mind alone, inhabitants, who I now know well, come and live in it. As odd as this may sound, I can then read my story when it is finished and it is almost as if I had never written it. I end up being a big fan of my stories. What I am waiting for is to like mine better than Asimov's.

Janr Ssor


message 3: by Nick (new)

Nick (nickanthony51) | 81 comments Writing is a profession and the craft of writing is very subjective. We all love or at lease like our work or we would not create the worlds we do. The trick is to make readers love our work, and that takes skill...

Good luck on your journey...


message 4: by Paul (new)

Paul (paullev) | 76 comments Janr wrote: "My favorite author is Issac Asimov. I love his character R. Daneel Olivaw as in the Robot and Foundation series: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots and Empire, Prelude to Foundation, Founda..."

Asimov is my favorite author, too. Here is a postcard I received from him back in 1979 ...




message 5: by mark, personal space invader (new)

mark monday (majestic-plural) | 1287 comments Mod
wow! nice.


message 6: by Leonie (new)

Leonie (leonierogers) | 97 comments Paul wrote: "Janr wrote: "My favorite author is Issac Asimov. I love his character R. Daneel Olivaw as in the Robot and Foundation series: The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, Robots and Empire, Prelude to Found..."

How cool is that? And how nice? And how reassuring that he was a bit of a 'pantser' in terms of writing series!


message 7: by Paul (new)

Paul (paullev) | 76 comments Leonie - exactly! :)


message 8: by Paul (new)

Paul (paullev) | 76 comments mark wrote: "wow! nice."

Thanks!


message 9: by Paul (new)

Paul (paullev) | 76 comments Best luck with your novel, Dan - that's exactly the way I write, too!


message 10: by Brick (new)

Brick Marlin I have to say Ray Bradbury is my all time favorite sc-fi writer and second is Philip K Dick. Both authors have greatly influenced my own writing.


message 11: by Matthew (new)

Matthew (matthewsylvester) | 6 comments Very much enjoying Nick Cole, Soda Pop Soldier and Ctrl Alt Revolt are cracking reads!


message 12: by John (new)

John Devalle | 7 comments A favourite of mine is Frederick Pohl. He was a prolific sci-fi writer, and in the fifties he and Cyril Kornbluth co-wrote a novel titled 'The Space Merchants'. It was a nightmare vision of a future where human society is dictated by advertising agencies. Possibly, and I'm guessing here, it may have been influenced by Aldous Huxley's novel from the thirties, 'Brave New World'.


message 13: by Chris (new)

Chris Cosmain | 2 comments Hi All

Asimov, Bear, Bova and Alastair Reynolds opened my mind to writing about big concepts.

Michael Crichton and Carl Sagan (Contact) taught me that weaving real science into a story (and explaining it well) can be gripping and exciting.

Neal Asher taught me about tautly constructed action set pieces and King and Neal Stephenson about backstories and literary side alleys that don't detract from the central narrative.


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