Me and Sci-Fi

Recently I was chastised by a friend from Twitter who told me I wasn’t utilizing my talents to the best of my ability. She had noted over the time we had known each other that I spoke often about sci-fi erotic romance, I wrote sci-fi erotic romance and totally knew the language. Matter of fact, the point that brought it to a head was the fact I’m going to a sci-fi type convention over the Labor Day weekend called Copper Con.

She basically came back at me and said I should change my bio in Twitter to reflect my sci-fi writing. I immediately went in and changed what I said about myself on Twitter for a couple of reasons. The biggest one is she is correct. Sci-fi and fantasy are my first loves. Writers should stick with what they love.

I know this for a fact as there are many times when I’m writing a contemporary where I get bogged down and never want to finish it. I think the reason is I like to totally use my imagination, add a little science then see what shakes out. Most of the time, it is more interesting than anything I can come up with in the real world.

I just love to tweak science to make it do my bidding. Most of the lively conversations around my house are science based. These discussions can become quite heated because we are a group of scientists by trade and nature. My youngest wants to be a phyisist, my older on is a total whiz at math. My husband is a geophysist with a second degree in history and I’m a geologist with a computer science minor top by an ongoing Ph.D. study of natural medicine. Most of our heated discussions revolve around space and getting off this rock. I have my opinion and they all have theirs.

My house is never dull and we either have one of the History Channels on, the Science Channel or Syfy. My youngest watches G4, which I’ve found to actually have some things of value when I’m writing my sci-fi. Many times that station has thrown me off into a tangent where I get a wild hair and a new idea. How boring is that? LOL! It’s not really.

So, what does all this discussion have to do with us? Well, I have about 10 contemporaries I’m committed to completing, maybe a few more, once those are totally done, I may permanently switch to writing sci-fi or fantasy erotic romance. This is my first passion and I love the freedom it gives me.

Let me give you an example. As you all know, I write about 5K a day. What you probably don’t know is I work on multiple stories at one time. I make sure the story due is the one that gets the most time but I include things like this blog, my other blogs and any other writing project I might need to do. Some is for my writing organizations, some are just ramblings about this and that. Some of the time is spent on perfecting a story, doing that final edit before submission or sending it out to an agent. But I write consistently every day and a lot.

This month, the main thrust of my daily work is a little story called The Taking of An Apprentice. Now this story is finished at about 22K and it took me less than a month of daily writing to get it done. Some people thing that’s flying whereas I think it is incredably slow. The point is that I had the story plotted and knew exactly where it was going from Chapter 3 on. This is incredible for a pantser. But note, this story is a fantasy and hence I’ve seen I can plot the thing out with little problem very quickly.

Now for a contemporary, I have to mull it around, think about just the right words and inflect and god knows what. I have to get it perfect. Sci-fi plotting for me is about the same. I might actually be a non-pantser in that area but everything comes together very quickly. I’m like a demon to get it done so I don’t forget and because of this, there are days I can do an incredible 10K. I kid you not.

So see, my Twitter friend is correct. I am not using my talents to the best of my ability. I need to do better. And I will.

How about you? Do you have any hidden talents you aren’t using as well as you should? Tell me about it and you’ll get five extra spots in this month’s drawing.

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for...the winner of this month’s contest...the winner of the $20 ARe gift certificate and a book of their choice is Rhobin! Come on down and claim your prize! This month I have two winners for the most comments portion: Carol L and Diane Deeds come on down and claim your prize. Hope you all had some fun this month...and be prepared for more...we’re building up to a blowout at Christmas. This year is my last elf book and I will be giving away a special prize for that one...keep posted...and thanks again!

See you all tomorrow!

Lynn