My current outlining process for sci-fi

A friend of mine recently wanted to know more about my outlining process. It’s a good question.

So I've been world-building my sci-fi setting for more than a decade. I had thought writing stories within it would be relatively straightforward. One of the rude awakenings I had when I first started actually started writing sci-fi was how ill-prepared I initially found myself despite my decades of journalism experience.

It's one thing to know how to string words together; it's another thing to make something up, especially since journalism had long ground into my head that such behavior was verboten. As a science writer, I was used to analyzing a study, talking with researchers, structuring a story and then writing the article. With science fiction, it's like I had to also conduct the research, write the study, and live multiple lifetimes to become multiple scientists before I could then analyze the study, conduct the interviews and write the story.

Recently I discovered for myself how to actually put all my years of journalism training to work on my science fiction, and it's making writing a lot easier. So when I work a news story, I'm used to stories answering a series of questions, and the nature of the story determines what order those questions are answered and what questions get answered or not. For me, outlining fiction similarly involves figuring out what questions I should ask and the order in which to answer them, putting all that journalism "muscle memory" to use. It's basically “Jeopardy!” -- I think of how to phrase storytelling in the form of questions, and then I answer then.

Character and dialogue were similarly really difficult for me. It's getting easier when I imagine them as interviews. I prep questionnaires, ask characters questions, do some more character-building when they don't have answers, and rephrase questions or ask them different questions if I don't like their initial answers. Of course, journalism is often used to getting pithy quotes, and this can lead to very on-the-nose dialogue, which isn't always what you want, so I also imagine "interviews" where I let characters ramble a bit, or are indirect, or lie, or fantasize, or are wrong, or what have you.

So my first outline for “Adventures in Psychonautics” is the plot outline. I thought up my basic beginning, middle and end, and the characters I used. I employed the usual screenwriting/playwriting technique of breaking the story down into scenes and trying to think of each scene as a little story in itself with a beginning, middle and end. I broke those scenes further into moments. I used Jon Franklin's "Writing For Story" outlining technique of summing up each scene and moment with S-V-O to think of stories in terms of characters and action. I tried to think of what goals each character had, gave them appropriate challenges for them (the old "conflict equals drama" canard), and figured out appropriate actions that showed their strengths and weaknesses. I tried to think of the settings each scene took place in and the actions that took place in those scenes, and how to make them as dramatically interesting as possible. Before I wrote the outline, I had reams of notes, and I tried to plug in as many of them that made sense for the story as possible. I tried to include fun complications and plot twists, giving myself room to add more during the writing process.

So far the story makes logical sense. The story is exciting and interesting (at least to me), the setting is compelling, and as many plot holes are accounted for as possible.

Of course, there's more. Right now the task I've given myself is to reimagine the story from each of the main character's point of view. Basically, it's the interview portion of journalism. So I'm asking them where they're coming from, what they're doing, why they're doing it, what they're thinking, and so on. It's a good time to flesh out their personalities in more depth, to give them individual voices, and to make the story more character-based instead of plot-based. If this ends up derailing the story a bit, then good! Character should ideally drive plot, not the other way around.

I'll probably write the first draft of the story after that's done. But then there are more questions to ask after that's done. What would a writing room filled with my favorite writers ask? What kind of lit-fic questions about theme and wording can I use? How might I fully engage all senses? Is the pacing working? And so on.

Of course, my outlining process may be particular to me given my journalism background, and even more specific to me given the kinds of science news stories I usually write and the way I report and write them. Different journalists may practice journalism in different ways than I. And in fiction, you often hear about plotters and pantsers (who fly by the seat of their pants, writing without outlining). I'm definitely a plotter, but Stephen King and many others are pantsers, pointing at the utility of the strategy, and I plan to give myself some room for improvisation during outlining and even writing.

Outline completed for my next sci-fi tale

Finally completed the outline for my next sci-fi tale! It’s tentatively titled “Adventures in Psychonautics.”

The outline alone's nearly 9,000 words long, so I'm guessing it'll be a novelette or even a novella. (A short story is up to 7,500 words, a novelette is more than 7,500 and up to 17,500 words, a novella is more than 17,500 and up to 40,000 words, and a novel is 40,000 words or more.)

I'm really aiming for a novelette to help it keep tight and move fast. We'll see.

Three book reviews of mine are in the May-June 2022 "Analog"!

You can read my book reviews below:

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Becky Chambers

Tor.com

Hardcover July 2021, $20.99

ISBN: 978-1250236210

In Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built, the robots of the verdant moon Panga gained consciousness, left the factories in which they labored, and entered the wilderness, where they remained unseen for centuries, until the story begins. The mysterious departure and return of these robots serves as the foundation of this book, but the heart of this novel is devoted to the grander themes of what it means to be alive, either for robots or humans.

The opening of the tale deftly sketches out this world from the conflicting perspectives of six religious orders, each with their own views as to which divinity holds sway over robotic consciousness—say, the god of machines, or of the wilderness. In this way, Chambers sets up the groundwork for the main character of her novel, the monk Sibling Dex.

Dex seeks to vanish into the wilderness much as the robots have. There is no hardship driving this mission. The city in which Dex lives is described as an architectural marvel perfumed with spices and nectar. The order to which Dex belongs is less of an ascetic sect than it is a fellowship devoted to scholarship and to service, a found family of Brothers, Sisters and Siblings, the latter term denoting monks that prefer they and them as pronouns as Dex does. But for no reason Dex initially understands, they want to hear the sound of crickets, an obsession that ultimately becomes a quest.

Although Dex faces a number of detours on their way to the wild, they ultimately end up where they wish—alone in a firefly-lit campsite in the forest with a medley of veggies simmering in butter and folk music playing on their pocket computer, And just as they step out naked and dripping wet from a shower, a seven-foot-tall robot unexpectedly strides out of the woods announcing the return of the machines.

The robot, Mosscap, explains the machines now want to discover what humans want, and sees Dex as potentially a perfect way to accomplish this mission. In exchange, Mosscap suggests it can help get Dex safely to their destination in the wilderness.

The resulting talks between the monk and robot are intriguing, delving into the nature of robot society and machine viewpoints on life, death, ecology and the nature of intelligence. At the same time, Chambers’ gift for dialogue means these chats are far from pedantically philosophical, and she milks a great deal of humor from the way the robot seeks companionship while the monk just wants to be left alone.

On the surface, the story is about recontact between robots and humanity. However, fundamentally, it’s about one person’s challenging journey into the wild to understand why they should be alive. The monk comes to question everything about the expedition and themselves, and the answers they reach yield insights on how to find purpose in life, potentially shedding light on why the robots may have done what they did.

The focus of the novel is not on action or thrills, but on charm and insight. The world is detailed so lovingly, it’s little wonder that Dex wants to explore it:

Vast civilizations lay within the mosaic of dirt: hymenopteran labyrinths, rodential panic rooms, life-giving airways sculpted by the traffic of worms, hopeful spiders’ hunting cabins, crash pads for nomadic beetles, trees shyly locking toes with one another.

And Chambers adorns her tale with little unexpected treasures every now and then, such as villages suspended from trees that “looked akin to shells, cut open to reveal soft geometry. Everything there curved—the rain-shielding roofs, the light-giving windows, the bridges running between like jewelry.”

Between Dex’s pursuit of and entry into the wild, they become a tea monk—they listen to a person’s woes and serve them a cup of tea. It’s a profession depicted so delightfully that one might wish it existed in real life. The book acts much like a tea monk itself—readers listen to problems one might easily imagine themselves, and left with a soothing experience and potentially a fresh perspective on their lives.

***

Déjà Doomed

Ed Lerner

Caezik Science Fiction & Fantasy

Trade Paperback May 2021, $14.99

ISBN: 978-1647100278

In the starkly beautiful airless landscape of the far side of the moon, a prospector telerobotically guides a rover to hunt for the iridium ore that he hopes will make him rich. He finds more than he bargains for—the mummy of an alien. It’s a discovery in Ed Lerner’s Déjà Doomed that will spur covert operations, global intrigue and, ultimately, a race to save humanity.

The story begins with multiple lunar bases seeking to exploit the moon’s unique resources. The United States is constructing a radio observatory on the lunar far side, an array of telescopes protected from the din of radio signals from Earth to better analyze the universe, one built mostly from moon rock instead of components hauled at prohibitive cost from Earth. Russia has a base on the far side as well, strip-mining lunar dust for helium-3 to help drive fusion reactors.

The novel does a fine job establishing the general workaday nature of life on the moon, one usually focused on budgets, timetables and other mundanities, one where taking part on pioneering missions is likely of less significance to most people there than personal matters such as parenting and pregnant spouses. By showing what it might really be like to strive to live an ordinary life on the moon, the book underscores the extraordinary nature of the events that end up driving the story.

The alien discovery leads the CIA to draft the engineer managing the far-side observatory project to covertly investigate the find. He assembles a small ragtag team for the clandestine mission, with the United States seeking to keep any extraterrestrial treasures they find to themselves.

Secrets don’t remain secret for long in the story due to smart, determined opposition. Most of the novel is devoted to the struggle between the U.S. and Russian teams over the alien finding. The book does a good job depicting the Russians as thoughtful antagonists, making clever deductions as to what the Americans want and will likely do based off the scant intelligence the Russians can glean.

The moon’s far side, which permanently faces away from Earth, is an intriguing setting for a story. Whereas the moon’s near side boasts huge smooth plains, the far side, long unfamiliar to human eyes, is deeply scarred with craters upon craters upon craters, making its exploration challenging.

Déjà Doomed shines when depicting the difficulties of working on the moon. For instance, the monotonous lunar landscape can make it easy to lose one’s bearings, and hide perils such as crevasses. Anyone who has had to deal with similar fissures on Earth while crossing glaciers knows that while deep cracks in the surface might not sound very dangerous, these hidden chasms can easily prove fatal.

The novel depicts the Americans investigating the alien discovery as believably flawed, usually confident and correct within their areas of expertise but overconfident and wrong outside matters they know best. For instance, the CIA agent managing the mission from Earth has no ground experience on the moon, and so blithely and idiotically assumes the 1,800-mile drive there will be an easy road trip just a few days long like a spring break vacation. Instead, the pockmarked nature of the lunar far side easily doubles the distance for the voyage in order to drive around the many obstacles there. At the same time, the spy is rightfully paranoid that others are watching, whereas the head of the U.S. team is a bit naive in this regard.

The book also showcases the challenges of carrying out the tradecraft expected of spies, especially if one is a drafted amateur instead of a trained intelligence agent. Operations security measures designed to foil surveillance, such as radio silence and performing the charades of cover missions for anyone who might be watching, can prove aggravating if one is uncertain they are actually necessary or working, but one slip can lead to ruin.

Much of the drama of Déjà Doomed focuses on the shenanigans between the Russians and American teams, neither side trusting the other, only working together at times because they cannot simply dislodge the other from the site without major incident. The paranoia and cloak-and-dagger read heavily like a drama from the Cold War.

The most interesting part of Déjà Doomed” for many readers will likely be the aliens, whose drama is suitably cosmic in scope. Mysteries abound when it comes to the extraterrestrials, such as why they are found on the far side of the moon as opposed to on Earth. The answers, when they come, ultimately pose an existential threat to humanity.

As befitting a book written by an engineer, a great deal of loving detail is spent describing both futuristic human technology as well as alien devices. A number of life-and-death struggles are also satisfyingly bested with the judicious application of improvised feats of engineering ingenuity.

All in all, Déjà Doomed is a straightforward tale whose clear descriptions are helpful at making readers feel as if they are really there.

***

Elder Race

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Tor.com

Trade Paperback Nov 2021, $13.59

ISBN: 978-1250768728

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Elder Race begins with the youngest princess of a faraway realm scaling a mountain to venture to the Tower of the Elder Sorcerer. A demon stalks the land, and she goes to invoke the royal pact between her family and the last of the ancients in the hopes of using magic to fight magic.

But nothing is as it seems. The sorcerer in question is a starfaring scientist, alive for centuries through the judicious use of suspended animation. The lowly anthropologist second-class is forbidden to interfere on the distant planet, but he has broken these rules before for the princess’s ancestor and is drawn to do so again for this latest quest.

Arthur C. Clarke noted that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Elder Race follows in the acclaimed tradition of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in blending science fiction with epic fantasy. It’s a kind of tale told many times before, but Elder Race nevertheless succeeds in crafting a worthy new entry in this style of story, one seasoned with humor and humanity.

Tchaikovsky specifically pays homage to Gene Wolfe’s “Trip, Trap,” a short story made up of two interweaving narratives often telling the same events from two different points of view, a war chieftain and a field xenoarchaeologist. Elder Race alternates between the perspectives of the princess and the anthropologist, although in one notable chapter, both viewpoints are displayed side by side to highlight just how poorly they understand one another. What the princess views as a legendary battle with a monster, the anthropologist sees as dealing with a malfunctioning appliance.

The charm of the novel stems mainly from defective translations and the wide cultural gulf between the princess and the anthropologist. For example, the princess wanted to know why the anthropologist looked sad, and when he tried to explain he was suffering from clinical depression, that isn’t what she ends up hearing:

“There is a beast that has hounded me down the centuries,” Nyrgoth told her. His hand lifted, and she shivered and leant back in case he should touch her again. His words filled her with a sense of creeping dread.

“It is always at my back,” he continued, “and sometimes it grows bold and its teeth are at my throat. It drags me down, and if I did not carry a shield against it, I could not get up from beneath its weight. But perhaps it is the same with you, or some of your people, though maybe they have never told you. Such beasts hunt in secrecy; even their prey are loath to speak of them for fear of showing weakness.”

“My uncle was killed by a cerkitt, a wild one,” she said uncertainly, but she knew it wasn’t the same thing. A beast that hunted sorcerers would doubtless savage a thousand men like her uncle and barely pause. She shuddered and returned to the fire and slept very poorly.

Although Tchaikovsky knows how to mine humor from his premise, the story is not simply a comedy and his characters are not clowns. The princess and the anthropologist are sympathetically drawn as overcoming their own personal doubts and limitations to do their best to do good in the world.

The princess is drawn as appealingly headstrong and vulnerable. As a child, she escaped her retainers to see the Elder Tower and, despite getting embarrassed in front of the court of her mother the queen as a punishment, deciding that being the first person to lay eyes on it for a very long time made it all worthwhile. This same bravery drives her as an adult to confront demons, but her willfulness takes a toll on her as well, robbing her of respect from her family she hopes to buy with heroic deeds.

The princess sees the anthropologist as a seven-foot-tall horned figure from legend capable of commanding mechanical demons. The anthropologist mostly sees himself as an embarrassing failure due to his many lapses of professional judgment when it comes to interfering with the natural cultural development of a lost colony.

An intriguing piece of neurotechnology that play a central role in the anthropologist’s life is a brain implant that allows him to compartmentalize his feelings for maximum scientific objectivity and mission effectiveness. However, it cannot suppress his emotions indefinitely, and when he has to turn it off every now and again, his despair at living alone for centuries in a potentially meaningless way catches up to him. It cuts him off from fear and doubt, but also much-needed sadness and happiness—an intriguing exploration of the costs and benefits of the device.

The ending of the novel unexpectedly veers into Lovecraftian horror, which readers might have mixed feelings about. Still, the story ultimately ends in a satisfying way true to its spirit and to its characters.

Metastellar has reprinted "No Worlds Left to Conquer" today!

The very first science fiction tale I ever wrote — “No Worlds Left to Conquer,” a 2011 flash story for my former blog on Scientific American, “Assignment Impossible“ — is now on Metastellar!

“No Worlds Left to Conquer” holds a special place in my heart as my firstborn story-child, as you might imagine. Like pretty much all my pieces, in addition to being a straight science-fiction tale, it’s also a bit metafictional. I also wrote it while I was feeling anxious about my long-term profession of journalism, and I hope it will have a certain timeless quality for anyone whose field might get threatened by the inexorable march of history.

Back then, I didn’t really know anything about publishing science fiction. Had I known anything, such as via the excellent “The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction” by Cory Doctorow and Karl Schroeder, who knows, maybe my science fiction career might have gotten a way earlier start.

I’ve made some slight revisions to “No Worlds Left to Conquer,” such as switching it from first-person to third-person POV and fleshing out the protagonist. Still, the frame of the story held up surprisingly well for me.

Some Easter eggs in the story include how the sci-fi authors in the tale all refer to the middle names or pseudonyms of real-life sci-fi authors — Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Estelle Butler, Robert Anson Heinlein, Alice Bradley (James Tiptree Jr.), Carl Edward Sagan, Geoffrey Alan Landis and George Alec Effinger. The protagonist’s name is a tip of the hat to Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz.

Hope you enjoy it!

Reprint of "No Worlds Left to Conquer" in Metastellar!

Just got a note that the very first science fiction tale I ever wrote — “No Worlds Left to Conquer,” a 2011 flash story for my former blog on Scientific American, “Assignment Impossible“ — will get reprinted in Metastellar on June 16! Woot woot!

Been quiet on here recently as my stories were going through the submission cycle. So far “That Idiot Show” still hasn’t found a home — won’t trunk it yet, but it’s not looking good. Alas. That kind of thing is discouraging, as you can imagine, so the reprint of “No Worlds Left to Conquer” (itself rejected twice before Metastellar — it’s hard to find a home for reprints) comes as welcome, encouraging news, as you might imagine.

Look forward to it appearing in a month!

The Locus review of "By the Will of the Gods"!

Woo-hoo!

I also liked a story from a writer new to me, Charles Q. Choi. “By the Will of the Gods” is set on a planet subject to frequent meteor show­ers, making space travel hazardous. Hap’s parents were killed when their ship was holed by a rock, and the local religion means that Hap is cursed as “starcrossed” – the gods must not have approved of his family. Eventually he is adopted by a temple devoted to “foretelling,” doing menial work; and his surrogate father becomes a gruff man named Harrow, who teaches him self-defense and uses him on certain strange errands. As the story opens, Harrow has been murdered and Hap seems the only person interested in learning who did it and why. That mystery isn’t the real point of the story, though…. What’s cool is what we learn about the politics of Hap’s city of Nightingale, and the bits and pieces we learn about the galactic milieu, numerous human-settled planets linked by worm­hole gates, as well as what we learn of Harrow’s secrets and their implications for Hap’s future. I’d be glad to see more stories about Hap, and also stories set elsewhere in this future.

An appreciative review of "By the Will of the Gods"

“By the Will of the Gods • 18 pages by Charles Q. Choi

Very Good/VG+. Harrow is dead. He was perhaps Hap’s one friend. Hap was orphaned, brought to foreteller’s temple in Nightingale where Harrow assigned his duties. After a run in with Chase, Harrow took more of an interest and really worked his hard. Now Hap wants to solve his murder. So much more going on in the story, starcrossed people being looked down on by the rest of society, but length on the story limits secondary story lines.”

Always leave readers wanting more!

My first sale is currently the most recommended 2021 novelette on RocketStackRank!

As a giant caveat, let me state that we're only two months into 2021, and my novelette "By the Will of the Gods" has only received two recommendations from reviewers so far. That said, it's currently the most recommended novelette in the year to date on RocketStackRank, a really influential SFF site!

And, well, it's currently the only recommended novelette in the year to date on RocketStackRank!

fully, fully expect this to change soon, perhaps even later today. But for now, I'll bask in my solitude.

You can read an excerpt of "By the Will of the Gods" here, and you can read it in full as a subscriber or for a nominal fee!

First draft of "By the Will of the Gods" available to read

On Curious Fictions, I've made the first draft of "By the Will of the Gods" available to compare with the published version. Hopefully of interest to those who want to see the nuts & bolts of writing!

Since I'm not really expecting anyone to read two versions of a ~13,000-word story, I'll sum up some key differences that I see.

The first draft is janky in a lot of ways. The published version starts off 'in media res' so readers know there's a murder to solve, but it can move a bit slowly after that. The first draft doesn't even start off 'in media res,' so it takes even longer for the action to begin.

The first draft has less of a reason for a fight between the main character and a key antagonist. The published version adds a slight bit more texture to this antagonist, which is important several places throughout the story.

The published version gives the main character at least some internal conflict in the intro and near the middle, adding much-needed energy. There's also a lot more on the story's mentor character, deepening his importance.

By the way, the story I submitted to Analog isn't quite the published version. In the months between acceptance and galley proofs, I spotted a key plot hole I plugged; I changed the setting of one scene to make it more dramatic; and I tweaked it innumerable ways.

I owe ideas for revisions to a bunch of great readers, including Tara North, Lou Mazzella and Geoff Landis. Suffering through a long novelette to give cogent tips isn't easy, and their help was much appreciated.

Is the published version perfect? Certainly not, but I still quite like it, and I'm glad Analog did too. Paul Valéry is known for a quote to the effect that "a work is never completed, but merely abandoned."

I know I rather blather on about my one published sale, but I'm one of those guys who really likes DVD commentaries; I like behind-the-scenes looks at craft to help me learn, ala the fun Writing Excuses podcast.

I really like the chance Curious Fictions offers authors to do things like post early drafts, character biographies, deleted scenes and chapters, and other behind-the-scenes material; serialize entire novels; and much more. I hope to explore these possibilities in the future!