Tag: Celestia

Gah! It sucks

I’m about a third of the way through To Search the Starry Sea, and my greatest fear at this point is that it isn’t as good as the last novel I wrote.  Because if it isn’t as good, that means that I’m getting worse, not better, and if I’m getting worse, that means I’m never going to make it as an author, because I’m not even published yet, and if I’m not going to make it as an author, that means I’m going to have to do what I’m doing NOW for the rest of my life, which means that I’m going to be miserable and life is going to suck…

<pant> <pant> <pant>

Seriously, though, sometimes I wonder if I’ve really made the right choice.  To Search the Starry Sea is much more of a happy adventure story, but sometimes I feel that it lacks depth and meaning.  I’m starting to get feedback from my alpha readers for Bringing Stella Home, and their reactions to it are surprisingly encouraging.  That story moved people–but this one?  I don’t know.

Then again, Bringing Stella Home is dark, gritty, and very tragic.  I remember feeling depressed by the story even as I wrote it.  Is that the kind of story I want to be known for?  If I can write something deep and meaningful and have it be optimistic and adventuresome, that would be a lot better.

I’m discovery writing it hardcore, which means that side characters often come to play a much more central role than I’d thought, and events that I thought I could cover in a chapter, I have to cover in two.  I have an idea where the story is going to end up, though, and it’s going to be awesome. How awesome?  Let me show you:

Yeah, it’s going to be awesome.

I think the key to keeping it meaningful is 1) to keep in mind the main character’s inner conflicts, framing them in a way that the readers can relate to their struggles, and 2) keeping the overall growth arc constantly in mind.  How does what’s happening affect how the character is changing?  That kind of stuff.

I hope I can finish this in two months.  I’m mired in the middle of it right now, and the end is far from sight.

In the meantime, I think I’ll get some sleep.

It’s full of stars!

I have a confession to make…

I should have been writing these past three hours.  I really should have been writing.  But a couple of days ago, I downloaded this awesome program called Celestia.  And when I say awesome, I mean awesome!

Imagine Google Earth.  Now, imagine Google Earth…for the Universe.

I told you it was awesome.

Anyway, I just downloaded all the messier objects , gps satellites, and some other random addons, and spent the last two hours playing with them when I should have been writing. Gah!

Oh well, I guess you can call it research. 🙂

My goodness–words cannot describe how cool this stuff is.  It’s like…like a planetarium on my computer.  I’ve never felt so small in such an incredibly vast universe!  And oh my heck, do you know what it’s like outside of our galaxy?  No stars–just blackness everywhere!  It’s so freaking scary!  And inside of those massive globular clusters, like M13–holy cow!  What would it be like to live on a planet in one of those clusters??

I should probably stop rambling.  But…but…it’s just so awesome!

This is the kind of stuff I’ve been writing all my life!  Stars and galaxies and planets, other worlds–and now, at last, I can get some kind of a tiny picture of what it all looks like.  I feel like the nexus 6 soldier from Blade Runner: “I’ve seen things…” Seriously, this has the potential to revolutionize my writing.  The things I’ve seen…

But anyway, time to get my mind off the stars (at least temporarily) and write!