Choose Your Own Charactorial Adventure...
Greetings, my fellow humans! And robots!
First, I’ve been made aware that in the process of getting to my newsletter, there was an offer of some free fiction and my mailing list integration stuff wasn’t quite perfect and you might have missed it.
Well, if you don’t have any of the below, replay to this email with something like “stories, please!” and I’ll send you the link where you can download these stories!
Speaking of stories… I am so thrilled with the response I got from the flash fiction last time, “Not Your Standard Orbit.” Many of you want to see what happens to (or more origin story of) Ensign Rivers.
Before we get to that, a quick reminder about my books and stories that are available to purchase and read and write reviews about!
Links: Lunar Logic | Robot Galaxy Series | Final Orbit | Objective Reality
To ensure I keep writing more, especially in the Robot Galaxy Series, check out my for-real-it’s-really-forthcoming Kickstarter! Head over to the pre-launch page and hit that “Notify on launch” button right now so you’ll be notified the minute it launches!
…and make sure to read to the end of this newsletter and check out some other indie authors.
Let’s get back to Ensign Rowe Rivers.
Notice this: I wrote “let’s get back to a character” and not “let’s get back to the fun orbit concept” or “let’s get back to the planet they went to.”
It’s because while people appreciate the nuances of details and science in stories, what they really connect with—if we’ve done our jobs as writers—is characters, and their story. I’ve instinctively known this since my early days of writing.
In fact, the first story I ever submitted to any magazine was called “Lunch.” I sent it to Space & Time Magazine—in 1999—and it came back with the editorial note that I’ve always summed up as: “like your writing style, needs to be more science-y.”
I think I still have that… let me go find it. Ah, here we are:
A bunch of things to notice from this picture.
It was the days when you mailed a physical copy of your story along with a SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) if you wanted anything back! (I don’t miss those days. LOL)
I got editorial notes!! While the story was rejected, I was SO JAZZED that I got notes! Especially because the notes began with: “well written, nice flow…”
I’m an idiot. Or at least, I was an idiot. I DID NOT appreciate the part at the end “with more detail, this story would be publishable.” I didn’t know that it meant to take an action.
What I should have done was immediately re-write to address that note and submit it back.
I have the opposite problem today. You all asked for more Ensign Rivers, and well… I don’t know anything more about him! I’m good on the technical and science-y detail, but I need to know more about the character.
That gave me the idea for today’s newsletter… it’s been a while since I’ve done a poll-the-audience and I haven’t done any kind of poll since I joined Substack. I’ve been wanting to check out that feature.
So here we go… help me figure out more about Ensign Rowe Rivers through a series of polls!!
These polls will be open for three days after this newsletter comes out. That’s so I have enough time to write a piece for the next newsletter!
These questions are RANDOM. I have no idea where/what they’ll lead to!
And one more…
Thanks so much for the few clicks on those! I’m glad I did this. I’ve already learned a few things about how polls work here. Like, it’s limited to 5 options and each option can’t be more than about 40 characters long!
Whatever comes out as the top answer to each of these will be new truths about Ensign Rowe Rivers and hopefully they’ll spark the next story idea(s)!
Keep on reading though… 👇👇👇
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What’s next?
WRITING. Still working on that Lunar Logic sequel. I’ll be candid… it’s going slow. Maybe because it’s January and it’s cold and dark and you’re either freezing (it’s 3 deg outside as I write this) or stuff is on fire.
I’m also wondering if maybe the detailed outline method was really a good way for me to go or not. (To catch you up: I normally am an outline minimalist with my novels. But this time I tried to do a more detailed outline, with the thought that it would make the writing easier. Going to wait until I’m done with the complete draft to pass judgement on that!)
A lot of the T-Set books (the follow-on the The Robot Galaxy Series) has been drafted and I’m waiting on my Kickstarter to complete those.
All always, thanks for reading all of my ramblings. I hope you’re finding it useful. Remember you can reply anytime with questions/comments/feedback!
Until next time… be kind, be well!
-Adeena
Interesting way to develop backstory on a character. One craft book you may want to check out is
Lisa Cron’s Story Genius. She explains why a protagonists background drives the story and has the reader go through some great exercises to develop their own stories. She also has a blueprint method for doing some basic outlining of your story without a nauseating level of detail. I found this to be the best writing craft book I’ve ever read and I’ve read lots!