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Blaze of Glory
My short story "Blaze of Glory" will be in the anthology Voices of Varuna, due out at the end of the month, approximately.
This has been an interesting experience -- I pitched a story proposal in response to their call. After it was accepted, I had to write the darned thing in a pre-existing "universe" for which we were provided a "bible" and a Discord channel where we could interrogate the owners of the intellectual property for details about this futuristic universe. It was a little like writing in a foreign language!
This has been an interesting experience -- I pitched a story proposal in response to their call. After it was accepted, I had to write the darned thing in a pre-existing "universe" for which we were provided a "bible" and a Discord channel where we could interrogate the owners of the intellectual property for details about this futuristic universe. It was a little like writing in a foreign language!
Comments
I've written in licensed worlds before (Doctor Who, the X-files), but in those cases I was already very familiar with the backstory. Here, I had to catch up and learn a lot. It was a challenge to not get very bogged down in the details. At one point I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew -- there was so much to learn. But I got through the first draft, which is very different from the finished story. Several people edited and annotated that draft, pointing out things that were out-of-spec and making suggestions for how I could change things to bring it more in-world. Very much a collaborative process.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B096DJNQMY
This shows faith! This shows tremendous time and attention, huge applause to the team that put that particular visual together. It’s gorgeous and shows passion. Well done.
Voices of Varuna: Author Panel (Ben, Bev & Carrie)
Ben seemed to be a super person to work with/for. He seemed game for anything but kind and gentle about the things that didn't work. I find that sort of mentoring teamwork applause worthy.
I'm so totally blown away that not only was this based on an existing videogame world, but it also is based on real NASA data. Holy crap!
So Bev, first question: This seemed like very shackled writing. It seems like so much world building has been done, does that really leave everyone a creative voice? I would say some, but difficult.
Do you like writing for a world that is already created, e.g. Dr. Who, X Files, Sherlock Holmes, this game series better than creating your own stuff from scratch? If I could guess, I would say you find creating in an existing world challenging, but more satisfying??? You have that big analytical brain, and especially, this science field -- while you say you were overwhelmed, I think these existing people and stories are something you would like to do more of.
And, saying that, is there an existing world out there that you would really like to write for and you haven't?
I also found it really fun that they loved an element you inserted into the world and the developers were thinking, "why didn't we do that?" Big kudos for such high praise. He said they were using it "as we speak." And, because it was your idea, do you now get paid for that element in the games and will you be added to the gaming team credits at the end of the game?
I honest to god don't know how you fit everything into a day. Your day job, your writing job, your wife, your TV and movie watching. Then you tweet and take a peek at the message board. I'm sure your correspondence is loaded in the queue. Maintaining these business contacts and personal friendships -- I think I need a nap.
I didn't feel shackled, but I did feel daunted in the beginning. There was so much information to onboard. We were all asking the developers questions about this tech or that planet or these aliens. Eventually it got to the point where they said: just go write your story and we'll address things later. That helped a lot. We were given absolute free reign in terms of genre and story.
My story ended up significantly different from what I originally pitched -- the ideas developed through some of the constraints of the universe. Things I wanted to include couldn't happen where I wanted them to because they didn't want to introduce certain concepts yet. So there was quite a bit of back-and-forth.
As far as credit goes, when you work in someone else's IP (intellectual property), they own everything so, no, I don't get any additional pay for coming up with an idea that they might incorporate into their universe. My "credit" is the short story where it originates and that's pretty much where it ends. This is a tabletop game with miniature pieces, by the way, not a video game, so there isn't exactly a "credits roll"!
It was easier working in worlds I was already familiar with, but even then I had to do a lot of research. I read every Sherlock Holmes novel and story before writing "Bloody Sunday," I watched the entire run of the fifth Doctor before writing "Leap Second," and I watched all of The X-files before writing "Phase Shift."
I'm always open to dabbling in an existing world -- it's a fun writing challenge. I can't think of anything right now that I crave to write for, though. I just wait for the opportunities to come along.