These notes are raw and may not make much sense.
TP: Research.
Any aliens you cook up should be at least as alien as any culture on earth.
You can’t do specific research until you know what a story is about. But it’s also very important to do general research just to know stuff.
See Avon collections of Asimov F&SF columns.
Any book called “Day to Day Life in?”
Read a lot of non-fiction.
Obvious reason to do research is to avoid letters from readers that point out factual flaws. But you can’t satisfy them.
So the real reason to do research is to find cool details and even plots.
Plots that arise from general research tend to be organic — fitting the details.
KDW: Research is not just done in books.
If you don’t know something, either find it out or leave it out.
If you take something from real life, be sure to ‘file off the serial number” (make it different enough.)
Be alert to moments of serendipity when researching.
Don’t let research overwhelm you. You don’t need to know everything about a subject — you just need to know enough to look like you do.
Follow your interests.
It’s not bad to research something and then put it away for a while.
TP: Need to get out of the default mindset of our current culture. Don’t want to have story in ancient Rome or 5000 A.D. where people act like 20th-century people. Don’t be chrono-chauvinistic. Anything that can help you get distance from our default mindset is good.
KDW: Don’t have an “idiot plot” — a plot that advances only because important characters do stupid things.
Write a list of short story markets in descending order of pay/prestige. Send stories to the top 6, then retire them.
ET = Elise Toth
ET: Important thing about TV interviews is getting your message out. Bridging. Answer the question, but tie it to your message.
TP: One way to start on a project.
Write ten sample first sentences for practice.
Take three of them and write first paragraphs, just for practice.
Take one at random and write a page and a half, just for practice. Hah! It wasn’t really for practice.
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Today we also did our “stranger interviews,” wherein we were supposed to start up a conversation with someone and find out stuff about them, without letting them know that we were writers looking for material. This sort of exercise is always difficult for me. I did end up talking for a few minutes with a balloon lady. I also let myself be scammed for a couple of bucks by a woman claiming her car had run out of gas, and I talked to a young man who wanted me to donate to his environmental organization.