No aliens in the 'Verse...How do you feel?
POSTED BY: BWare42
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 8, 2006 03:25
VIEWED: 20169
PAGE 7 of 9
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Originally posted by CaptBryan:
If you believe in evolution then you already know the chances of life coming to being,so be honest with yourself.
If you believe in Creation then you know the answer aready.
Exactly. And the answer both ways is yes.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
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I got 92,534 words (isn't word count great?) into the thing that care about more than anything else (in writing I mean) that've ever worked on or thought of. Then I couldn't go any further, I simply didn't know what happened after that...
...I call that failure.
A few words of encouragement and a suggestion or two. Unless you are writing for a magazine or newspaper where word count is important, don't obssess on this. Instead, return to why you started writing the story and just write "until you are done". Another thing... when I get stuck (as do all writers/authors) it sometimes helps to go back and "kill your children". This is a rather creepifying way of saying re-read what you've written and remove those parts of your prose that doesn't move your story along. This often gets you back to the "oh yeah, that's where I was going with this..." mode. In everything I read or hear about/from Joss, he's a big fan of this and it shows (and one of the big reasons I love this 'verse).
Don't quit... Joss didn't and look what he gave us!
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Quote:
Originally posted by mycroftxxx:
A few words of encouragement and a suggestion or two. Unless you are writing for a magazine or newspaper where word count is important, don't obssess on this.
I'm not obsessing actually, I just have the ability to say, "I got this far," with the push of a button so I figure why not use it?
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Instead, return to why you started writing the story and just write "until you are done".
That's always been my plan
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Another thing... when I get stuck (as do all writers/authors) it sometimes helps to go back and "kill your children". This is a rather creepifying way of saying re-read what you've written and remove those parts of your prose that doesn't move your story along.
That's something I really can't do, at least not in that way, the story is told in first person and the character telling it dwells on things that don't move the story along, sort of like how in Firefly you can have things where it's just them being them and then it works it's way into moving the story along.
I know that that would turn a lot of people off and prevent me from selling it and getting rich, but I never planned on that in the first place (I'm not completely insane.)
I'm writing the story to tell the story, nothing more and certainly nothing less. The story is from the perspective of someone who slows down the narrative and throws in pointless details, sometimes it annoys even me but it is part of who the character is and if I took it out it would change him in a fundamental way.
That's probably the thing I like most and least about first person. Once you decide who is telling the story you don't get to tell it the way you want, you have to tell it the way the character would.
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Don't quit... Joss didn't and look what he gave us!
While I maintain that I've failed I haven't given up. Kind of an odd thing but it's true.
Just like the characters in Firefly are real to all of us the ones in my story are real to me, I owe it to them to keep trying even though I've already lost.
Can't just leave them hanging.
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Sorry to everyone for getting this so off topic.
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Ditto.
Back on-topic now... In response to whether other life forms are out there versus the "No aliens in the 'verse", if you follow some of the science writings, statistically, there is a high degree of probability there are other intelligent life forms out there just not close by. The SETI project is proof that at least a few scientists believe this (as do I).
Now, given that when humanity left the earth-that-was, it was at somewhat less than the speed of light (but close to it) so this limits the range of where we settled. If there had been aliens in the area, SETI would most likely have picked them up before the diaspora. It would only take a few hundred light years for their signal to travel which greatly increases the odds of finding them. Much greater than, say, intelligence in the Magellanic Clouds (tens if not hundreds of light years away).
More likely we'd run into non-sentient life forms (lichens come to mind) that we probably drove extinct when we terraformed their planets and moons. Apparently, the Sierra Club didn't make the journey to the new 'verse. 
BTW, I _hope_ aliens like the Klingons don't stumble into our cherished 'verse. We'd be a footnote in their history at best (thanks for doing all this terraforming for us, now die! 
)
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To the writers: anyone try outlining? I find that having the "skeleton" helps me keep the unecessary fat to a minimum. I just start point-forming ideas, then throwing in more ideas, then adding cool scenes/lines, bridging them together and suddenly --hey, this isn't an outline, it's a finished story.
Quote:*snerk*
Originally posted by christhecynic:
humanity just has to play with itself forever.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Originally posted by Cybersnark:Quote:*snerk*
Originally posted by christhecynic:
humanity just has to play with itself forever.
*snort* *stifles reply*
www.thatweirdgirl.com
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"...turn right at the corner then skip two blocks...no, SKIP, the hopping-like thing kids do...Why? Why not?"
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Quote:
Originally posted by CaptBryan:
... Well I say we stand no chance because we would just fight amongst ourselves and the Aliens would sit back in Horror or Laughter and let us do the work for them.
Hmm, I think we're pretty much right there, now. :)
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam.
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Originally posted by asarian:Quote:
Originally posted by CaptBryan:
... Well I say we stand no chance because we would just fight amongst ourselves and the Aliens would sit back in Horror or Laughter and let us do the work for them.
Hmm, I think we're pretty much right there, now. :)
Has it never occurred to anyone that aliens could be just as screwed up as us? There is no way to know how different physical and cultural evolutions would effect a species, but why does everyone seem to assume that we alone have exclusive rights to chaos and infighting?
I mean greed and hatred has allowed human beings to become the dominant species on earth maybe that's what evolution is? (Depressing thought huh?)
I'm not saying that is the way things are I'm just saying that the assumption that anyone we come across will be saner and less screwed up than ourselves seems like wishful thinking to me.
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OKay Agreed... It does seems that if there are other life forms out there they would be as screwed up as us...OR worse
Now if they are able to travel intersteller like now ... Then by the time we get to do that we would be a threat to them then...
UUuummm...did that make sense?
So why not blow us to kingdom come now?Be done with it before we become a problem.
Saying that God authored confusion by creating Lucifer is like saying my sniper rifle goes out all by itself and shoots people 2 miles away so I dont get into trouble.
Ridin the Ocean's boring when there aint no waves
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