33,000 Words In...

...I'm finding that writing sci-fi is tricky -- and fun!

First, I research history, economics, biology, technology. Anthropology, too. Sometimes it's super scary stuff. What I'm trying to do is to push out trends another 90 years into the future. How is the world different? What has caused it to change? What is the action/reaction to that change? How has the world stayed the same?

I take a tiny bit of research and fit it into my story. Sci-fi has to be original, exciting, unpredictable, but it also needs to be believeable.

And every page I move forward in my MS, I go back to the beginning and flush out that. So the story is hopefully deeper, richer, more cohesive. So it has more tension, more conflict. So the ethical, moral, and philosophical questions have answers.

With sci-fi, there is serious world-building, serious setting. And, I'm writing in 2 different limited omniscient voices.

Here's the first line:

It came down to cauliflower, Anja Knew.

I'll tell you one thing: this MS will need serious revision. Honest, I can't wait to tackle that. (Wiggles fingers.)

They Might Be Writers

Some actors get into their roles so deeply, they would have to be excellent writers of first-person fiction, don't you think?

At the top of my list:

Sean Penn

Tilda Swinton

Steve Buscemi

(And...um...Hugh Jackman?)

Who else? Who's on your list?

Fluid Fluency

Since Sentence Fluency is one of six traits in the Oregon Writing Benchmarks, I've thought some about mixing up sentence beginnings.

Especially in narratives, it's easy to start with "I" "I" "I."

But what are other, more interesting/sophisticated beginnings?

Okay, there are adverbs: Slowly, the ketchup oozed across the floor. But adverbs can always be replaced by a strong verb, and are distracting and often redundant.

Prepositional phrases are definitely interesting/sophisticated: After the ketchup oozed across the floor, I had to jump over the puddle. They also lend themselves to varying length. Delicious.

Participial phrases and gerunds are also yummy: Coming downstairs for dinner, I smelled spaghetti.

But.

Participial phrases also lend themselves to funny dangling/displaced modifiers: Coming downstairs for dinner, the spaghetti smelled of garlic and basil. Since participial phrases always modify the noun closest to it, in this case, the spaghetti is coming down the stairs. Quick fix: Coming downstairs for dinner, I could smell the garlic and basil of the spaghetti.

It's important to stay true to voice when mixing up sentence fluency. But it's fun playing around and trying something new.

How about you? What are your tricks for sentence beginnings?