McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Where does the inspiration come from?
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: The Deposed King on August 12, 2013, 07:47:55 AM ---Perhaps its the desire to both continue advancing and at the same time return to some of the best or at least more exciting 'perceived' times of yester-years gone past?
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For me, personally, making the future recapitulate the past to that precise degree of specificity kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief in a future.
Sully:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on August 12, 2013, 02:36:02 AM ---I regard him as the proof that there is no setting, no universe, and no genre that a sufficiently determined author can't fold, spindle, and mutilate enough to force it to have Napoleonic-type sea battles or their exact equvalent in.
Why anyone who really wants to write Napoleonic sea battles would not just straightforwardly write Napoleonic naval novels is completely beyond me (well, except for the fact that the standard for comparison for those is Patrick O'Brian, and that would be terrifying because Patrick O'Brian was a genius.)
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I just get upset at the clumsy foreshadowing(Rob S. Pierre? COME ON). Also, I'm completely unattached to any characters at this point. (click to show/hide)they're all going to suffer. Every single one of them. And probably die. But I'm so many thousands of pages of reading inertia I still read him.
I probably won't if I ever trim this 90 minute commute though.
That and I have to roll my eyes at the revolutionary technology stuff. (click to show/hide)multi drive missiles? Come on, we've been doing that since 1960 or something
I still want a treecat though. Along with an Alaspanian Mini-Drag and Pernese Dragon.
And for Weber to stop using his books as political/economy soapboxes.
The Deposed King:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on August 12, 2013, 02:29:58 PM ---For me, personally, making the future recapitulate the past to that precise degree of specificity kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief in a future.
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By drawing on the past you 'can' add to the ability to suspend disbelief. However I do agree with some of the comments here. Weber's gone too far on his scio-political-economical dissertations. Also basically using historical figure's names and plopping them into characters essentially like their name sake does and would ruin a story for me.
I think something we as writers who are looking to entertain (meaning we're not writing history books) need to keep in mind as the exact wrong way to look at things is actually something Weber once said. He said to paraphrase: I've finally become successful enough to write my books the way 'I' have always wanted them to be. As we can see with his last few books.... so if you think his last three-to-five books in the honorverse are better than his first three-to-five. Then by all means follow all of your pet peeves without the humility of submitting yourself to outside adjustment. Otherwise....
The Deposed King
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: The Deposed King on August 13, 2013, 01:04:07 AM ---By drawing on the past you 'can' add to the ability to suspend disbelief. However I do agree with some of the comments here. Weber's gone too far on his scio-political-economical dissertations. Also basically using historical figure's names and plopping them into characters essentially like their name sake does and would ruin a story for me.
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That last would work for me if the characters were deliberately modelling themselves after people they admired. (Kaisers and Tsars are both taking the name of Caesar, for example.) I have a historical figure in TIWTBWO's setting who does this.
Paynesgrey:
General reminder... criticizing works based on disapproval of their political themes is a No-Go. Touchy Topics are every bit as verbotten lieb as they were in the past. That hasn't changed, it's no different from complaining that a genre or book has too many/too few gays/straights/republicratiarianologists. Socio-political aspects are still not acceptable in this forum. It's fine to criticize things on craftsmanship, originality, technique, creativity and such is pretty much talking politics. For example, the criticism of works that are sci-fi re-enactments of historical periods or incidents is fine... but leave the politics at the door.
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