Literary Blog Hop
A fellow writer at the Maple Ridge Writers
Group, Tiana
Warner, asked me if I would participate in a blog hop. The idea behind the
blog hop is to answer four questions and then tag three other writers to
do the same. So here goes. The questions are:
-
What are you working on/writing?
I am working on a number of projects. My main one at the moment is
preparing for the annual
3 Day Novel
Contest. This is an annual event that has been going for
over thirty years. The details are on the linked website, but
basically, the idea is to write a complete (albeit short) novel over
the Labor Day weekend. As it happens, I am retiring at the end of
August and my last day of work is the 29th. The contest runs from
Aug. 30 - Sept. 1. So I will spend my first three days of retirement
writing my novel. You are allowed to prepare an outline for the
novel ahead of time and that is what I am working on right now. I
had started on a utopian novel called Helleaven a while back. I am
about five chapters into that one but intend to rewrite it
extensively. The novel I will write for the contest is a prequel to
that one. Called Jokk Vete's Diary, it is also a Utopian novel and
tells the history, through his diary, of Jokk Vete, the genius
scientist and inventor and founder of Harmony Corporation on the
planet Fornuft. The story is introduced by an earth man recently
returned from Fornuft. The diary itself was started the day after a
nuclear war devastated the planet, killing about 80% of its
inhabitants. Vete blames this destruction on the existence of
governments and postulates a world without government, an anarchist
utopia. Now several thousand years old, Vete's vision has come to
fruition, largely through his own efforts.
-
How does your work/writing differ
from others in its genre?
I have always been fascinated by utopia/dystopian novels. Others in
the genre besides the original Utopia by Thomas Moore, include
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin,
Erewhon by Samuel Butler, Anthem by Ayn Rand, 1984 by George Orwell,
Animal Farm by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
Interestingly, most are dystopian, portraying worlds which are less
than ideal, and sometimes terrible worlds indeed. My novels differ
from that in that I actually do want to present an ideal world, a
real utopia. The novel will be quite political and hopefully,
controversial enough to stir interest.
-
Why do you write what you do?
I am quite philosophical and political in my thinking. I like novels
that present ideas, something to think about. Hence my interest in
utopian novels. George Orwell, Victor Hugo and Ayn Rand were all
masters of the philosophical novel. And their influence continues to
this day. A pulp fiction novel, crime fiction say, is entertaining
to read. But few are memorable. I like to express complex ideas on
paper. On this website you'll find many examples of my non-fiction
writing. I am hoping my foray into fiction writing will present some
of my more challenging ideas in an interesting and engaging way.
-
How does your writing process work?
I must admit I am not a very disciplined writer. I write best
when writing to a deadline. I churned out a lot of material on
investing and the stock market when I was a writer for About.com and
had to come up with an original article a week. And I wrote a
monthly subscription newsletter on investing from 2002 - 2007 which,
again, was deadline driven. When not writing to a deadline, I tend
to procrastinate. This is very much the case with fiction writing. I
have written four unpublished short stories so far and started on a
couple of fiction novels. For this current project, I decided to
enter the 3 Day Novel Competition because it would force me to
write.
With non-fiction, I generally research the topic and then just write
it in one sitting. I hate re-writing and do little. I reread what I
have written and fix minor things such as spelling or punctuation or
maybe changing the odd sentence. But I find I am usually quite happy
with my first draft. This is the same with the occasional attempts
at fiction I have made. And that is why I think the 3 Day Novel
Contest is an ideal venue for me to wet my feet. I won't have time
for a re-write. What you see is what you get. In this case, however,
I am preparing a plot outline ahead of time. That is actually more
difficult than I realized, but it will help tremendously when I get
to the actual writing.
The idea behind a Blog Hop is to pass this
on to three other writers. I haven't done that yet, so if you are a
writer and want to take up the challenge, send me an
email.
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