For quite a long time now I have wanted to write a story and now, I’m actually getting close to physicaly putting something down. But there is a few things slowing me down I was hoping you could help me with. I made a thread in GD and was recomended to bring it here. See this thread, it’ll will explain enough for you.
Based on what I’ve read, some of the things you’ll want to do are…
-decide on the narrative pattern; there are a number of ways to go about this, such as from the third person perspective, or a first person perspective – after reading over your thread again, though, I see that you want to tell it from a third person perspective while still representing the protagonist in some way, which would lead to my next point…
-character traits; one thing you could do is decide on whether or not you wish to have anyone in the cast serve as an author surrogate, which would lead back to decisions regarding narrative, as well as affecting the dialogue and actions of certain characters based on how you yourself would respond
-writing details; you want there to be a good amount of detail in regards to the cast and their environment, but at the same time, you don’t want to put too much at a time, which can be avoided by breaking up the info into multiple sentences and putting some parts between dialogue and thoughts of the characters if need be (describing every detail about someone or something in a run-on sentence should definitely be avoided); as for how to distinguish spoken dialogue from thoughts, italics would be one way of going about it, but I prefer using parentheses
-selection of genre; based on your other thread, it seems you have science fiction in mind, so you could try looking into examples related to the direction of the work (if you have more examples in regards to the setting and the tone, I could help you figure out where it is you might want to go; what I’m working on, for example, would most likely be labeled postcyberpunk)
I’ll check back to answer more questions as they come up.
Cool, thanks man that was helpful. Wohh, after reading that it looks like what I’m going to write is cuberpunk too. What differentiates cyberpunk from postcyberpunk? It was the mystical, epic element from rpgs and that futuristic, rough and dangerous element from mangas like Akira, Urotsukidoji, Devil Man etc and the genral life style I’ve lived that has inspired it. This is what I grew up with, you know? I’ve never really read books so it’s no suprise I’ve created it in this manar.
So when I’m typing thoughts, would I put it in speech marks, or what? I wouldn’t want to type “he thinks” every time he does it, I want them to just know they are his thoughts. None of the other characters will have active thoughts like the main character. It’s also how I wand to differenciate the man character from the rest of them.
If one were to differentiate cyberpunk and postcyberpunk, this article sums things up well, some of the main points being:
-“Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datsphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body.”
-“Far from being alienated loners, postcyberpunk characters are frequently integral members of society (i.e., they have jobs). They live in futures that are not necessarily dystopic (indeed, they are often suffused with an optimism that ranges from cautious to exuberant), but their everyday lives are still impacted by rapid technological change and an omnipresent computerized infrastructure.”
-“Like their cyberpunk forebears, postcyberpunk works immerse the reader in richly detailed and skillfully nuanced futures, but ones whose characters and settings frequently hail from, for lack of a better term, the middle class. (And we do need a better term; here in the United States, economic mobility has rendered the concept of “class” nearly obsolete.) Postcyberpunk characters frequently have families, and sometimes even children. (Children, rather than plucky, hyperintelligent, and misunderstood teenage protagonists, being creatures all too lacking in most science fiction.) They’re anchored in their society rather than adrift in it. They have careers, friends, obligations, responsibilities, and all the trappings of an “ordinary” life. Or, to put it another way, their social landscape is often as detailed and nuanced as the technological one.”
-“Cyberpunk characters frequently seek to topple or exploit corrupt social orders. Postcyberpunk characters tend to seek ways to live in, or even strengthen, an existing social order, or help construct a better one.”
-“In cyberpunk, technology facilitates alienation from society. In postcyberpunk, technology is society. Technology is what the characters breathe, eat, and live in (in the case of Walter Jon William’s Aristoi or Greg Egan’s Diaspora, live in the literal sense of the word, with their selves (in part or in toto) immersed in the datasphere). Postcyberpunk characters dwell in what Sterling has dubbed “permanent technological revolution” even as we do today.”
-“Cyberpunk tended to be cold, detached and alienated. Postcyberpunk tends to be warm, involved, and connected.”
In regards to reading, a book you might want to check out for cyberpunk is William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which set in place many of the elements of the genre, helping to establish it. As for postcyberpunk, a book I’ve been meaning to get around to myself (which is also mentioned in the article) is Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
Yeah, cyberpunk/postcyberpunk scenarios were a big influence on me as well. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (both season 1 and 2nd Gig) definitely got my interest as well in regards to postcyberpunk. The styling of Macross Plus was also a major factor for me.
As for thoughts, you could probably put them in the same spots as you would the dialogue. I tend to factor in the thoughts of multiple cast members, but you could try it just for the lead and see how it works. It should be able to help lend humor to certain situations based on how it’s used, too.