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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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Yes good vs evil. Just looking to see what everyone likes and don’t like. Plus thoughts on space zombies
Space zombies sounds like it has the potential to be fun! It sounds like your character is perfect for themes of resistance, defying "the man," etc. I tend to really enjoy when books explore ways to right injustice and become critically conscious.
Someone please tell me why a good story has to have a 'theme'. Why must we consciously make our stories into moral tales?
Can you write a story without themes? No love, no revenge or vengeance, no good vs evil?
I have noticed that the best stories (books/movies/shows) have an initial release that’s focused more on a specific idea or set of ideas. It’s only later and in subsequent stories do they try to force in “the bad guy” or some force against it. This isn’t to say that many stories begin with some theme that must be worked through, I don’t think you should try to add one for the sake of it. This might be a bad example, but consider the movie the Santa Claus.
There was no real badness in the first movie - it was just a kind hearted story that had some minor struggles. In later ones though, they suddenly had to include more danger as a plot progression method.
My point is that a good idea can exist independent of extra fluff.
Best of luck - hope this wasn’t too wandering.
Can’t go past lesbian necromancers in space if you ask me. That’s really was a great spiel. They were necromancers, and lesbians even though there wasn’t any romance and space was a push. They were mostly on planets for the first one. Still sold lots of books. A theme works well.
Thomas wrote: "I don’t think you should try to add one for the sake of it."I agree with Thomas. It is likely that the theme will feel forced, pedantic, shoehorned in to a reader if you decide from the beginning what it's going to be. I'd say let the theme grow with the story and characters.
One personal example (I'm only an occasional writer and have never sold my writing) is the piece I sent to my sibling asking for a first impression. "This has a strong anti-capitalist vibe to it." Huh, okay, now I could see that. Now I have to decide whether I'm going to lean in harder on that in revisions, or if that's what I really am trying to say, etc.
Once your draft is in pretty good shape, a first reader might have insights that you yourself don't, might find a theme that was invisible to you while you were knee deep in your draft.
From the SciFi and Fantasy Book Club] SFFBC's Terror-ific July Newsletter-----Look at the rereads for this month:
The Day of the Triffids
Jade City
Annihilation
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Please, tell me if the plots to these sound at all familiar! Read them very quickly if you don't see it and you want to survive.
I think they're trying to tell us something. I think subconsciously, we are warning ourselves against something we knew and forgot, something we'd have to code in a way that would reach all our club members without being noticed openly by the infiltrator. And I ask myself, what do we all have in common that would necessitate this sort of activity, and also allow us all to comprehend the message we're sending ourselves?
That's right. The books. -------
Books are sparks flying out of the global human psyche. Some of the sparks ignite fires to break down barriers, while other sparks ignite fires that make fire breaks that stop fires from expanding.
Themes are extensions of the title, blurb, and cover, that is they are the art that is used to paint the picture the book is painting. The bottom line is, have as much fun as you want with the themes, and who knows, sometimes a theme takes on a life of its own and effortlessly becomes part of the global human psyche.
I am writing a sci-fi fantasy.
The idea is A intergalactic time traveling bounty hunter who moonlights as a space pirate and his robot companion who fight a teleporting zombie.
I'm about 20K into the book and I'd like to slide some more on target themes into the book.
Can anyone recommend some please?