My thanks to Billy for a Great idea

[JamesSavik]

In a thread I started a few weeks ago called the Edge of the genre?, I asked the question: has gay fiction gone stale?

 

I asked this question to get people thinking- especially myself. Of late I've not produced much. A lot of it has to do with confidence. When I used to write, I didn't think about it. Then I studied the craft of writing: characterization, setting, yadda, yadda and of course, writing yadda. Then I began thinking about it too much. End result: paralysis by analysis.

 

I did get what I was looking for from the subject: First- that there is nothing at all dead about a genre- especially one that is growing as fast as gay fiction. Second, some valuable insights.

 

During our discussions a few weeks ago, something Billy said has kept coming back to me.

 

there are a few people running around with their heads cut off trying to do something new.

 

i would say that it has gone stale+ but not because we've reached the limits. we've set up our own fence out of stakes connected by a single rope, and we refuse to take the effort to step over or under it

 

my remedies to this problem fall under two subheadings.

 

a ) what gay fiction must be.

b ) what any fiction must be

 

I don't write gay fiction. I am a gay writer that writes fiction. My stories may or may not have gay characters, protagonists or relationships. I'm not trying to write good gay fiction. I'm trying to write good fiction. Period.

 

lets acknowledge different ways of telling a story, different forms. need examples?

 

-a historical document

 

And here we are. I've been working on a sci-fi story for some time- written, re-written and re-rewritten chapters only to think.. this just isn't fresh enough... looks like author A's work, this reminds me of author B's classic.

 

In this last part Billy has given me an powerful idea that transforming the story that I have into something much more powerful and dynamic.

 

[sceerchhh... sorry changing gears.]

 

One of my favorite historians is a gentleman named Samuel Eliot Morrison who wrote, among other things, An Operational history of the US Navy in WWII, Admiral of the Ocean Sea and The Two Ocean War. As a reservist and a renowned historian at the time of WWII, he was given the official job of documenting the war, the battles and the campaigns that the US Navy participated in. This became a masterwork of history and the series War at Sea came from the effort.

 

This is the direction that I'm going to take on my Hammerhead project. Rather than one continuous story, there will be hundreds of smaller coordinated ones.

 

Will it work? I don't know but it is an exciting experiment and the results look promising so far.

 

I do need a little help though. As a writer, I can do the job but I'm not an artist I'm not and some graphics are needed: maps, pictures of ships and so on. If anyone would be interested in helping out on this side of the project let me know either here or by PM.

[GaryK]

Count me in, James. I have a library filled with books about WW2. I can't get enough of it. Same with my father. Our weekly dinners wouldn't be complete without a good debate or discussion about some aspect of WW2. With a few notable exceptions such as corvus it would be so wonderful to see someone break out of the mold of high school romance stories and sci-fi/fantasy stuff. I've got access to all the maps, photos and most anything else you might need. I'd love to help with the beta-reading cause I know enough about the reality to be able to check for accuracy as well as for a good story.

Edited May 11, 2008 by GaryInMiami