Yes, its been awhile…again! In all honesty, I do plan on making this more of a weekly thing as doing a blog every month is not the best approach. On the book front, I finished my major revisions for the first Star Brigade book and have passed it along to a few editors; two friends and one beta reader. A possible second beta reader has shown interest so I’m contacting them to provide more details. The beta reader thing is something I’ve heard about from a few other self published authors and have decided to give this a chance. From what I’ve seen and heard beta readers provides feedback on a book from people who have no subjective connection to you as a person, which is always welcome. I’m both excited and nervous, but we’ll see how it all goes.
Ever since I started my rewrites for Star Brigade, I’ve been thinking about writing inspirations and how many have influenced the Star Brigade universe. In the beginning Star Brigade as a whole has a taste of so many of the capes & tights comic books I used to read as a teenager as well as Star Wars (alien species), Star Trek (star spanning governments) and some Babylon 5 (a more grounded sci-fi space opera).
Teams like the Justice League crafted the whole team dynamic as well as the super powered aspect of Star Brigade.
The Justice League, New 52 Era.
But as the years have passed, the characters growing more complex and the universe has expanded, so many other aspects have touched Star Brigade. And as a whole the overall story is better for it. Joss Whedon said something similar a ways back about “filling one’s tank” with so many different sources or even different genres, even if they are not from the genre you’re writing in. His brilliant but cancelled show ‘Firefly’ was inspired by a Civil War novel called ‘The Killer Angels.’
Science Fiction is my favorite genre for books, television and films due to its infinite possibilities and expansive subgenres. However, only consuming sci-fi would be a bit…incestuous when it comes to finding inspiration for your writing, non? I remember how reading the Song of Ice and Fire novels really gave me a better understanding of integrating exposition without it feeling so clunky. Or even better, this great little indie flick called ‘Drinking Buddies‘ showed that just because a “Will They/Won’t They Couple” has off the charts chemistry doesn’t mean they should actually get together. What if said couple end up being completely wrong for each other, despite their awesome chemistry?
Even more to the point, I remember way back when I was trying to give some alien species a culture outside of the world and freedoms they’d lost. I ended up finding this in Spain with its Moorish and gypsy ancestry. Every country I’ve visited since then has giving something back to my writing whether it be a few new character traits or a whole new series idea.
In short, inspiration can come from any place outside of your preferred genre if you open yourself up to it. And getting those bits of inspiration from new experiences is a wonderful thing as one grows their writing talents. Let me know what other genres, books, movies , places or things have touched your writings? I look forward to hearing and discussing!
On an added note, I’m going to start sharing some short stories and short sci-fi films that I’ve enjoyed in these blog posts. Let me know what you think.
Here’s a short story by sci-fi author Ken Liu, called “Paper Menagerie” which won the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Awards in short fiction.
On a last note, I found this great short sci-fi film called ‘Payload’ How I love the rabbit hole known as YouTube. Have a happy Thanksgiving!
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