What are you willing to give up to write a Steampunk book?

Time; you can’t buy it, you can only measure it, use it, or waste it.

You can write a Steampunk book. You can write a good science fiction book. But it’s going to take time. Lots and lots of time.

You can crave out time to write. It’s not easy. The experts say to give up time wasters. Give up endless TV binge watching. Give up spending so much time with friends.

That’s like telling a dieter to give up chocolate, give up things that taste good, give up food they’ve eaten all their lives. Have you ever met a person that went cold turkey on rice cakes and water for two weeks. That’s a person you don’t want to get within twenty feet of.

Some writers tell you to write whenever you can, in five to ten minute slots. Still other advocate writing in two hour or longer cycles. The second hour is where you fall into the groove. You only have to do that three or so times a week to get a book out in a couple of months.

What to do. Do both. You think this is hard, you’re right, but so is writing a book. It’s your time, no one can give you time, but anyone can take it away from you. Taking time from you makes some people feel superior, domineering. Down with the time bullies.

Do you remember the plot line for your favorite TV show that aired four weeks ago. If it’s not that interesting maybe that’s the show to give up. Along with the one after it that you watch just to fill time till your next favorite show.

You say you can’t give up on your kids. Then don’t. But remember, kids need alone time to. When you’re with your kids turn off the TV and interact with them. That’ll scare them. Read to your kids. If they’re older talk to them about the books they have read. They have to read books for school. Some of the best memories I have is my mother reading books to me. We didn’t have many books. There wasn’t a book store or library in the little village (less than 80 people) that was a quarter mile away form where I grew up. The little food store in the village did have a comic book rack, but it would be a couple of months between times my father would buy us a comic book. Between us kid we would read the comic book till it was in shreds. Buy your kids comic books and read them to your children.

Don’t go to hang out with someone. Go to interact with them. Make every second count.

Take a note book with you at all times. Have a quite second standing in line or waiting, then write in the note book. No one will notice, they’re all looking at their cell phones. At worst write in your cell phone. You’ll look like everyone else.

Live life to the fullest, do things, write.

Stay strong, write on, and write.

Professor Hyram Voltage

Character Arc in Steampunk

Does your character need a character arc?

Think about it. Did Sherlock Holmes change after each investigation? No, he was and always will be Sherlock Holmes.

Did Bilbo Baggins change at the end of the Hobbit? No, when he got home he wanted to be a hobbit. He did not want to go adventuring again. He did not want to leave his hobbit hole.

If you’re writing a trilogy do you have to have the character go through a major character arc by the end of each volume. No, if you did a person reading volume two and going back and reading volume one may not like volume one because the character she loved in volume two is not the character with the same name in volume one.

How many life altering can a person go through and not go crazy? Think about Sue Garfton and the 26 volumes she wrote.

Think about yourself. When you learned to count, did you become a different person? Counting is one of the greatest inventions of the human race. How about when you learned to multiply. How many animals can multiply? Think about it. You are having a dozen friends over so you go and get two six-packs or four six-packs if your smart. But, did you change when you learned one of the greatest things that separates mankind from animals?

I don’t think you became a threat to the world (future dictator or demigod) when you conquered long division. Sure you learned something important, but it had little impact on your personality. Some people promptly forgot all they every knew about multiplication and division as soon as they could and sank back to being an animal.

No one remembers when multiplication or division was discovered. Think how that changed the world. No one remembers when we went from Roman numerals to Arabic numerals. But those things changed the world far more than Julius Caesar. Just try and do the calculus in Roman numerals.

If a person loses a loved one. She could change or maybe not. She might be sadder or she might turn around and find a new husband. Is she really different. Does she join a new church because she lost someone? Or would they struggle on and over come? Would your major character implode if they had a major lost in their life. I’ve seen all of this happen, but would I be interested in reading about a wimp that gets knocked down by things I’ve been through? Would you?

So plan your next book, even if it is a stand alone, to be a serial. It’s good business practice. You like the character, and your readers like the character, you have a built-in audience to fall back on. Are you going to change the character so much that if the reader reads the second then goes back and reads the first book she won’t  recognized or like (as in you lost a reader of your future books) the character?

Set your next series as 30 volume story. Make it James Bond in the Steampunk universe. “The names Blonde.” She ratchets the hammer back on the dainty, deadly gun. “Mary Blonde.”

Stay strong, write on, and think about how you have changed after major life altering events.

Professor Hyram Voltage

Writing a Steampunk Book in the Dark

It’s Thursday. The wind is off the ocean and blows into the garage where I am working. A cold, bitter wind. I had a deadline due on Friday for a electronic project. I was pushing it. I had been pushing it for days and things kept coming up to delay the project. At 3:40 the shop light over the work bench went out. I glanced over my shoulder and the clip on light hanging form the rafters was still shining. I didn’t have time to run down to the store to buy a new tube for the shop light.

I hit the switch on the drill press. It groaned, a bad ugly groan. I shut it off fast. I took a voltage meter and checked the power coming out of the wall socket. There was only 57 volts when it should be 120 to 125 volts. Way too low is an understatement. The LED light bulb in the clip-on light would run on that low of a voltage. I didn’t know the LED bulbs would run on that low a voltage. Looking closely I noticed that the LED bulb was dimmer than it should be. The fluorescence shop light would not run on that low a voltage. Note to self, need more LED light bulbs.

I was going to miss the deadline, I was cold, hungry, and discouraged.

I went inside and started writing. The laptop showed it’s battery was low. I can’t win. I went to call a friend and the cell phone battery was low, almost discharged.

I’ve got flashlights. I also have a brand new pack of cheap batteries from Harbor fright. They may not be the best batteries or last the longest, but they are so cheap I don’t mine going through them fast.

I plugged the laptop in anyway. It started charging. I plugged the cell phone in and it started charging. The miracle of modern electronics.

Around 5:00 PM the power company called on the phone to tell me the power was out. No s!@#. The robot voice went on to say the power went out at 1:30 and was expected to be back on at 6:30. That did not make me happy. The power went out at 3:40. So if they were 2 hours off on the power out time they were going to be off on the power back on time. Hours and hours off on the power back on time.

It’s cold in the house with the heater off, so I went to a restaurant in the another town and got dinner. It got cold inside the restaurant, and I was wearing a jacket. I won’t be eating there for a while.

Back at the house I took a folding chair into the kitchen. Lit a burner on the gas stove with a match (I had just bought a new box of matches a week before). With the laptop on my knees and light from a half lit ceiling LED bulb (aided by the light from a flashlight) I typed away.

It’s not fun writing while sitting on a cold metal folding chair. The burner on the stove took some of the chill off. Next time, I’m going to dig out the TV tray to sit the computer on. I was so discouraged, tired, and upset that I was going to miss a deadline that I didn’t think of it at the time.

I have a flashlight that takes six AA batteries and give off a wide beam of light. Good for reading or easing the eye strain while typing on the computer. I got another flashlight after the last big power outage. It’s a small LED flashlight that takes two AA batteries and on its second setting it will last 6 to 12 hours on a set of batteries.

I have heard good things about the NEBO WORKBRITE PRO light. It’s an LED light that comes with an adaptor to plug into the wall, but it runs off six AA batteries. It can run off three AA batteries in a pinch. The light is rated for 7.5 hours on high and 16 hours on the low setting. Available at www.batteriesplus.com. I’m going to get one soon.

I always change the batteries in my flashlights when we shift to daylight savings time, whether I have used the flashlight or not.

You would think, as a steampunk writer, I would write by candlelight. Even with three candles it’s not easy to write by candlelight. It’s definitely not romantic, the light flickers and never goes where you want it to, and you get smoke stains on your computer screen. Besides, I could set the place on fire with candles all over the place.

Power returned at 2:30 AM the next morning. I got some writing done, but it wasn’t easy.

Stay strong, write on, and buy batteries for your flashlight.
Professor Hyram Voltage