Advice for Writing, Editing, Reading, and Life.
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Give Me Your Answer True
Daisy clambered through a broken window. She left tracks in the thick dust as she explored. Debris littered the floor. At the end of a wide corridor, splattered on double doors, a question: ARE YOU REAL?
I, the Undersigned, Do Hereby Release Orion Prime Enterprises from All Liability
Krastin, wearing a huge, plastered-on grin, waved to the raffle winners. Should he look grim and mournful? He still wasn’t sure. Would you rather see a smiling face greeting you warmly? Or would you want a clue, a facial tick, a twitch of silent body language as a warning?
Twitter Blues
A very brief flash fiction piece written in response to a prompt by Laura Cooney (@LozzaWriting).
We Are Stardust (pt. 5)
Another few weeks passed and eventually Massoud gave up her efforts to teach the Petrans to farm. Hughes began spending more time on the surface, eventually only returning to the Exodus to sleep, and that only because Nyoka had insisted on it. Nyoka could feel control of the mission slipping away from her.
We Are Stardust (pt. 4)
Although no one had said it aloud or written it down or filled out any of the paperwork that could have made it official, Nyoka saw Rivera as her protégé, who would someday be in command of her own crew. The woman was in love with the stars; had said as much in her initial evaluation.
We Are Stardust (pt. 3)
Before the shuttle touched down, a ring of Petrans had formed around the clearing. As Nyoka stepped onto the alien world, she could not shake the lightness she felt. Beyond the weaker gravity of a less massive planet, standing on the bluish grass surrounded by indigo leaves, something in Nyoka lifted.
We Are Stardust (pt. 2)
Nyoka couldn’t slow her heart rate nor control her breathing. The tiny acrobat’s speed became unmanageable and it careened off the bar, launching into orbit. Nyoka was walk-jogging to the docking bay where Massoud and Rivera had just offboarded.
We Are Stardust (pt. 1)
Commander Nyoka gasped for breath when her capsule opened. Around her, hissing airlocks signaled the awakening of the other crew members. Nyoka grabbed the sides of her pod and hoisted herself out. The subsystems designed to maintain muscle mass couldn’t hold a candle to good, old-fashioned exercise, but they were a hell of a lot better than waking up from 45 years of atrophy.
Five Questions to Guide Your Worldbuilding Process
Not all fiction is set in a fantastical world, distant planet, or alternate timeline, but all fiction requires some level of worldbuilding. Even a novel written to be a realistic drama set in a real, modern-day city needs internal consistency to ensure the parts that are fiction don’t clash with the parts that are not.