Creativity…With Margaret Fieland

July 28, 2014 6 Comments
Meet the Author



ChrisChat: Why did you write the book that brought you to MuseItUp Publishing?

Margaret:  

Why did  I write the book (Relocated) that brought me to MuseItUp Publishing?
Short answer: because I wanted to overcome my phobia about writing sci fi.
Longer answer: I’m a huge sci fi fan, and I’ve read it for years — I was already a die-hard Heinlein fan at age 10 — but as of 2010, I’d never written any. I’d also never written anything longer than 15000 words.
For some odd reason, I was seized by the idea of writing a teen sci fi novel for 2010 Nano. This was mid-September, and my writing buddies recommended I lay out the plot in as much detail as possible.
Undaunted, I instead concentrated on the world=building, and produced about a page or so of plot notes. I attended the October,2010 Muse Online conference, and from one of the seminars, used a simple list technique to generate a 15 point plot plan. A lot of that went out the window when I started to write. I also got involved in an online sci fi course at about the same time, and managed to pass the beginning chapters through my new writing buddies in the beginning of November.I started writing the blasted book in third person, but several chapters in (I believe I had a good 8000 words at that point), I decided first person would work better. I rewrote what I had so far (I needed to get my main character’s voice clear in my head) and continued on.

Tip of the iceberg, really, but that’s why I wrote the book.


ChrisChat:
 Totally understand that phobia. I would love to tactical this genre, but I’m nervous about the facts and science. You mention a sci fi course. Did this help with this area? What were the challenges of facts and science?

Margaret:
I was more nervous about the culture than about the science. For one thing, I wasn’t aiming for a bit techno-type future. For another, the art, music, politics, literature, and the like interest me far more.  That said, I am  a huge science geek. I haunted the Museum of Natural History and the Hayden Planetarium when I was a kid, was a huge fan of Nova, read science magazines and the like. I had faith in my ability to extrapolate gadgets if I wanted them. What I had less faith in was my ability to imagine a unique vision of the future. But it turned out not to be the obstacle I thought it would.  The vision was there — what I had to do was tease it out of my head and onto the page.

The sci fi course did help. What it especially helped with was the conventions of the genre: “You need some futuristic-sounding vocabulary,” my writing buddies told me. And, “sci fi is usually metal buildings, and you don’t have any. Consider a scene or two up on the space station.”

ChrisChat:
 How important are writing buddies? I was…am the listmom…of a writing group and we used to say – keep what works; toss the rest; stay open to repeated comments.

Margaret:
I am a huge fan of writing partners. For one thing, they notice things I don’t. For the beginning of Broken Bonds, first the told me that my initial first chapter was boring. Then they told me I had to recap some of what happened in Relocated, the first novel in the Aleyne series, from Brad (my main character’s) point of view, because that’s when he and Ardaval fall in love. So I wrote a 5000 word first chapter that starts when Brad and Ardaval meet for the first time.

I have a pretty good sense of when a comment is on-target and when it’s not. And yes, when  I hear the same thing more than once, I need to pay attention.

    

6 thoughts on “Creativity…With Margaret Fieland”

  1. I was very interested in reading about your method of writing. It's the opposite of the way I work, Your writing buddies are true literary midwives for good books.

    Pauline

  2. Pauline, I am in awe of people who can plot out a novel in detail before hand. I can't. The first draft is what teases the ideas out of my head and onto the page. Until I've written the first draft, I don't have a detailed enough vision to do the kind of outline real plotters do.

    When I write what comes out surprises me. In "Broken Bonds," for example, I had no idea until I wrote a crucial scene how things would play out between Brad and Nidrani. And I had no clue until I wrote the scene whether Brad would be acquitted of the charge of treason.

  3. Hey,Margaret. I'm in awe of you guys who pants so completely. This was interesting reading about how your first book came about. I'll share.

  6. I'm here very late, but I loved the interview! Margaret I can identify with all of the things you talked about here. I showed my third novel to an in person group and they suggested I add a ghost. This was not one but three people telling me this. So I went back and am now in the process of adding one. For my first novel I used an online group and we became very close. They really helped me to get to the heart of what I wanted to write. Beta readers help too and I have used them also. I agree that nothing can change until the first draft is done.

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