Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

supposedly researched

Not all authors at SoL do much in the way of research, I think the few very active ones on this forum would easily account for over 90% of all the research done for stories posted at SoL. I know I've done many thousands of hours of research for stories, and still sometimes make an error due to transcriptions to my research files. But I'd have to be one of the top five SoL authors who do heavy research for their stories. Also, the ability to find anything on the Internet will often depend on knowing where to look for it; there's a lot of good information that requires you to be able to provide exact search requirements before you can find it.

I was explicitly told that research had been done.

I hate badly research things as well. But I also recognise the problems with research. One of the things about research is: when you find ten experts who tell you one thing, and another ten tell you the exact opposite. Arrgh.

For Finding Home I spent a few hundred hours just on researching aircraft to find one that would do what I wanted it to and still be able to land at the main airport I use in the story. In the end I ended up with an aircraft that the first 20 hits I got on research for that aircraft said it didn't have the range. Then I found on obscure site that mentioned an optional extension tank, confirmed it with the manufacturer, and problem solved. Yet even the manufacturer's main website didn't mention the little used extension tanks as being available for that model. Arrgh. You never know what you'll find out.

Take the Tactical Nuclear Weapons in Will to Survive the TNWs work differently to the big nuclear bombs. Most research websites don't mention much about that difference in the construction. I found one old report that raised the concern about a nearby explosion setting off the trigger mechanism. It even went on to say the US DoD officials recognised it as a possible issue that had a low probability. Yet no one tested to see if it was a safety issue or not. Even now, after they've phased most TNWs out of service they still worry about that type of scenario, bit no one has tested it out. I hit over 20 sites on stuff about TNWs and only 1 site mentioned that DoD report. arrgh. So easy to miss.

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bad research reminds me of the box office hit film about the Roman Empire that opens with a certain date shown, then proceeds to have a battle involving two Roman Legions that weren't raised for another century or so.

Alternative history or alternative reality stories can be science fiction or fantasy, but there is no particular reason why either must to be one or the other.

Addressing Switch's point, only a small amount of science-fiction qualifies as "hard" sci-fi (i.e. based on actual science). The rest is either fantasy (an imaginary world not based on science) or simple fiction (not set in any specific time, and little difference in the people other than a fictional setting).

My issue was whether the idea of a 'fiction country' had been done to death, and lacked the specificity to appeal to a wide swath of readers. I remember many 'alternate history' stories that just seemed silly, lacking any real depth or perspective. However, many of my stories feature purely fictional towns/cities. I just haven't tried the fiction country/languages yet, and am unsure how to approach it. (The only decent fictional language was the Lord of the Ring series, and that was based on actual historical languages). Even the various Star Wars languages were based on actual remote languages, butchered so no one could accuse them of outright theft.

Personally I would suggest sticking with a Latin alphabet, at least for spoken dialog, unless your Asia is your actual target audience.

I've used Vietnamese before. It's easier to reproduce (you can't include 16-bit characters on SOL), and it reads a little easier being letter based rather than character based. My aim isn't to have anyone understand the language, only to have it sound natural, and to have my character respond to having no clue to what's going on around him.

My whole Clan Amir series is set in a fictional country in SE Asia, in fact the neighbours are fictional as well. But it's set in modern times, so historical doesn't apply, and because it's in modern times and modern life and tech, sci-fi doesn't apply; but I did hit the codes that do. I have a covering note at the start that there are times they speak the local language but all conversations are portrayed in English for easier management.

My whole Clan Amir series is set in a fictional country in SE Asia, in fact the neighbours are fictional as well. But it's set in modern times, so historical doesn't apply, and because it's in modern times and modern life and tech, sci-fi doesn't apply; but I did hit the codes that do. I have a covering note at the start that there are times they speak the local language but all conversations are portrayed in English for easier management.

I think that best describes this story. I was planning to place it in some remote, mountainous Asian country. Rather than a 'How I became a multi-millionaire', it's about a young American kid who's suddenly being shot at by a variety of people, only to learn he's the deposed heir of a country taken over by his cousin. (That's the action part.)

The first part is him running for his life, the second part is his learning his new history, and learning about the people (hence the language difficulties), and the final part is the fight to free his country from the hands of the military. The part where he becomes the new king isn't even covered. Right now, I'm considering a series of 3 ten or fewer chapter books, so it's short, and hopefully sells for only a few bucks each.