Second surprise in writing a science fiction thriller?
Similarities.
Ok, so this wasn’t entirely a surprise. My early writing involved the more simple research, such as How to Write a Book in 30 Days and The Essential Guide to Writing a Novel.
In the Essential Guide, Chapter 5, Benefits of a Genre he states:
“Writing in a genre doesn’t mean the writer needs to fear her plot has been done before. It’s all been done before.”
I had certainly read many fiction books beforehand and this nugget brought that knowledge out of my subconscious, which had secretly discovered this long ago, to my conscious mind.
If it involves people, then it has been done before.
This actually freed me to do my writing. “Would it be like …” was no longer a concern of mine.
Somewhere, somewhen, yes, it would be like ‘X’.
The one similarity that has intrigued me is the use of mythological names. In my Distance In Time series my main character, the Chairman, names his first spaceplane ‘Hermes – the God of Speed’.
You know how many other writers use that Hermes name for one of their spaceships? Heck REAL ships are named that.
The Chairman names his starship ‘Athena’. One of her characteristics is that she is the ‘Goddess of Heroic Endeavor’. I had originally chosen Enterprise, more for its meaning, ‘readiness to engage in daring or difficult action’, than due to my love for the Star Trek series.
But I liked the whole mythology thing better!
So I don’t worry about similarities 😀
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Dan Passaro 