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Author Topic: NaNoWriMo 2013- It Ends!  (Read 44001 times)

Sirus

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #60 on: October 23, 2013, 04:13:51 pm »

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.
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Lectorog

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #61 on: October 23, 2013, 04:33:34 pm »

The problem there is that I'm thinking too much about the secret organization, and I have no idea which story about it to tell. (And, because it'll be the first story I concretely set down about it, it would also irreversibly shape how future stories with that organization involved turn out. No pressure.)
Just think about them doing normal stuff and what would happen from there. That's generally the smoothest transition for new readers.

If there's something about the story that you'd prefer went a different way, or didn't happen at all, just change it later. Continuity is overrated.

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.
Not at all, because the ancient Roman Empire could never have been In Space in its exact form?
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Flying Dice

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #62 on: October 23, 2013, 04:34:24 pm »

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.
I'm about 95% sure it has already been done. Not just the legion mentioned in passing in The Excalibur Alternative, either. That's the nice part about using historical entities in Alt-Hist/future settings: you can play with their cultural norms and artifacts all you want while handwaving the mistakes as intentional changes. You can call your beamswords gladii and nobody will bat an eye. :P


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I've got a novel idea for a novel and a few ideas for novel-length fanfics, but I've got a ton of papers due midway through November, so between that and my inherent laziness I'm not sure how much will get written.
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lue

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #63 on: October 23, 2013, 04:38:05 pm »

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.

The easy way out we be to say: towards the end of the Roman Empire, there was the original Western Empire, the Eastern Empire, and a Spacebound Empire. Then any inaccuracies can be chalked up to "it's a different sect of the empire" :P

The problem there is that I'm thinking too much about the secret organization, and I have no idea which story about it to tell. (And, because it'll be the first story I concretely set down about it, it would also irreversibly shape how future stories with that organization involved turn out. No pressure.)
Just think about them doing normal stuff and what would happen from there. That's generally the smoothest transition for new readers.

If there's something about the story that you'd prefer went a different way, or didn't happen at all, just change it later. Continuity is overrated.
After all, Douglas Adams transitioned from "dead in space" to "miraculous rescue". :) I'll be sure to take that "normal stuff and see what happens" advice into account when sorting out my idea center later.
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Sirus

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #64 on: October 23, 2013, 04:40:19 pm »

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.
I'm about 95% sure it has already been done. Not just the legion mentioned in passing in The Excalibur Alternative, either. That's the nice part about using historical entities in Alt-Hist/future settings: you can play with their cultural norms and artifacts all you want while handwaving the mistakes as intentional changes. You can call your beamswords gladii and nobody will bat an eye. :P
Really? Damn, I was afraid of that but I guess I shouldn't be overly-surprised. Oh well, its still the best idea I have at the moment :P
No beamswords, but similar uniforms for the soldiers and similar army organization. Probably the biggest difference will be that soldiers are enlisted and equipped by the government rather than doing the historical thing and providing their own.
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USEC_OFFICER

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #65 on: October 23, 2013, 04:53:26 pm »

No beamswords, but similar uniforms for the soldiers and similar army organization. Probably the biggest difference will be that soldiers are enlisted and equipped by the government rather than doing the historical thing and providing their own.

In that case I'd try to be as accurate as possible to add in as much background flavour as possible. And if you have to make up ranks/info (I doubt that the Roman army was well organized for space combat) then try to fit them into the existing structure as much as possible. Alternatively introduce some Marian-like reforms into the backstory and completely restructure the army organization/structure while keeping some of the old names for the ranks. I could easily see both methods working well.
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Flying Dice

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #66 on: October 23, 2013, 05:01:16 pm »

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.
I'm about 95% sure it has already been done. Not just the legion mentioned in passing in The Excalibur Alternative, either. That's the nice part about using historical entities in Alt-Hist/future settings: you can play with their cultural norms and artifacts all you want while handwaving the mistakes as intentional changes. You can call your beamswords gladii and nobody will bat an eye. :P
Really? Damn, I was afraid of that but I guess I shouldn't be overly-surprised. Oh well, its still the best idea I have at the moment :P
No beamswords, but similar uniforms for the soldiers and similar army organization. Probably the biggest difference will be that soldiers are enlisted and equipped by the government rather than doing the historical thing and providing their own.
Oh, no worries. It's more than fresh enough to work. Now, if you were writing yet another "zomg zombies" novel...
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Sirus

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #67 on: October 23, 2013, 05:08:36 pm »

I am actually doing some research, mostly in regards to how ranks were named in the olden days and how things were organized. I'm shooting for a sort of Gaunt's Ghosts style of novel: come for the gritty ground combat, stay for the interactions between all these different characters from the lowest grunt to the overall commander.
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WillowLuman

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #68 on: October 23, 2013, 05:17:02 pm »

So, a George RR Martin kind of thing?
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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #69 on: October 23, 2013, 05:50:24 pm »

I'd like to see a Mali Space Empire, or at least an Arabic Space Empire.
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Sirus

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #70 on: October 23, 2013, 05:56:49 pm »

I'd like to see a Mali Space Empire, or at least an Arabic Space Empire.
Would have been my second option, but they aren't as instantly identifiable as the Roman Legionnaires and I don't know as much about them.
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majikero

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #71 on: October 23, 2013, 08:30:18 pm »

Due to the past 4 years of failure, I'll try to scale my novel ambitions into something more manageable. My story idea is either a superhero with slime powers or a prophesied demon lord evading various prophesied heroes.

I'm not really sure where to go with the first one but the demon lord idea can be episodic with various "Hero of the week" showing up.
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inEQUALITY

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #72 on: October 23, 2013, 09:37:36 pm »

Hm, I think I'm going to end up writing about a colonial systems engineer on a planet where the climate alternates between temperate and 'snow and ice, lots of snow and ice everywhere'. The thing is, these drastic climate shifts happen only ever so often - a decade or more, earth-time. So the current engineer has never actually experienced firsthand one of the fabled 'deep freezes' before and, though he is well trained, he is completely unprepared for just how hellish the planet becomes in just a manner of weeks.

The main things I have to consider are: how have local fauna and flora adapted to such extremes (if they exist at all in any significant way), what natural resources have drawn colonists to the planet, how the planet can actually experience such extremes in such a short of time ('seasons' changing within a matter of days), what problems erupt, and how issues are dealt with especially once the extreme deep freeze settles in.

I think it'll be an interesting situation to explore. :D
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Darkmere

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #73 on: October 23, 2013, 09:41:57 pm »

So how worried should I be about historical accuracy in a novel featuring Romans in Space? Not aliens with a culture similar to the Romans, mind, but the actual Ancient Roman Empire in space.

*shrug* everything's been done before (the one I have in mind was a series about space rome vs every hitler from every universe where the nazis won. I forget the name). Don't worry about it, because you won't find an original idea that makes any kind of sense. Do what you wish, as accurate or not as you wish. Pedants will complain regardless; what matters is telling the story you want to tell the way you want to tell it.
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Flying Dice

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Re: NaNoWriMo 2013
« Reply #74 on: October 24, 2013, 12:38:45 am »

For what it's worth, here's a brief explanation of some of the more esoteric worldbuilding behind the main novel idea I'm working on in the background:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
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