Can a writer use their expertise to create unique novel?
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- ecoman
- Posts: 53
- Joined: 28 Aug 2013, 13:24
- Favorite Book: Coma
- Currently Reading: The Doomsday Key by James Rollins
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Can a writer use their expertise to create unique novel?
Since I am a microbiologist, I was able to write two biotech thrillers that used ideas for these stories that a nonprofessional couldn’t even dream up. My most recent thriller used the idea of a Hamas bioterrorist programming a DNA based computer to produce an Ebola virus which causes an epidemic in Israel. In my first novel, I knew that the bacterium used to break down organic material and produce methane gas was related to one of the most deadly toxin producing bacteria species known to man. Again, I created a story where bioterrorists were able to utilize this knowledge to make it look like an alternate energy source was the cause of an epidemic.
- heartsonfire43
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- Favorite Book: too many to mention
- Currently Reading: Disclosure by Michael Crichton
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- KS Crooks
- Posts: 112
- Joined: 11 Nov 2014, 12:33
- Favorite Book: Voyage of the Dawntreader
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- moderntimes
- Posts: 2249
- Joined: 15 Mar 2014, 13:03
- Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
- Currently Reading: Grendel by John Gardner
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There are many good techno-thrillers and it's apparent that you've got a sharp idea and direction for the books. However, the major thing is to create an exciting and engrossing story that will captivate the readers. So go lightly into that forest of technology and be certain that you dole out the techie stuff a bit at a time, not all in chapters 2-4, or you'll lose the readers. Not that your technology is wrong or bad in its concept, but that it's not presented in an exciting manner.
How to do this? Small doses work best. Start with action, action, action, and then let the "good guys" discover that there's a really advanced bad guy who's doing something that nobody can yet deal with. Then maybe assemble a team of smarties, and have them explore the possibilities (all the time fighting the baddies) and let the technical facts be "discovered" bit by bit. This technique not only increases the story tension and drama, but it doesn't inundate the reader with too much technobuzz in one chapter.
Write the story and pitch it to an audience of the following: college graduates or equivalent, but not science majors -- in other words, fairly sharp folks who are aware of technology and are intrigued by it, but themselves aren't whizzes. Write your technical stuff as if you were writing a Nova episode -- a bright audience but not necessarily up to date on the latest stuff.
Above all, make the story engrossing and fun to read. As soon as the story become a "reading assignment" you'll lose your audience. And that means you won't get the prospective agent or publisher to say "greenlight" on the book.
btw I'm a chem major w. minor in math and I worked for years in chemical research, so I know the lingo. Good luck.
- ecoman
- Posts: 53
- Joined: 28 Aug 2013, 13:24
- Favorite Book: Coma
- Currently Reading: The Doomsday Key by James Rollins
- Bookshelf Size: 0
I agree with you on NOT bombarding the reader with too much technical material. What I’m trying to say is that a writer can use their expertise to create an interesting plot using a unique scientific idea. Your right in saying that you have to capture your thriller readers interest with lots of action and appealing characters. I’ve strived to do this in both of my novels. Here’s a quote from a review I received form Goodreads Book Club for my first book: “The action sequences and characters are well written and the technical sections are easy to read and understand.”
- moderntimes
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- Currently Reading: Grendel by John Gardner
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- DATo
- Previous Member of the Month
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- Joined: 31 Dec 2011, 07:54
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Audrey Niffenegger's debut novel The Time Traveler's Wife was resplendent with descriptions of cuisine, wine, pottery making (of which I believe she is well informed and practices), as well as lengthly passages about prenatal care; all of which are hammered at to the point of nausea and leant no appreciable value to the story. The reader found himself saying, "Enough already Niffenegger, get on with the freaking story for chrissakes."
A writer must always be cautious not to overly season the writing with technical jargon which is of little use to the layman reader. This can be viewed as an intentional attempt to impress and smacks of boasting, which can have just the opposite effect on the reader. As Emerson once said ... The longer he boasted of his honor the faster we counted our spoons."
― Steven Wright
- billorton
- Posts: 11
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- Favorite Book: The Glory and the Dream
- Currently Reading: The Future by Al Gore
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Me, I know politics. So what do I write about? Politics. Do people want to read it? Well, based on Smashword numbers, a few thousand people have picked up my first novel, set in the Great Recession. Do they like it? One reviewer (from this site) didn't make their way through the whole book, as my writing style perplexed them. (I weave separate stories that come together in the last third of each book, requiring a reader to jump from storyline to storyline. It was too much for him.) I accept that not every reader will like what I have written, or how I have written it. But if I let that stop me, I would have nothing to show.
What what you feel good about. Create work you are proud of. And keep writing. Writing novels is like planting hardwood. You don't prosper from the growth of those first days, but for the long-haul.