Writing a rough draft for a novel is fairly straight forward for me. I start at the beginning and write through to the end ignoring all the little annoying details like facts as I write.
In “The Carduan Chronicles” Ship Eighteen drops out of the worm tunnel somewhere over the solar system. To reach Cardua (Earth), the ship must go toward and over the sun and on out the ecliptic. The time frame is fifteen weeks, their time or ninety days.
Over April the former drafts came together into one piece. The journey of the Arkosans soon to become Carduans after landing, is almost complete. All that remains is to merge the last week into the tale of Ship Nineteen.
This ship dropped out of the worm tunnel into a February ice storm and landed in an Ozark ravine. These nine Carduans have spent the fifteen weeks learning to live on this strange, new world.
Going the Distance
One of those annoying details for Ship Eighteen happens to concern their voyage. How long does it take to get to the sun? Or over the sun? Or on to Cardua?
This meant I needed to know how far apart the planets are from the sun and each other, how big the sun is and the revolution times for the planets. Writing the draft, I guessed.
Thanks to some library books I have more accurate figures now. What I do know for sure is that this is one speedy little ship. It travels a lot faster than any ship we’ve developed so far.
That’s one of the joys of writing science fiction, being able to make some things up. Even so, the ship’s journey must be consistent so those annoying details are important.
Another Draft
Once I have the voyage mapped out timewise, I get to write yet another draft for Ship Eighteen. One advantage is having much of the draft already written, only needing adjustment to the new times.
Ship Nineteen offers a new set of annoying details. I do tend to try to accomplish more in a day than time allows. Unfortunately for the Carduans and my draft, I tend to do the same for them.
The other consideration is the height of the Carduans: four inches. It is a real challenge to see an Ozark ravine from that height.
