Your Mini-Episode Hosts: Amal El-Mohtar and Maurice Broaddus, with Special Asides from Mary Robinette Kowal
We’re a week in to NaNoWriMo. If you’re scared of it, Amal is here to tell you that it’s okay to feel that way, Maurice is here with the encouraging words “consequence-free.”
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Relax! The “rules” of NaNoWriMo are not YOUR rules. If there’s a way you like to write, write that way!
Great discussion guys! However, I think when discussing “alien” characters it may be first important to talk about what makes us “human.” I mean, if an alien species has the same inherent needs – food, shelter, reproduction – are we more just talking cultural differences?
I ask as someone working with their own “alien” culture. My novel, The Dreamcatchers, focuses a lot around a race called the Nefiri and, while they’re not human, I tried to make them relatable by giving them a similar emotional spectrum. Where I sought to drive the difference was a completely unique religious structure to reflect the bizarre environment in which they lived.
But even here I’m wondering if this is still cultural difference? Since our tendency as humans is to anthropomorphize everything (down to seeing faces in clouds and tree bark), are we too bound in human understanding to properly develop a truly “alien” race? Is writing aliens just a sci-fi extension of writing “the other” in our society?
I’d be interested to know your thoughts if you have time to respond. Anyway, thanks again!
Sorry, I thought I was posting under the alien podcast but it seems to have been moved – I’ll repost this in the correct spot.
I understand completely with the write however you want to write given in the podcast. I started a completely new novel at the beginning of the month, and I plan to try and write a complete first draft of it within the month. Part of the reason for this is because I know that December will be so hectic for myself, but also because I feel like it is doable. I am about 1/4 of the way done and rocking it.
And, to boost your NaNoWriMo spirits, Amal and Maurice reflect on what NaNoWriMo means to them! Go, read the transcript available in the archives and over here, and then write the way you write!
https://wetranscripts.dreamwidth.org/150268.html