So, I may have mentioned this once, but I’m revising one of my old stories that I submitted for a while, but then decided that it needed a lot of work. I’m now going back and trying to put that work in on the story. I finished section 1 (of 3) last week, and I finished section 2 (of 3) yesterday. The old short story was called “Rocket-Man,” but I’ve changed the story’s title to (currently) “Starlight, Starbright.” I’m not sure if this is too cliche’, but for now it is just something to title my work. I’ll talk about it more if I (hopefully) finish it next week.
Rocket-Man, Version 1.0
Rocket-Man is a story about a man in “rocket-pack” who ventures into space to stop a group from terrorizing Earth from space. It was originally inspired by the song “Rocket Man” by Elton John, but was also written (in its original state before the first before the first Iron Man movie was released). I submitted it approximately 10 times or so, but none of the markets were really “hot” on it. Most of the markets really liked the AI companion that I included in the suit, but didn’t really seemed to like the main character or the actual plot itself.
Rocket-Man, Version 2.0
So the revision is just a “re-seeing” of the story with different eyes. I’m currently two thirds done with the revision (2 sections of 3 are done). I’m rewriting it after finally discovering the major character that I want to explore in the story. The first draft was all about plot and description with an “antagonist” shoe-horned in to give conflict (in this case, Iron Man -like combat). In this revision, I’ve got a character who has a definite history–former ex-con turned law enforcement–and a definite antagonist (with whom he has history from while incarcerated) who has taken over a space-based platform. The conflict feels more organic and more realistic than before.
Rocket-Man, Version 3.0
I had planned to let it lie fallow for a couple of weeks and then revisit it again for one last major pass (I think this will still be my plan), but at the end of the week there is a deadline for submitting to a market that matches my style of stories, so I’m probably going to submit it early. I realize that the story probably won’t be as good as I hope to make it with “version 3.0” (going in and really dramatizing as much as possible), but as I still intend to do this at a later date, hopefully that will lessen the sting of the rejection letter just a little.
Well, that’s all I have time for today. See you all again soon!
Sidney
- Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
- Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
- Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
- Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
- Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
- Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue # 2, Currently on Script Page 32)
OtherWorlds: A Science Fiction & Fantasy Web Journal 