Quote from: Xenomrph on Sep 29, 2008, 01:43:06 AM
Quote from: War Wager on Sep 29, 2008, 12:56:22 AM
What does the title 'Turnabout' have to do with the story?
I saw it as the hunter becoming the hunted - Sloane goes out there and starts picking off the Predators, essentially beating them at their own game.
Xeno has it nailed exactly. Look up the word "turnabout," it should be a pretty good clue to how the story will go.
As for working at DH, I suppose it is possible just to walk in off the street and get a job as a writer without any credits, but I don't know of anybody who has done it -- certainly not on the book end.
If you are looking for a doctor, chances are you'd rather be treated by somebody who went to medical school, did an internship, maybe a couple years of residency in a specialty, and then opened a practice.
Probably your first choice wouldn't be somebody who is an actor playing a doctor on TV who knows a lot of medical terminology but has never treated a real patient.
There is a fair amount of competition for writers in an established universe that has a big readership. The people who run those can pick from among a lot of really good writers who have track records -- they write cleanly, deliver on-time, and are easy to get along with. A newbie who has an idea but no history might or might not be able to deliver a book in a couple of months -- the editors have no way of knowing, and why would they take the risk that, come delivery date, the newbie is only a quarter of the way through the ms and bogged down so bad that s/he can't finish it?
I'll repeat this, because it is critical that you understand it:
Ideas by themselves aren't worth much.
A lot of people who don't write believe that an idea is the most important thing in a story. It isn't. I can't tell you how many times I've have people approach me -- and every pro writer I know -- with this proposition: "Hey, look, I have this terrific idea for a book. Tell you what -- I'll give it to you, you write it, and we'll split the money."
It doesn't take much effort to come up with an idea that will work for a book. You can probably find ten in the local newspaper on any given day. Turning an idea into a three or four hundred page manuscript is where the rubber meets the road.
Nobody wants to talk to you if you say, "Hey, I have a great idea for a book!" If you have a finished ms that flies like a bat out of hell and keeps them turning pages to get to the end, that's what they want. You have to have something to
show them. And it's a lot more impressive if it's published and you got paid for it.
If they are looking for somebody who can write science fiction or fantasy and you have a couple of novels in the genre that sold okay, you could be a contender. But even then, there will still be a lot of others you have to get past. You know how many people would give their left nut to be able to write a Star Wars novel? I had thirty books to my credit when I got a shot at my first SW's novel, I had Mike Richardson and the editor at Bantam going to bat for me at Lucasfilm, and I still had to send them books to audition.
If you are somebody that nobody knows, no track record, what have you got going for you?
There might be another path to get there, but I suspect it would be a lot like climbing Everest without oxygen ...
Got to get back to work -- Indiana Jones and the Army of the Dead are waiting for me ...