K.I.S.S.! K.I.S.S.! K.I.S.S.!

[onyxhawke]

Among the half a trillion things that bemuse me about writing, is the "chapter quote". To me, it seems like entirely more work than is needed. To me, a non writer, the extra work spent putting them together could be better spent working on the text. Also there is the fact that for consistencies sake, once you have them, you'll probably be expected to continue them. Given the penchant publishers, and to some extent the public have for never ending series this could be ten to twelve books. If you have a slim twenty chapters per book, multiplied by twelve books, that is a whole lot of time.

Then too, there is the problem of doing it right. I have almost the same grievances with chapter quotes as i do with prologues. Either A) they are not done right, either spoiling the entire book and or chapter, or B) they are totally opaque and just distract the reader and make them think the are missing something that just isn't there.

This hopeless ramble was spurred by nothing in particular...

Comments

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

I don't do them all the time, but I really loved writing the ones for STARDOGS and in SLOWTRAIN. In both cases I used them as background 'fillers'. If a reader skips them it makes no difference to the follow-ability of the story. If they read them they give background information.

STARDOGS

"Our journeys have many dimensions, physical, mental, spiritual. The physical journey to the expected may lead us to unplanned destinations in the other dimensions. Always be wary about the water in these places."
From a tomb-epitaph in the churchyard of our Lady of Chatterjee, in the grounds of the Thuggee training-madrassa on Arunchal.

________


As wanton flies to boys, are we to the Gods. We sport with them, bringing ourselves to their attention, and they kill us. It is wiser to leave them strictly alone.
From the collected sayings of Saint Sugahata the Reviled.

_________

SLOWTRAIN

From Remote probe report 36e, returned to Sol; beamback 2793 AD

...appear to be a bi-pedal hominid spacetravelling species, occupying the second planet of G09 - 034T...
_____

One of the biggest faults with the concept of a one-shot slower-than-light colony mission was the proportion of the time spent accelerating and slowing down. Take Barnard's star for example. At 5.9 light years away, with a ship capable of 0.3 lights, a plausible speed for a ramscoop... you'd be there in 19.7 years, right? Wrong. It all depends on acceleration. High-speed acceleration is expensive and creates engineering stresses, to say nothing of the stresses on the biological matter. A slow steady push is best. You accelerate slowly for at least a third of your trip. And then you have to slow down again. If you're going to visit a number of systems, this adds HUGELY to travel time. What's more, the momentum you've lost has to be built again. Momentum is expensive. It is energy. Energy, whether taken from solar-pumped lasers or a-bombs is a consumable. Even if it is 'free' solar power, it still costs to get it into a usable form, and once it has been used, it is gone. A metal space habitat has finite lifespan - but it is an enormous one. The depreciating cost, amortized over its space-life, divided by its carrying capacity, makes it the cheapest vehicle humanity ever built. However: Building the momentum needed to travel between the stars is too expensive to waste on 'one stop' journeys, or even on leapfroging between stars. Once the colony ship accelerates it must never slow down again. Never. It will drop space habitat modules at each sun. But it must just keeps cruising slowly along, a slow train to the stars.

From SLOWTRAIN: THE STARS WITHIN OUR GRASP, Conquist, A., Mordaunt Scientific Press, NY. 2090.
____

"Do you want to colonize planets? Or do you want to colonize space? The former is much less practical."

Author unknown

[archangelbeth]

Once the colony ship accelerates it must never slow down again. Never. It will drop space habitat modules at each sun. But it must just keeps cruising slowly along, a slow train to the stars.

...Oh, COOL.

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

(evil smile) and it has a sort of anti-hero hero called O'Mike entirely in the chapter headers.

[archangelbeth]

*snicker* Wicked. I salute you!

[davefreer.livejournal.com]

the funniest part is that I did it at least 2 years before this discussion. If I get to write the prequel - on how the slowtrain gets built and launched, he will be a major character. As is you get hints of his influence (which is considerable) in the chapter headers