Learning to be a writer

I've spent a lot of time over the last couple of months re-working old material. Looking at the old versions of these stories, I can see how I've changed as a writer.  The most startling example of this is my novel Snowbird.  The original version goes back about twenty years. The first version had masses of my main character's internal dialogue, all rendered in italics.  She thought her way out of everything, and bogged the story down everywhere while she did it.

Then I went through an editing phase where things were taken to the other extreme.  I'd describe that period as minimalist storytelling, with punctuation to match.  I went from a semi-colon fetish and long sentences to writing strings of jarring short sentences that didn't need any commas.  The whole effect was jerky and had no flow to the narrative.

In the last couple of months I've realised I have another bad habit.  I cop out out of fully describing the setting and world of my story.  The descriptions I've been using have been shallow, broad-brush generalities.  The telling detail was conspicuous by its absence.

Turning Water Moon Down from a long short story into a novella was easy because the setting was missing.  All I had to do was fill in the gaps.  And answering fundamental questions like 'Why is my scientist character on this planet?  What is she studying?  What's her professional discipline?' helped me to deepen the story.

I've learned to research for my stories recently,  in the past I might have fudged the science in a story, but now I'm looking it up as I go.  That's partly driven by my desire to get it right this time, and partly because access to scientific knowledge is so much easier now.  Thirty years ago when I wrote my first SF stories it wasn't easy to check the science. The Internet has changed everything, as has owning an iPad.   Now when I need to know something I search for it on-line as I'm working.  Which means I'm more likely to look it up.

Research has led me to places I never expected, following a trail of obscure links and ideas.  I've learned my writing craft, and gained a broad general scientific knowledge too.  Both of these are essential for an SF writer, and the learning journey continues day by day.