Simon Haynes, AOM - April 2008

We want to welcome Simon. Here are the kick-off interview questions I provided and his responses.

1. What is it that first attracted you to Science Fiction? Are there any authors that caught your fancy that pointed you in that direction?

As a youth I read Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and William F. Temple alongside the usual favourites like Famous Five, Gulliver's Travels, Agatha Christie and so on. In fact, I read everything I could get my hands on ... I grew up in Spain and English books were pretty rare, so I couldn't afford to be choosy.

My first SF efforts were in high school, here in Australia, where I wrote a couple of stories for a class assignment. Then I entered university to study for my English degree, and again the only creative writing I did was for the assignments.

I was 25 years old before I sat down to write a story on my own time (ie. not because someone was telling me to), and that story was runner-up in a minor competition. The following year I wrote another for the same competition, and it won. Looking back, I still don't know why I wrote so infrequently.

All that changed in 1994, when I started to write a novel.

2. How in the world (or was it out of this world?) did you come up with your cargo pilot hero - Hal Spacejock?

I was sitting there with an empty word processor, determined to write something. The first thing I typed was the title: 'The adventures of Hal Spacejock and his robotic sidekick, Clunk.'

Excited about the possibilities, I started to write. They were motoring along a highway in a futuristic groundcar, darting through traffic. They whizzed under a big archway welcoming them to 'Forgberg'.

Funnily enough, a heavily-edited version of that initial scene actually made it into the book. Given the amount I chop and change things around, that's quite something.

3. What can you tell us about Simon Haynes - the person - that we might find interesting and/or different?

I prefer designing and programming software to writing. Not always - writing is a nice change - but my software either works or it doesn't, and I can polish and improve the same program for years. With writing, there are always bits and pieces I could improve, given enough time. Also, you can't compile and run a novel, which means there's nothing to catch glaring errors. You can only read the thing again and again (and again), trying to spot them by eye.

To help with the novels I wrote a program called yWriter. Then I gave it away through my software site (www.spacejock.com) That's now up to version 4, and I'm working on v5 now so that it's ready in time to write Hal Spacejock book 5.

4. Your books are filled with humor - satire - and outrageous situations. Do these flow naturally - or do you have to work on making
them over-the-top?

The outrageous situations come naturally, as does some of the humour and satire. However, I don't work hard at the humour in early drafts, because I'll often write 150,000 - 180,000 words before trimming it right back to 80,000-90,000. Why waste time funnying up scenes which may never see the light of day?

During the reduction process I'll make notes if funny ideas come to me, and I'll always tweak a sentence here or there if a really funny pun pops up, but I don't really go all out on the humour until I'm pretty sure the book is in its final shape.

Then I do my humour drafts, where I go through page by page noting any laughs, giggles, puns, etc. I don't tack things on, and I like to stick with the plot, so I just shape the words to extract the most humour I can from them.

5. Hal Spacejock is kind of incompetent - without offending you - is any of this autobiographical or is there someone you have based this
off?

My mum is convinced elements of Hal are based on a family member. They're not really, but Hal's problems with technology and his stubbornness are always going to make him seem familiar.

Clunk is much closer to my own nature. Wise, intelligent, smart, quick with the deadpan one-liners, always gets the upper hand... Wait, this WAS fiction, wasn't it?

6. You seem to click with short narratives that are fast-paced and non-complex plot wise - is this by design or by necessity?

It's funny, I've seen a couple of reviews where people thought my plots were too involved, but I reckon they're pretty straightforward. I do like to run two-three plot strands, because it allows me to cut away just when someone (usually Hal) has made a monumental cockup and is now facing the dire consequences. Also, it's interesting to jump into someone else's point of view.

My English degree was in film-making, by the way. I'm sure that's influenced my writing - and it's why I keep getting emails from people saying Hal would make a fantastic TV series. (I'm not letting Hollywood anywhere near my books, thanks for asking.)

7. Tell us a little bit about your writing habits:
a) What time of the day do you write?

My wife and I have two school-age children, and because I work from home (software/programming) I like to get coffee, email and breakfast out of the way and really get into the writing around 11am. That gives me about 3 hours solid work before it's time to think about school pickups. During that time I can usually write 2000 words, which is plenty.

How long do you write each day - or is it sporadic?

I write into the evening if I don't get enough done during the day.

As for regularity, I only write for two reasons: One, I'm participating in NanoWrimo or Two, my publisher is waiting for the next book. I use NanoWrimo to get 50,000 words of scenes and dialogue.

c) Any advice or lessons learned you can share from your writing experience

- Writing, and publishing, is a really slow process.
- If you write 500 words a day you'll have 180,000 words after 12 months
- You may have to write 3 or 4 novels before your work is up to publishable standard
- Despite the doom and gloom merchants, new and first-time authors do get publishing deals.
- Writing and publishing short fiction is an excellent way to learn the ropes
- And to discover what rejection is all about
- It's much easier to throw away a short story than half a novel
- You don't need a unique idea to write a novel.
- It's better to finish the first draft of a boring, derivative novel than to polish chapter one of the next Da Vinci Code for 20 years.
- A first draft is just a misshapen lump of clay. Nobody has to see it but you.

Welcome Simon!

For forum members, you can find the first 5 chapters of Simon's first book here.

Bear in mind Simon is in Australia, so there will be some delay between questions and answers.


Back to Simon: Is Hal Spacejock's universe designed and settled? Or do you make it up as you write along?

If you had to write anything else, what would you like (or wish you could) do?

First off, sorry about the delay. I didn't realise it was April already!

Is Hal Spacejock's universe designed and settled? Or do you make it up as you write along?

I make it up as I go along, definitely. If the roadmap was too specific there'd be no exploring to be done, and I'd get bored.

I like to remain consistent though. For example, no realtime planet-to-planet communications outside the same system. I envision this sort of packet system where ships are automatically loaded with duplicate (electronic) copies of all outbound data, and it's dumped and refreshed at each port of call. Sort of six degrees of separation, but in an email sense.

The other thing is, not having instant contact puts the Hal universe back into the days before email, mobiles and so on. You NEED that, otherwise all the warring parties could set up a conference call and resolve the plot dispute in half an hour.

If I wasn't writing Hal books I'd be writing thrillers. Something fast and engaging with no literary pretensions. Maybe one day.

By the way, I'm celebrating a little today. A Perth bookstore just posted their March '08 bestseller list and Hal Spacejock (book 1) was in spot #8. That novel came out in 2005 so it's pulled off some feat. Usually books hang around for a while before quietly disappearing.

Simon I have quite a couple of questions - it was a hectic week here!

What is the one book that you reckon every person should read?

Lord of the Rings. No, The Hobbit. No ..

Hard to make a choice, really. It depends who that one person is, and what they enjoy reading.

Simon, you've written some software which can be of assistance to writers. Do you use them yourself? Won't you expand on the programs and what they are useful for?

I really loved the first chapters on your website - they seem very everyday, but in a space travel set-up. The human attributes of the computer and Chunk just makes it so much funnier.

Actually, I just had an idea (re the Hal Spacejock books) In order to encourage others to join in this discussion, I'll pick a contributor at random at the end of the month, and send them a signed copy of Hal 1.

Now, back to the question ...

Yes, I use all my software myself. In fact, I designed and wrote it for my own use. At one point I decided to set up a web page and start releasing my apps, and that's where we're at now.

yWriter is probably the most useful, and certainly the most used. I'd never have finished my first book without it, nor written and edited the next three. When working with my editor I found it very useful to run off automatic summaries and synopses, to make sure I was on track. Finally, the project deadlines feature is just wonderful. I can plug in the dates for first draft, second draft, 1st and 2nd edits, and the final, final date, and then by marking each scene as 'draft', 'second draft', etc, I get a daily worksheet showing me what I have to complete to stay on track.

With book 4 I was able to request a 6 week extension about three months before the deadline, just because I knew I couldn't get it all done in time. Publishers love that - not the extension, the amount of warning - because leaving it until the last minute and THEN announcing it's not ready throws out their whole schedule.

Thanks Simon

I'll let the members know about this.

OK - I'm being lazy here I admit - since I'm "knee deep to a grasshopper" (that's Texas slang for deeply involved) on my manuscript titled Buried Lie - I think I could use this yWrite software. I assume it is compatiable to both a mac & PC? And how would one order it? Off your website?

Ace, the software is free, I'm not sure about Mac compatibility. But for those interested it can be downloaded here.

Simon also has a nice reader, which for the life of me I know I'm missing something to make it work. I've done it before...

Weekend time is chill time - what is your favourite pass time, other than writing and computers?

Simon,

What advice would you give to a budding SciFi author-wannabe? Theres the old saying that everyone has at least one story to tell, but how do you encourage someone to stop procrastinating and actually do it?!

Yes, I'm asking this from that very place right at this moment

hi Mr Haynes

Where abouts in Australia are you from? (capital city or quadrant state)

What uni did you get your degree from?

What's your footy team?

Did you get the idea for Hal from watching the captain dude in Futurerama?

you said you were into computer programming... usually means your into gaming as well - whats your games?

are you a trekky or star wars fan? (your books sound like it)


Why would there be a delay in responses cos your in Australia?

cheers
Jess

Are the differences in the approach of writing sci-fi vs the non sci-fi genres? Anything you need to keep in mind/take account of when writing sci-fi?

Over and above the fun of creating your own universe! (I wrote a time-travelling story for someones birthday on another forum, and really enjoyed doing it. I am in the same boat as Richard on the procrastination issue ).

yWriter is free, as mentioned. (No adware either)

It won't run natively on a Mac, but a lot of writers running Macs are using Scrivener. (That one isn't free, though.)

I like working with children and small animals, striving for world peace ...

No wait, that's my beauty pageant speech.

Actually, programming is one of my favourite pastimes. It's like fiendish crossword puzzles, impossible sudoku, ships-in-a-bottle and writing all rolled into one. Plus the results are useful, and can be shared worldwide.

I do like golf and archery, but I've had some back troubles lately. I also like to ride my bike (that's bicycle, not motorbike.) Lots of great bike paths around Perth, Western Australia.

Perth, Western Australia, but I was born SE of London, UK, and grew up in the SE of Spain.

Curtin University, here in WA, although it was WAIT (WA institute of technology) when I first attended.

AFL - the Fremantle Dockers. I believe they came to SA earlier this year? Or was that last year?

Big Formula 1 fan. I used to watch in the Mansell/Prost/Senna days, and then real life (and early morning starts) got in the way. Now I'm keen on it again.

I've never seen Futurama, so no. I try to avoid all movies, books and TV shows which could influence my own writing. For example, I've only seen two episodes of Red Dwarf, and I've not seen Hitchhilker's Guide since the early 80's.

How much text can I fit in here? ;-)

I enjoy driving sims, flight sims, FPS-with-a-plot (e.g. Half Life, the GTA series, Call of Duty, etc, etc, but not the mindless shoot-everything ones.) I also like to collect DVD sets of TV shows so I can watch them without the ads & station promos.

I haven't any Star Trek more recent than the original series, and only a couple of the movies. (E.g. not seen Next Generation, or whatever it's called.)

I enjoyed the first three Star Wars movies, but the more recent three were a joke. Too many boring characters, too much political maneouvering. I only watched Episode III for the first time earlier this year, and it was just as bad as I expected. Not as bad as I and II, but still seriously awful. The dialogue right at the beginning, where Anakin and Obiwan are flying through large ships in their skimmers, was as bad as I've ever heard in any movie, ever. Not just the words, but the stilted, wooden delivery.

I feel pretty strongly about it, as you can tell. Still, at least we don't look like getting any more films in the series.

Different time zone. It's 7:30pm as I post this - no idea what that translates to.

This post has been edited by Simon Haynes on Apr 12 2008, 11:33 AM

When writing SF you can either ignore everything which has gone before, annoy the purists, or you can carefully read all the defining works in the genre, write a thoughtful novel which adds to the canon, please the purists but alienate all the readers.

That's an exaggeration, but the SF genre does put up some pretty impressive defences. There's always someone ready to point out that episode 994 of series Blah used a device which was quite similar to the one Hal uses to blow up the (etc etc). Well, trust me when I say I've never seen episode blah of series 994.

The other problem is that the recommended list of SF works everyone should read is a mile long, and would take most people half a lifetime. By the time you reached the end - if ever - you'd have forgotten 90% of it anyway.

So I thought 'screw that', and just sat down to write my own thing. After all, the SF purists might perhaps make up 0.01% of 0.01% of the total book-buying market, and they're hardly going to recommend a book which sends up the SF genre even if I DID tick all the right boxes.

A recent review of Hal Spacejock 2 finished with this quote, and it captures my intent perfectly:

There’s nothing particularly futuristic about this book. It’s almost an old-fashioned future, one with space traders, clunky robots (pun intended) and handwritten letters. This is a refreshing change from the post-cyberpunk trying-to-be-cool futures we get so often in SF these days.

How cool to have an author who understands exactly what authors need, here on Zim.
I have not been able to go online for a while - due to typical South African problems.
(You Aussies must be getting tired of all the South Africans flocking there!)

So, eager to read all about the author of the month, I find he comes with gadgets!

LOL

I have just spent the most pleasant hour or so downloading some software for FREE!
What an extra bonus! Besides being a download junkie, I go bananas when I see anything for writers that really works!

Bravo Simon!! You're a genius!

I cannot wait to load a few chapters to yWriter, you are the answer to me prayers! Keeping track of written scenes when you are not in the mood for anything chronological, can easily be kept track of here it seems. Brilliant!

Simon, do you do the NanoWrimo every year? I did it one year, but don't know if it is cheating if you use a snowflaked base to work from. Is it?

Thank you for the wonderful toys! I am extremely happy!!

SoSo

Lots of South Africans here, but they have a reputation for being hard workers. Not heard anything negative about them as a group.

I've done Nano the past few years. If you mean you worked out your plot beforehand, I don't see the problem with that. The important thing is to write the 50k words!

Cheers
Simon