1. Reading versus Writing

[jxliv7] I’ve been dabbling in writing (mostly sci-fi) since I was in my teens. I used to read a lot but as I roared past thirty I found I cared less and less about what other people were writing, except to recognize some really BAD stuff.

About age forty-five, I went back to college to get a degree in English, thinking it would help my overall writing and attitude. It didn’t. The common mantra was “read more to write better”. I was so turned off by their attitude and the kiss-ass-for-grades-politics that I quit (college, not writing) before I finished.

It’s not that I don’t read to see if what I’ve written fits in with a publisher’s editorial bent. But I cannot understand spending an inordinate amount of time reading what other writers have written when I could be writing for myself. Even Arthur C. Clark, in a February 18th interview in The Onion, declared he’s “really read no current fiction”.

Now, retired and approaching sixty, I write just what appeals to me, with only an occasional peek at the “competition”, but I’m not too old to change if needed.

Of course, you – as a writer with many royalties in the fire – may respond with read, read, read. But my questions are writer to writer, concerning science-fiction.

Is reading even necessary, if there are editors and agents hungry for work?

[Foster] I’m one with Arthur…for various reasons (not to mention weak
eyesight), I read very little fiction. But I read an enormous amount of
non-fiction…and anyone contemplating writing SF had better do so, too, or
wake up to find the plot they’ve worked on for six months the base for a
news article.

Is reading versus writing a fifty-fifty, seventy-thirty, or some other ratio?

[Foster] Apples and Oranges. Or rather, apples and raisins. You need both to
make a Dutch apple pie.

How important do you think it is for writers to read?

[Foster] About as important as it is for composers to play an instrument or
painters to not be color-blind.

2. Star Trek: The Motion Picture

[Drog] I hadn’t realized until just now (having read so on your website) that you wrote the story for the first Star Trek movie,
Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
That film, unfortunately, got a lot of negative reviews for being overly long and boring. What did you think of the film? Did it do your original story justice? In what format and level of detail did you write the story, since Harold Livingston is credited with writing the screenplay? Did you feel he did a good job?

[Foster] The first five minutes of Star Trek: the Movie is all mine. The rest
got all changed around from my original story. I thought the film was
pretty good, considering the fixed delivery schedule it was locked into. I
claim credit also for promoting Kirk to Admiral. As to Harold Livingston’s
job with the screenplay, any writer who worked with Gene Roddenberry and
came out of it with a modicum of sanity intact, can be considered to have
done a good job.

3. Writing On The Road

[Drog] Having travelled the world so extensively, do you write your novels on a laptop while on the road, or only from home?

[Foster] I never write on the road. Ever. It’s where I soak up material and
inspiration for new work. Writing would only conflict with and inhibit that
process.

4. A Day In Your Life?

[Drog] Your bibliography reveals that you have written an extraordinary number of novels. How do you do it? How many hours a day do you write? Could you walk us through a typical day in your life, and provide us with any insights into your writing process?

[Foster] I’m up between 6 and 8 am. Read world newspapers and magazines via
the Net. Stare at the computer until words appear. Have lunch. Do
research, maybe write a little bit more. Have dinner. Watch TV or read.

The glamor is Earth-shaking, is it not?

5. Do your adventures influence your writing?

[Drog] You have travelled to many exotic locales, explored archaeological sites, and presumably had quite a few adventures. Has your travelling influenced your writings in any way, either directly or indirectly? Also, have you ever written about your travels in autobiographical or travel guide format?

[Foster] Everything I see or do on my travels influences my work in one way or
another. Sometimes I might get just a character idea from meeting someone.
Other times a locale might inspire an entire book, as Mamiraua Preserve in
Brazil did with DROWNING WORLD, or Tanzania and Kenya for INTO THE OUT OF.
As to travel writing, I’ve had a number of articles on scuba diving
published in various magazines. I go back and forth with a book called
WANDERINGS wherein I hope to detail the most interesting experiences I’ve
had in 35 years of kicking around the planet.

6. Star Wars/Dinotopia

[Sweetwind] Over at the Dinotopia web site, there’s a
statement
from James Gurney about the apparent raid on Dinotopia art that George Lucas made while filming scenes on Naboo in Star Wars: Episode I. As someone who has been involved in writing novels for both franchises, do you feel you have any special insights about the issue?

[Foster] Yes…and I regret that I cannot share them.

7. Where’s Science Fiction going?

[jxliv7] I happened to read a commentary by Spider Robinson
(The Toronto Globe and Mail)
on the recent “trend” toward more fantasy and less science in our fiction. His point is the excitement of science has been replaced with… something else. Fantasy as well as movie-based sci-fi has taken over the attention of readers.

It seems that authors have taken far too much of a license to stray away from what could be pure sci-fi. At the same time, even the mainstream book and movie industry has strayed into sci-fi, be it ever so shallow. By the “old” lines drawn in the sands of Mars, not to mention the re-release of older titles, it seems there’s been such a blending of genres that even writers, much less readers, are confused.

On the other hand,
Mark Oakley
(about a third of the way down the page) has taken the position that such an evolution was natural. He sees the attraction to fantasy a reaction to the disappointment that there isn’t a skycar in every garage, we don’t have a lunar colony, and that readers are so overwhelmed with day-to-day life in a world of gizmos. After all, it’s been thirty-two years since we walked on the moon.

What are the best directions that these two genres – science fiction and fantasy – can go to keep growing?

[Foster] Lord, the easy questions one gets…. Fantasy is both easier to read
and easier to write than SF, so it will always be more popular. SF will
always be a niche genre because to enjoy and appreciate it, one has to be
interested, at least marginally, in science. Even so-called “soft SF”
demands that interest. As to where both genres are going…what do you
think I can do? Predict the future?

Do you think science journals or places where hard-core science can be examined are valuable? In other words, should our stories be based on scientific fact?

[Foster] If you’re going to write SF, as opposed to fantasy, then any science
in your stories better be fact-based. You can (and should) speculate
wildly, but you can’t build a spaceship by rubbing a magic lamp. Read your
science, even if it’s only the section in your local paper. And if you’re
going to extrapolate, you’d best do your research. Sloppy science can kill
a good SF story as readily as uninteresting characters.

Do you think that fiction (as opposed to non-fiction) might eventually coalesce into a single broad label that includes fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, drama, etc., as sub-labels?

[Foster] You’ve self-defined your own answer.

How influential is the movie industry with regard to fiction? Does having a certain genre attached to it, like sci-fi, affect the appeal of a project?

[Foster] I don’t believe it has any influence on publishing. The editor who
buys a book believing it will make a great movie is the publishing industry
equivalent of the guy who goes to Vegas thinking that betting larger and
larger amounts of money will inevitably make him a winner.

Would you rather write movie scripts, novels, short stories, or something else? Why?

[Foster] I’d prefer to write short stories. They’re easier. And screenplays
are easier than novels. Anything is easier than a novel.

Finally, what genre (or mix thereof) do you see yourself most attracted to, and why?

[Foster] I just like to tell stories. I tend to write more SF and fantasy
because it’s more stimulating than writing straight mystery or westerns or
contemporary fiction.

8. Novelizations

[rickyjames] During your first decade as a writer you produced over twenty novelizations about Star Trek, Star Wars and other various assorted movies and franchises and even a half-dozen or so additional ones in the years after that. I know this for a fact because I bought every one of them at the time and enjoyed them all. How did you get such a reputation so early in your career as the novelization writer of choice these franchises would turn to? Did these works sell more copies than your later novels because of franchise volume? Did having the plot and characters set-in-stone when you sat down to write them significantly cut the writing time and effort required to produce these? Any interesting thoughts or comments to share on this stage of your writing career?

[Foster] I have a Master of Fine Arts in Cinema from UCLA, so I knew my way
around a screenplay from the beginning. I write a novelization as a
combination of collaborator and fan, someone who just wants to see, or read,
the best movie possibile. Absolutely no personal ego is involved. I strive
to preserve the screenwriter’s vision, and when it’s so badly wounded as to
be unpreservable, to fix it as best I can without contradicting overmuch
what appears on screen.

Sure, it’s much easier to write a novelization than an original novel. The
hardest work has already been done for you. Unless you’re being asked to
gild crap. Then you just have to grit your teeth and slog your way through,
like the house painter whose client wants a purple bathroom next to an
orange bedroom.

9. What’s your preference?

[Drog] Do you have a preference regarding writing stories that are all your own versus writing stories that take place in franchise universes, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, etc? Or do they each have their unique charm?

[Foster] Every writer prefers writing their own original material.