I'm glad you're doing it. I have much the same thing going on in my brain with a fantasy (read: magic-based) story. I started 3-4 years ago, and it 's all been a mental exercise so far, but I think about and revise it EVERY day, weighing plot scenarios, character developments, relationships, etc. I therefore totally understand where you're coming from.

I'm sorry I'm not out Portland way, but I look forward to hearing more about it. I'm a big sci-fi/fantasy junkie.

Hell yes, sci fi! That's my favorite type of writing to do. I usually research current science info and let my imagination (paranoia??) go!

Of course I love Ray Bradbury, Stephen King and Kurt Vonnegut, who many argue do not write sci fi, but I find they still work the concepts into some of their writing.

Please Write! There is a serious need for more Sci-Fi of our current age to engage with readers. I am a short story person mostly, however there is a big one sitting on the deck since I was 5, and I still hold onto the pen tight when its time to write it. Making notes was what one writer of books told me, grab 6 or so very different shaped, coloured, textured note books and designate them to different sorts of information, on each page that you write, only write on half the page leaving a wide wide margin that can allow you to make further notes and changes later for final decisions. Find yourself one of those hand held recording devises that you can pick up around the house so when the great moments happen, dish water would not hinder a cick of a button and let the moment be recorded.
I wish you well, and look forward to your postings. If you ever need an artist to create your cover, I am always open for that sort of illustration :O)
It would be great to type, I live far far far away though, ah but what is distance in this world now, not a vast empty space that takes time and more time, but of light speed instant contact and effect, connections on a global level.
Cheers,
Here's to the future!
Leah

I just finished writing a sci-fi novel. I'm a little conflicted about how I want to go about publishing it, though. I've heard good and bad reasons to go with both self-publishing through sites like Lulu, and with traditional publishing via an agent and publisher.

I only recently learned that I absolutely love writing :) I had no idea I could write a whole novel. It just happened. I'm working on the next book in the series now, and I've already started writing another book on a new story line. Plus, I've got plans in the future for at least two more...*laugh* I figure I should be done in about ten years, with my fifty hour work weeks and accounting that I have no maid, no cook, and no Jetsons car that drives itself. *grin* The hardest part for me was a) learning to avoid skipping around to write the exciting parts - that ended in more pain than it was worth, and I ended up dropping most of my flushed cheeks, I'm-in-love-with-my-brain scenes in the end anyway - and b) that editting can really suck once you've had the rush of the actual creative act completed, and find yourself left with some pretty snarly messes to clean up. I've also learned to just sit and do it, even if I'm stuck, because that's the only way to go forward. Some nights, after work, I would want to write very much, but I could only get out a paragraph, or maybe even just a sentence. But I sat down every single night, after dealing with supper, and other details of everyday living. The crazy thing was that it just started happening, and I became more and more adept at recognizing and dodging my own roadblocks as I went on. The key was to - without hesitation or question on whether I was up to it at that moment - sit down and do it. Sometimes I write obsessively, and I get demands from my loved ones to come back to the world of the living; other days, I'd rather veg out and forget all my writing woes. It's easiest to coast through the exciting or emotional scenes, harder to piece scenes together when you're still not sure of your own direction, and hardest to cut parts out when you're editting - those parts you simply know are bad, or wrong, on a fundamental level, and can't stand thinking about, because you know you have to fix it sooner or later (*groan*). Those groaners are the ones where I'm brushing my teeth, or driving to work, or dozing off to sleep, and I'm thinking, "Now, how the hell am I going to fix that one?" Hehe...

Hmm, I'm waxing on. I wonder if that's a hazard of the personality, or just me.

So that's my experience, as a novice, almost unintentional, writer. I totally love it. I want to help other people who love it, too.

Not in Portland and no Sci Fi yet. I stress 'yet' because everything is fair game in my neck of the woods. Congrats, keep up the writ.

I would love to hear about it and talk with you about it. I'm not too close to portland either. A good book about writing is Stephen King's On Writing. Amazing, and very small.

20 years in your head, huh? I'm sure I'll go 20 years before I finally write some of mine. I don't finish anything, but damn, I have some good ideas. haha My hardest part is actually sitting down and writing. Too many distractions. Writing is too painful. I believe a wise man once said, writing is the greatest joy when its easy, and the greatest agony when its not. Personally, I can't write the slower, character-driver, dialog-filled parts.