Tag: amwriting

Lost to the Ether

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Random

Lost to the ether. Or is it?  I started to write a small character intro story this morning. I have not felt like writing for a while, so that in itself felt really good. I then realised that it reminded me of a character I’d started working on for a story years ago. It was for an ensemble cast. I recalled developing several characters and even having written some scenes. I think that I’d left it to one side as it was maybe a little bit beyond my capabilities at the time.

Having only just recently been going through my back catalogue, I realised that I hadn’t seen this anywhere. I’m quite paranoid and meticulous about backing up and archiving everything, not just my writing. I’ve now gone back through everything I can think of and it is simply not there. It is not anywhere. What has happened!?

Well, on the plus side I’ve written nearly 1500 words and written down some of what I remember, which is actually quite a bit. I could cry over lost work but given the general difficulties in writing recently, I’m going to nonetheless take this as a win.

Is there anything else to take away from this? Probably not. As I said, I back up a lot. Perhaps this is more to do with my organisational skills being somewhat scattershot at times. Perhaps it was just one of those moments I decided to write on paper – old school. Perhaps I just thought about it a lot, which is why it is stuck in my head. Anyway, I’m writing.

*Image: By jordangrimmer

Reflections In

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Random

I’ve avoided writing about surviving through this pandemic for a great many reasons. One being that my work has not slowed down and in fact I’ve been able to continue, albeit quite differently than before. And thus, I could whinge about not having time to actual write. You know, like a writer writes. That’s what we’re supposed to do. But that has been hard. In fact, I’ve written fuck all this last year. Also, many have not been so lucky.


In the last couple of weeks, in an effort to get back in to the swing of things, I started going though some of the pieces I’d been working on – everything from drafts to stuff I should be looking to submit, from flash to shorts to novels. Having not looked at any of this for the last year it has allowed me a bit of perspective that I haven’t had for some time. We get so focused, at least I do, in the moment, in the story, in the world building, in it all. With a bit of distance between us, I started to see some of the themes that had taken shape across these works.


I’ve always considered that I wrote science fiction with a tendency to speculative fiction. It can be quite eclectic: I’m not going to be so obnoxious as to claim it is quite unique. Actually, I was quite disappointed with the quality of some writing, although, for the most part, not the stories themselves. What did jump out out me like never before were the themes, or specifically one theme that appeared to run strongly through all of them – hope.


If you had asked me beforehand what the big themes would have been, this would not have been on the list. It’s just not really me. On a good day I’d say I’m a pragmatic optimist. So holding out hope for things is sort of like a nice idea that probably won’t eventuate. Yet that was not what I’d been writing. They aren’t filled with bubbly optimism, but they all pushed and pulled one way or another on hope.


Having further reflected on this, quite a few of these projects are quite dark, which doesn’t contradict the above, it just maybe mirrors real life a little more – even with all the hope in the world, there’s no guarantee that we’ll make it out alive. Indeed, in the end, we don’t.


Given the last year, it is a bit easier to understand why I was having trouble getting going, getting involved, and putting words on the page – hope has been hard to find.

*Creator of image unknown – “everyone” appears to be using it, so if you know the creator I’d be grateful.

Rumours of My Demise are Somewhat Premature

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Am Writing, Random, Writing Tips

OK, so this is a bit of a cheat blog. I usually manage a blog post every month, so in the interests of maintaining my record – which only I actually care about – here we go. I don’t have a lot to say or enlighten you with, at least as I start to write this. I also don’t have an apology. I’ve been writing. A lot. And not as much as I’d like. It’s also been oriented too much towards science fact and not nearly enough science fiction. I’ve also not been “spending” quite so much time on social media, which is a bit of shame because there are actually a lot of interesting people and things happening there. So, why?

Harry Tuttle, Modern Cave Dweller, flying cars, drones, public transport

Why? More specifically, why am I spending more time writing and less time telling people about it? Sometimes you have those revelations as a writer, actually in any endeavour, when you realise that you’re not that good. I was editing a lot at the beginning of the year while I tried to put some short stories into presentable, publishable, shape. My conclusion? Conceptually, I liked, actually I still like, my stories. I have a few in the closet and they cover quite a diverse range of ideas and styles. Perhaps more importantly, my writing was lazy. I am not sure whether my science education helps in being able to take a step back and judge my own work without prejudice. Well, at least not too much.

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Reflections In

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Random

I’ve never been one for making New Year resolutions, but the end of the year, and a few days holiday, do give one the time to reflect. So reflecting I am. This year I complained a lot about time, specifically, the lack of it. Sorry. In the interests of full disclosure, I have been reliably informed that 2016 will not be coming with more time. Nor will time expander packs be available. More’s the pity.Harry Tuttle, Modern Cave Dweller, Life Balance,

It would appear that the only solution is to do fewer things. Which is exactly NOT what I am going to do. Seriously, I don’t respond well to “slow down”, “take it easy” or “don’t do so much” and similar expletives.

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Writing is like walking

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Writing Tips

Put one word in front of the other and keep on going until you get to the end.

Of course, some people walk better than others. And really, that is probably where the analogy finishes. Actually, I probably should have stopped before this whole thing got out of hand.

Stop Here, harry tuttle, modern cave dweller

But I won’t.

Something I learnt as a scientist is knowing when to stop. At some point you need to admit to yourself that this is as far, or as good, as it is going to get. Maybe you won’t win the Nobel prize. Maybe you won’t write some literary masterpiece. This is the perfectionist’s dilemma. On the other end of the scale, there is the danger that you stop too soon. In science you can see this in a paper that lacks perspective and presents what is often referred to as an “epsilon” paper. Espilon being the greek letter usually used for an extremely small quantity in maths. Therefore, the paper is seen as a making a very small step forward. They stopped too soon in having the vision to do something really important; big. They also stopped too early in terms of writing and the lack of depth in the writer’s perspective gives them away.

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Every Day I Write The BookS

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Am Writing

After the last cathartic post on why I’m not doing NaNoWriMo, not to mention the constant whining about not writing, I have actually been writing a lot.

I currently have three novels on the go, and as of last week another new story; so new it doesn’t even have a working title. I’m only at the beginning, 1000 words down and some planning, but it feels like it could be the start of a series, maybe shorts, not sure yet, it’s a bit of a new style for me… And that’s the thing. After not writing for a while, I’m having an absolutely wondrous time, experimenting. Experimenting with different formats and lengths, with stories spanning hard core space opera, dystopian earth-like civilisations, earth- and space-based, human- and alien-like characters, imagining technologies of the future, their evolution and impact on “humanity”. It is brilliant!

Harry Tuttle, Modern Cave Dweller, SciFi, Science Fiction, Space

I started this month well, trying out a new time management idea – writing every morning; I had been getting too tired to write in the evenings. It worked well for a week or so, but the real world (work) interrupted, so I have reverted to writing wherever and whenever I can. I’d like to try this morning regime again if/when my day job calms down a little. It was an excellent way to start the day. Whilst I complain a bit (ok, maybe a lot) about the day job, I am writing a lot there and really trying to up the quality. I’ve written at least 10000 words this month, not counting emails… on some cool science and technology (I’m trying to avoid counting but it was a good month). I think that the fiction and non-fiction writing are helping one another – after all, it’s all writing.

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World building: Reality vs Fiction

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Am Writing, Random

There are times in life when it all hangs in the balance. Now, is one of them, at least for me. As the blurb says, I write science fact to science fiction, however, these two worlds do not always find a peaceful way to coexist. In life we always have choices even if some of them don’t seem like it at the time. And so it is that I find myself here, at one of those decisive moments. Concentrate on the scientist, or concentrate on the writer. Let’s be clear, science is what puts food on the table, while writing is a passionate pastime that is very much in its infancy.

Balance, Science, Writer, Harry Tuttle, MCD, Modern Cave Dweller

So on the science fact front I face an uncertain future. In six months time I might be out of a job OR I might be spearheading an initiative that will take most of my time for the next 15 years. There are a lot of “ifs” to fall into place for the latter. So it appears, at least for the next 6-12 months, that the “decision” is not so hard, or at least not so complicated – I need to concentrate on the science. My apologies but this will have to remain cryptically anonymous for the moment.

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Phase One Complete – Bring on 2015!

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in 12 for 21

I claim to write science facts to science fiction and beyond. I have been, for some time now, more focused on the facts than the fiction. This remains the case – this year I have published or submitted around 10 scientific papers, which is an incredibly good year no matter how you look at it. So if we look at the fiction side of things, I’m still taking baby steps, but this is a long game and this was always the plan.

Tazio Bettin, Harry Tuttle, Modern Cave Dweller, Writing, ScifiThis year the goal was to read and write as much as I could, without worrying too much about what it was. In a sense, it was a quest to find my style, and more importantly, improve how I write. The only way to do that is to write. I now have first or second drafts of a handful of flash fiction, two and half shorts as well as two novels – one about the third done and the other a bit less, but both are fully planned.

What have I been writing? I would say SciFi, but if you’re after space cruisers and alien battles, there is not much here for you yet. Trust me, this to will come. Currently, there is a heavy dystopian influence in a lot of the work – possibly too much, but it is what it is and it is more symptomatic of where I have been coming from lately and where I am heading.

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A French Proverb That Could Save a Writer’s Soul

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in 12 for 21

Petit à petit, l’oiseau fait son nid is a french proverb that dates back to 1835 (dictionaire de l’Académie). A more or less literal translation would be: little by little the bird makes its nest. In daily speech, the lazy things that we are, this is often shortened to “petit à petit”. As in: “How is it going?” … “Petit à petit” – little by little.  It is extremely useful in a wide variety of situations, for example, when you really don’t want to go into detail about what you’re doing. More often though, it is an admission that you’re probably struggling to make progress at all today and you just want it (the day) to end  so you can start fresh tomorrow.writer quote, de niro, modern cave dweller

So it was that this made me think of the life of a writer. We run around collecting all sorts of bits and pieces of ideas, text, pictures and weave them like threads into ideas until, eventually,  some form starts to appear.  A story. A nest. I’ll leave the metaphor there for the moment, but leave it as an exercise for the class – yes you – to run with that metaphor and see where you find yourself!

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Short and Flashy

Posted on by Harry T. Tuttle in Random, Writing Tips

Time is against me. Ok, it’s against all of us. I blame society … I’ve been trying to catch up on reading/living this year and have revisited or been reading some classic scifi. Which is good. But someone pulled me up on a list of books I posted on Ello the other day and asked, what about something more contemporary? My argument was that some of them were contemporary … when I read them … Anyway, the end result is that I now have a nice list of books to read and authors to discover.

Harry Tuttle, Modern Cave Dweller, Scifi, Flash fiction, Short storiesThat is not to say that I haven’t been reading contemporaries. So, while I’m distracted, here are a few things that really rocked my reading world in the last few weeks. Immersion, by Aliette de Bodard (on Clarkesworld) is possibly the best thing I have read in a long time. Also on Clarkesworld, A.C. Wise’s The Children of Main Street – actually, I’m not going to say anything. It’s a short. Read it in 10 minutes and be immensely satisfied. Somewhere in between Flash and Short story is Lacarant Plainer‘s “space opera flash fiction” serial Mission Impossible. Currently up to episode 10 and cruising along wonderfully. Okay, where was I? So that’s reading, what about writing?

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