How a rocket scientist and computer guru authored Cancel Christmas!
There are two issues here. First how did I go about writing the book, and secondly was my background a help or a hindrance in this endeavor. Rocket scientists normally do not write fiction. But then again, fiction is a product of the imagination, and all rocket science is the product of dreams, ideas, intuition, and imagination. So why not?
How did I come to write the book? I just put one word after the other. But you say, what words. Once again, it is quite simple. You write the words as if you are telling a story to someone beside you, except that that person is a reader and you are writing rather than speaking. It’s really that simple.
But how can a methodical rocket scientist write a novel. But aren’t novels logical expositions of a story? Rocket scientists, computer gurus, and all professional men tell stories all the time. They are in the learned papers that such men write.
So writing a novel is the same for anyone – a literature major, a historian, a rocket scientist, or a computer guru. It comes down to whether or not you are a good story teller, a good writer, and hence a good or bad novelist. In addition, of course, you have to have a good story or people – reader or listener – will turn you off.
I never studied novel writing, although I have read a lot of novels. The novels I have read fall into three categories. They are either episodic, with a hero jumping from one peril to another, with little character development per se, as for instance the “Bourne” series by Ludlum, or the “Perils of Pauline” movie serials of yesteryear; or scattered with no single storyline and little character development, as in so many of our books today; or in a well crafted books with as central theme, a plot to achieve the central theme, significant character development, and subplots to round out the character development or to add nuances to the storyline or plot. Great literature normally falls within this category, such as the works of Hemingway, Steinbeck, Dickens, and Shakespeare. I planned Cancel Christmas! to be a novel of this type.
To be successful in that third category there is need for methodology as well as writi9ng skill. That is the art and science of writing generally, and of novels in particular. The methodology that I will describe is the science, so to speak. The art is to make it interesting, readable, and believable; and to induce the reader not only to finish the book, but to become a devotee of the author. That is writing skill; and that is not so easy. Being a rocket scientist certainly helped with the scientific aspects – the methodology – but equally important it actually helped in the subjective aspect of writing skills in producing the novel Cancel Christmas!.
To me, the parts of writing a novel come down to the following;
First create the central theme of the book. In Cancel Christmas this theme is the manipulation of government officials into private aspects of our lives for the personal gain of the proponent. The motivation was greed. The plan was to increase profit by eliminating the Christmas vacation period; and the mechanism was pressure on government officials to vote to have this occur. This pressure included re-election concerns, manipulation of the news, using government money to fund PR campaigns, PR campaign that verged on the technique of the ‘big lie’, and unremitting pressure to get it done. That is the central them of Cancel Christmas. The subtheme is to leave the issue open at the end of the book.
Secondly construct a plot that will fit and achieve that central theme. The plot for Cancel Christmas portrays a miserly ultra wealthy industrialist determined to increase profit by changing the Christmas observance. His subordinates develop and execute the plan. other agencies are brought to bear. A senator is pressured to support the move with colleagues, and to direct government money via an earmark to this endeavor.
Third, create the characters that are required for the plot; and embellish the characters with the capability for humor and comic relief. In Cancel Christmas! it was necessary of course to have the protagonist, a person with enough power and wealth to achieve his goal, and motivated by greed. Then a hero and heroine who while under the control of the protagonist have sufficient character to oppose him privately, and then publicly. To round out the plot, an elected official – in this case a senator – is needed to act as the puppet to be manipulated by the snit-hero. This character can also provide the comic relief because of his bizarre behavior and predilections. Ancillary characters are created to round out the mix required to carry the storyline and plot.
Fourth, subplots are needed that will embellish the characters. These subplots are associated with the characters, and not necessarily with the main plot or of the theme of the book, used to amplify the character development or to add nuances to the storyline. In Cancel Christmas, Sam and Cindy are caught in an inner turmoil between doing their jobs or following their beliefs. Sam resigns because of this inner pressure; Cindy is trapped in her job and cannot. The second subplot concerns the budding romance between these Cindy and Sam. The third subplot shows that not all senators are susceptible to hidden forms of bribery. Finally, a fourth subplot concerns the mysterious stranger who appears as a mentor to the hero and anti-hero. This subplot is used to instill a sense of mystery in the narrative, and to provide scope for reader imagination as to what happens next.
To sum it all up, the method is to start the story going, let the characters grow and fill out their roles, move the plot along towards achieving the central theme for the book, and provide an ending that includes scope for reader imagination as to the future beyond the end of the book. That leaves the reader involved, but also leaves the author scope for sequels.
That is how I planned this book, and then executed the plan. In execution I was helped enormously by my past experiences.
As CEO of an international company I dealt often with PR firms, with advertising campaigns, with spin doctors,. with government officials at various levels seeking re-election, and with the process of earmarks.
As a rocket scientist, I was used to allowing my imagination to almost run amok, considering how to achieve the impossible. How do you go to the moon – to Mars – to the stars? How do you keep astronauts alive at all times? How do you avoid obvious and not so obvious hazards? If you think about it, orchestrating a trip to the moon and back is quite similar to structuring s novel.
Finally, as a scientist and as a businessman, I often had to write detailed proposals to achieve funding or to win a contract. These had to be clear, engaging, capture the reader, and get approval. Hence they had to be factual, plausible, possible, and interesting. Isn’t that what a novel has to be to be successful?
Hence being a rocket scientist and a computer guru was not an impediment to authoring Cancel Christmas! In fact it was a tremendous aid.
You may finally ask about writing skills. As Shakespeare so eloquently stated in Hamlet, “Ay! There’s the rub”. It takes time and effort. It really doesn’t matter what your background, you have to be able to write clearly. That comes with practice. believe me, in my profession I had a lot of practice over the years.
So, my dear reader, why not? Why can’t a rocket scientist and computer guru write a novel. I did!
