Starsnatcher was my first real story. I had written some dinosaur-related stuff before, but those weren't really stories, just "things happening". But despite working on Starsnatcher for years, it took an eternity for me to finish. I just kept adding new and new ideas.

Those who have read it will know that the story is about a lot of things. Some dude gets send on a space adventure. It starts in the real world, but then there's a UFO and then there's an alien moon and then there are AIs and then there's a second alien planet and then there are singularity stone superpowers and then there are godlike AIs, a universe-wide plague, a supervillain with an assimilation plot, you name it.

The reason I posted that story on Wattpad (and on RoyalRoad, and on SpaceBattles) was that I just wanted to finish it. Once I made it public, I couldn't just suddenly ditch it and start again (like I did all these years). I just wanted to get it done and move on.

Looking back at it, I'm not satisfied. It received rather poor ratings on RoyalRoad, and most who read it on Wattpad or SpaceBattles didn't make it very far. One judge here on Wattpad said that die-hard sci-fi fans might finish it, but casual readers (who are in the majority) won't. In fact, everyone who did finish it and liked it was a die-hard sci-fi fan, so, he was right.

Ultimately, I think I made many mistakes common among amateur authors. People complained about slow pacing, lack of emotional impact, and difficult-to-understand writing. All valid critiques (and all blows to my ego), but none touched to the core of the issue. The core of the issue, I think, is that my story lacks focus. Like, anyone who has read it knows how quickly it switches genres.

The first arc is some sort of workplace drama with horror elements. Then it becomes survival horror on an alien planet. Then it becomes cyberpunk political alien drama. Then it becomes a sci-fi horror space opera and it goes on and on and on. Each arc introduces completely new elements and characters.

I thought I had to do this to keep the story interesting. I thought that introducing new elements made it easier to follow because people didn't need to remember the earlier stuff so much. The opposite happened in every regard.

The story just became confusing, the fact that I had to explain everything ruined the pacing, and the lack of focus meant there was no time for characterization, resulting in a rather shallow story that tries to be deep.

This was rather depressing to realize. I spent so much time working on that story, yet, instead of my constant revisions making it better, they only made it worse.

A lot of writers on Wattpad don't have this problem. They know what their story is about. A lot of stories here just start out as clichéd teen or New Adult romances and end the same way. That doesn't mean I never see it on here. Like, there was a book I was asked to review that started with a storyline related to oppression of genetic mutants (a really original idea, if you ask me!) that later shifted into a fairly normal teenage storyline without warning. Sadly, it seems this is a problem that mostly befalls innovative works.

I've heard that this whole "lack of focus" problem is most common in fan fiction. Now, I must admit, I never read fanfic, but the one multi-chapter fanfiction I've read in my entire life (this one: https://fanfiction.net/s/5670368/1/My-Dark-King ) had this whole "lack of focus" feeling, too. The author took a battle from the original work and then explored what would have happened had the villain won. Sounds like an interesting start. But once the "exploring" was done, the author just added 3,000 different unrelated antagonists and plotlines (some of which aren't even from the original work!) and even after reading 300,000 words of it, I never got the feeling that the story has really started.

This problem isn't so bad in fanfiction, however, as there, we care about the characters and not about the plot. In original fiction, however, the plot is important. I never wrote fanfiction in my life before, so, I had to learn this the hard rather than the easy way.

If there is a take-away message for you, whoever reads this, then it is that your story shouldn't be about everything at once. Every story should have a core around which everything else is built. Being clichéd isn't the worst thing that can happen to your story. It's lacking focus.

If you are worried that your story might have the whole "lack of focus" problem, ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do you know how to start and end your story? Many fanfic (and amateur original fic authors, like me) have an awesome opening scene in their mind, but no idea what comes after that. Or they have an awesome plot-twist idea (Starsnatcher had many plot-twists!), but they have no idea how to get there.

2. Can you summarize your story. "I suck at summaries" is VERY common in fanfiction circles. If you're writing original fiction, do you know what your genre is? Many beginner authors want to write a story that appeals to everyone or that has all of their favorite elements. Hence, they will try to mix as many genres as they can.

"What's your story about."

"Well, it's fantasy, but there are also sci-fi-elements, but there's also a murder, so mystery fans might like it and, oh, there's also a romance, so, romance fans might like it, and..."

If you mix genres, make sure you at least have one or two core genres.

I wonder if my autism/ADHD is part of why I struggle with this so much. Even in real life, I have difficulties letting go of things. I have a friend who kinda has the same "story focus" problem and he has similar neurological conditions to me, but I'll write a chapter about that (my neurology and my writing) later.

How I would improve Starsnatcher (Skip this section if you haven't read Starsnatcher)

If I were to start Starsnatcher today, I would focus on my favorite parts of it. My favorite parts were arcs five until seven. Many readers didn't like them as much as I did, but I could change that if I gave them proper focus and buildup.

The main thing I would get rid of is the alien abduction plot. I know, it's currently the core of the novel, but I didn't like it a lot and I think it ended up taking more focus than I wanted. The main reason I had those "isekai" elements was that Starsnatcher was originally supposed to be a space fantasy. In a space fantasy, the question of how the MC could end up in an alien world could easily be explained. Later, I changed the genre to hard sci-fi, but I kept the "transported to another world" elements. I thought my setting was so complex that I could only explain it if I had a character who was completely new to it.

Nowadays, I think I could just start the story in a far-future space opera setting. I'd also get rid of the aliens. Yeah, many readers liked the Seizers, but they had basically no storytelling purpose other than showing Lucas his new world and helping or hindering him on his way home.

So, what would the new Starsnatcher be about instead?

I'd have the setting be one that's similar to the novel series The Expanse or the tabletop game Eclipse Phase.

Here's the new setting: It's the late 21st century or early 22nd century. Earth has invented superhuman AI. However, then, they also discovered a wormhole. Through the wormhole, a malicious radio signal got transmitted and turned Earth's superhuman AIs into murderous monsters. Humans had to flee Earth and colonize the inner solar system. Unfortunately, the AI sent a Plague that's still a persistent danger for humanity. Through some reverse-engineered AI-alien-tech, humanity managed to create devices similar to the singularity stones from Starsnatcher; fancy artifacts that can give select humans super strength, immortality, and immunity to the Plague.

In this version of the story, Lucas, Kira, and the others (they'd all have different names) could simply be the first candidates of a super-soldier program that gives these stones out to willing humans. I'm not sure how old Lucas would be in this version. He might be much older but still look like 20 due to the rejuvenating effects of the stone. Speaking of characters, Crick and Helix would still be present, but they'd be human. Helix would be a teammate in Lucas' military division while Crick would be their commander. Layla might still be present, either as a board mechanic or as someone who starts out as an unaffiliated space pirate that later works together with the heroes. Iris might still be present as a mole or as a quirky side character, don't know which. The villain might be either based on Mustafa Ay or Sye. I'd need to give him a new motivation, one that fits the new plot. He could either be opposed to technology, or he could be trying to unite humanity against their enemy through immoral means, or he could want to spread the Plague for whatever reason. I'd have to figure that out.

I'd also de-emphasize character arcs as much as I can, as I really struggled with those in Starsnatcher, but I'd at least give Lucas one. Maybe his super-soldier augmentation also included alterations to his brain that made him emotionless and immune to trauma. That could make for some juicy drama with his crew, but I'd have yet to determine their relationships. He'd probably not be autistic anymore, but if he is, it'd be part of his backstory and they might have engineered it away to make him a better soldier (if so, he'd ponder about how dehumanizing he finds this).

The title of the new story would then be "Singularity Project" or something and it would be focused on themes of transhumanism.

But I won't write it yet. It's what I'd write if I wanted to get Starsnatcher professionally published, but I'm not there yet.

Future Works

The next thing I'll write will be a novel named The Night Witch which I already announced several times and which I'm still working on. In this, I'll try to take a completely different approach to Starsnatcher. While Starsnatcher isn't really comparable to any other book out there, I'll try to make The Night Witch as similar as I can to books that I like (mainly Harry Potter and The Dresden Files).

"But that's gonna make the story clichéd!"

No, it won't. I currently have 3 billion different ideas and inspirations I'm struggling with. The reason why I can't start writing yet is that I'll have to reduce these ideas to just a few (also, I still don't know if I should use 1st person or 3rd person, but that's a different topic). Then, the story will be easier to understand and I can focus more on plot and characterization instead of just ideas. If I don't get the story started in the next few months, maybe I can make a "Thoughts on Writing" chapter about the ideas I have and which ones I should get rid of.

(There's also the issue that I have yet to learn proper characterization, but that's something to talk about in a future chapter.)

Anyway, that was me rambling about my own work. In the other chapters, I'll talk about more general stuff.

My next chapter will be either about titles or about how to be original.

Tell me, what writing topic you'd like to read about?