Writing Conspiracy Fiction – A few ideas and tips for struggling authors

I have had a few people ask me how I motivate myself to write about what I do and secondly to provide them with a couple of tips and an idea of the potential pitfalls. Rather than responding individually I thought it might help if I did it via my blog. So in the spirit of cliché here are my top hints and tips:

1.      The starting point for me is passion. If you are not passionate about your material it will quickly show up in your writing. I love this genre because it throws up so many strong and contrasting opinions. Whether people think you’re crazy or have a point everyone has an opinion. From an author’s point of view, it helps to have a balanced view of your subject even if you are convinced the other side of the argument is balderdash. So whether its fake moon landings or lost civilisations that float your boat make sure you know your stuff before you start.

2.      That brings me on to point two, research. Even if you think you know your topic there will always be something you haven’t heard of. A new theory; a new take on an old theory; or perhaps even new evidence. Make sure you keep up to date with the news coming out and any relevant websites. For me www.AboveTopSecret.com is a good place to start.

3.      Write a brief plan. I hate plans personally, I think sometimes they can do more harm than good and more often than not lead to our old friend writer’s block at some point during the creative process. I am more in the mould of starting each chapter with no idea of what is about to happen and just letting my imagination guide me through. That said I usually have a vague idea of my direction, even if it’s only a line or two. Tom disturbs the burglar and discovers an ancient symbol tattooed on his neck etc. The same is true for the overall plan, I only started with a few notes expanding upon the theories I wanted to include; at that point I had no idea where they would take me. Even the characters were pretty fluid. I started with 3 core players and ended up with a cast of about 20!

4.      Be flexible and don’t be afraid to hit the delete button. Fairly easy in theory but you try deleting a couple of thousand words of text that you have spent hours trying to hone. Unfortunately you have to be brutal, if something clearly isn’t working or takes the book in a direction you don’t want to go just delete it. The same applies once you start getting people to read your work; if a few people mention the same passage as not working make sure you re-visit it and try and look at it from the point of view of a reader. If it’s clunky, rewrite it. If it still doesn’t work delete it and try again.

5.      You need a thick skin. My work is on a couple of review sites (http://www.youwriteon.com/ and www.authonomy.com) and it is tough to take when you get a bad review. When I first submitted work I admit (now) that it was pretty rubbish. My style was more akin to an exercise in creative writing at school rather than the punchy style required by the commercial world. The best bit of advice I received was ‘if it doesn’t take the story forward get rid of it.’ A week later and the first 3 chapters of my book were 4000 words lighter. You will always get bad reviews, just try and take the positives and leave any vitriol where it should be, in the bin.

6.      Write every day. You must set aside time to actually write. Whether its two hours a day or two thousand words a day you need some kind of structure to your project. Unfortunately without structure, the human mind can be a very lazy organ.  It’s too easy to say ‘I’ll do extra tomorrow’ or ‘I’m not in the mood now.’ You need to ignore these feelings and remain disciplined; too many books lie unfinished in drawers around the country. Don’t let your manuscript join that list. It may help to give yourself an incentive; write 1000 words and you get a cup of tea or a biscuit etc. Believe or not it does work.

7.      Get some good friends. A couple of good proofreaders are always a boon! You have to make sure they are literate in the first place though…

8.      Never lose your focus. The route to publication is a tough process (I know as I’m frantically swimming upstream at the moment) but you have to believe that it will happen in the end. If you don’t believe in either yourself or your work then why the hell should anyone else!

Good luck and I hope that helps and hasn’t distracted you from actually writing something! Thank you all for your continued support.

A Spanish Atlantis?

Can you see two rectangular structures in this satellite image? Could they be temples from Atlantis? (Image: Rainer Kühne)

The fabled lost city of Atlantis may lie in a salt marsh region off Spain's southern coast, according to a German researcher, Rainer Kühne.

Kühne has embarked upon a quest to uncover the location of Atlantis using a variety of satellite images. He believes that the structures he has found closely match Plato’s descriptions of the fabled city. His report describes two rectangular buildings hidden in a muddy region known as Marisma de Hinojos, near the port of Cadiz. This is an area of Spain said to have been destroyed by floods between 800 and 500 BC. Kühne is hanging his theory on the fact that the rectangular features appear to match temple depictions in Plato's dialogues Critias and Timaios.

"These rectangular structures are surrounded by concentric circles. This agrees with Plato's description that the temples were surrounded by concentric circles of water and earth. Even the sizes are correct. According to Plato, the diameter of the largest circle was 27 stades, ie 5 kilometers. In the satellite photos, the diameter of the largest circle is between five and six kilometres,"

Plato states that the Atlantean citadel could be found about nine kilometres from the sea on the edge of a rectangular plain surrounded by mountains that reached to the sea. Apart from this plain he described the country as mountainous with a steep coastline.
"Near Cadiz there is a rectangular, smooth and even plain which lies at a south coast. It is the plain south-west of Seville through which the Guadalquivir [river] flows," Kühne said.
If true the mountains described by Plato would then equate to the Sierra Morena and Sierra Nevada.

Plato’s work also includes a description of a war between Atlantis and the eastern Mediterranean countries. Kühne believes that this may be a reference to a group known as the Sea People around 1200 BC.
"If the capital of Atlantis indeed existed near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, then we suggest that Plato's Atlantis tale is based upon an Egyptian report on the Sea Peoples and some Greek tradition on the Athens of that time."

“The report on the Atlantean city and state may refer to a Spanish city, possibly identical with Tartessos, which was probably destroyed by Carthaginians during the 6th century BC," Kühne said.

So has Kühne solved the puzzle of Plato’s Atlantis? Or is this another case of merely selecting the aspects of Plato’s work that seems to fit and wedging it into something akin to a coherent theory? The biggest elephant in the room perhaps being that the timings are approximately 10,000 years out. I know the usual retort when the evidence doesn’t fit is that Plato was wrong and many of the ‘facts’ came straight from his imagination but I’m not so sure. Although I concede that Plato may have muddled his history somewhat in parts, the comet strike in the Hudson Bay that hit around 10,500 BC just seems too much of a coincidence to ignore...