/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.23408925]

I'm thinking about writing an adventure book in a steampunk setting. Any general advice? What are some cliches that I should absolutely avoid? And how do I stop the inevitable movie adaptation from flopping (impossible)?

[Anonymous No.23408937]

>>23408925
Steampunk sucks, pick another setting entirely.

[Anonymous No.23408941]

>>23408937

[Anonymous No.23408959]

>>23408941
Lmao fair enough. When you say adventure book do you mean like a /tg/ resource? Or do you mean a novel about an adventure?

[Anonymous No.23409008]

>>23408959
An actual novel. I actually already have a pretty decent idea about the setting and the world building as well as the main characters, I don't want to share them though because OC donut steel.

[Anonymous No.23409829]

Bump

[Anonymous No.23410013]

>>23408925
>>23408937
>>23408959
Never write a book about a setting. Conceptualize a story and then consider what the setting must be. If you’re in any way starting from the setting then you don’t have a story to tell and should probably go read more.

[Anonymous No.23410026]

>>23408925
Steampunk, as a concept, is difficulty level five.
Imagine a Victorian era where everyone wears gaudy victorin dresses and men are all dapper hipsters wearing unnecessary amounts of rass, glass, and leather. Everything is covered in cogs, and knobs, and OSHA is just appalled at the blatant lack of worker safety.
There are gnomes and bell towers and prostitutes in taverns eating cheese off the knob while you ask the barkeep what's the drink of the day? It's transmission fluid, you wanker, go on and get out of here before he busts you one.
There are airships, and trains, and massive citadels of steam and brass piping with pools of holding water underground that carry enough copper in them to kill a man if he drinks it.
The beds are normal, maybe a bit underwhelming. Your hotel room has a nixie clock in it, because why not.

[Anonymouṡ No.23411807]

>>23408925
>Any general advice?
Include Nietzsche's sister as a hot babe International Woman of Mystery. She should make references to her brother but he should never actually appear in person.

[Anonymous No.23411835]

>>23408925
>I'm thinking about writing
You're not going to do anything

[Anonymous No.23411848]

>>23411835
Agreed. I spent almost 3 years in analysis paralysis and only recently i mustered the will to start writing. In less than 2 days, i wrote nearly 15k words. It was pure garbage.

[Anonymous No.23411859]

>>23411848
Steampunk is hard, why not make a victorian fantasy with some steampunk city in it instead?

[Anonymous No.23412047]

>>23408925
You should call it Professor Pembleton's Magic Brigade and make all the characters trans

[Anonymous No.23412474]

>>23408925
The hardest thing about writing a steampunk is visualizing it. You also need to learn some steampunk philosophy and how everything works in there considering that you are trying to approach your work by setting (which nobody would recommend that method to you in the first place) instead of narrative like any other normal person, you might even have to rationalize 'steampunk' in order to get things work there.
But, lets say that you're still going to do this anyway, then my advice is to learn the steampunk itself inside out, do some endless research about that specific setting, get your resources from steampunk novel, a book about steampunk, play a steampunk themed game or watch a steampunk themed movie or read steampunk themed movie and game concept art book in order to visualize steampunk setting and civilization, learn what people opinion about steampunk, and do stuff like that until you're satisfied by your knowledge of that genre

[Anonymous No.23412715]

Is the Difference Engine really the only Steampunk book worth reading? Is William Gibson the only writer out there who nailed what the genre is about? Steampunk seems more like an aesthetic than a genre, very shallow and surface level stuff.

[Anonymous No.23412967]

>>23412715
>Steampunk seems more like an aesthetic than a genre, very shallow and surface level stuff.
Its just reimagined version of early industrial revolution, usually took part in victorian england because steam thing was implemented there most of the time. But yeah, most people tend to get steampunk only in aesthetic manner instead of a genre. Steampunk is, after all, a complete fiction, unlike cyberpunk that we lived and experienced right now (or maybe post cyberpunk). We witness the realization of cyberpunk society in both conceptual and aesthetic sense in our everyday life so its easier to make cyberpunk or post cyberpunk book rather than steampunk
You could hardly pull anything out of steampunk if you're a beginner in writing. Industry revolution happened, factory massively prouducing steam based technology, inventor exist, technological advance exist, but at the same time poor people are becoming more poor and opressed, causality stuff, conflict of steampunk story usually revolve around those things. Reminds me of that league of legend tv show despite it wasn't a pure steampunk
It requires a stupidly high creativity level to make an interesting steampunk story

[Anonymous No.23413419]

>>23412967
>You could hardly pull anything out of steampunk if you're a beginner in writing. Industry revolution happened, factory massively prouducing steam based technology, inventor exist, technological advance exist, but at the same time poor people are becoming more poor and opressed, causality stuff, conflict of steampunk story usually revolve around those things

These sound extremely interesting as a matter of fact. Why do you think it's impossible to create an fun story in that setting?

[Anonymous No.23413473]

>>23413419
>Why do you think it's impossible to create an fun story in that setting?
I literally said in the last paragraph in my wall of text that it requires a stupidly high level of creativity in order to make an interesting steampunk story.
Dont get me wrong though, but sometimes, if you only perceive things in aesthetic level and only using those aesthetic as decorative setting, which obviously will make every character, plot, narrative and everything disconnected to the setting. It wont make an interesting story, but rather, a cheap story.
You can make a detective story where some terrorist organization is doing some attack in a steampunk church where it somehow ignites a religious tension between each other and have your steampunk detective character solve that shit to the ground. It sounds interesting in the surface level, but it wont make a good steampunk story, people will take it only as a normal detective story with steampunk aesthetics trying to find the culprit behind the attack and at the end of the day: your usual whodunnit story.
But try to make the terrorist attack being orchestrated by some butthurt inventor who hate the church because it banned his invention or something and used some oppressed working class as his terrorist army because apparently the church is the place where some rich factory owner goes and he owned the factory where it oppress the worker, even more, try to explore the religious tension behind it, and make the whodunnit aspect being done in the middle of the story and let the causality exist after the detective catch the butthurt inventor
That's just an example that I used from my own explanation of surface level steampunk concept. But hopefully you get what I'm saying about that.
You want to make a steampunk story, then dont get it only in aesthetic level, but also dive into the steampunk concept itself and never separate the character and the world he lived on with -punk subgenre like this

[Anonymous No.23414285]

>>23413473
Ok, now I get what you're saying. You mean the difference between an interesting story and an interesting STEAMPUNK story.

The question is - if I create a rich plot with interesting characters, believeable motivations and good structure, does it really matter that much by the end of the day? Isn't quality of the writing more important than staying "true" to the stereotyped view of a setting?

Let's take a "Tresure Planet" as an example - it's pretty much a "Treasure Island" with some sci-fi-steampunk aesthetics and concepts, but it's still a pretty damn good story.

Of course I'm speaking hypothetically. I want to integrate the concepts commonly associated with steampunk - such as alternative technology and the way it influences the characters - into my story. But I also don't want these ideas to restrict my creativity. I also don't want to replicate the cliches commonly associated with the genre - this is why I asked about them in the OP.

[Anonymous No.23414388]

1) read Jules Verne and other adventure/proto-science fiction, maybe some ERB Barsoom books, like A Princess of Mars
2) realize you're just going to be writing a Scifi Adventure with Victorian window dressing
3) Think of some compelling characters

Good luck OP

[Anonymous No.23414489]

>>23414285
> Isn't quality of the writing more important than staying "true" to the stereotyped view of a setting?
you want to write a steampunk novel, and -punk subgenre means your setting is the character, it was something that you cant separate from the story, it wasthe basic rule of the game, that's why -punk subgenre is -punk in the first place, because the setting itself is 'alive' and it affects both the main character and narrative in many ways, this is also the reason why every -punk subgenre (as cheap as some people perceive it) have their own philosophy and background of it. some might see them as limitation, some other might see this as a creative freedom or something where they can put some allusion to, it depends on their perspective and approach towards the genre right after they craft their own story.
this is also why I said in here >>23412474 that you need to do some extra research about steampunk inside out, because you tried to write a story based on a setting instead of a premise or outline like in a traditional writing method.
also treasure planet is an adaptation, naturally it would be incomparable to your writing project where you want to build the story entirely from the ground, and as much as I remember, the steampunk-futuristic setting in treasure planet is indeed have the relevancy to the story with the flying ship and the planet they go to, the steampunk in there is not only work aesthetically but also being part of the story itself, other animation example is arcane (self explanatory name), implementation of both arcanepunk and steampunk in the story that is not only exist on aesthetic level but relevant to the story and character in there, you might want to study from there.