Jessica M. Woollcott's Page

hi

I understand about the technobabble... it should make sense to the writer, for sure, or it could be distracting to the reader if they catch you!

His name would be Oka th'Neiba, then :)

I went to Bridgewater State--I've heard that Northeastern has made a lot of progress though. They had the preferred name option in place before we did, and probably more good stuff. And I totally can relate to financial difficulties with school. I had to drop out of the expensive private college I was going to before BSU, which is why I finished my degree there. My student loan payments from my first school are absolutely killing me.

I don't know much about writing, but I do know that it's best to write for yourself first and foremost. Otherwise, why do it? Characters doing "ordinary things" help the reader relate, and as the suspense reaches a climax, feel more in touch with the story. I'm a sucker for details, though. Sci-fi where nothing "extraordinary" happens can still be great sci-fi, of course; but, again, write what you feel you need to.

Choreographing a space battle sounds hard--with my brain, and spatial issues, forget it! I probably wouldn't know the difference if it wouldn't work in "real life". I definitely respect your dedication. I know I would want to cross my t's and dot my i's when it comes to writing something like that. For hand-to-hand though... you could try observing a fight scene in a movie or something, write what you see, and that could help you develop your ability to write it.

I'm not sure starting with an action sequence would be the hook you're looking for--I prefer a slow buildup of suspense though. Not that action scenes aren't great.

I'm with you all the way on your thoughts on sex and gender. I identify as trans* myself (genderqueer and gender fluid) and spent a lot of time in college educating myself and others on these issues. My good friend (a fellow sci-fi geek) and I started using gender-neutral pronouns around the same time and put together a few workshops on how to use them correctly. I am very happy to say that the preferred name option we fought so hard for was approved just as I graduated, and implemented this semester.

I think a huge reason why I fell in love with, and started costuming as, Andorians has to do with the four-sexes/genders established in the books. I started reading them when I found myself wanting more DS9, and really enjoyed (and somewhat identified with) the character of Shar. There are four distinct genders but female (shen, zhen) and male (chan, thaan) pronouns are used by outsiders; I think this was a huge missed opportunity on the writers' parts to introduce nonbinary gendered characters and begin to normalize the use of alternative pronouns. From the characterizations in the books, for lack of more useful terminology, the shen is the masculine female, the zhen is the feminine female, the chan is the feminine male, and the thaan is the masculine male. The actual (book) canon of the sexes is here. (If you're curious, a friend and I went there and established a few more things in this ancient LiveJournal post...)

So it would depend on what kind of gender expression Oka Nieba has. And I'm pretty used to BSing alien names by now--it's fun!