I like soft, anthropological or militaristic SF as well s some types of fantasy. Cosmic horror is a lot of fun too. I am an amateur, but I think I am rather good.

I have a philosophy.

I is very, in fact, hard to start a large background from scratch. The thing is, you have to start somewhere. In a militaristic fiction you can start with a brawl, in fantasy maybe the same, in soft, anthrogological SF a conversation. This doesn't seem to much a problem at first, you pick up a pen, learn longhand and write, you have a book. The more you think the more of a problem this becomes.

It's quite hard to start writing a SF or fantasy short story without a background. There are many ways around this: some create the background before they start writing; sometimes by creating a map or sometimes a political system; it depends on the writer, I have my own method; I start with somebody elses.

This seems like a cheap way of doing things, it depends how you do it. When using somebody elses work it is important to have none of the third party's work in the end result and to just use the third party's as a seed to sprout ideas from and NOT a basis for your background. The third party's work must only be a minor event. How do you define a minor event (A brawl, conversation, etc) you ask? Basically, if you can take an event out of the background and not at all effect the larger more fundamental parts of the background (The social and political status of the background and the well known fundamental facts), then it's minor. This is important as morally I think it is good to remove it anyway. Do you think I am in the wrong if the entirety of the background is of my own design. Just my point.

So, I need practice in writing, as well as working on someone else's work. Hmm, now. Where should I go first.

And that's why I'm here.

Ever your humble servant.