WATNEY: Look! A pair of boobs! -> (.Y.).
As with most of life's problems, this one can be solved by a box of pure radiation.
Actually, I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be “in command” if I were the only remaining person.” What do you know? I’m in command
If ruining the only religious icon I have leaves me vulnerable to Martian vampires, I'll have to risk it.
I'm calling it the Watney Triangle because after what I've been through, shit on Mars should be named after me.
Problem is (follow me closely here, the science is pretty complicated), if I cut a hole in the Hab, the air won't stay inside anymore.
Eventually, while researching, you'll learn something you didn't want to know. Some fact that ruins a plotline you had in mind. The good news is that sometimes, learning all the facts can make for a much more interesting story than you originally had in mind.
Research into manned spaceflight is shifting from low-Earth orbit to destinations much further away, like Mars and the asteroid belt. But society will have to invent many new technologies before it can plausibly send people to those distances.
I am not a brave man... I do not have the right stuff. Astronauts are really a cut above.
If someone offered me a free trip to the International Space Station, I would decline. I like Earth. I like the internet. I like Diet Coke. I have cats. I write about brave people - I'm not one of them.
A story in your head isn't a story. It's just a daydream until you actually write it down. So write it down.
My first book was so horrible I have deleted all copies of it. Thankfully, it was before the Internet, so there are no lurking caches of it anywhere.
A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Don't wait for an inspired ending to come to mind. Work your way to the ending and see what comes up.
Just so we're clear, Mark Watney is who I want to be. He has all the qualities I like about myself magnified without any of the qualities I dislike. Mark Watney isn't afraid to fly.
There's nothing I would like more than to watch a manned Mars landing.
I originally wrote 'The Martian' as a free serial novel, posting one chapter at a time to my website.
Thanks to our modern era, facts are incredibly easy to come by. A few web searches for your subject matter, and you have all the information you could dream of.
There's more to research than just looking up facts. Eventually, you have to make subjective calls. If you're writing a science fiction novel, there's probably some speculative technology in it. You'll have to decide how to project existing technology forward in a plausible way.
Don't tell your stories to anyone. You'll be more motivated knowing it's a prerequisite to having an audience.
I was hired as a computer programmer for a national laboratory at age 15.
