I remember a day many years ago when I was home sick with the flu. I was lying on the sofa, being totally miserable, and having nothing to do because I lived in the middle of the wilderness with no TV, I started creating my bucket list. I suspect this is something everyone does when they hit even their thirties like I was at the time.
I had so many things on my list that it took two pages to hold it all. Having too many big ideas is a shortcoming for me, I guess. Still, I’ve done a lot of things on that list, and one of the things that was most improbable was writing. My list had “write a mystery fiction novel” on it.
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I always shake my head when I hear new fiction authors (and even non-fiction) talk about what they want to write. It’s not that what they want to write is a bad idea, they have enormously fascinating ideas. Still, when you want to put your foot in the water, it would be nice if it were not over your head.
You see, the task of writing is daunting enough just to keep it organized and flowing with great dialogue and imagery and a plot line that works. However, when you fixate on writing science fiction set in the year 2170, you have a whole new set of problems. The amount of research into the cutting-edge science just to get into space today requires an Isaac Asimov level of background education. The average high school or college grad doesn’t have that background. Sure, some of your inventions can be totally fanciful. No one can prove they won’t exist, but you can’t get much mileage out of that. Most people have expectations based on real science. |
Greg
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