Alright future fans, you got me. That was a trick title. I implied that I had a solution to a writing problem and you clicked to see what it might be in the hopes that it would help jump-start your stalled out sci-fi short story. I don't have the secret answer, I'm sorry to admit. But I do think it's worth exploring the problem. And what is that problem, you ask? Well, it's not writer's block. Lots of people get writer's block and lots of people write about how they get writer's block (instead of just plain writing), and lots of people write about how to overcome writer's block (when they should be writing about just plain writing). So needless to say, I'm not jumping into that pool. But what do you do when it's not writer's block that's holding up your story? I had just self-published my first book to positive reviews (see: pretty much anywhere else on this website), and I was all jazzed up to continue the exciting adventures of my new favorite hero Lorna Lockheed into volume two (and volumes three and four as my imagination would have it!). I started out the year strong. I wrote a quick short story to kick off the new collection (I've been calling it "A Day at the Races" but I don't know if I like that one yet...) and it was a breeze to write. Every time the so-called writer's block reared it's fat ugly head, I tucked my chin down and powered forward to the finish. I also slid through a couple ultra-shorts that I will include as functional interludes to the larger novellas that will make up the bulk of the collection (outlined but yet to be written). Things were looking good. I even had a strong start to the first of the larger stories, a three chapter shoot-em-up vaguely inspired by The Gunslinger by Stephen King and the Tarantino film Django Unchained. I've titled it Snake Oil and Sarsaparilla and it even got a quick tease at the end of the last collection, as it will be the eponymous name for the entire new volume (as in: ...And Other Stories Too!).
That's when things got tricky. Sure, my wife was pregnant with our first born son Aero Christopher (born July 21st so you can imagine why there hasn't been much activity lately on this site). But that really didn't impact my free-time or creativity as directly as I would've thought. Also, I discovered the old Thunderbirds Are Go! TV show on Hulu and started binging on that a little bit. And the new remake on Amazon Prime (very good quality!). But the truth is I still wrote when I wanted to and when I wanted to, I really did get new pages written. So why did this story feel like such a slog? I had overreached and I knew it, and I didn't want to do the work I knew it would take. On the surface it seemed a simple enough premise: Reluctantly following an invite to the home of a famous Root Beer magnate, Lorna Lockheed uncovers a nefarious plot she must shoot her way out of. Chapter One: Reluctantly show up to the invite. Chapter Two: Uncover the nefarious plot. Chapter Three: Shoot her way out. Pepper in some quips and that patented Lorna Lockheed charm (snark?) and the story writes itself. Except for I don't know anything about root beer or how it's made or how a major industrial enterprise was operated in the early twentieth century. (Should I be admitting this?). Things I also don't actually know about that I insisted were key to this story? Snake Oil and early pre-modern pharmacology. The industrial production of chemicals and drugs. Racial and economic disparity in the ante-bellum south as it pertains to the job market. Human trafficking and the psychology of its victims. How to write a real southern dialect. How a gun works. I also discovered some of my key characters not only lacked clear motivation, I hadn't even named them yet! To me that's a big deal, because I can't hone in on the character's inner nature until I get their name right. Yup, I definitely overreached on this one. And the story was only supposed to be maybe 60 pages? 75, tops. Oh yeah, and I wanted to sneak in a tie-in to the Invisible Man without risking a breach of copyright law without actually knowing how copyright law works. (Why did I want to sneak in a tie-in to the Invisible Man? Because: Steampunk!) I really had to keep things short and sweet if I wanted to hit that page count. How do you tackle human trafficking in a few pages and not treat it like a cheap plot point? These women have been through enough abuse in real life, they don't need me to use them as throwaway objects of the plot. I mean, that's the whole reason I wanted to tackle it, to treat it with respect. And how am I supposed to realistically portray what it felt like to be black in America a hundred years ago when it was literally still legal not to be hired because of race. Black Lives Matter has taught me that it's actually a lot harder than I thought to really get what the American experience has been like for people of color over the years (ya know, unless you are one). Which again, is why I wanted to include that very issue. And also, what is root beer really? Is it the same as sarsaparilla? What is it the root of and why do they call it beer and did they really think it had medicinal qualities back then? Really? My real problem wasn't space, though, it was research. I had no doubt that I could effectively tie these disparate elements into a cohesive short story without going over budget on page count but only if I could truly wrap my mind around them in detail. Only if I could master them. But I didn't want to do the research that I knew it would take to know what I was talking about when I started talking about race, or human trafficking or root beer. I just wanted the story to leap out of my head fully-formed and beautifully intricate and socially challenging and relevant. Or at least cool. And so the story sat, with only nominal improvements here and there. And it still sits. And it will keep sitting. Until I decide I'm ready to be a real writer and do the work that real writers do. The non-writing part of writing. The research and the plotting and the editing and the throwing out of whole pages of material to make adjustments for what I've learned after doing my research. #backtowork
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