I'm in the planning stages of writing a new genre of book for me. Normally, I play exclusively in the science fiction/fantasy sandboxes, leaning more toward fantasy than her sister, science fiction. Part of that stems from my reading diet: Aside from Shakespeare and other 'classics' that I read for work, I read almost exclusively in genre fiction. If you fold in Spider-Man novels (or other comic books, the majority of which I would classify as a very soft science fiction), I have a full half of my bookshelves filled with genre fiction. The other half is split among classics, poetry, Shakespeare and Milton studies, and other miscellaneous stuff.
It's a surprise, then, that I'm plotting out a piece of mainstream fiction.
I have a lot of motives for this. One: I need to keep stretching as a writer. I have, in the last two and a half years, finished five novels. It took me nearly four years (or maybe it was five) to finish Writ in Blood. If I had focused on output during that time, I would be into my double-digits with books I've completed (meaning written the entire book, not necessarily finished the editing process). While quantity isn't the be-all and end-all (to quote Macbeth), it is a way of growing as a writer. I've felt this, now that I finally wrote a lot of different things in a (relatively) short amount of time.
With that as background, I feel like I have been relying on a lot of my fantastical interests. That is, I have honed my ability to tell a story that involves things of immense imagination. Now, I think, I'm ready to find a story that doesn't involve writings that I've been trained to tell.
See, fantasy and science fiction tropes are powerful things. There are specific things inside the genre that demand to be recognized--embraced or subverted, it doesn't matter. But I'm always working with (or around) these expectations. And I am really familiar with these expectations. I've studied them a lot, I've read a lot of examples of them, and they're part of why I love genre fiction.
So it's time for me to change gears. I have long shunned mainstream fiction because it is less focused (I've felt) and dwells in a realm that I'm less inclined to live in. But, having read the Shakespearean novels lately, I feel like there may be a story for me to unearth after all.
Two: In my back pocket (metaphorically) I have three novels outlined--maybe four, depending on how I wanted to approach them. Two or three are a massive, bleak, grimdark approach to fantasy in which the line from Horatio at the end of Hamlet is the best description: "casual slaughters". But it's gritty stuff, filled with sadness, suffering, and, well, grimdark. I don't know if I want to be in that world for as long as it would take to write those novels. Nevertheless, they're sprawling, interconnected, and a unique (I think) look at death.
The other novel is a "sequel" of sorts to my Conduits and Ash and Fire universe (the first being sci-fi/fantasy, the second all fantasy, and the third being all sci-fi), one that includes time travel and dinosaurs. It's a lot of fun, and I've already written a good ten chapters or so.
But my point is this: I've already started writing some of the world. I tend to draft a sketch that I use as a starting place for my novels, and putting one of the stories down in the type of detail that I do when writing a novel is a bit of a commitment. It's not that I'm bothered about wasting words--I do that all of the time. I want to try out the story for a few pages to see if I'm ready to tackle it. I did with the grimdark stuff, and learned it wasn't for me, yet. The dinosaur one was fun, but I set it aside for NaNoWriMo. Now I'm thinking of leaving it on a hiatus until I can figure out if this current novel is worth pursuing.
Three: There are so many things about my life and faith that are paradoxical or confusing. I feel like addressing my fears and confusions in fiction is the place where I can sort them out in the safest way. What that means is that I'm writing a piece of fiction that is tightly wound up in my own lived experience. It's about a bunch of white people, all of the same religion and similar backgrounds, living in a small town in rural Utah, trying to accept each other as the humanity of each one of them is slowly brought to painful light.
This is, for me, heavy stuff. Before, issues I wanted to discuss were put into a new world where I could play with them from a safe distance. For example, in response to Proposition 8, the concept of what marriage is and ought to be became an enormous touchstone for a lot of people in the late aughts early teens. That was the same time when I started thinking about Writ in Blood, which has cultures each approaching the question of marriage--its purpose, its ubiquity, and its flaws--in a different way. This was beneficial to me, because I was able to use the metaphors of my fictional world to bring up questions I had without actually voicing them.
That doesn't apply this time. I'm not seeking out a metaphor in this new book: I'm challenging myself, my beliefs, and the beliefs of others in ways that I don't know I'm mature enough to handle.
We'll see if I can keep this new book on the horizon in front of me, or if I retreat into what I know and love already.
It's a surprise, then, that I'm plotting out a piece of mainstream fiction.
I have a lot of motives for this. One: I need to keep stretching as a writer. I have, in the last two and a half years, finished five novels. It took me nearly four years (or maybe it was five) to finish Writ in Blood. If I had focused on output during that time, I would be into my double-digits with books I've completed (meaning written the entire book, not necessarily finished the editing process). While quantity isn't the be-all and end-all (to quote Macbeth), it is a way of growing as a writer. I've felt this, now that I finally wrote a lot of different things in a (relatively) short amount of time.
With that as background, I feel like I have been relying on a lot of my fantastical interests. That is, I have honed my ability to tell a story that involves things of immense imagination. Now, I think, I'm ready to find a story that doesn't involve writings that I've been trained to tell.
See, fantasy and science fiction tropes are powerful things. There are specific things inside the genre that demand to be recognized--embraced or subverted, it doesn't matter. But I'm always working with (or around) these expectations. And I am really familiar with these expectations. I've studied them a lot, I've read a lot of examples of them, and they're part of why I love genre fiction.
So it's time for me to change gears. I have long shunned mainstream fiction because it is less focused (I've felt) and dwells in a realm that I'm less inclined to live in. But, having read the Shakespearean novels lately, I feel like there may be a story for me to unearth after all.
Two: In my back pocket (metaphorically) I have three novels outlined--maybe four, depending on how I wanted to approach them. Two or three are a massive, bleak, grimdark approach to fantasy in which the line from Horatio at the end of Hamlet is the best description: "casual slaughters". But it's gritty stuff, filled with sadness, suffering, and, well, grimdark. I don't know if I want to be in that world for as long as it would take to write those novels. Nevertheless, they're sprawling, interconnected, and a unique (I think) look at death.
The other novel is a "sequel" of sorts to my Conduits and Ash and Fire universe (the first being sci-fi/fantasy, the second all fantasy, and the third being all sci-fi), one that includes time travel and dinosaurs. It's a lot of fun, and I've already written a good ten chapters or so.
But my point is this: I've already started writing some of the world. I tend to draft a sketch that I use as a starting place for my novels, and putting one of the stories down in the type of detail that I do when writing a novel is a bit of a commitment. It's not that I'm bothered about wasting words--I do that all of the time. I want to try out the story for a few pages to see if I'm ready to tackle it. I did with the grimdark stuff, and learned it wasn't for me, yet. The dinosaur one was fun, but I set it aside for NaNoWriMo. Now I'm thinking of leaving it on a hiatus until I can figure out if this current novel is worth pursuing.
Three: There are so many things about my life and faith that are paradoxical or confusing. I feel like addressing my fears and confusions in fiction is the place where I can sort them out in the safest way. What that means is that I'm writing a piece of fiction that is tightly wound up in my own lived experience. It's about a bunch of white people, all of the same religion and similar backgrounds, living in a small town in rural Utah, trying to accept each other as the humanity of each one of them is slowly brought to painful light.
This is, for me, heavy stuff. Before, issues I wanted to discuss were put into a new world where I could play with them from a safe distance. For example, in response to Proposition 8, the concept of what marriage is and ought to be became an enormous touchstone for a lot of people in the late aughts early teens. That was the same time when I started thinking about Writ in Blood, which has cultures each approaching the question of marriage--its purpose, its ubiquity, and its flaws--in a different way. This was beneficial to me, because I was able to use the metaphors of my fictional world to bring up questions I had without actually voicing them.
That doesn't apply this time. I'm not seeking out a metaphor in this new book: I'm challenging myself, my beliefs, and the beliefs of others in ways that I don't know I'm mature enough to handle.
We'll see if I can keep this new book on the horizon in front of me, or if I retreat into what I know and love already.
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