Skip to main content

What I Like/Don't Like (to write)



Different people have different tastes. That’s what makes us all unique. If all writers wrote the same type of story, literature would become quite boring. So I am going to discuss some of the things I like to write and some of the things I don’t like to write. By the way, this may or may not have anything to do with the things I like to read, or the things I like to watch on TV or movies. There is obviously some overlap, but it is not complete.

More than any other genre, I like to write science fiction. I grew up on science fiction. I watched all the Scifi TV shows as a kid, and some of the earliest adult books I ever read were science fiction. There are a lot of sub-genres to science fiction: dystopian, space opera, post-apocalyptic, hard science fiction, sociological etc. (and for the moment we will set fantasy off as a separate genre from science fiction, though they are related).

I have written some space opera, in fact my novel, Star liner, is of that genre. I have also written short stories of that type. Space opera is fun if not always the deepest form of fiction. Some of the sub-genres that I have played around with have gray boundaries between them. I wrote a novel-sized work that could be called dystopian but could also be called sociological science fiction. I also wrote one quasi fantasy. I have also written straight fiction. Straight fiction means it doesn’t fit in a genre. I did write a horror story, though I suspect that is something that I am not particularly good at. It didn’t seem all that scary to me, and if a horror story is not scary, it’s not much of a horror story. One time I tried to write an erotic scene, and quickly learned that this is not something I can do. I don’t have a problem with erotic scenes in books, but they are not going to be coming from me. I like reading hard science fiction, but again it is not something that I am probably ever going to write (though I don’t want to completely close the door on it.)

I usually don’t write post-apocalyptic stories, but I am currently working on a short story in that realm. The particular cataclysm that brought about the collapse of civilization in this story is not explained because it is not important to the story. Some people might cry foul to that but in my opinion, you shouldn’t clutter your story with explanations that are not important to the plot.

I dabbled with the mystery genre in my novel Star Liner, which was fun, but it is not a true mystery. True mysteries have a tight framework and require much planning. Figuring out 'who done it' is the whole reason for the story. Anyone who is reading Star Liner and paying attention ought to be able to figure out what is going on fairly early. The mystery is not the point of the story.

In short, I write whatever strikes my fancy. An idea pops into my head and I go with it . . . or decide not to. Often I write just for fun, just for me. This is as it should be for writers who are not trying to make a living with their writing. If you are trying to make a living with your writing, you have a whole different set of priorities. But even so, I think you need to please yourself first.

(My novel Star Liner, is now available as an ebook through Copypastapublishing.com, Amazon, or the other usual online sources. For those who like to turn physical pages, the paperback will be out soon).
Link to Star Liner

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Trip Home

  My wife and I recently returned from a trip to New York to visit my son and his wife. What follows is an excerpt of my notes from that trip. Departure day. So we and the kids (adult kids) leave by 5:30 AM. These “kids” are night owls. They rarely wake before 10:00 if they don’t have to, so we appreciate the sacrifice. Daughter-in-Law (DIL) drove us the 30 minutes to the train station. Hugs and good-byes for her (we love DIL. DIL is an irresistible force). Son navigates us a route to the platform with fewer stairs than the way we came. We get a ticket and get on the train headed for the big city and Grand Central Station. I soon realize that this train is not an express train like the one we took coming out. Instead of taking a little over an hour like we did before, this one would take a little over an hour and a half. We stop at places with names like Cold Springs and Peekskill (on this trip we saw a lot of place names that ended in “kill” including Kaatskill, i.e. Catskill, and
2 comments
Read more

That 70's Decade

  Can a decade become a caricature? My teen years were in the 1970’s and none of us who lived through the 70’s thought our decade was going to be a figure of fun. When you are a part of it, you don’t realize what people are going to make fun of later. I think there are two reasons why people snicker when the 70’s are mentioned: clothing styles and Disco. Both things could be called extensions of trends that started in the 60’s. When the hippy styles of the 60’s became more formalized for the dance floor, the result was (in hindsight) rather bizarre. They did not seem bizarre at the time. People following present fashion trends never understand that they are wearing something that will be laughed at in ten years. Yes, I did have a pair of bell-bottom blue jeans (are they making a comeback?) The mere mention of the 1970’s conjures up someone in a ridiculous pose wearing a disco suit. We who lived through the 70’s just went about our normal life. There were quite a lot of things that ha
Post a Comment
Read more

Tyranny of the Masses

  I was listening to Benjamin Netanyahu on the radio. He was justifying his change in the law that removed power from the Israeli Supreme Court, saying that it was the will of the people. Majority rules. This made me think of “Tyranny of the masses,” a concept that notes: just because a majority of people are for something, that doesn’t make it right. I am sure you can think of historical examples where the people of a country supported a policy that was demonstrably wrong. When everything is completely governed by majority rule, the rights of the minority can be subverted by the majority. The framers of our American Constitution knew this, and tried to put in some checks and balances into our system of government. This was to guard against all forms of tyranny whether from a dictator, or from tyranny of the masses. One of those checks is that we have a representative government. The people themselves don’t pass laws, but instead elect representatives at the federal and local level t
Post a Comment
Read more