I was asked to share recently why I write what I write. In my head I was like, that’ll be easy — I write fiction, specifically science fiction and fantasy, because the real world sucks balls. Big dirty ones. The idea of building a world to my specifications and then fill it with people I want to meet, villains I want to destroy, places I want to visit is very appealing. I love to create heroes that can do so much more than I can to right the wrongs of the world around them. It gives me an outlet when I’m feeling frustrated. I suspect it’s the reason so many of us like reading stories like that.
But as I thought about it, I realized it’s so much more than that. I love storytelling. Just so happens, those are the kinds of stories I like to tell. But when you stop and think about how the art of storytelling has evolved over the years and how much of that art we lose every year — it makes me want to write even more. It used to be that people would read or go to the movies to get lost in the story. But lately… The good story is lost in pointless explosions and overplayed, underwritten tropes. And don’t even get me started on remakes, reboots, retellings, etc. Makes me want to cry!
So the answer to the question of why I write what I write is because the world sucks. People are finding new and exciting ways of being shitty to each other and themselves, and something as basic as minding one’s own business has become damn near a super power. The world sucks and I want to provide an outlet for those still looking to get lost in a good story.
