An Unexpected Journey
“You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to” – Bilbo Baggins
Have you ever been on a trip and ended up somewhere completely unexpected?
It happens to me all the time. Last month, for example, my son and I explored a new hiking trail. On the way home, we discovered a Latin Festival. An hour later found us eating empanadas in a field, watching Spanish bagpipers. No, I don’t know why a Latin festival had Spanish bagpipers.
My creative projects often have the same surprising twists and turns. A child’s memory game turns into a party game about distracting people. A book about a dragon king becomes the story of an outcast human child (extra points if you recognize those references).
These weird changes may sound frustrating, but I love them. There’s nothing more exciting than that feeling of setting out into the unknown.
For example, about a year ago, as I was finishing a draft of the sequel to Abigail’s Dragons, the idea of creating a science-fiction story popped into my head. Though I love science fiction and fantasy equally, all of my published books have been fantasy. Wouldn’t it be cool to try science fiction?
Despite having a long editing job ahead of me, the thought kept niggling at me. Finally, I gave in. Sometimes, when an idea breezes by, you just have to grab on and see where it takes you.
In this case, that breeze took me to my father.
Although he passed away many years ago, he still looms large in my awareness and it’s always bugged me that I haven’t written a book for him. Maybe this was my chance. He loved science fiction, particularly Isaac Asimov’s books. Could I aim so high? Could I write a modern science fiction story that resonates with the Golden Age?
Hey, if you’re going to swing, you might as well swing for the fences.
As the idea turned into a purpose, I broke it down into steps, just like my dad always taught me.
Step 1: What kind of science? If you’re going to write science fiction, you better know your science. I’m no Asimov, but I am an electrical engineer who worked his way through college as a computer programmer, then made a living as a software engineer. My senior year, I wrote a learning system for a graduate course in AI. Question answered. I would be writing about an artificial intelligence.
Step 2: What’s the big picture? The best Golden Age science fiction is all about asking the deep questions. Yes, some are just bang-bang adventures, but that’s not what I was shooting for (pun intended). Fortunately, the nature of artificial intelligence opens up some of the biggest questions. What does it mean to be alive? What’s our purpose? How much control should our creator have over us? How important is our sense of self?
Step 3: What’s the format? Just about everything I’d written up to this point was third person, but that felt too safe. Thinking about my dad, my mind kept turning to boxing. Not only did he teach me how, but he enjoyed watching it, and back in the day, the announcers used present-tense to call the matches. Cosell didn’t say “Frazier was knocked down.” He said “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!”
Putting the pieces together, the project that I settled on was a first-person present-tense thriller that dives into issues of self, identity, and purpose.
Remember when I was talking about finding yourself some place unexpected? This is that moment. I was contemplating a story so far outside my comfort zone, it might as well have been in a different language.
But… how could I not write it? I double checked my secret equation, took a couple stiff drinks, and set out on the journey. With the concepts and format decided on, it was time to dig into the characters and get to work.
How’d it turn out? Well, the result was published last Saturday. It’s called Emil. I think it’s one of my best, but I’ll let you decide that. At the very least, I hope you enjoy it.
How about you? How do you react to unexpected turns in your art? Do you ride with them or stay focus on your original plan?
Want to comment? Hit me up on Threads or Facebook!
