The Life of A Trans Sci-Fi Writer

So, I know that in a previous blog post I whined about how inconsistent and nonsensical writers’ plots can be in modern fiction, but if writing my first novel has taught me anything, it’s that keeping consistency within your plot is hard! (#hypocrite) Because I’m writing in a science fiction/fantasy world, I’ve got a lot to set up such as a magical system that feels logical and rules of time travel that don’t just feel silly. If I was sensible, I would’ve made notes on all that stuff before I put pen to paper (well, fingers to keys…), but I’m not that sensible!  I also set my story across several decades of the main character’s life, which means I should’ve made notes about which chapter is set in what year. Did I do that either? No I didn’t! The result was that while writing the second half of the book, I started to doubt the things which I thought were true about my story. My brain would get confused about different types of portal conjuring magic, or whether a particular charact...

I saw a relatively prominent sci-fi writer tweet that ‘your character is your plot’ a little while ago. And, over the last few years, I’ve read a load of books/watched a load of films that describe themselves as sci-fi, I’ve either sat there thinking ‘I do like these characters, but nothing seems to be actually happening’ or ‘I like these characters, but the plot’s a fucking mess. Does even the writer understand what’s happening here?’ So, I’m not saying that characters aren’t important. Do I want sci-fi to go back to the days when the only person who can see themselves in a story is an able-bodied cis-het white man? No, of course not! Do I want sci-fi to go back to the days when sci-fi books only had characters so that the reader could experience the sci-fi concepts in the story through their eyes? I do love some of those stories, but no, I don’t want go back to those days.  There has to be some balance, however. Can’t we have everything? Can’t we have the Moon on a stick? I want ...