The Life of A Trans Sci-Fi Writer

Being trans is a funny old thing. In some ways it’s so joyous; I can recognise myself in the mirror now in a way that I never could before I came out, I can embrace sides of my personality that I’d kept hidden previously, and I feel more comfortable in my body than I ever have. The problem is, as trans writer Shon Faye once pointed out, that coming out as trans solves a lot of problems, but it creates a whole lot of new ones too. The problem that’s most relevant to my writing career (ha ha, what career?!) is that of burnout; I was 38 by the time I came out, and at that point, I’d been denying to myself and hiding from others that I was trans for many many years. If you’ve never had to do this yourself, you’ll never know how tiring it is. So, I came out, and while I felt more whole, I was deeply and existentially tired. I didn’t feel so bad when I’d finished putting myself together in the mornings, i.e. I’d shaved my face and legs, and put my hair, clothes, and makeup on, but getting to...

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 ...

‘I’ve read ninety blog posts on whether I should self-publish or not!’  I hear you cry. OK, I hear you. There are a million blogs that basically conclude with the same thing - that it depends on what your publishing goals are and what kind of thing you’re writing as to whether you should choose traditional publishing or self-publishing. Ah! But I’m not going to tell you that because I think self-publishing is awesome and traditional publishing can get in the bin! I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post that as a trans woman, I’m used to gatekeeping, i.e. every time I go to see a healthcare professional about trans-related healthcare, I have to prove to them that I’m ‘really trans’ as if, you know, I can’t be trusted to decide who I am without an old-white-cis-man holding my hand as I do it. But when I started writing, I still effectively subjected myself to the same process by sending stories off to magazines who would then reject them. What I wanted from these magazines was for ...

As you might have guessed from the fact that I write a blog about writing, I really love writing! But you know what I don’t love? PROOFREADING AND EDITING! When I’m writing, it’s like my brain is on fire; the story is pouring out of me and I’m struggling to get it on the page as fast as I can  imagine it. But then you finish writing, and you have to go through your hastily scribbled mess and fix it up; make sure it’s logically consistent, that the prose flows nicely, and that there are no typos. The whole time I’m doing this, my brain is aching to just get on and write the next story, or to go and see what cake I have in the house; anything but actually concentrate on the thing I’m supposed to be doing. But proof reading and editing are important, right? Well, yes, I admit that they are important. As I said earlier, my first draft is usually a bit of a mess, and without any proofreading, I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting other people see my work. But I do think that the importanc...

While growing up, I was obsessed with the classic, golden era sci-fi writers - Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A Heinlein as well as a healthy dose of Douglas Adams. Later, when I started uni, I got into more fantasy stories by people such as David Eddings and Raymond E Feist. I loved all of these stories, and they played a huge part in helping me to form my identity, but what do these writers all have in common? That’s right, they’re all cis-het white men.  This post isn’t going to be a rant about cis-het white men, after all, some of my best friends are cis-het white men. But, without really knowing it, part of the reason I loved the works of these writers was that when I was a teenager, their books were full of people who I assumed were like me. I was trying convince myself that all the thoughts I was having about being a girl were nonsense because it was the 90’s; I didn’t know what being trans was, I didn’t know what support was available, and I didn’t know how I wou...

I’ve ALWAYS wanted to write a novel, well, I have ever since I learned what a novel was. But now I’m 40 and have I managed to actually write said novel? Of course I haven’t!  I think it’s fear, mostly, that has stopped me. I mean, novels are pretty big, aren’t they? Have you ever seen Magician by Raymond E Feist? It’s pretty chonky! I’m not sure I could ever write anything that could sustain a single idea for that number of words. But this year, following the success of my short story collection, Talking to Lobsters , I’ve finally broken the barrier that’s been holding me back for all this time. I think it was writing the short stories that helped me to get past the fear. For a start, it gave me experience in planning stories out and developing characters and concepts, but it also inspired further ideas that I could explore in a larger work. As I wrote one short story, it gave me ideas for what I could do in a second story in the same world. This then gave me ideas for a third stor...