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My Path to Writing Sci-Fi
Reflections on an interesting journey.
For reasons not worth getting into here, I have only a few scattered, fragmented memories of my childhood. One, however, sparked something incredible.
I was almost 5 years old. My mom and dad took me to see this movie. The opening credits included this wild crawl of words offering up backstory. And then, a ship soars in, getting blasted with lasers by another!
This was the first time I saw Star Wars, and I was in love (and yes, this was 1977). Soon, my imagination led me to create my own space adventures. That turned my living room window into the bridge viewport of my starship, the swing on my swingset into my starfighter, and countless sticks into laser guns and laser swords.
Over the next few years, TV and movies would be my main sci-fi influences.
This included Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, the original Battlestar Galactica, and The Six Million Dollar Man, among others. My imagination, inspired by these, led to writing my first sci-fi book when I was 9 years old. Wildfire was 50 pages and illustrated.
Interestingly, as much as I was a reader as a kid, and a writer, I didn’t read a lot of sci-fi.
Visual references and inspiration
As we moved into the 1980s, a plethora of sci-fi TV shows caught my attention. This included the miniseries V, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Robotech, Transformers, and more.
While a lot of this would be cheesy in various ways, I loved it. All this sci-fi on TV – plus movies like Tron, Return of the Jedi, The Last Starfighter, and others – kept me coming up with more ideas and stories.
I started a space opera that I never finished between the ages of 9 and 13. I think I was maybe 13 or 14 when I completed my first typed story, an homage to Tron called The Secret Computer World. (I got my first computer in 1985, so a typed story vs handwritten was a big deal.)
Yet I still wasn’t reading sci-fi. For the most part, when I was reading, it was technothrillers. I read a lot of Tom Clancy and Dale Brown. Also, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t reading a lot for pleasure in middle school and high school.
But my imagination couldn’t be quenched. I made up imaginary worlds, created all kinds of fantastic stories in the Star Wars universe with my action figures and playsets, vehicles, and the like.
The 1990s offered more great sci-fi TV and movies. TV included Babylon 5, Farscape, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Seaquest DSV, and more. Movies included Stargate, Independence Day, Starship Troopers, and the Star Trek: TNG movies, among others. There were multiple subgenres of sci-fi to watch everywhere.
Yet, in the 1990s, I wasn’t reading sci-fi. I was reading (and writing) fantasy.
Returning to writing sci-fi
In college, I started to read for pleasure again. But I found myself reading fantasy. This included J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, David Eddings’ Belgariad and Malloreon series, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and more.
I did start to read some sci-fi, including Ann McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series (which is a blend of sci-fi and fantasy) and numerous Star Wars novels, like Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and Kevin J Anderson’s Young Jedi Knights series.
I was mostly writing fantasy at this point. I had started my Source Chronicles series, and even tried in the early 2000s to get an agent to help me get it published. My main focus remained on fantasy into the 2010s.
Then I discovered Steampunk. This nuanced, unconventional genre had few rules and was open to exploration. I created my own blended sci-fi and fantasy Steampunk short story, The Vapor Rogues, which led to an attempt at a series in the same world, and my standalone Steampunk-fantasy Infamy Ascending.
In 2015, I had an idea for something sci-fi. This would evolve into my Void Incursion series.
Before I knew it, I was back into writing sci-fi. Over the next 10 years, I wrote and self-published 5 books in Void Incursion, my Forgotten Fodder series, my Savagespace series, and my standalone sci-fi comedy Jay and Char Save the Galaxy.
When I began to read every morning to start my day, I started regularly reading sci-fi. While I sometimes read books by traditionally published authors, I also read a lot of fellow indie authors. Given that we’re not in competition, this is a great way to offer support.
My next books will be a continuation of Forgotten Fodder and a new space opera called The Gentleman Space Pirate Saga.
Writing sci-fi and more
My love of sci-fi continues full force. And don’t even get me started on all the great sci-fi TV available.
However, sci-fi is not the only thing I write. I have my blogs and some other nonfiction ideas. Also, I have some fantasy ideas (given that my number 1 hobby is medieval fencing, this is not a shocker).
My path to writing sci-fi, because it came from visuals more than the great books of sci-fi (and I have read many of those, too, but later rather than earlier), is unique. But then, in truth, everyone’s paths to their creative process is unique.
Why am I sharing this? Because if you have an art you desire to pursue, even if you came to it via a convoluted or unique path, don’t let that dissuade you from doing it. Your vision is worthy of sharing, and the world needs your art in it. So don’t be afraid to be a creative, whatever that might look like or whoever you’ve gotten here.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you every week, please consider this: How are you inspired and empowered to be your own creator, whatever form that takes?
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