So, as the title of the post says: why do you write what you write?
As authors, I'm sure most of us have been asked "where did you come up with the idea for that story?" I know I've heard it a fair few times myself. And, the truth is, my story ideas generally gang up on me and mug me at about 2 am, pulling me out of sound sleep and saying "think about us. Write about us. Start plotting that outline. Yeah, you have to get up in a few hours to work, but so what?"
As for what I write: I'm pretty solidly in the fantasy and sci-fi camps. I do write urban fantasy and some historical pieces but mostly, I'm working in either a realm of magic or a realm with science so advanced it could be mistaken for magic. Romance and love may be a subplot in my stories (okay, frequently it is) but it's never the main plot. Bringing down evil empires, stopping the bad guys, wrestling with inner demons -- those tend to be my main plot drivers.
Why do I write fantasy and sci-fi? Because those are the two genres that I think grab people the most and take them to the highest of heights, the lowest of lows, and leave you breathless, wishing and dreaming and growing so attached to the characters that you (as a reader) want to learn more. They also give the writer the most room to work with and the most tools to use to build a world that might look a bit like Earth (if you squint) but operate under completely different laws. You can also do a lot of fun things with magical systems (such as making them very complicated so that you have to keep track of what is allowed and what is impossible) and societies. Often, when I'm writing a historical period piece, I find myself struggling to make the society believable because, since it's so close to my own (being on Earth), I tend to start projecting modern assumptions into a society that isn't modern. When I write fantasy or sci-fi, I'm able to avoid that stumbling block altogether even if some of the action takes place on Earth.
I'm a big-time world builder. I think I enjoy planning my stories and plotting them out as much as I enjoy writing them. I got started in this when I was a teenager and had to write my own Dungeons and Dragons modules and campaigns because I couldn't afford to buy the pre-made sets. From there, my own imagination and love of reading took off and I would get bored if I tried to write a novella or longer work set on Earth. In time, I have gotten off that crutch but still, I enjoy creating my own worlds and sharing them with my readers, sometimes doing things that would be so far beyond imagining in a human-only Earth-based society that it requires a completely different planet and culture to pull it off.
So, what about you? What do you write and why? Inquiring minds want to know!
-- G.K.
I write because if I didn't my brain would blow up. I get triggers every day for a story that soon begins to lay itself out in my mind- all I have to do is type it, and that's the hard part. I should've taken keyboarding in high school. My mother told me I would regret it and she was right. Seeing a blue tarp crumbled up in the woods gave me the idea for my next release- Homeless Heart- coming in October. I also write so I can live another life in the characters that I create. Writers in my opinion are a fortunate species. We have the power to create and control the destinies of countless people. I wouldn't trade it for the world, yet the life of a writer has its own roller coaster. We'll save that for another time. ��
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