Beyond The Words, Past
A Science Fiction / Fantasy Column
By Steven Shrewsbury

WRITING WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW

      There is an old saying when it comes to authors: Write what you know. Certainly, this is true in most cases. Stephen King can write better material about Maine than I ever could and Louis L’Amour surely knows the West better than a Midwest farm-boy. But why am I writing high fantasy works of an age before the flood on not of this Earth? If I stuck to what I knew, I would tell tales about factories, farms, and blue collar folk that would surprise, and probably amuse many.

      Does this old phrase apply to fantasy or science fiction? Since most of it is quite speculative, can it? Some of the fun has been taken out of science fiction as many want to convince the reader it could happen, to the utmost degree. Like in the film HULK a few years ago. They spent a great deal of time convincing us it was possible for Banner to change into the Hulk via scientific means, when all they really needed to say was GAMMA RAYS. Yeah, we know that is all bush-wah, but, it is just a story…something the producers or director forgot.

    The great thing about writing in general is the God concept. Terry Nation, creator of Dr. Who’s DALEKS said once that when one writes, you become God for that little space of time or realm created. When one sets out to write a story or book, or produce an alternate universe, everything must adhere to your rules. If the rocks talk, that’s ok, because you gave them a mouth or a brain to project such abilities. Earth history can even be bent to this ideal if one goes far enough back, or if you tell a tale from the POV of the guy NEXT to Wellington before he put his famed boots to Napoleon.

       I love to tell tales and yes, they have to be plausible and entertaining. Not just filling in the blanks a historian left out, but I use eras of Earth history as excellent fodder in tales. Mixing & matching religions, icons, gods and devils, its great fun. At times, my style of telling gets a bit harsh (or so I hear), but it is what I know. One cannot please everyone. However, at the heart of any tale is the story. Aside from the historical planks one uses to prop up a tale, or the weapons, gods, mores, or clothing we use as color in a yarn, the story is the meat. It there is nothing to chew on but the scenery, it isn’t worth the effort of biting. In olden days, I read a tale and would think “man, that guy musta had a rough night of drinking before writing this one.” Now, I wonder if folks are wearing bunny suits as they write, but I digress. It seems that writing safer tales may be the order of the day, but I find if difficult to write with a condom over my head.

     Gods offend people. Writers do it too. Writers playing God really can stick their selves into it. It happens. That’s life. They’re just tales and cannot really hurt ya.

      Telling a story without the confines of what people may expect is the key. Tell a good story and the rest will work out. Not everyone may like what’s created done, but if it is good, it will be accepted by someone.

      The creative explosion does not always arrive when researching material or reading up on forgotten cultures. No, at times the oddest events can inspire the muse to pull out the spurs and plant them in your back. For example, a woman dumping DQ pop onto freshly cleaned clothes as I folded them inspired me to finish a scene where a barbarian King helped slaughter most of the populace of a city. Now, I never fashioned a character based on said woman…and it may have been easy to envision her demise via flail, sword or army ants…but usually, the muse is fueled by whatever aggressive part of my brain writes.

      That explosion, or burn as some call it, is when you write what you don’t know. The next words are a mystery and it’s a surprise as the brain fires out that passion. That’s the mark of a creative writer, and good fiction, I think, the stuff created that no notes were made for, that popped out of the ether unharnessed. That’s inventive thought and cannot be whipped into a pretty package or edited into blank loads from sterile donors.

      What I love to hear (and what I guess any writer enjoys) is someone saying, “I never saw that coming in the story!” Tell a good tale and write what you know, which may just be, how to spin a good story.

     A friend of mine said it best when he said a good writer writes because he has to. It must come out and be told. No illusions of lasting art, no ideals and morals, just a story dying, aching to be shared. It that way, you are writing what you know for certain.

     Now, where to get ideas and how do they form?

     That may be a topic for another time…

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