Three things I don't write about (and three things I do)

Three things I don’t write about (and three things I do)

 

I’m goofing off, surfing and looking at my book sales. But that’s not unusual when I have to do some writing, and this is proving harder than I thought.

 

The wonderful Sharon Kae Reamer tagged me in the ongoing and surprisingly interesting meme about three things I don’t write about, and three things which I do. Easy right? Well...

 

I’d like to say that being a genre writer frees me to tackle any subject I’d care to mention. That far-future settings, or the fantasy worlds I play in, create backdrops that allow me to tackle difficult subjects, try some experimentation with tropes, styles and subject matter.  The truth is that it does provide those things, but in practise, there are things I don’t write about. Possibly even can’t write about.

 

Romance – I don’t really think I’ve ever put that into my work. There have been odd moments of flirtation and a little heavy petting, but full on romance, no, not somewhere I’d want to go. Perhaps I’m intimidated by it, being a man and all.

 

There are themes I’m not interested in; social demographics, equality(There’s a reason for this one. In principle, I like the idea, but it’s never ever going to be a reality while people are about and it’s a minefield to write about), erotica. They just don’t interest me enough.

 

So my next choice is Sport. I don’t write any sport into my work, and have no plans to start doing so. The world of sport is a mystery to me and I wouldn’t know how to tackle the subject matter. That’s not to say I might not have a character that used to be a sports person, but as a subject it again doesn’t interest me enough. Hell, most sport is all overpaid ego and posturing, much like a genre conventions... J

 

Young Adult  - Yeah, I know it’s a abroad area, but the sub-genre leaves me cold and even when it’s in a genre I like, I find it shallow and unsatisfying. It almost seems like lack of depth and loose plotting are a prerequisite for these books.

 

Writing the above was far more difficult than I expected, and to be fair, although that’s the position now, I can’t guarantee I won’t sell out and tackle any or all of them.

 

So, what three things do I like to write about – Romance, Sport and Young Adult, no, just kidding.

 

The big questions interest me. Where are the aliens? What’s the point of the universe? Will mankind survive to green the galaxy? Why can’t you get rid of that lingering hotdog smell from your kitchen? But I like to look at these through human perspectives; loss, fear, need.

 

Loss figures heavily in my novel, and my short work; not just of physical things, but of how lives might have been, the what ifs, and the fallout when characters realise how their lives could have turned out. We all have feelings like that, right?

 

Another passion of mine is science. I’m a big believer in science, and the benefits science brings to the world. I’ll always put science in my work, even in my fantasy pieces. I find it surprising that we, the human race, are here at all. The universe is a dangerous place, and over time it will try to destroy us. Perhaps it has a policy on preventing entropy. That’s something I like the idea of, our struggle, both as a race and as individuals against the hostile universe.  That’s something for my next novel.

 

Aliens – Okay, we all love a good alien, but I often find novel and movie representations frustrating. Their obvious anthropomorphism annoys me. So, I like to play with the that, to try and make them less like us and more, well, alien.  And it’s not easy because all I know is human. All my ideas and thoughts are generated from the sum of me, and by extension, the creations I come up with are human, no matter how much I twist it out of kilter.

If you were to ask me to do this again next week, you’d probably get a different set of answers. But that’s the way of things, change is all around us and if you let it, the universe will bite you when you least expect it. 

Another thing I like to try and push through my work is a sense of fun. Not laugh-out-loud comedy, but the fun to be found in entertainment, of being entertained. It's almost more important than the other things I've mention. Who wants to read a  boring book?

The form for this meme, three hoppy-blog stuff, is that I tag some new person to take over the task. Guess what? It seems that I'm at the end of a very long list of people that have gone before me. Those writers that I've asked have already sown their words of wisdom.  That doesn't mean the line ends here. There'll be a pause before I find someone, and then, of course, I'll let you know.