Of Writers & Prose: The Muse is a Tricky Bitch . . .
February 1, 2021 Leave a comment
I have been a sci-fi fan since 1975 when I saw my first Godzilla movie. More so when Star Wars and the original Battlestar Galactica came out. When I entered adulthood, I discovered dark fantasy and paranormal, so it was a given when I started writing stuff that I would, naturally, gravitate toward the genres that captured my imagination. When I was in my twenties, so where my characters, and as I grew older, they did too, so imagine my fucking surprise when my Muse gives me a story idea that can only be written where the MC is a teen!
Look at my Twitter account. It says ‘Author of dark Adult Scifi & Urban Fantasy novels & scripts.
Adult. ADULT!
So where the hell did this idea come from and why am I so excited about it? I tried to envision the story as an adult novel. Nope. So then I tried with a young adult age, but it still wasn’t right. This story had to be written from a teens POV, problem is, I haven’t been a teen in DECADES, and I just briefly encounter the teens at work. Sometimes I can listen in on their conversations, but a lot of the time it’s more work related than general teenage banter. Not to mention the dialogue.
That’s another problem, I’m not ‘hip’ with the slang of today’s teens, so I decided to set it during the 80’s; a time I am very familiar with. This turned out to be a blessing in several ways:
- I remember how the world was back then. You could get away with a lot more then than you could now.
- Technology was in its primordial phase. There were no cell phones or laptops. We had computers but everything was run on DOS.
- Socially, things were much, much different. While there were bullies back then, the entire bully culture is taken so much more seriously now. For which I am grateful.
These three reasons alone excited me enough to want to work on the story. Plus, I have another set of magical realism novels that I could easily attach to this.
As of the writing of this post, I have cleared the 50k wordmark. Quite a feat for me. I’ve also decided that while the characters may be teens, the novel will be for adults; especially those who remember the 80’s and how we used to act. My memories of the ’80s are from a teen’s POV. Was it all sex, drugs, and rock’n roll? Pretty much, at least for me, it was and I think these characters will reflect that culture. I’ve already written a few scenes that are right from my memory and I will admit, it’s kinda fun looking back.
