Last week, I explored strange new worlds, dreamed up new life and new civilizations, and boldly wrote what I had never written before: a science fiction short story.
If someone were to stop me on the street and ask, “Christina, what genre would you least like to read, much less write?,” I would reply, without missing a beat, “sci-fi.” Or fantasy. Or maybe they’re the same thing, I don’t know.
My husband, who looked slightly horrified and perhaps ashamed on my behalf when I asked him, assured me that they definitely are not the same. He then expostulated at length on the macro and micro differences between sci-fi and fantasy. I tuned out when he started citing a specific episode of Star Wars or Star Trek that had 0s and 1s in its title and some yaddayaddayadda technology that might actually be possible now.
“Battlestar Galactica,” he said with patient exasperation. “That episode was from Battlestar Galactica.”
Whatevs.
So, why did I spend last week writing a sci-fi story? Because one of my friends signed up for a short story challenge, where participants have eight days to write a 2,500-word piece of fiction using three assigned prompts, one of which is genre. Since I needed a hard kick in the butt to encourage me to place said body part in a chair on a regular basis, I too signed up.
“Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat.” —Dorothy Parker, one of the most sarcastically delicious writers who ever put pen to paper.
I am not going to lie for the sake of a Hallmark ending and tell you that writing sci-fi is now my life’s passion. But that week of writing outside my comfort zone, which is historical fiction and—wait for it—travel, was invigorating and rewarding for several reasons:
My 18-year-old son and I had a lengthy discussion of utopian and dystopian universes, the breakdown of political systems, and whether he had to sift the cat boxes that day (yes).
I used the word “cucurbits” (see photo below) for the first time in a story and, probably, in my entire life.
I turned in my story several hours before the deadline, and was damn pleased with myself for having risen to the challenge. While it may not be worthy of advancing to the next stage, in which writers must craft a 2,000-word story in three days, I am satisfied that I wrote to the best of my ability in the time allotted on the subject of catch-and-release, with a character who is a runner-up, in my favorite genre: sci-fi (some Dorothy Parkeresque humor).
And aren’t these some of the reasons that we travel, to:
Re-connect with family, friends, and self;
Discover new things (cucurbits, anyone?);
Get out of our comfort zones?
So, you: apply your ass to that airplane/car/bike/writing seat and ENGAGE!