I would say that everyone is a writer, its just a matter of what that means to the individual. I call myself a writer in my own head but that’s as far as it goes because I just don’t have the confidence to showcase my work. Right now I am trying to think of a story but have no clue what form it could or should take. When you have to do everything on your own, it is intimidating to think of going up against people who write for a living at a time when we are drowning in the volume of content that is out there today.
That is also an opportunity because it means that people can find content in many different ways and avenues that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Anyone can publish but does that mean you should publish? What I find hard is to get anyone to give my writing a chance and to take it and give their honest criticism about it. I know if I go to someone I know that most likely I wouldn’t get their unvarnished opinion because they don’t want to hurt my feelings. When in reality I want them to kill my darlings, if only so I can improve what is there to make it better.
Right now I am looking at how to do my own spin on a hero’s journey or at least a way to tell a story without retreading the same ground for the billionth time again. I’ve already created the universe, it is still in flux, but its sci-fi based and takes place in a world where interstellar travel is possible but doesn’t make space travel as easy as driving a car. It is a world with fantastic technology but grounded in plausibility and consequence.
I am still figuring out the details on how faster than light travel occurs, not that it does occur but the theoretical foundation that it rests upon. It is based on a world where the unification of the Standard Model of Physics, quantum mechanics and a more complete theory of gravity be it quantum in nature or not allowed for a new way to see the universe and ways to go outside the standard model to travel from one point to another in space-time.
I think I should use a hero’s journey if only to start out with and just go with it but its hard to find the confidence when you keep on questioning yourself and your ability to actually do justice to the story you want to tell and the character’s you’ve created. I have through one scenario and written 90 scenes and I’ve structured it as a serial but done in an episodic nature.
I see each chapter as part of a greater whole but it has a serialized TV show feel to it, where each episode leads into the next, often with a cliff hanger ending it before moving on to the next. I got stuck at scene 92 because I’m flying by the seat of my pants without a clear idea of where it is going. Although there have been points where you see a scene happens a certain way because of how the character could and should react. Or at least that’s how it feels to me. Those haven’t happened too much because I still question everything but its a start even if I’m not even writing those scenes yet. I’m more just preparing the foundation so I have a structure to follow whenever I get to writing the scene word for world.
I know I just gotta do it, get to grinding it out even if its hard or it sucks because in the beginning it will. I have to make the mistakes so I know what to avoid in the future even if it means I’ll have to show it to someone. That’s the easy part, the hard part is getting someone to read it. Let’s just start writing first and see what happens before I ask anyone to read it.