Someone once asked me why I write science fiction. They wanted to know why I don’t write more serious stuff. Something like literary fiction, they argued. Something, they said, that tells us something about the human condition.
This was years ago and I didn’t have a good answer back then. I write stories that make me feel excited. It’s always been like that for me, especially novel-length stories. There has to be something enthralling and magical to the story or idea to counterbalance the countless hours, months, years I spend writing it. The way I like to think about it is that some stories have chosen me.
But there’s something else I want to add here. Something that’s more important. It’s this: Stories, no matter the genre, can always tell us something about ourselves.
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