I claim to write science facts to science fiction and beyond. I have been, for some time now, more focused on the facts than the fiction. This remains the case – this year I have published or submitted around 10 scientific papers, which is an incredibly good year no matter how you look at it. So if we look at the fiction side of things, I’m still taking baby steps, but this is a long game and this was always the plan.
This year the goal was to read and write as much as I could, without worrying too much about what it was. In a sense, it was a quest to find my style, and more importantly, improve how I write. The only way to do that is to write. I now have first or second drafts of a handful of flash fiction, two and half shorts as well as two novels – one about the third done and the other a bit less, but both are fully planned.
What have I been writing? I would say SciFi, but if you’re after space cruisers and alien battles, there is not much here for you yet. Trust me, this to will come. Currently, there is a heavy dystopian influence in a lot of the work – possibly too much, but it is what it is and it is more symptomatic of where I have been coming from lately and where I am heading.
I am not of the opinion that just because it is dystopian, it should be be dark and depressing – I prefer to see the positives.
In any case, I am trying to avoid a lot of the clichés for dystopian novels, but eventually, I’ll have to let you be the judge of that. In the end I am interested in the story underneath.
In the coming year the scariest part of the process will begin – I will start to share my works. If all goes well, these will slowly start to appear either directly here, or, if I’m in a super optimistic mood, published somewhere. If I could get a short story published next year that would be absolutely fantastic. There, I said it.
So, this is the last in my promised “12 for 21” series of posts. The web site is in transition at the moment. There will be a some major changes to how things are done around here in the new year – hopefully you will enjoy them, or at least find them interesting. There should be some new pages and hopefully some of my stories will start to make their appearance as well. Exciting times, if only for me!
The goal this year was to be a writer, the goal for next year is to be an author. Let’s see how that goes. Wish me luck!
Artwork by Tazio Bettin webpage: taziobettin.deviantart.com
Harry T. Tuttle 