Resurrection Cola

Anyone having read some of my previous posts will have noticed I haven’t quite mastered the writing fiction to a deadline yet. Although I am not completely shambolic and unreliable as I have managed to edit/revise and review to deadline recently. So, perhaps all hope for me is not quite lost.

Since I started this science fiction writing adventure last year there have been a couple of submission calls that have caught my attention. My biggest hurdle is being able to come up with an idea and commit to it based on the submission guidelines.  I first encountered this a few years ago when writing some fanfiction online. There are often writing challenges in the communities. You would think since the characters and the universe is pretty much already set, all you have to do is take the theme and run with it.

For some this is not a problem, for me it always seems to be. I would start out trying to write to the theme but inevitably it would go in a different direction and I could never adequately (to my own standard) complete these stories.

I think I scared myself off such challenges. After all it really is a challenge. Writing to a theme that is not your own, to a guideline that is not your own. Somehow conforming (even just a little bit) to someone elses will, I think, is really hard for a writer to do. At least it is for me.

So, why am I talking about this?  Well, as someone who has become committed to their writing with a goal toward making it a career, it’s not enough for me to simply sit by myself and write my stories or my novel. I need to challenge myself, I need to expand my horizons, so to speak, in a literary way. If I act stagnant my writing will only be stagnant. That is the theory anyway.

For a while I’ve been sitting on the fence about an anthology that has an open submission call going on called “Shine” edited by Jetse de Vries. The theme is actually quite simple in someways but quite difficult in others. The call is for “Optimistic Near Future Science Fiction” something which has caused some debate on his own web-site and others.

For myself, I fell into the pattern of believing that I didn’t want to write “Optimitic sci-fi” and that I wasn’t capable of it. I wouldn’t say I am a master of the dystopia though. Although I dearly love it’s use in some science fiction it has become extremely cliched in many ways and it’s not something I’ve ever really written. That doesn’t mean though that my futures are full of happiness and light but I do believe in the happy ending. Not always, but sometimes after struggle it is necessary and justified.

With that in mind I’ve been thinking about this anthology more and more and recently Jetse posted a link “Why I can’t Write Optimistic Sci-Fi – The Excuses” and after reading and working through each of the many excuses and counter arguments most writers (I make an assumption) should be left feeling embarrassed, ashamed and perhaps a little more enthusiastic that they can actually take on this challenge. At the very least you are left feeling that you really should challenge yourself in this way, the attempt is what is important.

I felt very inspired and trolling through the vast catalogue of half ideas gathering dust in my brain pulled out the beginnings of an idea which may (or may not that is up to Jetse to decide) fulfill the theme and guidelines and perhaps contribute a little light into the darkness of the universe.

The biggest obstacle now is the time constraint. The original open call deadline was 1st of July, which for someone like me who writes at a snail’s pace is extremely quick and with no time to workshop the story in between. I am still feeling that, as an unpublished author, I need the feedback of others to help push me along and pick my way to confidence in my ability.

Luckily, Jetse has kindly extended the deadline a further month and although it feels like a reprieve, again, for me it’s quite quick but I may, at least get an opportunity to workshop it before submitting.

What I will have to do now is  just “crack on”.

When I honestly think about it, my own work isn’t as horribly pessimistic as I would like to believe. As I said before, I am a believer in triumph over adversity. The challenge isn’t so much about the optimism but the writing to deadline and still managing to please myself (although I am beginning to believe that is nearly impossible) and the sticking with the theme constraints that Jetse has laid out.

So, here we go.