“There are some things one can achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.” Franz Kafka
I’ve started a new project. I rarely use the word, novel, when I embark on something new. That word denotes hundreds of pages, lots of up and down emotions and years of hard-fought battles with myself to turn words into stories. The word, project sits a bit better with me, it’s not so intimidating. I feel as though I could abandon it if I wanted to, even as I know once I get started it won’t let me go so easily.
My new project is not very far along and I have no idea where I’m going with it. I just feel the need to do something completely different. Yes, I’m taking an opposite direction of sorts.
I’ve written family sagas and historical fiction in the past and chronicled social issues like the refugee crisis in Europe. But now as I grapple with understanding the world and where we are at the moment, I’m compelled to look down the road, perhaps experiment with a bit of speculative fiction. I can’t believe I just wrote those words. I’m not necessarily a big fan of this form. Still I feel compelled to explore it in my next storytelling adventure.
And when I say speculative fiction, I’m not talking space ships and aliens, but rather what the world might look like and how we might live say 25 or 50 years from today. Specifically I wonder what the price of peace might entail. We are currently in the throws of war in so many places in the world. Will this always be the case? And if there were a solution to this problem, what would it look like? And further, what compromises would have to be made in order to ensure peace lasts?
I know what you’re thinking: big questions. I agree with you. I have no answers at the moment. But fiction has a way of helping me figure things out.
So off I go into the unknown. Why do I do this to myself? Who knows? I want to see what’s on the other side. Hmm, that is exactly what my new character, Kitianna wants to discover.
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