Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Bruce Landay's avatar

Be the writer you are and tell the stories you want to tell. Someone will always be upset over something so as long as you’re not trying to be purposely rude or obnoxious, then don’t worry about passing every group’s purity or political correctness test. I write people who are different from me and mostly I focus on them just being themselves as a normal part of society. I don’t write stories that push a particular group’s agenda or try to bring their unique worldview. I just try to treat all of my characters with respect.

As far as the science goes, make it as scientific as you want. Some authors do a ton of research, like Daniel Suarez and it’s one of their trademarks. I take a middle of the road approach. I do enough research to keep readers BullShit alarms from going off but don’t get crazy. I also write military stories so I have both beta readers and technical readers. It’s surprising how much expertise you can get for free simply by asking. You don’t need to explain the science at all if you don’t want to. Just make it a backdrop to your fictional world.

If you want a more realistic view of microgravity on a space station, check out astronaut biographies by Mark Kelly or Chris Hadley. Zero or microgravity does terrible things to the human body.

Keep this story coming. I’d sure like to see more.

Thanks for sharing your thought process.

Expand full comment

No posts