Speculative fiction sets me free

[image error]It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OPTIONAL IWSG QUESTION: What do you love about the genre you write in most often?

MY ANSWER: I mostly write speculative fiction: fantasy, science fiction, and occasionally magic realism. I like it because speculative fiction provides an escape from reality. It sets me free.

When I write speculative fiction, I immerse myself in my own imagination. I reinvent myself as a heroic princess or a modern witch or a shy dragon. I can have magic. I can travel on a spaceship or have a neighbor who is a fairy. I can even follow the antics of a telepathic squirrel.

Like dreams, speculative fiction allows me to be what I’m not, where I’m not, without complying with the rules of science. I can disregard the historical facts of medieval Europe or the limitations of physics and invent any details I wish. If I want to have an interstellar music competition, I can. If I want to have a walled elven district in my city, I can. If I want to have giant, carnivorous butterflies rampaging the Canadian north, I can too. Nobody could gainsay me: it is my world – my creation – after all, and reality has no place in it.

In my world, I take outrageous risks alongside my characters. I have extravagant adventures and achieve marvelous victories together with them. And through my characters, I can always say what I might never dare to say in real life: to my friends and my enemies

What about you?

 

Save