Why Not Fiction?

Kelly Sedinger has some pertinent commentary on my last week’s post “Why Write Fiction“, which might perhaps better have been titled, “Why I Write Fiction,” or even “How I Write Fiction”.

It appears that he writes the way I usually do, by making up details as he goes along. I prefer that; it’s fun, and open-ended. What I’m doing with S’Mary’s World feels more like solving a system of simultaneous equations: because I’ve built the world already, there are lots of constraints on what I can do. I’ve foundered on this before; every time I’ve tried to write a sequel, I get stuck, precisely because there are things I can’t change to suit the current story. We’re talking a major opportunity for growth here.