Traditional advice for writers is to “write what you know,” which is well-intentioned but I feel inaccurate. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but the concept should be “write what you want to read,” or possibly “write what you read.” If I spend all my time reading sci-fi, then I probably shouldn’t be writing romance, and if what I really want to read is cyberpunk then I probably shouldn’t be writing horror. Genre-mashing or mixing aside, I think it’s a pretty safe rule in general… although there are always exceptions to these kinds of rules!
In my case, I am firmly in sci-fi these days. Almost all the media I consume is sci-fi. I read sci-fi (the Broken Earth trilogy), I watch sci-fi (Altered Carbon), I’m even listening to sci-fi podcasts while I bike to work… it’s just kinda my wheelhouse. I like thinking about worlds that are… better than the one we live in. Not necessarily radically different, but just… smarter. Better.
But still with problems, of course. Just maybe not problems related to stupidity or ignorance so much as related to greed and arrogance. Small differences, I suppose, but meaningful to me.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!