Still spending a lot of mental cycles on this question of what my “brand” is or should be. I know that my goal with being a writer is to bring a little hope and happiness to the people that read my work. The world is a hard, depressing place, and a little escapism can be a very powerful thing.
The stories that tend to stick in my brain are almost all about rebellion. Fighting against big, overpowering forces and the steps needed to overthrow (or at least resist) those forces. Star Wars, Firefly, Babylon 5… these are all about the “little guy” to some extent (although in all cases a very well trained and dangerous “little guy”) standing up to overwhelming force. The Alliance, the Empire, the Shadows.
But the other stories I love are ones about hope. About looking at what could be and seeing how much easier and better things are as a result. I’m mostly thinking about Star Trek here, but there are others that shine a spotlight on a glorious “what if” sort of thing. We can include several of the Marvel movies in there (although those are usually underdog stories as well), but also Terry Pratchett and John Scalzi’s works. Stories about “Okay, but how can we make this better” are fantastic.
I’m nowhere near that stage yet. But day by day, I’m working on getting closer.
Speaking of which, I should get back to editing this here novel I’m writing! I’ve pushed back the editing timeline to March 18th to give me some extra time to go over it one or two more times, which I think will really help. The only problem is that by pushing it back… I can’t start my other projects yet! Gah!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!