MATTHEW LOWES

It’s interesting to me how casually we accept things like climate change, unchecked population growth, and environmental destruction. Not to downplay the many worthwhile and important steps one can take to help control these problems, but as a whole, humanity seems to sense that certain things have a momentum far greater than themselves. It is as if, at a certain level, we intuit the inevitability of certain trends once the momentum of the planet is headed in a particular direction. After all, the structure of our entire civilization and continued existence is built up around that momentum.

Isaac Asimov expressed this idea quite succinctly in his book Foundation. Early in the story Dr. Seldon explains to the Commission of Public Safety of the Galactic Empire just why the future is so difficult to change. “The psychohistoric trend of a planetful of people contains a huge inertia. To be changed it must be met with something possessing a similar inertia. Either as many people must be concerned, or if the number of people be relatively small, enormous time for change must be allowed.”

Although the future of a planetful of people may be difficult to change, it is not impossible. In fact, working to change the fate and suffering of future generations is exactly what got Dr. Seldon into the trouble he is in to begin with. Yet part of the problem, I believe, is an inability to deal with long term problems and problem solving. Dr. Seldon was looking at how events would play out over five hundred to thirty thousand years, and putting a project into effect that would span generations. In today’s world we have a hard time seriously looking and planning effectively for anything farther out than a few years, and even less hope of carrying out projects that last longer.

This limited attention span is understandable. After all, it has worked pretty well for us for the whole course of our evolutionary history so far. During the bulk of our existence, most dangers were quite immediate and our life-spans were even shorter than they are now. So it’s not surprising that we have a hard time dealing with long term problems. Our individual and group psychology has evolved so far to deal with fairly short-term problems. Avoiding various future crises in human history will take a willingness and ability to engage in longer term planning, and the global consensus to act accordingly. I wonder what the statistical probability of that is. Dr. Seldon?

In martial arts there is a saying: “you can live or die by anything.” It means there is no single principal or movement that is guaranteed to save you. For example, it’s good to breathe, essential for survival, but if you try it underwater you will have serious problems.

It’s not surprising to find that this is true for writing as well. Writers find all kinds of ways to keep up their momentum, but all these methods are only good as long as they help you get the work done. If they stop being useful you must be ready to adapt.

Previously I’ve written about how I use word count goals to help keep my productivity up. Today, however, I spent a lot of time working on a new way to track my word count instead of actually writing words. Something that once worked as a motivator was suddenly a distraction.

I spent a good portion of the day essentially procrastinating. Finally I had to throw all thoughts of it aside, stop worrying about the damn word count, and just get some work done. The moment is what matters.

Liz Engstrom’s science fiction story weekend at siltcoos station was a lot of fun and a real whirlwind of creativity. I met a bunch of fantastic writers, made new friends, and got to hear some great new stories.

I stayed up until 3am Friday night writing my story, “One Breath and the Deep.” At 3:30 I saw six meteors streak overhead and went out on the long dock in the dark, where something was splashing around in the water, probably fish, but kind of spooky in the mist and silence.

Saturday morning I took a long walk down the train tracks and saw the trestle bridge from the movie “Stand by Me.” I walked part of the way out onto it. Luckily a boat came instead of a train, but nevertheless it was time to head back. Breakfast sounded so much more appealing than finding a dead body.

I reviewed my story twice in the morning. In the afternoon I took a nap, made two illustrations, and fleshed out an idea for a horror story that’s been knocking around in the back of my mind. People worked all through the day and Saturday night we read the stories. What a treat! We heard a whole anthology of wonderful science fiction in one evening. It was such a joy to be around so many writers and hear what they had done in the last 24 hours, really great stuff.

I’m already looking forward to the next one.

I’ll soon be heading to a science fiction writing workshop on the coast with Elizabeth Engstrom, the author of When Darkness Loves Us and The Northwoods Chronicles. The pre-workshop meeting focused on conceptions of science fiction, ideas for world building, and meeting a great group of writers I’ll be spending the weekend with. We’ll all be drafting short stories in a 24 hour period.

At the meeting Engstrom emphasized Theodore Sturgeon’s definition of a good science fiction story as “a story about human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, that would not have happened without its science content.” She also talked about two distinct strategies for world building, top-down and bottom-up. As you might imagine, a top-down approach starts with creating a general overall picture of a world, while a bottom-up approach starts with a focus on a few detailed elements needed for a story.

Autographed copies of Engstrom’s latest books are available on her website, as well as writing tips, upcoming seminars, and a link to her blog, “One Writer’s World.”