When I first wanted to write sci-fi

B.G., a client who’s become a friend over the years asked me: “When did I first wanted to write sci-fi?” and to journal about it. This was an exercise he assigned me because he knew this had always been a dream of mine, and yet, I was not pursuing it. Here’s what I wrote back:

When did I start wanting to write science fiction?

I’ve always wanted to write fiction in general.

In grade one, I wrote an epic fantasy about two warring kingdoms. It was very violent and my teacher asked my mom to come in for a chat. I didn’t get in trouble really. I don’t think my immigrant mom knew what was going on. But I got a reaction to my writing.

I didn’t think about this until recently when K.R. interviewed me on his podcast. “What was the first time your writing got a reaction?” But after that, I didn’t really pursue it. I didn’t write stories as a hobby or anything. I imagined stuff but didn’t write it down.

In high school, I shifted to wanting to be a musician. This was a decade long love affair until I gave up when I was 22 or 23. That’s when I thought about storytelling again. After I accepted I’d never go to NYC to be a singer-songwriter or anything like that.

I started buying up magazines like Asimov’s and Science Fiction and Fantasy and Analog. I figured short stories were easier for me to break into instead of novels. Shortly before this, I had considered epic fantasy. This was around the time Game of Thrones was big. The novels, not the show.

I think science fiction appealed to me because fantasy was all samey.

In the magazines I was reading, I discovered Paolo Bacigalupi. He blew me away. He did things with sci-fi I never read before. Biopunk was his genre. He wrote about…

I suppose he influenced a lot of my thinking… Along with several graphic novel writers: Warren Ellis, Garth Ennis, Ed Brubaker. During this time, I was about 24/25… And I think this is the point where I was like… this is exciting, this is thrilling. Near future topics and themes is what fascinates me. Not space exploration or space operas. That’s too far into the future. But cyberpunk and dystopia ideals. This is where I first wanted to write sci-fi. I hadn’t even read any cyberpunk yet at this age, but I already resonated with a lot of the themes.

Around 2006-2007 was when I started taking it seriously for the first time. I had no idea what I was doing. I read Bacigalupi’s stories over and over. I dissected them, analyzed them. Broke down their structure. Along with Nancy Kress, Daryl Gregory… There wasn’t as many sci-fi magazines back then. Today, you have Strange Horizons, Clarksworld, Uncanny, Tor.

Anyway, I wrote a novelette in 2007 and even submitted it to a magazine. It was about a DJ who gets a brain implant. It was an excuse to do a lot of research. It got rejected by SF&F and I didn’t pursue it further. Partly because I had just gotten married, started to have kids, and wanted to be responsible to my family. And then 2008 was when I discovered copywriting. A way to make money with writing.

I didn’t pursue it again until 2015. I had done well as a copywriter. But I had plateau’d income wise by 2012. And I was feeling like “is this all it is?” in 2013. Was going through a mid-life crisis in 2013. 2014 was about hanging out with my film friend a lot. Trying to break out of copy with scriptwriting. That was a crazy year. 2015 rolls around, I start a fiction writing group: Garage Fiction.

Same pattern though: Read and analyzed a lot of stories. Wrote a lot of opening scenes in the group. Podcast about it. Reviewed my groups stories a lot. Ended up spending more time on the podcasting and group management than actual writing.

Worst - never quite finished a story. Wrote a lot of beginnings but got stuck on middles and endings. (You can read all the Garage Fiction Podcast stories here. They’re the ones that start with “GFP”.)

By late 2015, I started to run into money issues. I basically neglected my business at this time. So fiction went back to the backburner again in 2016.

And here we are.

But when did I FIRST started thinking science fiction over fantasy or literary fiction? It’s probably when I discovered Paolo Bacigalupi in 2006.