Over the past year, though, I have noticed a change. Call it a personal maturation, or a solidifying of something. I find I no longer feel the same joy of discovery in throwing everything at a page in a creative frenzy. I want to slow down. I want to finesse. I want to hone my technique. So, I have started to taking life drawing and portrait classes.
The fictional world in which a story takes place matters. If the world is not believable then the story will lose power and the reader will lose interest. Writers call this suspension of disbelief. You can have the craziest stuff going on in your story, but if something about the world in which it is set is off, it sticks out like a sore thumb.
It’s fair to say I have pretty eclectic tastes. To be a good writer, it’s important to read widely so that that I have a broad range of influences and knowledge to draw from. Just like eating a healthy diet, all of the different genres provide me with the literary vitamins and minerals I need. But, that doesn’t mean I don’t pig out on some comfort food from time to time, and for me that is sci-fi.