Yep. Still precarious.

[mrissa]

New essay today in Uncanny! The Precarious Now is about the trials and tribulations of writing near-future SF or contemporary fantasy in a time of rapid social change.

...trials and tribulations, but also practical solutions, I hope. Because on some level we all know this planet keeps on tilting swiftly, the question is what we're going to do in the meantime.

Comments

[davidgillon]

I got a definite feeling of 'yes, that!' with the article as I ran headlong into it with my technothriller-in-progress. The pandemic I can cover in a couple of lines, but significant confrontations between law enforcement and the US alt-right went from being speculative plot to recent history.

That was so close to the plotline that I needed to set it aside until we knew whether things were going to flare up further. And to get looser in the timeframe to build in resilience, which will have carryover effects with character backstory wrt things like having seen the Twin Towers fall. And worse, seeing as it's a technothriller, we may be looking at a time-limited window of opportunity for my technological maguffin.

It's definitely a headache I hadn't anticipated, and maybe I should have. If not that precise scenario, then at least the potential for a plot-busting event. I'm already side-eyeing any Russian invasion of Ukraine for potentially speeding the introduction of counter-maguffin technologies.

[mrissa]

Well, strength to your pen/arm....

[davidgillon]

I'll settle for predictable political changes ;)

[sartorias]

Bookmarking!