Back in the swing of things

[mrissa]

Some time ago, numinicious asked: Got any suggestions for getting back my creative writing groove, after several months of letting ideas and plots fester in my mind because I haven't the time to write and it now seems so much like a chore rather than a hobby? Other than quitting college? ;]

Umm. First thing is context: numinicious, for those of you who don't know her, is early in her college career and is at the traditional age for such things, which makes absolutely no difference, except when it totally does. So this post is specifically not addressed to those of you who -- oh, let's take an example we can pretend is random -- have a couple of books published and are wondering how to get back into writing from there. I do not know what to tell you and wouldn't presume to try. If I say something useful to you in this post, great, but you're not the intended audience.

And the second is, I'd ask why you want to do this. There are people in this field who firmly believe that anyone who can be discouraged should be, and I totally disagree with that. I see no reason to believe that writing ability correlates well with an upbeat, stubborn personality. I'd like to think I have both, but I don't think that generalizing myself into the Platonic form of writerhood is a good idea for anybody, particularly me.

So I don't mean, "Why do you want to do this?" as a question to discourage. If you think and think and can't come up with a reason (note: this does not have to be a logical reason -- "I like it" is a reason, as is "there are people in my head, and I want them to go away"), maybe you should go off and try other things for awhile and come back and see if you have a reason in three months, or six, or in a year.

The key question here is not, by the way, "Why do I want to be a writer?" Because we're not talking about Being A Writer. There is a lot less of Being A Writer in the world than some people would like -- less book-signing, less fan mail, less respect from those annoying kids in the seventh grade who made fun of you for wanting to be a writer and now see the error of their ways.* What you're thinking about doing is writing, which is much different than Being A Writer. Being A Writer involves things like running your fingers obsessively over the spine of the book that has your name right there on it! right there! sometimes even embossed! But writing, writing is what you actually have to do, day in and day out. Very few people consider Being A Writer sufficient reason to, y'know, write. Writing has to have its own reasons, or it'll collapse under its own weight. But if you figure out why you want to do it in the first place, knowing that might help with actually moving forward.

(Within the last couple of weeks, someone on my friendslist who is very smart quoted someone else who is very smart as saying that the only people who should write fiction are those who are absolutely compelled to do so. I think that both the originator of this statement and the person who quoted it are very smart, and also wrong: the second category of people who should write fiction are those who have a damn good time doing it. Not every minute of every day for any of us, of course, but it can be fun, and I don't think we should forget that. I think this is why so many writers in their early careers turn to fanfic: because they have a great time doing it, and other people have a great time reading it, and that's no small thing.)

So...you know why you want to write a story -- even, ideally, why you want to write this particular story -- and it's still just not coming. You haven't written in a long time, and wanting to write isn't enough to get the swing of things back. I guess for me the next step is to try something, and if it doesn't work, to try its opposite. Write on your computer at home. If that doesn't work, write with paper and pen at the library. On your laptop at a coffeehouse. Whatever you've got. If you've been trying to write late at night and it isn't working, do it in the early morning or at lunch instead. Do it after working out instead of before; do it while eating instead of before or after. Outline obsessively; fly by the seat of your pants. Write long, loving descriptive passages you don't intend to include in the final manuscript; sketch in the barest details of action as though you're giving stage direction. Read compulsively in the genre you're writing in; read compulsively in some other genre completely. Write in sequence; write out of sequence; write directly backwards.

And getting back to numinicious's context for a minute: different periods of one's life are more and less conducive to writing. This is just a fact. Sometimes you can push through the less conducive periods by cleverness or sheer bullheadedness, but there will always be a circumstance in which you will not be able to write -- genuinely unable, not just making excuses. There is always "comatose" to fall back on if you are unable to imagine not being able to write in any other state, but less drastic illnesses will certainly do it.** Life changes will do it. Other commitments will do it. I wrote my first novel under a pile of other life stuff going on, but only one or two more things added to the pile would have made it physically impossible. One of the things I've had to learn over and over is that we only have so much to give. Some people will tell you that one's writing should always come first. They are wrong and, unlike the people quoted above, stupid. There are all kinds of good reasons why writing shouldn't come first in specific cases. Being an unloving jerk will probably not make you a better writer, and if it does, it's not worth it. Mostly it's a false dichotomy, and one you should reject.

College is a major life change. So is grad school, if you decide to do it. So is leaving school for the first time in your life -- or for the next time in your life, or for the last time in your life. Having a baby, moving, finding or losing a permanent partner...the list goes on and on. But for numinicious in specific, being a college student is not like anything else. It's not like being a high school student, really, and it's not like being a grad student or being out of school, either. It takes awhile to change life circumstances, to settle into the new ones. Sometimes this means one's creativity explodes, and if so, one is lucky. Sometimes it means one goes into a dry doldrums. This happens. Dry doldrums are not forever. This too shall pass.

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself as a writer, but also be kind to yourself as a person. If you want to write and are not writing, do not berate yourself. Very few people become better writers by telling themselves how worthless they are, or how lazy, or how pretentious, or that they do not deserve to call themselves writers. Very few people become better people by these means, either. Add me as a data point: tried it. Didn't work. Ask the rest of my friendslist, too, and I'll bet other people can speak up with plenty of experience in this type of self-flagellation, very little of it productive.

So...change things up. Keep track of what you tried and how it worked; don't be afraid to go back to things that didn't work for you before, because you're not the same as you were then. Even if it feels like you haven't changed in ages, being someone who does something for four years is very different from being someone who does it for four weeks.

It's okay not to be a writer. Some of the people I love best in the world are not now and never will be writers. But it's also okay to be a writer who works in fits and starts, or a slow-starting writer, or a writer who is taking a break from writing, to do something else worthwhile or just to recharge.

If you have the time, and you have the energy, and you have the desire, and the things you want to write aren't coming, just write something silly. Write something fun. I know someone who started writing stories that were essentially himself and one of his buddies wandering around having adventures, and they sold like crazy, and now he is a big famous writer-person. (Or on his way at the very least. Wave to the nice people!) Write children's poetry about veggie meatballs who became deep-sea divers. Write fairy tales about a witch who turned people into marbles. Write science fictional commercials ("nobody doesn't like molten boron!").*** And if you're still not feeling it, go walk the dog or take pictures of your day or make me yourself cool creative presents. If you want to keep writing and keep enjoying it but it's feeling like a chore rather than a hobby, do other things that are hobbies until you miss writing the way you would miss them.

Some days I just want to grab everybody by the shoulders and look at them in the eye and say, "Be kind to yourself." Some of you would say, "Of course, and thank you! I think I will!" And I would say, "Umm. Can you be nice to me while you're at it?" And they would say, "Sure, have this very fine [walk|book|sorbet|e-mail|hug|lj comment]!" And I'm very grateful for you, because mostly what I'm telling numinicious here is projecting like mad, because I'm not very good at it myself yet. But I'm trying, and it's worth it. Really.

*These people are not likely to see the error of their ways. Trust me. They are much more likely to raise an eyebrow and curl a lip and say, "Oh, fantasy? I thought you'd have outgrown that unicorn thing you had." Or, "Oh, poetry? I didn't think anybody read poetry any more." Or, "Oh, mystery? I couldn't deal with that much, y'know, death and stuff." Or etc. Pick a field, and the people you hated in junior high will be able to sneer at it. Guaranteed. This extends past writing, by the way. If you become a nuclear physicist, they will sneer about your bomb-building, even though you will not build bombs because nuclear physicists don't do that. If you become a lawyer, it will be your ambulance-chasing; if a CEO, your crushing of workers beneath your heel; if a chef, they will equate your work with that of a fry cook or a busbeing. The people you hated in junior high cannot matter any more, or you will be miserable. This seems like such an obvious thing, and yet so people forget it so very often.

**Mental illnesses do, too, count. Anyone who thinks they don't count is invited to come over here so I can kick you sharply in the shins.

***If you do write any of these things, please send them to me or post them here. It will make me happy.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Creative writing and studying can feed on each other if you're lucky, but if you're not...oof. One night I was supposed to be doing my Math Methods homework on integral transforms. Instead, I wrote a short story called "Integral Transform." Finished at 1:30 a.m. and realized that Tom was not going to accept it in place of the problem set -- but when I told him this story, turning in the homework with dark circles under my eyes, he laughed and said he'd like to read it anyway.

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

I find that when my head is inundated with mandatory words (work, school, whatever) I find myself happier doing completely nonverbal stuff for pleasure. When I am doing mandatory nonverbal stuff (work, home, whatever) then writing is more fun. Perhaps the beginning of college, an intensely verbal time, would be a good time to pick up a nonverbal hobby. Draw the people in your head, or sculpt them, or make their clothes.

I know this isn't responsive to the question.

[cleverthylacine]

These are the times when photoshop is my bestest friend.

[diatryma.livejournal.com]

I'm just getting out of college now, and I'd say I did more good writing here than before-- for a certain definition of 'writing'.
I haven't written anything new in three months. This is because school was more important. Before that, I took a break from the dratted novel-length to work on short stories for the Dell/Asimov Award.

Don't listen to people who tell you the key to writing. It's their key to writing, yes, so you may try it and if it works, go you and go them for working. "Write something every day" nearly killed some of my writing because some days, I couldn't do it. It's not how I work best, and I haven't found how I work best. But a fun thing about college is that you're never in the same environment twice. You end up thinking that you've figured it out, and then you take some finals, show up a couple weeks or months later, and it's completely different.
Unless you're having a different college experience, in which case, ignore me as much as you wish.
Experiment, whether by necessity or not. Find deadlines-- "I will write this story by December!" is more convincing with, "And then send it to Rick Wilber!" as well as giving you a way to justify it to professors. But do what works for you.

Staying in the swing of things... I have tried writing every day, even if it's only a sentence, writing only when I felt like it, writing longhand on the quad, writing by deadline for awards, writing because I had to submit something or I'd go mad... I didn't try treating writing as a class, whether for actual credit or not. That might help if you're the type to neglect it for things you're graded on.

But everything is different in college, except the things that aren't. Have fun.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The Asimov Award was very, very good for me. But it's clearly not the only way to get started, so I'd only recommend it as a deadline if it's convenient, and if things are already going reasonably with one's writing.

Have this very nice J comment

[(Anonymous)]

Dear mrissa,

Thanks for that post... very thoughtful and very inclusive to writers of all stripes and inclinations.
I'll definitely keep these ideas in mind.

Sara

Re: Have this very nice J comment

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I recommend the Draft 0 concept. It works for me when I'm stuck.

Basically, you just start. Write an idea. A sentence fragment. Perhaps a thought to yourself about a character trait. You may have half a scene that should be jotted down. Something silly is fine. Tell yourself a joke, make a pun. Jot down what books this will sort of be like. You're not up to the first draft. If the fragments don't gel, give them time. Eventually, sentences will fill out and be connected to other sentences and perhaps paragraphs. Things move around, get discarded, join with unlikely ideas. Move unused stuff to the end and keep intermediate drafts. Save things you discard in a scratch file so you can mine your own creativity later.

Eventually, you'll work your way up to a first draft. Then rewrite. But first, you just start.

[cpolk.livejournal.com]

I love the zero draft concept.

it shuts up my perfectionist

and I can do something like drop a bunch of lines and write:

(something else happens here, but it's mysterious right now)

and carry on with what I do know.

I post zero draft stuff to my lj, too, because it's zero draft! this is what I'm noodling around, guys, whaddyayou think?

[marith.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful advice, both wise and kind, and I'm going to tell at least two writer friends about it. Thank you!

(And if I knew a way to send sorbet through lj, you'd be getting some. Peach flavor.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I like peach sorbet, although I've been on a boysenberry kick lately.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I find making the people I hated in junior high sneer more of a motivation than a deterrent. But then I'm contrary like that. *g*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If that works for you, great! I just prefer not to give them quite that much of a role in my life if at all possible.

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And especially since I just took everything you wrote (mostly the bits about being kind to oneself) and applied it to the rest of my life? Thank you.

I suspect I'll print this out and stick it on my wall, to read it whenever I forget.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am very glad to hear that.

[blythe025.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for posting this. It really makes me wan to sit down and get back to my writing again.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Great!

[zhai.livejournal.com]

Hello! Here via matociquala. This is a very cool post. I just wanted to chime in that for people at the crux you describe, Odyssey or Clarion can be a very good option. It's pretty brutal, but it can provide a really clear test of whether it's in you to continue or not -- and you learn a ton, too. Curious what your thoughts are on such workshops, since there seem to be quite a few of them now, though I think Odyssey and Clarion are still the only six-weekers around.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your kind words. I hate to be so directly disagreeable after you've been nice, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree: I think that Odyssey- and Clarion-type workshops are an absolutely terrible way of telling whether it's in you to continue writing. They're clearly good for several things for many people (learning structure and critiquing, for example, and exposure to conventions and contacts in the genre), but I don't think that's one of them. In fact, I would classify going to and coming back from a long workshop like that as one of the major life upheavals that may screw up people's ability to write.

A six-week intensive residential workshop is useful -- when it's useful at all -- in part because it's not like the rest of your life. You will likely never again live with 16 other people who are eating, sleeping, and breathing writing -- even grad school for an MFA in creative writing has to be paced differently, so that the people in it can continue with their normal lives, with TAships and paying the bills and making themselves dinner and friends/family outside the program. Because of that, it really can't teach you how to keep the experience alive in the rest of your life, because it can't be alive in the rest of your life, not in the same way -- at the very least, it has to be severely adapted.

Every year you hear Clarionites (Odysseans to a lesser extent) pouring out of their workshops, telling you how very talented their class is, how nearly everybody in it will go far, how they're sure that it's the best class in just ages. And gradually, they spend one or two years out of Clarion, or three, and you start to hear, "So-and-so was so talented; I wish he/she would write more." But so-and-so has a life that sometimes intervenes, and the test of whether or not it was in so-and-so to continue was a false positive, for the time being. Sometimes it was also a false negative: there are people who go back home after Clarion and don't write for ages, convinced that it's not for them. Then they creep back into writing gradually and do well with it.

I think that Clarion and Odyssey are like tropical hothouses: sometimes they get plants established so they can survive outside, but other times they can force blooms on a plant without a good root system, so when you take that plant outside, it dies almost immediately. Also, there are writers who are more like snowdrops or pansies or Arctic lichens than like hibiscus: hardy and thriving in their own environment, but so badly suited for a tropical hothouse that it might kill them. For some people, it's a good idea and worth trying in the "change things up" category, but I think the six-week intensive residential workshops get treated as too much of a panacaea in this field, not so much among the established writers (although there too) as among the novices, and I would caution people to do some very careful self-examination before applying. A lot of what is determined there is not whether you're worth anything as a writer but whether your personality is suited to that environment.

[hkneale.livejournal.com]

There are people in this field who firmly believe that anyone who can be discouraged should be, and I totally disagree with that

I agree with your disagreement.

I don't believe in discouraging anyone who wants to write.

Either they will succeed or they will not. This will happen (and hopefully) without outside influence.

If a writer wants to write, they will have the desire to write. Whether or not it happens as much or as often as someone (either the writer or someone else) thinks it should doesn't matter.

If fate decrees that someone isn't meant to be a writer, then that conclusion will happen. One day they will make the decision to not write that day (possibly eschewing writing in favour of something they feel is more important). Then they will make that decision more often until they find that they have stopped making the decision to not write because writing is no longer important to them and they find they don't miss it.

I'm all in favour of letting the potentially non-writers weed themselves out.

But if someone has a desire to write, then by all means, let them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I don't believe in fate per se, but the way you've put this seems to include people's decisions in that category, and I do believe in those.

[deannahoak.livejournal.com]

Mrissa, you absolutely rock. I'm linking this on my LJ, though I'm quite certain I don't have any readers that Bear doesn't. :-) Still, it deserves to be heavily linked.

*hug*

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

I'm going to add yet another comment that hadn't occurred to me before.

In senior year, I was in a writing class and I distinctly remember reading a "writing prompts" type of book, in which the author clearly stated that she had never met a writer who complained about their job. Yea, sure, it sucks to get rejected or when your mind gets stuck and you're groping for the right word, but in the end there's a certain gratification you might not get in other jobs. And I don't think she meant specifically people who are authors and have nothing else in their lives, I think she meant normal people who also dabble frequently in writing.

And for me, somehow, this rings true. Granted I don't know a large variety of people, but all those scientists and doctors I've met have always seemed just a bit happier doing research, which requires a lot of writing. It's obviously not the same as creative writing, but I'm certain it still counts.

The thing that stuck out the most was a gentlemen she described, a lawyer who had always wanted to write a children's book, but had never gotten around to it. Not entirely satisfied with his job, he went to her workshop and learned to write a bit, and then continued it at him. He never published and he's still a lawyer, but he's also a writer.

And I agree with this, I think it mirrors the "write to write" kind of concept, where people (despite some elitist bastards) just write because they have to. Thoughts?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of other jobs are more conducive to the, "Eh, I didn't know what else to do with my life" syndrome than writing is. Research in medicine and the sciences is also fairly rarely chosen by default. I would expect that work one chooses deliberately for its own features rather than "I need to pay the rent" or "this will make my parents happy" has a higher satisfaction rate.

And yes, some of us just really do have to write. It does get to be compulsive. And I think that it's impossible to set out to deliberately destroy that compulsion without becoming a very, very different person.

[hopeevey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for a great post :) Someone linked to someone who linked to this, which is how I ended up here to read it.

along the line of doing something different - I've getting suggestions of words to use in a Nanofictions (http://hopeevey.livejournal.com/766777.html) to help myself get back in the habit of writing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's very neat. I have a friend whose trick was to write 10 words every day. Often he would write more, but even on the busiest days, he couldn't come up with a reason not to write 10 words. (This doesn't work for some people, who find it better not to write on, say, their wedding day, or the day they give birth. Still and all: the microscale approach definitely works for some.)

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Especially for this: But if you figure out why you want to do it in the first place, knowing that might help with actually moving forward. and the succeeding paragraph. Clarity, yeay.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

I do have a damned good time doing it, have since I was a kid, but I was in my late 30s before I figured out enough about it to know writing is what I really wanted to do.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And I think our culture is geared to tell people that that would mean you wasted your 20s and early-mid-30s, and I don't think that's true. I talked to a 15-year-old at Minicon who was sure she absolutely had to know what she was doing with her life in the next two years, so I tried to give her examples of people who didn't figure it out until later and were doing just fine. Don't know how much it stuck, though. "Quick! Figure it out! Now now now!" is a pretty pervasive cultural message.

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Good post. I liked it.

I, too, disagree with that statement about deliberately discouraging people.

It always reminds me of something said by John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia department-store magnate. He said, "Half of my advertising is useless. The problem is, I don't know which half."

So similarly, I'd say, "Half of these aspiring writers will never produce anything much good. The problem is, no one knows which half." (For "half," substitute whatever percentage you think-- my point is, of course, only the simile to Wanamaker's remark.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[ophelialaughs.livejournal.com]

I'm here via matociquala. There are so many wonderful things in your post, it's hard to point just one out. I especially liked this bit though:

Some people will tell you that one's writing should always come first. They are wrong and, unlike the people quoted above, stupid. There are all kinds of good reasons why writing shouldn't come first in specific cases. Being an unloving jerk will probably not make you a better writer, and if it does, it's not worth it. Mostly it's a false dichotomy, and one you should reject.

I must put this in memories so I can find it again when I need it (and I will). Thank you for writing it.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Word, sister. I, too, am linking.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[(Anonymous)]

Once upon a time, there was a witch called Ellen, and she turned people into marbles. On a fucking airplane!

It was because of the wind currents. Airplanes have to have the correct balance in every wind current, or they fall out of the air. Ellen was a stewardess. She preferred to simply ask passengers to go to the other side of the aircraft cabin when the plane went into a turbulence, but if they would refuse, she would turn them into marbles.

One day, the evil wizard Radagast boarded Ellen's plane. Before she saw him, Ellen noticed his sickly smell, and when she saw him, she was appalled by his ugly face, for he was a dark and evil wizard. Her heart was troubled.

For the first hour, trouble kept at bay. A passenger complained about mice in the plane's toilet, but with a flick of her wand, Ellen rectified the problem. Then, a raven left its droppings on the plane's windshield, but one of the attendants crawled out in an emergency spacesuit and washed the window. But then, a crackle went through the airplane, and a barely comprehensible voice mumbled, "This is your captain speaking. We will soon enter a turbulence. Fourteen people need to go to the left side of the plane." The sound of an electronic bell rang through the cabin.

College professors tell their students everything three times; first, they tell them what they are going to say, then they say it, and then they say what they just said. Airplane passengers are expected to be more intelligent; they are told everything only twice.

Ellen picked up the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has just switched on the Move Port-side sign. This means that for the proper operation of this aircraft, we need fourteen passengers to move to the left of the airplane. We ask passengers at the aisles indicated by the signal lights to vacate their seats and move to the cabin's other side."

There were those that were only to happy to help. Sometimes, there had been so many of them that the flight attendants would need to steer some back, lest the plane tip to the wrong side and start spinning. But this time, there weren't enough of them, and Radagast wouldn't budge.

"Sir, I will have to ask you to move to the other side of the aircraft," Ellen told him.

"And what will you do if I don't?" Radagast asked with a thin smile, stroking the neck of a crow he had brought on board with him in a cage. He was a bird-tamer; and Ellen knew that he would let the bird lose on her if she tried to point her wand on them. His smell inundated her.

"I bet you hadn't thought of _that_," Radagast said, and again, he smiled.

Ellen shuddered. "I hadn't," she said. "I don't know what to do, now."

And a great darkness came upon them.

---

[Author's post-scriptum: I think I'll go back to heavy outlining.]

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thank you, random stranger.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"Write every day" is one of the pieces of advice most given out as universal. Even people who would never dream of telling others that they had to outline (or could not outline, or had to use notecards, or could not use notecards, or...) will tell people that they have to write every day. I don't know why. I have found that taking a day off every week is actually helpful not just to me personally but also to my writing. If I was still tied to writing every single day, I would never have found that out.

You will find a way that works for you. Not everyone has to display their dedication in the same way -- dedication is not for display, anyway, but for results, and not everyone gets results the same way. Hang in there.

the angst...

[mallory-blog.livejournal.com]

Well actually -

Just write anything - even your grocery list will help, doodle, fiddle, type notes to prison pen pals then don't send them - just write.

Writing isn't the same as story crafting, one is a finger and wrist exercise - the other involves oooh you know, muse stuff and imagination and luck etc... when the brain gives up and goes off to dance the salsa in dreams with Antonio Banderas - that's when you use the wrist and fingers...

I find it's usually best to leave the angst up to soap opera stars...

M.

Re: the angst...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

How nice that that works for you.

[writerjob.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post. I enjoyed reading it.
How very wise.

JoB

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[lisa-bouchard.livejournal.com]

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to yourself as a writer, but also be kind to yourself as a person. If you want to write and are not writing, do not berate yourself. Very few people become better writers by telling themselves how worthless they are, or how lazy, or how pretentious, or that they do not deserve to call themselves writers.

This is going over my desk - thanks!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Sci-Fi ads

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Marissa, you don't know me. I once started a series of "columns" explaining how certain props in space opera "work". Here's the one on tractor beams:

From the SF Toolbox: Tractor Beams

Did you ever wonder how some of our fantastic equipment works? Priest Sajak is here to help. He is a licensed cosmological engineer and a member of the Universal Engineering Institute. From time to time, with the approval of the Institute and all governing authorities, he discloses how these machines operate, along with some of their development history.

14 June 2108 Apsu Station.

Today, I’m transmitting from the Apsu space station in solar-synchronous orbit just above the asteroid belt. Our crew is busy with a tractor beam project. Let’s review the development of tractor beams.

The term tractor beam is a contraction, for what was originally called an attractor beam. The first attractor beams were developed in the early 21st century, and they were paramagnetic. Like glass lenses focus and project light waves, paramagnetic lenses focused and projected force from a magnetic field. The strength of these tractor beams depended on the size and proximity of the magnetic source and the quality of the lens.

At first, paramagnetic tractor beams were used for military purposes. In the North Korean conflict of 2028, the United States Space Force directed beams from satellites and high-altitude aircraft toward Pyong-yang. In a coordinated assault, which lasted nearly six hours, the beams plucked three armored divisions of Sung-Soo Shin’s military from the ground and dumped them in the Pacific Ocean. Some military publications called these beams magnetic lasers.

Later, paramagnetic tractor beams were adopted for civilian purposes, most notably law enforcement. First-response emergency teams, and industrial construction crews also employed these beams. By 2045, drivers on the Trans-Atlantic Turnpike obeyed speed limits for fear of being literally picked up by the Turnpike Authority helicopters.

Early tractor beams had one glaring weakness. They required iron-containing targets. Thus, the beams were useless against diamagnetic materials. Even with iron and steel objectives, the beams were not invincible. Magnetic tractor beams fell out of favor with the US military after the development of paramagnetic reflectors.

Thus began a decades-long initiative to develop gravity-based tractor beams. Like magnetic fields, the force from a gravitational field can be focused and projected. Modern tractor beams use a gravitational lens and are capable of imposing an attractive force on any object with a mass greater than a tenth of a gram from millions of kilometers away. In 2098, the USSF constructed the first extraterrestrial gravitational lens, placing it in solar orbit on the elliptical plane. Experimental targets were asteroids and other planetessimal objects. The gravity source was the sun. In 2104, this gravitational lens was credited with averting an asteroid collision with the Earth.

Like the paramagnetic tractor beams, gravity-based tractor beams are varied in their effectiveness, depending on the mass and proximity of the gravity source and on the quality of the lens. The lens aboard this space station also uses the sun for its gravity source. Unlike the one built in 2098, this lens has reflective and refractive capability. The range of this tractor beam is classified. We can point the gravity beam in any direction. Yesterday we locked onto an asteroid. Today we are moving that asteroid toward one of its neighbors. One day, we hope to use tractor beams like this to construct an entire planet.


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Steve J

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