I have often talked about my love of space, and my personal belief (hope?) that there is other life out in the universe. For long-term readers, you may even remember I took a course on Astrobiology because of this interest.
For every academically rigorous course there is a more niche set of beliefs in abduction, ancient aliens and so on which I also lap up, watching tv programmes, films, and reading articles.
I won’t travel that road today, but maybe I will in the future!
This fascination with ETs is something I have often considered bringing into my writing – after all, there is clearly an audience for sci-fi and it’s something I find really exciting; I’m sure I could retain interest in the ideas.
The traditional ‘pioneers’ route is not my writing style at all; it’s more like a Western or perhaps even a historical empire-type novel transferred to a different location, and that’s not what I write. But could I write about a family living on a moon over the far side of the Milky Way? Probably.
The question is, would anyone read it? My genre is women’s commercial fiction. Genre writing generally – not always – follows certain rules and although the rules can be subverted there is no saying an audience would be interested. A tale of love amongst the stars might sound fun, but would someone shopping for a new book to take on holiday pick it over a story they could immediately relate to their own life?
I honestly don’t know the answer to that. I would pick it, but I’m not representative of my target audience! And as my first book hasn’t been picked up (yet) which may in part be due to its slightly contentious subject matter, should I worry whether it’ll be read anyway? If I want to write it, I just should.
One of my new exercises is to map out ideas and see if they have any real merit. Maybe I’ll have a special session for extra terrestrial stories and see what comes of it…
Who knows, a story about Out There might not be as out there as I think!
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
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