WRITING ADVICE: Julie Czerneda’s Writing Workshop! #8 Where In The Universe Will You BE?

In 2005, whilst perusing the shelves at the Hennepin County Public Library, I stumbled across CHANGING VISION by Julie Czerneda (say it: chur-nay-dah), an author I'd never heard of, and was intrigued by the aliens on the cover by artist Luis Royo. It didn’t matter that the book was the second in a series, the cover entranced me and so I read. The book was spectacular, I read others, and fell entirely in love with another series of hers called SPECIES IMPERATIVE for its fascinating aliens and superior characterization. A teacher deeply at heart, Julie Czerneda shares ideas and methodology wherever she goes. On her website, http://www.czerneda.com/classroom/classroom.html she shares ideas for writers. I want to share what kind of impact her ideas have had on my own writing.  They are used with the author’s permission.

“Setting: Science fiction is not restrained to any particular setting. Pick what works.”

I have a particular fondness for alien worlds. A year ago, I went with a friend of mine, to hear the project director of the Mars Curiosity program as well as get updates on the most current discoveries.

I held my breath as the Huygens probe dropped into Titan’s atmosphere and I’ve watched the videos a half-dozen times.

I have created stories on strange worlds – where characters walk or run or roll on various planets or float in atmospheres or on oceans.

During the summer, I teach a class to gifted and talented children called, ALIEN WORLDS. For those who continue to take the class again and again, I created ADVANCED ALIEN WORLDS. Not only do I restrict them (their worlds and life forms cannot be copied from anywhere, their worlds must conform to known laws of chemistry and physics and must adhere to what we know about the formation of star systems, stars, planets, and moons as well as what we know of Earth’s geology, hydrology, and meteorology. When creating life forms, they are not allowed to leap to Chewbacca, the Wookie. They have to create microscopic life forms, plants, and animals. We talk about biodiversity and whether or not there is any incontrovertible evidence that there is life anywhere but on Earth. I do not allow them to fall back on the (falsely attributed) Saganism, “If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space."  (Sagan delivered this quote during the symposium on "Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man", held at Boston University (20 November 1972), published in Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man (1973) edited by Richard Berendzen; Life Beyond Earth and the Mind of Man (1975) National Archives video. This is a paraphrase of Sagan quoting Thomas Carlyle, the beginning of the quote was: "A sad spectacle. If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery and folly…”)

At any rate, Julie Czerneda writes SF that takes place on other worlds or simply in space. She created her character Esen (from the Web Shifters series) in order to explore what a life form might really be like if it could take any form it chose. In the Species Imperative series, she wanted to explore “[How would] a variety of intelligent space-faring species interact...if one of those species begins to act according to an innate biological drive, an irresistible imperative that was incompatible with the survival of the rest? Or even of itself?”

She noted that the Species Imperative series is “Unrelated to any of my previous stories, much nearer in time to ours, and set, in part, on the northern coast of British Columbia.”

For whatever reason, this is the series of hers I am most fascinated by. I suppose, deep down, I love this because I can conceivable include myself in this future because it’s not that far away!

I recently finished a short story that takes place less than a mile (.8 km) from my house that is science fiction. It involves an older woman, at the end of her career who has ended up without fame or family (she has fortune, thankfully) because of choices she made long ago. Confronted with a startling discovery she makes while her estranged grandson is staying with her, she has to choose fame or family. “Fairy Bones” hasn’t been submitted yet – it’s in the cooling off phase before an edit to polish it up. While it does take place a bit in the future, I feel close enough to the story that it seems like “now”.

A bit ago, I finished a story that takes place on the moon of a “hot Jupiter” and gives a young man the choice of having to sacrifice his life for the good of another and thus win the everlasting respect of an alien society or continue on the selfish life path that his father has prepared for him. It’s not a decision to be taken lightly, nor should it be made in the heat of the moment – but Zahar doesn’t have the luxury of mulling it over. He has to chose what to do in an instant. Will he be selfish like Dad or be who he imagines himself to be?

Two very different places; two stories that are similar in tone (see http://faithandsciencefiction.blogspot.com/2013/11/writing-advice-julie-czernedas-writing.html) and both coming out of my study of Julie Czerneda’s writing and her workshop materials.

Once again, thank you, Julie Czerneda!

Image: http://www.techedon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/The_Future_Earth_Look_Back.jpg