Talking politics

One of the greatest challenges a fiction writer faces is whether or not to include references to current events in one's work. If your story is set during a recent historical event, that's one thing.  It's also par for the course to include familiar sites and cultural touchstones to guide the reader and give them a sense of place. But what if you're crafting a world out of thin air?

There are many major works of literature that contain veiled references to contemporary political issues and cultural figures. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ayn Rand's books come to mind, and they weren't always straight-up allegories either. Those works can be appreciated if you don't understand the references, but reading through their entries on Sparknotes certainly fills in the gaps.

But in a few years (let alone 50 or 100), who's going to care about a spot-on caricature of a society matron or a send-up of an obnoxious political operative? Why risk future readers conflating an interpretation of the author's time with a message for all time?

Also, some authors who tackle political analogies in their fiction don't always get a warm reception. In A Dance With Dragons, the most recent installment of ASOIAF, George Martin was accused of modeling one of the book's subplots on the U.S.'s recent involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. He denied drawing inspiration from those wars, but the perceived parallels made the already shaky subplot even more unpopular with readers.

That's he conundrum I've been wrestling with lately. So far, I've come up with one answer. Shoehorning in pop culture references is a sure road to irrelevance, but there's always interesting people in the world, no matter what era you live in. If those people have something equally interesting to say in your world, maybe you should let them in.

Inspiration

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. I had a brief fascination with the letter M when I was 3 or 4 years old and spent at least one whole afternoon(filling pages of construction paper with the letter. Of course, today's parent might see such behavior and think there was something seriously wrong with me. My mom probably just asked me what I was doing and gave me a bowl of strawberries.

It's been more or less the same ever since. I get fixated on a topic or idea, it sprouts in my mind and then I can write about it. I can write a lot about it. That's when I can go on one of those classic "writing binges" you hear so much about. I know some writers are very methodical about their craft. Some, like Danielle Steel, even have a formula. And good for them.

My approach has always been more organic. While I see The Evenarian more as a project than an artistic endeavor, I write most effectively when something has sparked me. And that spark could be anything. Recently a remembered scene from a not-very-good-movie (if you must know, it was Kingdom of Heaven) induced me to introduce a character into the story much earlier than first planned. But I never know what stimuli is going to send me flying to my computer. Actively seeking out inspiration usually backfires, believe it or not, so I simply have to be watchful. I let lots of potentially inspirational sources into my life - music, art, books, a few movies and TV shows.

When I'm truly at a creative dead-end, I remember a quote from George R.R. Martin, whose A Song of Ice and Fire series was an enormous inspiration for my novel. An interviewer asked him if he enjoyed the writing process and he replied that he enjoyed the feeling of having written. Remembering that spurs me into action, and I know the satisfaction I'll feel once I hit my page count for the day is stronger than writer's block, and sometimes it's all the inspiration I need.