Alex Shvartsman's Speculative Fiction

Typically, I avoid blog tours. However, last week I was tagged by James Beamon, who is among the few writers I readily concede are way funnier than I am. Plus, I don’t much care for the tumbleweeds that have been rolling around this blog lately (busy Alex is busy!). So here’s the deal: I answer four questions about my writing process, then tag two more suckers… writers, I mean writers!, to do the same.

What am I working on?

My main focus this year has been my first novel. It’s called Eridani’s Crown and I like to describe it as the politics of Game of Thrones meets the character arc of Breaking Bad. While my writing strengths tend toward the humorous and the lighthearted, the novel I’m working on is grimdark fantasy. No one is more surprised about that than me. This is slow-going. I have approximately 25,000 words written. But I haven’t given up hope of finishing the book this year. We shall see.

To counter-balance all the dark, I’m always working on some short story or another, either on spec or for invitation anthologies. Right now I’m mulling over a humorous SF piece titled “Golf to the Death.” It doesn’t help that I know absolutely nothing about golf.

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Once again, I tend to write the funny. At first, I didn’t picture myself as a humor writer. My early stories were all serious (or, as serious as pulp-ridden urban fantasy and space opera gets). But then I tried writing a sillier story, and discovered that such fare comes more easily to me. There aren’t as many people writing humorous genre stories than serious ones, so that immediately sets my work apart. Also, I tend to pepper my stories with pop culture references. How Earth Narrowly Escaped an Invasion from Space is a perfect example of such.

Why do I write what I do?

Because it’s fun. I have no desire to make writing my full-time job. I’m not in it for the money (because I could make way more if my hobby involved flipping burgers instead of slouching over a keyboard), and I have no cause or agenda in need of tireless pushing. Therefore, I write stories that are exciting and fun for me to tell.  A lot of the time I think back to myself as a teenage reader back in the former USSR, devouring any science fiction book I could get my hands on. Would the past-me dig the yarn I’m writing? If so, I’m satisfied with my output.

How does my writing process work?

An idea comes first. Usually it’s a what-if scenario, but it could be an interesting character or a cool visual, or even just an interesting opening line. Then I try to figure out what the story is about and where it’s going. The most important factor for me is the resolution. I never sit down to write a story unless I know exactly how it ends.

Once I have the ending, it’s like a lighthouse. I may not have the precise directions on how to get there, but I can see its light in the distance and know the general direction in which I must travel. Every scene of the story must drive it toward that lighthouse in some way. I tend to make up the middle part as I go along, discovering some cool things I may never have intended when I envisioned the story, and doing some worldbuilding. But, sooner or later, I get to the end. Then I tighten up the story and often adjust some of the earlier parts to better jive with the resolution.

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The two writers I’m tagging next are:

Deborah Walker — an extremely prolific short story writer from the UK who is also in the process of working on her fist novel at the moment.

James A. Miller — Jim’s first short story sale was to me, for UFO3.  This is the first time since the inception of the UFO series that I bought a story from a previously-unpublished author, and I’m very happy about this.  Because, when he makes it big, I get to brag about how I’d ‘discovered’ him.  So visit his blog, and give him a virtual high-five.

 #SFWAPro