I wrote my eleventh Official short story a few days ago – it is “draft finished” – i.e. the main bones are there but it will still require ‘cleaning up’ – it might lose 10% of its wordiness, will have the better spelling & a few words changed etc etc. Anyway, this post is just a light one about the process of my writing.

It had been since October 22 since I wrote my last & tenth short story – which I don’t think was a very good one. I figured I better get back in the game with a really good effort so as to end up with something I feel good about. The very unscientific ‘gut feel’ as to whether you created something that was ‘good or not’, is I think quite a reliable instrument in the arts. You tend to know pretty early if something is up to scratch or whether will likely be left on the ‘cutting room floor’ as they say.

My gut says I did a good job in writing “The Men, the Moon & The Machine” (it’s published on this site, so go read it) – a story about Two faculty staff – one older, accomplished, revered, & one younger who has spent the last 10 years ‘underachieving’. It’s set in a run of the mill University in the Astronomy area of a Physics dept. I won’t describe more as I’ll only ruin it by posting ‘spoilers’!

So I was itching to write a ‘goodun’ as we say here ‘downunder’ (you international’s see NZ & Aussie as kinda the same so I’ll agree with the term ‘downunder’ as a description of NZ, even though we kiwis don’t ever call ourselves that) . Having a science/maths education background I like the sci-fi genre so I figured a story which has a core theme of the possibility of life on the moon as a good starting point.

I guess if you are writing a sci-fi story about the moon, the go to environment is a) an astronomy dept or b) a private company that wishes to exploit the moon for profit. I decided on a) the university environment. I had actually written a story plan that differed from the end resulting story (I posted the plan on this site so you can read it too).

Writing out a stream of consciousness plan (akin to brainstorming) and/or a more detailed one something I only vaguely adhere too, but I think it gets better results, even if you deviate wildly from the plan. I think it gives a better chance for your subconscious to organise the material better & then this presents to the conscious mind.

For example – I started ‘thinking very vaguely’ about ideas for a new short story, about a week ago – then a couple days with no concrete plan I just decided to commit to writing a plan with the hope of something slightly crystallising out. Luckily some ideas flowed & the plan was about the moon being found to be habitable & then the forces of soulless nouveau-riche capitalism took over & there were land grabs & clamours of social climbers & ‘faux elites’ to gain a ‘exclusive slice’ of real estate on the moon.

In my plan everything was going great for those wishing for a slice of paradise – I called them “Mooncitz” (i.e. Moon Citizens) until the oxygen levels start to misbehave. This is passed off as a statistical anomaly at first by elitist leaning scientists, & all returns to breathability until the next time it becomes clear no one can live on the Moon anymore, & a panic to leave sets in. The problem was ‘the poor folk they don’t like’ had to save them.

I abandoned the main thrust of that plan when I started writing the actual story – but I think it was a good idea & I will probably re-visit that plan soon. The problem with that kind of storyline – where a rogue commercial element exploits space – is I think there are so many threads it’s hard to keep it to short story length. When I stuck to a “University Dept”, the story seemed to allow for a more limited number of threads to follow & thus was easier to write.

When I sat down to write the story it was, I think 8pm on a weeknight – I wrote the first draft right through until 3 am – which was I think 3500 words. The first draft ended with Zac’s words written in the sherbet (‘I found greenery on the moon first’). I went to sleep & the next day I decided it couldn’t end there as this was too open ended, so I wrote more.

I wrote about a parallel universe where Zac lived & was the guy that saved Earth from losing WW3 – versus the AI robots we though would help us. I ditched that as I realised, I was starting a whole new short story idea, I replaced it with the one that is now there – which gives the secondary character Chester more airplay & examines the aftermath of Zac’s death.

So out of the themes I discarded, I actually have 2 extra themes that could be pursued. It’s also good to be able to make big theme changes & not be attached to much to what you’ve written. My brain now tells me when an idea doesn’t fit well & needs to be ditched for something else – I think you shouldn’t squash that brain tell, & you can keep the writing that gets edited out anyway.

‘The Men, The Moon & the Machines” I think could be my best short story yet (ok I’m early in my development story writing so that doesn’t count for much probably) in terms of short s. I think it is right up there with “Storms Of Change”” &probably has more popular appeal than that story. I printed out the story & read it to a family member who liked it & offered some tips here & there – but the main thing I wanted to know was whether they liked it – they did, so I was happy.

Next up I think I’ll write perhaps two more stories & then look to collate & publish at the ‘next level’ which will probably be either amazon or perhaps a physical self-publish thing of some form. I wouldn’t mind meeting some writers who I can help me on these matters & act as a feedback mechanism. I think it’s easy to hide away in your dark room on your computer & not push your writing enough – becasue that’s comfortable. At 40+ as I am, I think it’s bad to never get beyond that ‘comfort trap’ – especially if you have built up a big amount of writing.

Anyway, I hope you read “The Men, the Moon & The Machine”, & if you can be bothered email me about what you thought of it – that would be great!

See you later!

P.s. I forgot to mention that when I write I have pop/rock/metal music playing on an old hi-fi, often a can of beer to sip & snacks – salami, deli items etc. These little rituals are more important than you might think! You must make yourself comfortable as possible, as writing a good piece of writing is a real challenge – why not make it a little easier while you do it?

Martin A. Smith

20/05/2023 9:56PM NZ Time.