Living the Fictional Dream

The SED contest continues. I’m proud of myself because I have, thus far, written a story every day. Just six more days to go. Here’s hoping I can keep it up!

This contest made me realize just how many fictional worlds exist in my imagination. When I can’t think of something to write for my daily SED story, I find myself turning to these fictional worlds and writing about an aspect of them that I haven’t yet explored, perhaps a small subset of the culture or a minor character who deserves his/her own story.

Of course there is Tyden, the medival-style fantasy world from the novel that is in a constant state of revision. That one is the most fully formed of all of them. But in the past year or so, several more have sprung into being.

There is my science fiction universe in which the Moon has several self-sustaining colonies. Sadly, none of the stories I set there worked out quite the way I had planned, but that world is really vivid to me. I’ve named all the colonies, worked out where they are and what their resources are, and everything. Maybe someday it will actually see the light of day!

I have two urban fantasy universes (distinguished from a fantasy world because they are layered on top of the real world instead of being created completely from scratch). One is a Y/A universe inhabited by Sirens. My 2006 NaNo novel was set in this world. Sadly, novel revisions aren’t coming along quite as swiftly as when I wrote the whole first draft in one month!

The other is a world of Thropes (short for Therianthropes, which means shapeshifters of all kinds). My shapeshifter universe has a whole Thrope society made of of werewolves, werecoyotes, werepanthers, werefoxes, wereleopards, wererats, and more. I’ve written two short stories set in this universe, one of which, “Alpha,”  will be published in Electric Spec at the end of the month.

I’ve recently created a super hero universe, as well. The first story, “Zero to Clean in Ten Minutes or Less,” was published in A Thousand Faces, issue 4, and the second of which, “Bridge Club,” will be published in a forthcoming issue of ATF.

There is my fantasy world (loosely based on 18th century Earth) in which people who survived the fall of Atlantis roam the Earth, first seen in “The Widow and the Stranger,” published in Allegory e-zine. And I have another medieval-style fantasy world about immortal sorcerers who devote their lives to a mysterious Game. One story set there has reached round two in a flash e-zine, but I haven’t heard back about it yet. Oh, and there is my Christian vampire hunter world — more urban fantasy — only one story so far (scheduled out in Afterburn SF early next year), but ideas for several short story ideas have occured to me. And, there are a few others, less well defined than the ones mentioned above.

All these ‘verses beg the question — how much room do I have in my imagination anyway? If my imagination is anything like the Book World in the Thursday Next series (which  highly recommend if you’re looking for smart, funny, highly literate fantasy), things must be going amok in there!

But, that’s why we’re in this writing game, isn’t it? Because these worlds and characters are there in our minds just waiting for their stories to be written down on paper (or via the keyboard). We don’t do it for the money or the glory (there isn’t much of either of those to be had). We do it because we enjoy it (at least sometimes), and because the stories are out there waiting to be told.

If I don’t tell the stories of all my imaginary worlds, who’s going to?