Secondary Worlds

Posted on 06 May 2011

Chapter Eighteen: “The Basement”

I have always felt a little odd, writing steampunk in a secondary world. I mean, part of the point of steampunk is to write an alternate history. People want to see London or Seattle or Paris or Beijing or what-not in the Victorian era with lasers or something. Well, there is a reason I write in secondary worlds, and not just for my steampunk, but for pretty well all my writing. I’m lazy. (well, sorta)

Let me qualify that. I am fairly obsessive about not getting labeled with “Did not do the research”. I’m sure there have been places that I could be labeled that, at least to someone who is nitpicky, but I really do try and not open myself up for it. So, naturally, if I were to put something in 1880’s London, I would mire myself down in learning everything was to know about 1880s London. I would want to know the street names, who might have lived where doing what, and what the technology was like (aside from what I have steampunk’d up). Yeah, that is a bit much for me.

See, for today’s post, I spent about an hour researching exactly what would happen if a big handgun from the late nineteenth century shot a person in the head. It was for all of a single sentence. I am happy I did the research, as my first instinct had been dead wrong (pardon the pun), and reveals that I play too many video games.

So, knowing it took me that long to research a sentence worth of material, I am right down frightened by what it would take research and represent my altered city of the nineteenth century. So, instead, I make one up. Although, to be fair, the world of Tijervyn came from me wanting to make the city of Adervyn (which has not been on screen yet in the text, but there are a few short stories up with it, namely Halfman and A Life to Give. I warn you, they are a little earlier in my writing style development.) But yeah, I wanted to create that city with a steampunk feel, and the world grew from it, and then Tijervyn has been mostly a “hey, why not tell a story over there?” endeavor.

But, you know, it is also because I am lazy. I call to evidence the novel Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. It is a brilliant novel set in steampunk, zombie-infested Seattle. There is also a note from the author (I believe in the afterward) about why she changed things the way she did, and where she came up with her numbers and all that. It was interesting to read to see that, yes, she did the research, despite the almost defensive tone. I mean, she did not come right out and say “give me a break, it’s a story and I took license” but it was kind of implied, at least in my reading of it. I don’t want to do that.

Also, in witness, I’d bring up a writers’ track panel from JordanCon, where David B. Coe and Jana Oliver talked about writing historical fiction, and there were a lot of debates about what kind of liberty you could take with history (David being on the lines of not much as he is a historian by training). And they are right. When you play with the past, if you change something, you better have a good reason for your story. You can’t just change something because you didn’t do the research or it just made your plot randomly easier. That breaks the suspension of disbelief.

So, yeah, in short, I’m lazy and don’t want to do research. I’d rather expend my effort on making new things, on asking my “what if” questions, and on telling a good story. I’ll leave the alternate history to other authors. I have my alternate worlds.