Creating in the middle of things

"People do not create in a vacuum," creativity coach Eric Maisel says in his book 'Coaching the Artist Within'.  "Would-be creators are living people embedded in a particular culture..."

"You must be able to create in the middle of things," he says, "or you will not create.  ...for most of us, even ordinary, everyday crises can stop us in our tracks."

"Most of these crises are internal; emotional, existential, crises of faith and self-doubt," he says.  I so identify with that statement.  And this week I've gone through one of those crises of self-doubt myself.

It started with the announcement of the shortlist for this year's Hugo Awards last Tuesday.  The Hugos are one of science fiction's most important awards, and it matters who wins them.  I was bitterly disappointed by the best novel shortlist.  In recent years, the politics of diversity and diverse sexualities have come to dictate the genre.  While wider representation is needed, much of this feels like virtue-signalling to me, rather than voting for work on the basis of its quality and importance.  

The books which I nominated, two by male authors, two by female authors, are powerful and Important commentaries on the consequences of war and the tools we make to wage war; and on  environmental issues.  They have been highly rated by readers in the genre, but got nowhere in the ballot.  And I'm frustrated as hell about that.

To me, speculative fiction should be the genre of the different vision, the chance for an expansive view of the universe, not mired in petty human concerns.   Writing from outside a contemporary timeframe, we are freed from current issues.   We are able to envisage different futures to challenge the present.  Which is a grand concept, but a lot of the community doesn't seem to be doing this.  A lot of stories seem only to be navel-gazing about the current state of the world.

In my work it's a given that those issues will be equably worked out by the time of the story.  Women, people of colour, people of all sexualities, are part of an integrated society, happily working alongside each other, and accepting each other.  That's one reason why I write hopepunk.  But this shortlist, I would argue, was driven by a focus on the politics of now, to the exclusion of all else.

Which has given me a problem creating in the middle of things.  The comparison titles for my work in progress are all those books which failed to make the shortlist.  So what use are they now when I'm querying? Will they be discounted as not important by agents too?  

This has triggered one of those crises of faith in me.  Because, if those comparative stories aren't valued, how will mine be?  Am I wasting my time writing my alternative vision again?

The only antidote to the blackness is to continue to do the work, to take delight in it and know I'm saying something which I believe is important.   But my hope has taken a battering this week.