Writing is a voyage of discovery

So after a brief break, I'm back in my writing group. Doing our weekly assignments and working out longer pieces has led me to a rather startling revelation.

I write fantasy.

If you were to peruse my bookshelves, you'd find tons of hard SF, the kind of books that are written by PhD holders and have technical appendixes. Alastair Reynolds, Hal Clement, Robert L. Forward... these luminaries and others are well represented and I devour anything with a good crunchy tech base and a strong story.

But when I write, I can't really do it. It's not lack of knowledge, I can do research with the best of them, but I find that my style just isn't suited to the genre. Even when I try less rigorous SF, my stories still wander off towards fantasy tropes without my wanting them to do so. The only things I've felt comfortable sharing (and trying to sell) are my fantasy works.

So I'm going to stick with what works for me. I've been thinking of doing a series of "Road" stories. Two heroes with a plot concerning going from A to B by way of the charming town of Hijinks Ensue. One is fairly straight forward man at arms, who carries his family's ancient ancestral sword. Problem is, none of those ancestors wrote down how to invoke the sword's powers. That's why he's wandering the world. The other is a former mage's apprentice who just wasn't disciplined enough for the trade. He knows a few minor spells, is decent with a sword and bow, but his real power (and curse) is his charm. Possibly add a recurring female character, who shows up mysteriously to move things along then is gone by the end of the tale.

Have to start plotting out the first tale once I've gotten some sleep. I'm on day three of not sleeping well at all.