Hello, friends! Welcome to this month’s meeting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, a blog hop created by Alex J. Cavanaugh and co-hosted this month by Patricia Josephine, Diedre Knight, Olga Godim, J. Lenni Dorner, and Cathrina Constantine. If you’re a writer and if you feel insecure about your writing life, I hope you’ll consider joining this amazingly supportive group. Click here to learn more!
Last month, I ended up taking a mental health break from blogging and from writing in general. In an earlier draft of this blog post, I was going to explain all the problems I’m currently struggling with. But then I decided to cut that part out. I needed a mental health break, and I got a mental health break, and I don’t really need to say much more than that.
One thing I do want to talk about, though, is that I have been exposed to too much pessimism and cynicism of late, both online and I.R.L. The other day, I saw somebody online mocking a famous quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. It was the quote about how the arc of history “bends toward justice.” Why is that quote worth mocking? Because just look at the world today. It’s so full of injustice. The injustice is everywhere, and it gets worse and worse all the time, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.
In my humble opinion, that sort of pessimism and cynicism is lazy. You believe that bad things will happen? You believe the bad things are going to get worse and worse? Well, just sit back, do nothing, and you’ll get to see how very right you are. Optimism, in my mind, is the belief that things can get better, if people make an effort. But you do have to try. Even if you can only do a little, you have to do what you can.
I’m not a fool. I know the world has big problems, and I won’t presume to tell you that I have solutions for those problems. War? Climate change? Systemic racism? Income inequality? I don’t know how to fix those things. I’m just a queer who likes outer space. But while I don’t know how to fix any of the world’s problems, I am confident that those problems can be fixed.
In the past, whenever I’ve tried to explain why I write (specifically, why I write science fiction), I’ve said some quasi-mystical stuff about looking up at the stars, contemplating the vastness of the cosmos, admiring the beauty and majesty of the planets. And that’s true. That is the #1 most important reason why I write. But this past month, I’ve come to realize there’s a secondary reason for my writing: hope.
Don’t give up on the future—not for yourself and not for humanity. Just keep trying, just keep learning, just keep growing, and tomorrow will be better than today. Writing science fiction is the best way I know to say that. So as I emerge from my mental health break and as I pick up the pen once more, I recommit to spreading those two messages in everything I write: space is awesome, and don’t give up on the future.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
During my mental health break, I had to deal with a lot of pessimistic and cynical people. This blog post by Sci-Fi author and science communicator Matt Williams was a very welcome relief from all that, and I think some of my regular readers will enjoy it, too. It lays out a possible (I’d say highly plausible) vision for humanity’s future. It may not be a perfect future, but I do think it’s a future worth hoping for.
Planet Pailly 
The world’s problems demand our attention, but that doesn’t stop any of us from curling up with a good story. I hope you’re refreshed. Welcome back.
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Curling up with a good story is so important. Even if all it does is provide a little escape from reality, that can do somebody a world of good.
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The world is a very difficult place to be at the moment. Maintaining my mental health on the good side of the quadrant is a constant work in progress. It’s pretty good at the moment, although I spotted a chink appearing earlier today and so have dived into doing something which I know will give me a lift. I’m so glad you took a break, and that you’re ready to return to the hopeful future you can depict in your writing.
Debs posting today from Fiction Can Be Fun
Also found at Debs Despatches
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Thanks, friend! I wanted to get back to writing right away, and I was really frustrated with myself for a while that I just couldn’t seem to do it. In retrospect, though, it’s clear that I really needed that time off.
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Although humanity moves slowly, it does improve. When I stand back and look at how things have changed over my lifetime, I see huge differences. The thing is that the people born into the ‘new’ world take it for granted.
What did your grandparents consider unacceptable? Is it unacceptable today? There’s the change and most of it is for the better.
Hope is everywhere. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
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Thanks! Yeah, taking a long term view does help. History is full of ups and downs, but across the decades, the trend has been upward, for sure.
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We all need a mental break from at least one of our activities at some point and I know I have and that’s included a break from my writing. However, I try to write everyday even if it’s just in my journal.
There is too much pessimism in the world and we can only make the world better and happier by being and acting hopeful. Although I do write dark stories since I’m a writer of horror as well as science fiction, I consider myself an optimist and try to act out that optimism. Even in my dark fiction I try to “scare” people into optimism and towards hope.
However, I plan to write more overt optimistic science fiction soon especially since I’m a fan of reading and watching it, and that includes Star Trek and Star Wars (which this latter in my opinion is “science fiction”, only very loosely so and on the escapist level, but I understand why some people dont consider it sci-fi).
Hang in there with the optimism!
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Thanks, friend. There’s nothing wrong with a little darkness in fiction. Honestly, if you’re going to try shining the light of optimism in a story, it will stand out more clearly in contrast to darkness.
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Everyone needs a break sometimes. That’s how we refuel 😉 Welcome back.
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So true. I didn’t realize how badly I needed this break at first, but it has done me a lot of good.
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Amen, brother! I grow tired of “dark future” cliches. Sure, they can be fun and make for a good story. But the blind notion that everything is just getting worse that strikes me as old man logic. “Life was so much better when I was young.” No, it wasn’t. You were different and you didn’t notice because you were young, right?
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That’s my feeling, too. I do think there’s some value to dark visions of the future, as warnings. But we’re a little over saturated with those dark visions right now.
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I just completed a guest post and my reason for writing science fiction was hope! It does give it that.
I can’t go down to the border to help with the crisis there or get involved in the other crazy things going on, but I can do my part and I can vote. (Or as my wife says, it gets any crazier here and we will just move to another country!)
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Yeah, I don’t have the skill set to do much. But I can write, and if something I write can give somebody hope, maybe that will help.
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I agree on blanket pessimism and cynicism about the future. It’s worth looking at old science fiction to see that while the future is never as clean as our most hopeful visions, it’s also never as bleak as the darkest ones. And life is still a lot better today than it was a century ago. It’s not always easy to take a step back and look at the broader trends, but it helps a lot when we’re able to.
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I’ve been on a binge reading older Sci-Fi lately. It is interesting seeing the hits and misses in those classic stories. It’s also interesting seeing how people’s ideas about what is or is not worth hoping for have changed over time. There have been a few cases (i.e., when women enter the story) when I have to remind myself what the publication dates of these stories are.
In my opinion, the most believable visions of the future are ones where things are generally better, but a few problems still remain, or maybe some new problems have cropped up. That’s basically why the Star Trek universe is so compelling to me.
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I love old sci-fi, although it definitely has to be read keeping in mind the time it comes from, particularly much of the stuff before WWII.
I sometimes wonder if I’d be as much of a sci-fi fan if my intro to it had been something other than the original Star Trek and Lost in Space shows. I rarely find straight dystopian or horror fiction compelling.
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Taking a break is a hard thing to do and then being vulnerable enough to share why is even harder. Well done. Very wise move. Take your time.
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Thank you! I felt kind of guilty about it at first. I felt like I was just being lazy. It’s only in retrospect that I see just how badly I needed that time off. Something to bear in mind in the future, next time I start judging myself for being lazy.
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Exactly.
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Hello! I am sorry you’ve been having a difficult time. I agree writing gives hope and hope sustains life.
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Hope is so important. Hope, by itself, can’t solve your problems, but it’s almost impossible to solve a problem if you don’t start with hope.
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Modern life can be a minefield. There are so many easy distractions which can ultimately exacerbate the problems. Along with writing I find that productive physical activity can provide a mind/body balance that improves thinking and writing. Also, know when to take a break from the news and social media.
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I work in news as my day job, unfortunately, but I try to insulate myself from that as much as I can. I absolutely agree about physical activity. I wouldn’t call myself a health nut, but I really do enjoy the high I get from a good workout.
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