As far as writers are concerned, I am inspired by people like Asimov, Pratchett, Wells, Banks and so on... - people who know how to tell an imaginative story in an original setting.
Can you tell us a bit about your current story and why people would want to read it?
I'm more than half way through 'Taking Time'. This is a story set in a world where time travel has become a practical reality. It took me a long time to construct the world and work out its internal logic.
What I wanted to do was tell the story of ordinary people who are caught up in a series of events that help us to understand their universe. Most of the book is therefore told as first person accounts from two people - one is an average office worker from our world - but the other is a child soldier who is plucked from his village and trained up to become a 'time warrior'. It contains a mix of office drama, military action and the occasional brutal death.
The military action was largely the consequence of the setting, but it has been interesting to explore the way that a young person might be formed and nurtured as an efficient tool. I will finish it off at some point because I want to bring my two protagonists home...
I have a slightly less sci-fi story in mind which also explores a similar theme. It's about a man who sets out to train himself to be a killer. He intentionally breaks all of the ten commandments as he prepares to commit a murder. Of course things aren't as simple as that...
I'm also working on a series of books aimed primarily at younger people. These are set in a mysterious world called 'The Circles Sea' and I have a rather complicated plot in my head which will take several books to work out...
And then there's a series of books set during the history of a notional 'Martian Empire'. I wrote a short 'preface' called Red Spring but I want to do more...
There are so many stories in my head, but I could really do with time to write them. All I need is someone to pay me...
Is there a message for your readers in your work?
I think there might be, but it really wasn't intentional...
For example, my intention with 'System' was to explore the way that technology might create new ways of being human. In the story their are virtual, synthetic and augmented life-forms who can all claim human ancestry - in some way...
The original idea was really about how human beings might cope with this new technology, but it soon became clear to me that there were basic issues of justice lurking behind the plot. Injustice often begins when some people treat other people as something less than human. At the moment we only have to deal with issues of gender, race and sexuality - but things might get even more complicated in the future...
The heart of the story is in the chapter where we meet a priest who is challenged by his own involvement in an injustice. A young couple want to get married but he has to turn them down because the Church says that one of them doesn't have a soul. His decision to campaign for civil rights will end with his own death since he will be shot dead in the street. We last see him as he walks through the door of his church, facing the inevitable, but finally at peace because he is free...
System has a few dark moments in it, but ultimately its an optimistic book. I still haven't lost my sense of hope that evil and injustice can be defeated if we just try.
Do you have any advice for other writers?
Writing is fun. It's really easy and you should just pick up a pen or a computer and do it. Don't worry about getting it right. Just get your thoughts out and put them down in words.
Writing is practically impossible! Once your words are out there, you need to work hard to get them right - so you should delete most of them and try again - but always make sure you've kept a copy - just in case. Move things around. Change details. Change names. Change the entire plot. Keep editing until you're happy - although you never will be...
Having other people read your books is wonderful. Just do it! Show people what you have written and enjoy it when they tell you how good it is!
Having other people read your books is horrible. They will find mistakes that you didn't spot. They won't understand what you were trying to do. They will give you stupid suggestions. Sometimes they will even be right... But you must be brave and let them see what you've done. You need your readers because they are always your best partners as a writer. The more you work with them, the better you will become!
Is there anything else you would like add?
Thank you to everyone who has ever read or commented on one of my stories. You have made it all worth while!
TimNorwood
Start from the beginning
