Steampunk Research

I’m pretty sure I spend as much time researching as I do writing a chapter for “Steampunk Stories: Allister Davies”. Time travel is impossibly difficult to grasp in a practical sense and the pitfalls are everywhere. What happens if the character meets himself? What happens if the character meets someone who knows a relative of his? Could a casual conversation make it so that via a series of events the character isn’t even born? Thankfully I’m writing fiction and I don’t have to actually worry about what would happen if time travel were possible. But I do have to keep the story coherent within its own rules, which presents another complication.

I don’t reread the last chapter, or any chapter, before I write a new chapter. In any other case of fiction writing, this would be insane, but since I treat the Allister Davies series as flash fiction, I try to start with a fresh mind. I can remember the gist of the story, but not enough to ensure my future writings will be completely coherent. So far, my few readers have told me that the story flows, even if it took a sharp bend a couple of chapters ago.

I will be winding down volume one as it is getting quite difficult to write in this manner. Allister Davies was more complicated than Steampunk Airships by far. When I decide to write volume two, I’ll have to ponder whether or not I’ll approach it as flash fiction. But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the ride.