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No Worries — How Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy is Free Therapy

February 25, 2020 by in On Writing

One of my favorite things about writing fantasy and science fiction is the way the genres allow you to take everyday problems and project them onto extraordinary settings and circumstances.

Take the challenges of motherhood, the simple desire to want to keep your children safe.  Every day, we hear horror stories about online predators, about the latest sickening school shooting. Yet we are also warned about the pitfalls of helicopter parenting, reminded about the importance of letting kids fail.

One week, a group of mothers are giving me the hairy eyeball for allowing my fearless daughter to climb a very tall tree at the park, and I tell myself they’re being overly cautious, that I know my child best. The next week, my less-adventurous son jumps off a swing – a measly jump of about 20 inches, I kid you not – and he breaks his foot. Worse: I don’t realize it until the next day, when he’s still complaining about the pain, and I take him to get an X-ray. Oh, the sour guilt I feel as the tech shows me the hairline fracture. And the voice that hisses: “And what would have happened if your daughter had fallen those 20 feet?”

So, I guess it should be no surprise when my subconscious produces a short story in which an overprotective mother tries to shield her daughter from danger so much that she unwittingly pushes her into a virtual world the daughter never wants to leave. Or another brief tale, about a resentful teen who tries to regain control of her life after her father forces her to leave everything she loves on Earth for a “better” future on a generation ship.

Writing these stories is like therapy. They help me sort out my feelings about raising children who are not just healthy and safe, but independent, resilient and — above all—confident they are deeply loved.

 

 

 

 

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