Will the Force be with me?

I’ve been contemplating writing a work of fiction for a long time. Why haven’t I tried getting it off the ground? Well, quite frankly, the idea scares the hell out of me. It’s more of my comfort zone to write non-fiction articles. I know how to do that, I know how to research them, and what it takes to put them together. Creating a story and characters from scratch? Well, that’s a task that just seems so daunting, I have thought however, if I were to do it, what genre would be most familiar and interesting to me? What would provide fertile ground and familiar themes that  i could jump into? The answer it seems, is Star Wars.

Now, I’m not the type of fan of Star Wars that is a collector, or a cosplayer, or video game player. I have however, been a reader of several of the novels, both those that are the movie tie-in’s, and those that explore other aspects of the SW universe, but relate to the movies in one way or another. I have also received encouragement from an actual SW author: Daniel Jose Older.

Older wrote the novel “Last Shot,” a Han Solo/Lando Calrissian piece that explores their relationship during the times after the “Solo: A Star Wars Story” movie. It was quite a good book, and I thought his approach was interesting. But, on top of all this, I learned to my surprise, that for a decade he was a NYC paramedic.

I contacted him via Twitter, and eventually brought up my thoughts on possibly pursuing a novel. I related my fears, and my past writing experiences. He understood completely, and offered this advice: “Just do it. You might surprise yourself.”

With that in mind, I’ve started flushing out some ideas. Let’s see where it takes me.