Non Fiction Rocks (Even if you write fiction)
#GeekPrideDay #Special Interests
It’s Geek Pride Day! Celebrate those special interests and dig in, because you never know what you’ll create from them! Take, for instance, a TV show that impacted an entire generation (or two) of nerds…
Futurama writers were “easily the most overeducated cartoon writers in history,” holding 3 Ph.D.s, 7 Masters, and having spent a collective 50 years at Harvard.
Overeducated? I’d argue the writers were wonderfully enthusiastic about the show, shoving in all sorts of math and science jokes between the geek pop culture references. Many writers shy away from hard science fiction because of the research they’d need to do, and here these nerds were, creating a wildly silly SF cartoon.
Then you’ve got writers who love rabbit holes. Maybe they’re out here with me and my teens watching Numberphile, V Sauce, and Kurzgesagt. Maybe you know everything about Medieval finger loop braiding, or how to forage for and utilize natural dyes. Drop us a line and show us your favorite rabbit holes!
Oh, me?
Well, a decade or three ago I couldn’t have written a post celebrating nonfiction. I would pick up nonfiction books, set them down again, and forget them. The pull wasn’t there, and I spent all my reading time on fiction. In retrospect, school was probably to blame. We had to read plenty of nonfiction for that, and I chose my major according to what I loved (Psychology with a Spanish Minor, though I almost chose Chemistry). We also barely had the internet. I mean, it wasn’t like it is today. None of those channels I listed above existed. In fact, I just learned that V Sauce is about my age! I now get science news sent straight to my email. Some of the articles are so involved that I don’t understand all the details until I look into it more, and learn. (Insert jokes about Psychology majors here—but, dude, I DO grok the psych articles).
So the availability of information changed, and so did I. I started picking up on nonfiction cues better, like you would for fiction. I learned better what I am “into” and my shelf is now full of books on education, psychology, math puzzles, and Bible Studies. My life changed, too, and I got the chance to use wildly nerdy books like this one on Hexaflexagons to supplement a math elective I taught to homeschoolers.
Will Martin Gardner ever make it into my stories? I don’t know, and that’s okay. But the psychology and education sure does, and I know the spiritual studies influence my plots and worldbuilding. There’s always a right and wrong in my stories, even if how my character’s perceive morality is complex. In fact, I love the interplay between our limitations as non divine creatures, such as the fact that we can NOT know everything, and morality. How do we do our best when we can’t know the Best answer? Hm. Maybe hexaflexagons are simple, compared to that. Ha!
What special interests influence what you write, or what you read?
What special interests do you love just because?