In January I ran into a writing wall. Crashed into it, more like. Despite having a plot outline and character arcs sketched out for the unnamed sequel to Spacewalker, I simply had nothing to write about from Edred Starling's point of view. This is the continuation of an exciting story, brimming with mystery and conspiracy and danger on a brand-new planet, and... I was staring at a blank page.
It was a character problem, really. Edred spent as much time as possible in outer space. He hated the months he was forced to spend on Earth's surface, feeling trapped by its gravity well. Now, here he was, stuck on a new planet, Ampherus. If he didn't want to live like that, no wonder I wasn't eager to write him like that.
When I consulted my story outline, I found the next chapter I was excited to pen. It was the midpoint chapter, the one where Edred makes it back into planetary orbit, when he slips back into zero-G like a favorite pair of shoes. It's too bad he's stuck on the surface until then...
Wait one goddamned second. I built this world, I can just as easily change it, can't I?
I cannot stress enough what an empowering, if silly realization this was. I control what this planet looks like, its societal structure, even its history (excepting the few tidbits I dropped in Spacewalker). If I want Edred to spend more time in outer space, then I can make that happen.
The capital city atop a mountain? Forget it. It's an orbital city now.
The population stratified by the different mountaintop terraces? Forget that. Now they live on different city-stations.
Edred waits half the book to step back into zero-gravity? No way. Now it's chapter one.
As an author, as the world-builder, especially writing science fiction, this is all within my power! And it unlocked me creatively. Yeah, the setting changed so drastically that I started the story over from scratch. But it made the words and ideas flow. Years-long hang-ups with parts of the story melted away. There are new hang-ups--of course, there always are--but they feel a little more solvable.
My character is in his comfort zone and so am I.