Writing Is Serious Business
The initial inklings of “Priority Passage” came as the result of binge listening to both Imagine Dragons and Florence + The Machine. True story.
But why Priority Passage? The initial draft was, if I’m being perfectly honest with myself, more of a therapy session than a fully fleshed story. It was the written manifestation of many of my own real-life fears; a wish-fulfillment sort of ending; interpersonal relationships I hoped to emulate. Needless to say, like any wish-fulfillment story, it needed quite the make-over. The end result is a far cry different than what I started with in many ways, but the central themes remain.
Though the setting of “Priority Passage” is heavily infused with Steampunk, it is, at its heart, a very human story. The story follows Marina, an engineer with a prosthetic limb, whose two great loves are her Zeppelin and her much younger sister, Larissa, whom she must care for. The two are at constant odds in her mind—the metaphorical battle between freedom and duty.
There is also another element that pervades the story: the relationship between Marina and her father, whose legacy she is determined to preserve even after his death. It’s a theme that has always come very naturally to me in my writing, as my own father has always been one of my greatest confidants and dearest friends.
The writing process itself, especially in the initial drafting phase, was certainly a sight to behold to those who would watch me work. Like many writers, my mind over-analyzes, over-thinks, and generally refuses to actually let me plot anything onto paper. In other words, I choke up, and nothing gets written.
Unless . . . I exhaust myself to the point of not even caring anymore. So, at 4am every night for nearly a week, I would crank out another couple thousand words of my soon-to-be short story.
In related news, I do have to extend my gratitude to my editors, who were able to reassemble my delirious ramblings into something at least mildly coherent. This is also where I feel I must give proper thanks to my mom (and not only because she thanked me in her own blog post), as she was certainly one of my best cheerleaders during this phase, talking to me at odd hours, excited because she’d come up with the perfect name for my heroine, determined to help me brainstorm whether I was willing to or not. I can honestly say I wouldn’t be here without her.
But I digress; again, why Priority Passage?
“Priority Passage” is a story for those who struggle against the norm, who, perhaps, long for a life beyond the boundaries they were expected to comply with. It’s a story of overcoming disability, or of turning a piece of you once thought was wrong into a strength. It’s a story for those who love their family, even if their dreams set them at odds.
And it is, at its core, a story about love.
“Priority Passage” is my tentative first step into the world of publishing. I say tentative because I now understand the process, the finesse that goes into each decision. I’ve been an editor. Now I’m a writer. And next time, I plan on coming in with a bang.
S. D. Simper really doesn’t sound this pretentious in real life. For realz. She’s a college student from Arizona who’s temporarily living the retail dream in Alaska and adapting to the minimal internet access.
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