Just the headings from “A Few Rules For Predicting The Future” By Octavia Butler

 When Octavia Butler was finally getting well deserved recognition for her science fiction writing, I had the nice experience of realising that I had already read one of her books years before; and it was one I remembered and thought about on occasion.

Thanks to this post by the Nap Ministry, I have been delighted by her essay giving writing advice to others interested in setting a story in the future. It is a bit of a disservice to collect only the heading here, but those alone are so thought provoking, or perhaps inspiring is a better term, that I want particularly to record them:

• Learn From the Past
• Respect the Law of Consequences
• Be Aware of Your Perspective
• Count On the Surprises

story trail

 "But housekeeping, the art of the infinite, is no game for amateurs." Sur, 1982, by Ursula K. Le Guin

I am not good at housekeeping, and feel bad about it. After reading that Those Who Stay and Fight was a reaction to one of Le Guin's short stories, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, (also referenced in a BTS music video),  I wanted to read that story as well. It is in The Unreal and the Real volume 2 Outer Space, Inner Lands, which I checked out at the library. Well worth reading. And another quote, from the end of the preface written in 2012:

"I don't know anything about reality, but I know what I like."