I'm a writer. I'm also an engineer. I've noticed engineering creeping into my writing, and I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
I'm not talking about a consideration of science, whether pure or applied. Certainly that part of an engineering background is invaluable when writing speculative fiction. It helps me avoid basing an entire plot around some effect or invention that turns out to be absolutely implausible. It keeps me out of the "laughing into their sleeves at me" camp, most of the time.
What I'm referring to is the application of engineering principles to writing, as though prose were a calculation, an equation to be balanced. What's the effect I want this sentence to have on the reader? How can I best construct it to achieve that effect? Edit, adjust, reword, engineer. Endlessly.
I suppose all writers engage in this prose engineering to some extent; it's called self-editing. My concern is that my engineer's drive for perfection — for an exactly balanced "equation" — is hindering my ability to get stories finished and out the door.
My hope, though, is that by being a writer who is also an engineer, I'll be better able to take an analytical look at my writing (in addition to the emotional side I discussed
last time). Perhaps that will give me a perspective, and a style, that is compelling, particularly to other technical-minded people. There certainly is no shortage of that audience in spec-fic.
So maybe I'm
more than a writer, maybe I'm a prose engineer. No, that sounds a bit too clinical, a bit like technical writing and not fiction writing. Hmmm, "fantasy engineer"? (Sounds like a hot stripper with a pocket protector.) "Story engineer"? (Could just be another word for an architect.) "Speculation engineer"? (Sounds like someone who analyzes the stock market.) There's got to be a good, new term for me to coin here...
Well, "fiction engineer." I think that's it. I'm a fiction engineer.
Now I have a new line to use at parties, anyway...