In between various overseas trips and general convalescing at home since I submitted my thesis, I’ve been reading a heap of fiction. For some reason, I just didn’t feel like it during my research, or couldn’t justify the time spent reading non-academic texts.
At the same time, I’ve also tried to keep up the writing habits I’ve formed in the last year: writing in the morning, every day, for a few hours. I’ve definitely taken time away from that, but it would feel like a shame to let that habit slip.
And so, with academic stuff off the radar for a little while yet, I’ve also started to write fiction. While I was traveling, instead of a travel diary I kept a tumblr that I posted 100 word stories to, that were inspired by places and people I met. You can check them out at http://dddrabble.tumblr.com if you’re interested.
A few weeks ago I decided to try my hand at writing something longer than that. I was inspired by the Murmuration Festival, a critical take on the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, popularly known as the drone. I came across this website somewhere in the depths of twitter, and was inspired to write something.
My short story, ‘Headlines‘, is an exploration of a future where journalists primarily use drones to cover news events. It has elements of surveillance culture, big-data, cyber espionage and digital activism.
It was fun to write, and even has a timely/opportunistic reference to the NSA (hi guys).
I’m working on another story now, and will definitely try to get that one published somewhere too. Ultimately though, this is all in service of making the wait for the verdict a bit easier.
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