This is the week of Apr. 20-26.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 6
• Submissions Total: 15
• Rejections: 13
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

Last week’s goals:

1. Revise F-TIB.
2. Write Arbor Grove.
3. More critiques.

The stories that were out remain out. I received no responses and sent no new submissions. Critiques are going well and I’m comfortably ahead again.

I continue to make progress on Arbor Grove, although the middle has been muddier and slower than I would like, and as a result I am still a few days behind on my word count. It feels like it’s going to need some trimming when it’s done.

Despite putting F-TIB at top priority last week, I didn’t actually work on revisions that much. I did ruminate on changes and parts that don’t quite feel right, but that doesn’t tend to feel as productive as fingers-on-keyboard work, even if it is sometimes a necessary step of the process.

Next Week

Beneath the House in Caen goes out for critique at the end of April. In order to try to make good progress on F-TIB before I have another story to revise, I’m going to make it my singular priority for the week.

Goals for next week:

1. Revise F-TIB.

Changing Things Up

Shocking as it is, we’re approaching the 1/3 mark for the year of 2026.

In writing the most recent update or two, I’ve begun to feel that these posts are becoming a little too rote. Rather than continuing to bore everyone, I thought it might be time for a change.

My reason for this series is partly to improve my habit of regular writing. Repetition develops habits, but it also breeds complacency. With that in mind, I’m going to try something new. Going forward, I’ll try to find a mini-topic of the week that relates to whatever I’ve been writing. I’ll still have the stats and goals to keep me motivated, but this bonus topic should give us some variety.

This Week’s Mini-Topic: Exploratory Writing

I’ve discussed exploratory writing before, and while I don’t begrudge writers who like to find their story as they write it, I’ve never considered myself one of them. It still makes me slightly nauseous to think about writing a novel without having a firm outline.

For the writers who insist this is the way they have to write, dead-ends, plot-holes, and heavy revisions are the cost of doing business. It just galls me to think about potentially throwing away whole chapters when something doesn’t work.

Admittedly, having an outline doesn’t guarantee that a scene or section will work. Planners can miss plot holes, and scenes can look good in summary only to die on the page. Still, outlining lets me feel that I have a fighting chance to catch a wide spectrum of issues up front, before I’ve wasted my precious time.

Only, that’s not entirely true anymore.

I’ve slowly come around to accepting (and maybe even enjoying) exploratory writing for short stories. The shorter I think the story should be, the happier I am to jump into it blind. This makes some sense, because I generally don’t outline short stories in the same way I would outline a novel. When a story is under three thousand words, a major rewrite doesn’t feel quite so unreasonable.

I also find that short stories, more than longer work, can run on an engine of mood, style, or a unique viewpoint. Plot can be less of a concern in a short story, even if I remain firmly against “plotless” fiction.

I draw the line at endings though. I might find a better ending than I thought, but I still don’t like to start a story without having some idea of how it could end. That’s just crazy talk.

This is week fifteen: Apr. 13-19.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 6
• Submissions Total: 15
• Rejections: 13
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

Last week’s goals:

1. Write ~2k words of Arbor Grove.
2. Revise F-TIB.

This was a fairly quiet week. I made good progress on Arbor Grove, but didn’t quite hit 2k. I revised F-TIB, but it still has a ways to go. I got a single form rejection for Taco Cat.

I also did some extra critiques this week. I’ve found that I tend to slack off on critiques when I don’t have a story in the queue (which luckily is not that often this year), so I’ve been trying to not only stay caught up, but get a little ahead. That way I’ll have some wiggle room when things come up and I have to miss a week.

Next Week

Even though I made progress this week, my goals for next week are essentially unchanged. However, I’m moving F-TIB into the top spot because it would be nice to get it ready for submission before Beneath the House in Caen goes out for critique at the end of April.

Goals for next week:

1. Revise F-TIB.
2. Write Arbor Grove.
3. More critiques!

Book | E-book | Audiobook (affiliate links)

Jeff VanderMeer has hovered at the top of my favorite authors list since I read Borne and Dead Astronauts. The Area X trilogy only cemented that position. I had understandably high hopes for his latest book, Hummingbird Salamander.

Hummingbird Salamander stays close to the modern day in a way that will feel familiar to William Gibson fans. There are science fiction elements, but they are very restrained compared to VanderMeer’s previous work.

Borne was almost Joycean in a way that made it a challenging read. Hummingbird Salamander is much more straightforward, even if VanderMeer can’t stop himself from adding literary flourishes. It comes across as more of a suspense/thriller story than anything he has written in recent years.

Eco-Terrorism and Generational Trauma

It’s not particularly hard to pick out the bigger themes running through VanderMeer’s work. Ecology is the most obvious. His stories explore the ways humans interact with the world around them, and how social and technological factors intertwine with the natural world. Area X seems to exist in a relatively near future where climate change continues apace and a mysterious section of coastline is hidden behind government claims of a localized ecological catastrophe. The Borne stories describe a far-flung future city where most of what survives is the result of extreme genetic manipulation.

In Hummingbird Salamander, humankind’s fraught relationship with nature is again front and center. The story begins with a note that leads the protagonist, Jane, to a storage unit. The note contains the words “Hummingbird” and “Salamander,” with some mysterious dots in between. The storage unit contains an actual, taxidermied hummingbird of a variety that turns out to be extinct. These clues lead Jane into a deadly mystery that involves poaching and the illegal wildlife trade, as well as eco-terrorism and organized crime.

Jane lives in an America that is on the brink. Extreme weather is normalized. Ecological collapse is commonplace. Pandemics are perpetually imminent. It turns out that society fails in more of a whimper than a bang, and most things in life are getting slowly, steadily worse. But people still have jobs, family, and lives. Jane has all of these things. She’s a private security analyst, a mother, and a wife. She stands out as an unusually tall, strong woman who has excelled at weight lifting and body building, but has an otherwise normal, middle-class existence.

Another common theme among VanderMeer books is generational trauma, and in some ways this is just ecology at an individual level. A family is an environment, and as our current world is shaped by the mistakes made by our forefathers and ancestors, our personal hangups and dysfunctions are shaped by those who raised us, and those who raised them.

Jane’s dysfunctions are revealed slowly in fragments and flashbacks, only becoming fully apparent in the final third of the book. In many ways, this is the story of everything she does wrong, and why.

Where it All Breaks Down

Hummingbird Salamander is a well-written book. It has rich and detailed characters, an interesting setting, and touches on timely topics. And after some consideration, I have to admit that it is the most unenjoyable VanderMeer book I have read. This book and I have irreconcilable differences, and they are, unfortunately, at the very heart of the story.

From the first chapters, Jane is obsessed with the hummingbird and the mystery it represents. And sure, there is a reason for why the two words on the note would be important to her. But even with all the answers that are eventually revealed, I can’t help but feel that her obsession is unreasonable.

I might be able to overlook that questionable motivation if I had some sympathy for Jane. But in spite of her horrible upbringing, I find it hard to root for her. There are a handful of moments in the book where Jane shows affection for her teenage daughter and long-suffering husband, but these seem like afterthoughts. These people are hindrances, distractions from her obsessive pursuit of the central mystery. When it becomes apparent that unraveling the mystery might be dangerous, she barely spares a thought about how that could impact her “loved” ones.

In the end, she makes choices that destroy her family and ruin their lives, but she can barely muster a moment of self-reflection or regret. Her coworkers are caught up in the maelstrom. Strangers are hurt and killed because of her. She simply doesn’t care. She gets tougher and meaner as the book goes on, but she was cold and indifferent to begin with.

I will admit, as a husband and father of a teenage daughter I may be especially well-positioned to dislike Jane and her choices. Other readers with different backgrounds might have an easier time identifying with her and sympathizing. I enjoy flawed characters. I just need them to have enough redeeming qualities to get me on their side.

All Cloud, no Silver Lining

I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’d say VanderMeer’s work shows a positive attitude or hope for the future, but the pessimism has never been as apparent as it is here. A straightforward reading suggests that we might have to hit rock-bottom (as individuals and as a species) before things will get better. And even then, they might not.

Jeff’s other work balances that dark and dismal worldview with genuine strangeness and wonder. There’s a reason he was one of the leading voices of the New Weird/Slipstream movement. His worlds are shadowy and unfamiliar, but also unexpectedly delightful. Nobody loves a tidal pool the way this man loves a tidal pool. He describes coastlines like French poets describe their lovers. Hell, in Borne, the post-apocalyptic city is effectively ruled by a kaiju-sized, magically levitating super-bear, and the scariest villain is a regular-sized (but very menacing) duck.

There’s almost none of that here. The drones have gotten a little fancier and the world’s gone to shit. No impossible sci-fi. No crazy weirdness. Just a mysterious note in a grim world that eventually leads to violence and heartbreak.

The Missed Twist

I don’t want to be too down on this book, and I’ve already gotten more negative than I really like. The fact is, I plowed through it, and I did want to know the answer to the mystery. I wanted to know how it all turned out. But the entire time I was reading, I kept waiting for the twist that would help me finally understand Jane and why she was doing all this.

That twist never came.

This is week fourteen: Apr. 6-12.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 7
• Submissions Total: 15
• Rejections: 12
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

It’s a double week, since I took a week off. It’s been quiet—not a single response to my submissions.

I had a single goal from week 12, and that was to get a story into the Critters queue.

The story that I had in mind went by the bland working title of Hunter’s Apprentice, and although I liked the idea and the general structure, it needed more tension/conflict. I added that in the form of the main character being less sure of the big choice she has to make, and I changed the title to Beneath the House in Caen, which I think is a much more evocative title.

That story is now off to the Critters queue, and should go out right around the end of the month.

Next Week

Lately, I’m finding that it’s pretty easy to hit my self-set revision quotas. Thanks to a backlog of first drafts, I have no shortage of stories to clean up and get critiqued, then thoroughly revise when the critiques roll in.

However, I have been falling behind on my word count goal for new stories. That needs to be remedied. I have a solarpunk story called Arbor Grove that I’ve just started, and I think that will be the target for this week.

Assuming I get that done, I need to work on the post-critique revisions of F-TIB.

Goals for next week:

1. Write ~2k words of Arbor Grove.
2. Revise F-TIB.

This is week twelve: Mar. 23-29.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 7
• Submissions Total: 15
• Rejections: 12
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

Another quick post this week, since I don’t have much to report.

My goals for last week were:

1. Get ahead on critiques.
2. Prep a story to queue up for Critters.

I did manage to get caught up on critiques, which was not quite as much work as I had anticipated. I always forget that the 75% ratio allows for roughly one week skipped per month.

I did not get a story ready for submission, but I’ve been knocking out one goal per week, so I guess I’ll make it my one goal and get it done next week.

Next Week

Goal:

1. Prep a story to submit to Critters.

I also have non-writing plans next week, so I’ll be taking a week off from my surprisingly consistent 2026 posting schedule. See you all in approximately two weeks!

I picked up the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition in anticipation of the the physical book release of the (somewhat confusingly-named) Secret World Special Edition for Savage Worlds. I have the D&D/d20 rules book, but I was not very satisfied with the way the Secret World mechanics came across in that—they seemed about as clunky as they could possibly be.

The main issue I had with the 5e rules is all the bookkeeping around archetypes, a system that Secret World introduces to give characters bundles of spells, proficiencies, features and special abilities. Characters trade out and gain access to more archetypes as they level up, and can swap their active archetype any time they rest.

D&D, as the default TTRPG system, has been used to run just about every kind of game, and the 5e SWL (perhaps grudgingly) is designed to allow that flexibility. But TTRPGs have trended toward lighter and less combat focused mechanics over the years. 5e is lighter than some earlier versions of D&D, but still a rules-heavy, “crunchy” system. I haven’t yet read through D&D Next/5.5e, but the impression I get is that it’s incremental adjustments to 5e, not a sea change.

My hope for Savage Worlds was a system with more adaptability than 5e—after all, it’s specifically designed to be a multi-setting, “generic” system.

I’ll note up front that I haven’t played a Savage Worlds session yet. These are just my first impressions from reading through the core book and doing a little online research.

Being Everything to Everyone

From what I’ve seen, there are a few styles of generic TTRPG system. Some “genericized” systems are based on a more specific system stripped of its setting and perhaps some setting-specific details. “Extensible” systems are usually much simpler and tend to be copied and modified/extended for new styles of play or settings. And “base layer” systems try to be truly generic for any setting, sometimes even to the point of including tables of weapons and skills that range from Stone Age to far-future.

D&D has accidentally become a genericized system that at least aspires to supporting all types of play, even though its native settings of Faerun and Greyhawk are both fantasy. The Cypher system has similar aspirations, but is really just Numenara and The Strange (and I’ve never personally encountered a group that played The Strange.)

Apocalypse World and Blades in the Dark are the two games I think of when it comes to extensible systems. They’ve spawned countless other games by virtue of the flexibility and simplicity of the Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark scaffolding.

Then there are the truly generic “base layer” systems. I often find that on first blush these are some of the least compelling core books on game store shelves. They have terrible names, like GURPS, and they lack strong settings, which tend to be what draws me into TTRPGs. These games are designed to change settings like changing clothes.

Savage Worlds is definitely a “base layer” system. From their catalogue, Deadlands is clearly their best-seller, but it does seem to just be a western-horror setting on top of Savage Worlds, not the expected default.

Assumptions vs. Reality

Going into the core rule book, I assumed that Savage Worlds would be less rules-heavy than D&D, unburden the GM, support grid combat and theater-of-the-mind equally, and make its rules modular for easy swapping. I found that some of these assumptions were accurate, and some were definitely not.

It is quickly apparent that the system is very crunchy, and combat rules are designed first and foremost for grid-based miniatures-based combat. A full set of TTRPG dice are used, although it seems that d20s are rarely used.

There are tables full of equipment and vehicles, past, present, and future. Armor and injuries are body-part specific.

The system does try to limit the headaches for GMs. The most complicated bit seems to be resolving actions and attacks, with rolls for hit, rolls for damage, calculations for armor, exploding dice, and extra “wild dice” for player characters and important villains. But ordinary henchmen and bad guys are simplified, and there is no HP to track. Characters are either up, shaken, wounded or incapacitated.

This simplified damage system seems like it will have a lot of knock-on effects. Damage will be swingy, with attacks either doing effectively nothing, or rapidly removing the character from combat.

Bennies

The other very important system that’s somewhat unique to Savage Worlds is Bennies. Short for “benefits,” these are tokens that can be used for soaking damage, recovering from shaken status, re-rolling dice, and various other things.

My initial impression of Bennies was that they are a bigger, better version of D&D Inspiration. However, where Inspiration has an occasional impact on the game, it sounds like Bennies are a constant, central mechanic of Savage Worlds. Because combat can be so swingy, Bennies give players and GM a direct way to push back and change outcomes. Unlike the singleton Inspiration, Bennies are a pool of tokens, and managing them is key to success.

Flexibility

The system does a decent job of making the rules modular. There are five pages of core combat rules, and thirteen pages of separate, more situational rules. Specialized systems are presented for chases, dramatic tasks like bomb diffusing or safe cracking, horror/fear, mass battles, info-seeking/investigation, and more. Any of these could be easily swapped out.

“Powers” provide a scaffolding for magic in settings that have it, but can also be used for super powers, cybernetics, psionics, or anything similar.

The Usual Complaints

As is typical with TTRPG core books, I find the layout frustrating. Why does the Gear chapter come before the two Rules chapters? Is it because equipment is needed for character creation? But powers will also be needed, and that chapter comes later…

The book also fails to properly highlight the importance of certain mechanics. I only began to understand the importance of Bennies and the flow of combat when I ventured online to try to resolve some of the confusion the book had left me with.

These things would also be more obvious with the inclusion of some examples. I have long maintained that any core book should include at least a brief example adventure and some accounts of what the flow of actual play looks like. Sadly, many games outsource the actual play to randos on YouTube, where it can be difficult to tell if you’ve found a good example or not. Pinnacle at least offers some free “test drives” in multiple genres on their website.

Conclusions

While there are things I like and dislike so far about Savage Worlds, I’m withholding any judgement until I get a chance to GM it. Since I’m mainly interested in the system for Secret World, the quality of those additions will be a factor. I do think there are some interesting ideas here, and I may try the test drive adventures to get a feel for what carries over between settings, and what differs.

If you’ve played this latest edition of Savage Worlds, leave a comment and let me know what the experience was like. I’ll post an update when I get my paws on the Secret World Special Edition book and have a chance to try it out.

This is week eleven: Mar. 16-22.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 8
• Submissions Total: 15
• Rejections: 11
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

My goals for last week were:

1. Prep a story to queue up for Critters.
2. Start the post-Critters revisions for F-TIB.
3. Get ahead on critiques.

This was a quiet week on the writing front. IN the end, I received over twenty critiques and responses to my story, F-TIB. I suspect this is partly because it’s right in the sweet spot for Critters—long enough to count for full credit, but not much longer.

The feedback was mostly very good, but there is so much that it took a good chunk of my weekend to begin to catalog it and think about what I want to do in revisions.

I did not get ahead on critiques, and while I know which story I will submit next, it needs more work before I throw it to the wolves.

Submissions and Responses

I received two rejections this week: one for The Incident at Pleasant Hills and one for Taco Cat. I spent some time searching new publications to send them to, and found two for each story. So out they go again.

Next Week

Since I didn’t get through my goals last week, they will carry over to next week. I am going to let F-TIB sit for at least a week to give the feedback a chance to

Goals for next week:

1. Get ahead on critiques.
2. Prep a story to queue up for Critters.

Since I’m taking the time to write it all down, I figured I might as well put it out as a resource for anyone else who is interested in digging a little deeper. (As usual, I’m providing Bookshop.org affiliate links where possible – these support me and local bookstores.)

It’s interesting to note that most of the solarpunk fiction I’ve found so far is anthologized short stories—fitting considering my renewed focus on short fiction this year.

Short Fiction

• Solarpunk Magazine
• Reckoning: creative writing on environmental justice (magazine)
• Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World (2018 English edition of the original Brazilian anthology)
• Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco Speculation (anthology)
• Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters (anthology)
• Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers (anthology)
• The Weight of Light: A Collection of Solar Futures (free anthology)
• Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology
• Beyond and Within – Solarpunk: Short Stories from Many Futures (anthology)
• Future Primitive: The New Ecotopias (anthology)
• Solarpunk Creatures (anthology)
• Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures (anthology)
• Bright Green Futures (anthology)
• Ecolution: Solarpunk Narratives to Transform Reality (anthology)
• Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures (anthology)

Novels

• Wilders (Project Earth book 1)
• Keepers (Project Earth book 2)
• Monk and Robot (A Psalm for the Wild-Built + A Prayer for the Crown-Shy)
• A Diary in the Age of Water
• The Tower Through the Trees

(Retroactively Categorized as Solarpunk)

• Always Coming Home
• The Dispossessed
• Ecotopia
• Pacific Edge (Three Californias)
• The Fifth Sacred Thing

Articles and Essays

• Solarpunk – Notes Toward a Manifesto
• Solarpunk: A Container for More Fertile Futures
• Solarpunk Anarchists

Posts and Lists

• Land of Masks and Jewels – Here’s a thing I’ve had around in my head for a while
• Solarpunk: A Reference Guide
• Reddit – r/solarpunk

Related

• Wikipedia – Jugaad
• Wikipedia – Guerrilla Gardening
• Wikipedia – Punk subculture

This is week ten: Mar. 9-15.

Stats

• Stories Finished: 2
• Submissions Currently Out: 6
• Submissions Total: 11
• Rejections: 9
• Acceptances: 0

Goals and Results

My goals for last week were:

1. Get my Critters ratio in the green by Wednesday.
2. Catch up on my word count goal, and possibly finish the first draft of Out of Towner.
3. Submit Taco Cat.

I had a story in the Critters queue, and I needed to get my ratio up to ensure it went out. I got that done early in the week, the story went out, and the feedback has been steadily coming in.

I haven’t finished Out of Towner, but I’ve made some good progress. I think the story probably needs another 500 words or so to wrap it up. I’ll see if I can get to that this week. I also wrote a few hundred words of a solarpunk idea that may or may not go anywhere. Either way, I’m happy to now be well ahead of my word count and editing goals for March.

Submissions and Responses

I had a form rejection for my drabble Tom, Dick, and Larry, which I sent out to a drabble-specific themed issue. I have a couple of these 100 word stories knocking around, but I mostly only send them out these days when I see a flash fiction theme that fits them.

I also received a personalized rejection for The Incident at Pleasant Hills. I’ve been submitting this story for a while now, and while it has gotten positive feedback a couple of times, it just hasn’t gotten across the finish line. I think it’s a good story that will eventually find a home, so I sent it out again.

I also sent out a pair of submissions for Taco Cat Employee Manual. That keeps it active and covers goal #3 for the week.

Next Week

The Critters’ critiques of my story, F-TIB, will finish rolling in by Wednesday. At that point, I’ll have a bunch of notes to work through. I will also want to get another story in the queue as quickly as possible. I think the next one on the docket is called Hunter’s Apprentice. I’ll need to read through it a few times and try to get it as polished as possible (for a draft that only a couple people have read).

I’d also like to get one or two critiques ahead. I didn’t enjoy having a tight deadline to get those done so my story would go out. Getting ahead makes that less of a concern.

Goals for next week:

1. Prep a story to queue up for Critters.
2. Start the post-Critters revisions for F-TIB.
3. Get ahead on critiques.

When I finally picked up an actual solarpunk anthology at my local Half-Price Books, the introduction sent me spiraling down an Internet rabbit hole. I found myself with 30 tabs of solarpunk open, at least that many already combed through, and a small pile of dead links and dead ends.

The term solarpunk is now more than a decade old, but it still exists in the periphery, the outskirts and wild country of sci-fi, futurism, fashion, and politics. It may be a short-lived idea that never achieves critical mass. Only time will tell if it’s something that has actually taken root and begun to grow.

As evidence of this tenuous position, I submit most articles, posts, and papers that mention solarpunk. The vast majority are just like this one: explanations that attempt to answer “What is it, really?”

And yet, there is a cult following. Among this small cohort, there is clearly a hunger for more of this genre and aesthetic. There appears to be a demand that far outstrips the supply (a couple anthologies, small online magazines, and a smattering of discourse).

I’d love to talk about where solarpunk might go, and how it can grow and gain traction. But I’ll have to save that for later posts. First, I have to start where everyone starts. What is solarpunk?

Origins

The first piece of Solarpunk literature generally cited is Solarpunk: Historias Ecologicas e Fantasticas em um Mundo Sustentavel—a 2013 Brazilian anthology, first published in English in 2018.

Another widely cited early work is a Tumblr post that popularized the term on that platform. The tag now has 20k followers.

Solarpunk – Notes Toward a Manifesto is a somewhat more academic treatment of the nascent movement and the ideas that influence it.

The Aesthetics of Solarpunk

There aren’t any. Not really.

Well, okay, that’s just my personal position. Others will disagree.

There aren’t any. Not really. This is my position. Others will disagree.

Plants and nature have an obvious place in it. Stained glass and art nouveau have been proposed as a component. Reclaimed and recycled materials, decomposable and natural materials; metal, glass, fabric, stone and wood. Less plastic. Or the polar opposite of Apple’s design philosophies.

A fair amount of ink has been spilled trying to corral an aesthetic, but these attempts often come at it from the wrong direction. You can’t start with an aesthetic and then back into a genre from there. The recognizable elements of cyberpunk and steampunk were distilled from many examples of those genres.

I’d argue that there simply aren’t enough popular examples of solarpunk to achieve the critical mass needed for generally agreed-upon aesthetics to emerge. That’s okay. It’s exciting. The field is still wide open, and resonant ideas still have a chance to shape what the genre might become.

The Politics of Solarpunk

If the “punk” in cyberpunk and steampunk ever held any political connotations, I would argue that they have long been ground down and worn out. The philosophy of cyberpunk is largely nihilistic: a wildly unequal world full of wealth disparity, desperation, and hopelessness, where the unification of corporate greed and governmental control has made the rich practically unassailable. If I were a cynic, I might say it’s a slightly grimier, neon-lighted version of the world we appear to be living in.

The politics of steampunk is anachronistic Victorian British, which isn’t much better.

Solarpunk might have more right to claim “punk” than its older siblings. It has an inherently political core: a belief that the average Joe has the duty to fight back against the status quo, that the system dominated by corporatism, greed, indifference to human rights, and ecological catastrophe must be overthrown. It’s a belief in individualism and self-sufficiency, but also in local small communities, human- and environmentally-conscious economics, and grassroots support systems.

This is a modern twist on the original punk movement of the 70s and 80s, strongly anti-authority and inherently suspicious of both government and corporatism. Wild and chaotic, but also joyful in a way that only people living on the edge of desperation can be.

Solarpunk currently has a streak of willful nonviolence (at least toward people). This, perhaps, runs contrary to the punk ethos that if The Man is going to push you down, you had better go down swinging, and knock some of his teeth out along the way. I suspect there might be a real audience for a rougher, more violent strain of eco-fiction like this, but I’m not sure it could call itself solarpunk.

The Challenges of Writing Solarpunk

The first challenge, as you might already suspect, is trying to define the boundaries of the genre and writing within them. Solarpunk invites you to choose your own adventure, and then find out whether others think you’ve hit the mark.

The second, and much bigger problem, I feel, is that solarpunk strives for a utopic vision, and utopias are dangerously boring. Nobody wants to read a story where all the challenges and difficulties have been smoothed out. That’s why so many utopias turn out to be dystopias once the protagonist discovers a few nasty truths.

Luckily, the road to utopia is rough, and there are plenty of solarpunk stories to be told along the way. I see the best place for solarpunk stories living in the time between the present and some glorious, distant future.

That brings us to the third challenge: imagining solutions to very hard, very real problems. We don’t live in a solarpunk utopia today because there are daunting technological, societal, political, and economic challenges that prevent it. Those conflicts and tensions are fertile ground for stories, but they also require some serious thought about how we should try to overcome them.

The soft sci-fi of technobabble problems and technobabble solutions don’t work well here. The readers of today are all too familiar with climate change, oligopoly, and enshittification. A story that proposes half-hearted or unrealistic solutions to these modern woes will fall flat. It’s not easy to imagine solutions (or even battle tactics) that feel plausible. And yet, this is one of the great delights of science fiction, and a reason why the genre continues to inspire the real future. People use stories to make sense of the world.

Future Positive

I hope this brief introduction has whet your appetite for more. Although it’s young, solarpunk strikes me as a genre that is shockingly well-suited to the current moment. We don’t need the nihilism of cyberpunk or the escapist fantasy of steampunk. We need something grounded and fighting mad.

Solarpunk takes the energy and anti-authority attitude of classic punk, and marries it with determined optimism and ethical technology. It is a rebuttal to the world outside the window, and an opportunity to imagine better futures.