I write a lot of Shadowrun material. The game, originated in the late 80’s/early 90’s takes on the idea of cyberpunk and asks, ‘what happens if I throw in some Tolkien-esque races and a whole lot of magic?’ The result is a super-interesting blend of ideas that all operate under the umbrella of corporate overreach. In my writings I generally focus on one location or another. Over the years I’ve written about Bellevue, WA quite a few times without having any real understanding of the Belle from the standpoint of what it is like in real life or how to extrapolate a possible corporate-driven future from that location.
So, I came to see what was up.
I missed a lot. I got a lot more wrong. The stuff I got right feels coincidental at this point; a merger of sociological background information with assumptions based on living in New York and Long Island and merging those competing philosophies into a ‘what-if?’ scenario.
Real-life Bellevue feels like what Scottsdale AZ would be if it got it’s act together, recruited smart rich people instead of athletes, smarmy first gen trust fund babies, and new money and existed in a space where the land allowed for prodigious corporate growth. Eddie Baur has an office building here. As does Microsoft and a number of other organizations. More to the point the city works. It has a functional transit system that joins a number of small neighborhoods into a patois that feels like a series of interconnected places you are welcome to visit. It is diverse. It is actually a nice place to be… If you can afford it.
Which I cannot, by the way.
Some Thoughts:
- I am starting to appreciate the nature of first drafts and writing through an outline even though you know what you are creating is not exactly what you want it to be. You have to get that bad writing and bad plotting out of your system to create room for what is to come. Moreover, happy accidents occur throughout that portion of the process and perhaps those accidents are what make for fantastic story.