What Writing a Novel Taught Me About Life, Loss, and Legacy

When I started writing Galaxy’s Child, I thought I was building a universe. I didn’t realize it would also help me make sense of my own.

Writing science fiction may look like it’s all warp drives, alien encounters, and distant galaxies. But at its core, Galaxy’s Child isn’t only about faster-than-light travel or advanced civilizations. It’s about something far more personal, loss, resilience, and what we leave behind.

Because like any story worth telling, mine didn’t come from a textbook. It came from lived experience.

The Personal Side of a Space Odyssey

Over the years, life handed me more than a few challenges. I lost people I loved. I made mistakes. I learned what it feels like to fall short of your own expectations. And slowly, those life lessons found their way into the book.

Philip Anders, my protagonist, isn’t just trying to outrun the speed of light, he’s trying to outrun his own past.

Ava isn’t just a mystery, she’s a reflection of the way we sometimes hide who we truly are to protect ourselves.

Dany and Mike represent a mentor’s strength, the cost of courage, and the people we never forget.

None of that was planned in an outline. It emerged from life.

Writing Is Discovery

Writing this novel, and mapping out the trilogy, forced me to examine what I truly value.

Not just as a writer, but as a person. I realized I wasn’t writing to impress. I was writing to connect. To leave something behind. Not a legacy of “look what I built,” but a whisper that says, “I’ve felt this too.”

Sci-Fi Isn’t just about the future, It’s About us. The best science fiction, in my opinion, doesn’t try to predict technology. It explores what kind of people we’ll be when we get there. It’s easy to get swept up in the tech, and believe me, I love the science. But what stayed with me through this process wasn’t how to design an FTL drive. It was watching characters grow under pressure, wrestle with choices, and fight for something bigger than themselves.

In Galaxy’s Child, the stars are vast, but the heart of the story is human. And maybe that’s the point. In a universe full of infinite possibilities, our greatest strength will always be each other.

Have your own thoughts about life and legacy in sci-fi? I’d love to hear them. Drop a comment, send me a note, or just share the post if it speaks to you.