Snapshot

We needed the story to be near-future instead, with a normal technological curve—except for one or two hyperfantastical pieces of technology. And that felt exactly like something I’d already done, with the Reckoners. Changing this from a scientific origin to instead a fantastical (superhero) one solved this problem.

This is the sort of thing I talk about when I explain to readers the difference between what I perceive as a science fiction writer (someone who tries to realistically extrapolate the future) and a fantasy writer (someone who comes up with an interesting effect to explore, then justifies it with worldbuilding).

In the end, both are trying to explore what it means to be human. One starts with what we have, and works forward to reach something interesting, then extrapolates the ramifications. The other starts with the interesting thing, then asks how this could have come about. That’s obviously not a catch-all definition, but it has worked for me as one way to explore the genres.

Anyway, Snapshot turned out very well. I’m particularly fond of the subtle intertwining of the three investigations: Chaz and Davis hunting the serial killer, the reader’s growing understanding of what Davis is planning, and the other Snapshot detectives investigating Davis. These overlap with the three timelines. The Davis/Chaz timeline, the future they think they’re from, and the future beyond that that the real detectives are from.

In reading this, I assume that the reader is going to guess that Davis himself isn’t real. (The protagonist turning out not to be real is a staple of this genre—from Blade Runner to The Sixth Sense.) My goal is to use that twist as the one the reader is expecting, so that when Davis raises the gun to kill Chaz, you’re completely blindsided—because you’ve been focused all along on the question of whether or not Davis is real. I wish I’d been able to reverse the surprises, so the one you’re expecting (that he’s not real) comes first, and then you’re hit with the deeper twist, that he’s planning to kill his partner. (And did kill his partner, in the real timeline.)

This never worked in my plotting or outlining, so I had to be satisfied with the current order of events, which I do think works. Particularly because I could end with the lights going out mid-sentence.

Brandon Sanderson