Trills and Writers
They both got the bug. Essay, 1,000 words (5-minute read).
Trills and Writers
By Ray Tabler
In the Star Trek series Deep Space Nine, there was an alien species called the Trill. In the photo are a couple of them, Jadzia, and Erzi. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that this is an image of nine or ten different Trills. Because it’s a unique aspect of Trill biology that some of them carry about a slug-like symbiote creature in an abdominal cavity. The symbiote was named Dax. So, the characters above were formally named Jadzia Dax and Erzi Dax, to indicate they had a passenger on board.
To further complicate matters, the “joined” Trills formed a shared mind with their symbiote, plus the memories of all of the previous hosts. The symbiotes lived a lot longer than the hosts, so Erzi was host number nine for Dax. All of those extra personalities in Jadzia’s, then Erzi’s, head was drama gold for the writers of DS-9, and they milked it for all it was worth. I don’t blame them.
Jadzia Dax was a founding character for the series, but she [SPOILER ALERT] died in the season 6 finale episode. Because, plot (and possibly creative differences and/or salary negotiations). Jadzia died, but Dax lived, and needed a new host. In a hurry, as it turned out. Erzi was the only nearby Trill available. And, Dax took up residence with about 15 minutes notice.
Now, the official story was that only 1 in 1,000 Trills were compatible with symbiotes, and even then, demand to be joined far exceeded supply of symbiotes. The truth was, however, something like half of the Trill population could do the job. The Trills who ran things cultivated this lie to avoid even more fierce competition for the limited number of symbiotes. More fodder for drama there.
The lie that very few Trills could host a symbiote always struck me as particularly crass example of hypocrisy, on the part of the powers that be. When faced with an inconvenient fact, they chose a cover up instead of honesty. Maybe it started out as a way to keep the peace. But it looks to me that it evolved into a way to exert control. Opinions may vary, and that’s okay. If nothing else, DS-9 was always a bountiful source of debate.
For me, the myth that few Trills could host a symbiote always echoed the, in my view, myth that very few people can write. It is true that not many people in today’s world write, fiction or non-fiction. But, just like the Trill, I think that many more could. Writing is story-telling, whether that story is made-up or real. And we have been telling stories around the campfire for countless generations. The skill is literally bred into us.
Like any skill, though, it needs to be practiced, or it will atrophy. Science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle famously maintained that almost anyone could produce salable fiction with enough practice. Pournelle estimated that threshold at 1 million words. Of course, most things regarding people fall into a bell-shaped distribution curve. Pournelle’s short hand indicates that the peak of this curve is about 1 million words. There are people on the blessed tail of the curve who will figure it all out at 500,000, or even 100,000 words. Or rare cases might sit down and type excellent prose from the very start. Conversely, some poor unfortunate souls will never generate anything but unreadable dreck no matter how long they persist. Brutal, but that’s the way things are.
Like joined Trills, writers have got the bug, the writing bug. Removing the symbiote from a Trill causes the Trill to die. There’s no way to extract writing from the writer, however. I suppose a lobotomy might do the trick. They might stop publishing. They might even stop typing. But they can’t stop writing, mentally. A random image, occurrence, or thought will trigger world and/or character building. There’s a PhD thesis awaiting some ambitious biochemist who will study this phenomenon. What parts of the brain are involved? Which endorphins are released?
We currently live in the Trill elites’ nightmare. With the advent of laptop computers, word processing software, desktop publishing, and the internet, hurdles to being a writer are lower than they have ever been. If you want to be an author there is absolutely nothing to stop you but the will to sit down and start typing, and keep at it. The expense of paper to type on and postage to submit to publishers isn’t a factor any longer either. All it costs is dragooning some electrons into sitting in a certain pattern on your hard drive. Oh, and the thickness of skin to tolerate rejection. Take it from me, the willingness to learn from that rejection helps immensely as well.
That said, writing well enough that people want to read your output is one thing. Writing well enough to make money at it is something else entirely. And writing well enough to make a living at stitching words to paper is a long step beyond that. Full disclosure, don’t listen to any advice I might provide about writing for a living. Still working that part out. There are plenty of people on this platform and others who can help if this is your ambition. Of course, sifting the ones who actually know what they’re talking about from those who don’t can be difficult.
I utilized the oversupply of Trills and the shortage of symbiotes as an analogy for the stranglehold publishers had on writers. But the analogy falls short, because they didn’t have a way to produce more symbiotes. We sort of do. Anyone can publish their own work these days, for very little, perhaps no, money. True, getting anyone to read your work is still a challenge. Currently there are more than 8 billion people sprinkled around the dry parts of this planet. And, according to Wikipedia, better than 85 % of them can read. Keep at it, and somewhere in that big number, you’ll find somebody interested in what you have to say.
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Check out my novels at Novus Mundi Publishing, or just order them directly from Amazon:
A Grand Imperial Heir (sequel to A Grand Imperial War)
And visit my website, https://raytabler.com/, for Science Fiction You Can Enjoy!
I’ve been writing seriously for about 10 years and working on my third novel, though nothing published yet. I think my current novel is publishable but I still have more work to do. I gave up on any fantasy of making money with my writing, though I recently retired and now have both more time and more money to support my writing. For me the important thing is to publish well and connect with readers. I’ve had too many writer friends publish badly. By this I mean books that weren’t ready or they chose tiny presses that folded a year later. My goal is to publish with a small press so I can get the professional help I need vs self publishing. For now I’m focused on writing the best military political techno-thrillers I can, paying to have them professionally edited, and trying to find my audience. Mostly, I’m that stubborn guy who won’t quit.
Jadzia was my favorite character and I was beyond pissed when she died. It seemed so pointless.
May “the bug” be with me today! Got a chapter to write.