Christian D. Horst
Author
Hi! I'm a science fiction writer in training. My vision is to create stories that pull readers into the characters, make them laugh, cry, curse existence, and overcome the greatest of challenges. I aim to pull back the curtain on our everyday lives and reveal the wonder and mystery all around us, which modern life blinds us to. My stories stand on my Three Pillars: Characters, Setting, and Theme, which bolster each other to make the strongest experiences possible.
My Work
Don't get me wrong, I would love to present you a sample of my writing. But I am still in training! Yes, I used to have sample chapters on this site, but with my current skill, the thought of sharing that garbage makes me cringe in pain.
To me, writing is a lifelong endeavor. My goal is not to make money or tally up followers, but to create good art. And that takes time.
Rest assured that when I do have something I am proud to share, be it a published story or a sample scene, you will find it here.
Three Pillars of Storytelling
Characters
The most powerful and important element of a story is characters with real-feeling desires, hopes, fears, and relationships. Furthermore, the readers need to feel connected to these characters.
Showing their emotions instead of telling is not enough. Showing gives us an external view as if we are watching a movie. The strength of prose is that it can give us an internal view of the character, letting us live through their eyes, feel the story through their emotions.
Setting
Let's be real, the draw of sci-fi is its fantastical dreams of the future and the universe beyond our civilization. Whether it's pushing boldly into the final frontier with spaceships that travel faster than light, the fear of cyber technology eroding our humanity, meeting alien cultures with different biology and history, or just pushing known science to the limits of imagination, sci-fi thrives in the bizarre places beyond our normal experience.
That is why I put plenty of work into my settings, making sure the places my characters go and the technologies and cultures they encounter are brimming with sci-fi goodness.
Theme
Although theme may not be the first thing on a reader's mind, it is the spirit that makes the difference between a story that sticks with us forever and one that is tossed on the shelf to be forgotten.
My goal with themes is to bring magic and wonder back to our modern, materialist lives. Too often, it feels like the big mysteries are all but solved, with scientists and philosophers dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Yet the voice in my mind keeps asking what's next? what is knowledge after science? What is communication after language? What is meaning after nihilism?
Sci-fi is the perfect medium to explore themes like this through the struggles and triumphs of relatable characters in mind-bending places.
Science & Sci-Fi
with Chris Horst
A few years back, I brought my knowledge of physics and passion for storytelling to YouTube. Here are a few examples.
