Snarky answer: why not?
Less snarky: I wish I’d spent years thinking about psychology and how I could work related concepts into fiction novel format. If only this were all part of a larger, well-conceived advance plan. But the truth is more serendipity than preparation.
In December 2017, I decided to write a novel. I knew it needed to be a) conceptual, and b) contain multiple layers of meaning. After researching potential concepts, I settled on synchronicity because it was interesting and had a backstory to it.
The fixation on psychology wasn’t random, of course. I’ve long found the subject fascinating. Who wouldn’t? I took a couple classes in college and my “Biological Psychology” textbook gathers dust on my bookshelf to this day. Frankly, I can’t understand a disinterest in psychology; it’s so fundamental to who we are and how we behave. But the decisions to work specific psychology themes into a novel, and to make Dr. C.G. Jung a primary character, evolved as the ideas did.
Development of the Themes in Psycons & Grace
With synchronicity in mind, I started reading more about Jung. He’s quite the historical character, probably under-appreciated today, a victim of the scientism movement in psychology over its philosophical groundings. Not that he made his ideas hard to dismiss, focusing on alchemy when war and nuclear physics were shaping society. But Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, for example, raises excellent questions about key characteristics of human behavior and the psyche. Even if it doesn’t effectively answer those questions, it is an important contributing idea. Though the collective unconscious has yet to make a major appearance in Psycons & Grace, the series isn’t done yet…
The ideas in the collective unconscious kept me reading, which ultimately led me to alchemy. As the pseudo-science of transformation, alchemy was an obvious next step in the series after the plot resolution in “Synchronicity.” Thus, the discovery of synchronicity‘s viability was woven into my first novel about the discovery of oneself (with tantalizing near-discovery of a threat to humanity). In the second novel, the pseudo-science of transformation becomes the model for transformation in the main characters’ lives. And there’s a lot of transformation in “Alchemy,” both psychological and gnostic.
See why I like this?
What I’ve left out is the contribution of the prequel novella, which you can get for free by joining my Band of Misfits mailing list. Until I wrote “Demergence,” I was still uncertain about major plot points for “Synchronicity”. The finished first draft of “Synchronicity” was underwhelming when it came to Travis’s motivating force. Why did he act the way he did? What would cause him to act in the future? “Demergence” did me the favor of clarifying the backstory of Travis’s father, Marty, which gave Travis the motivation he required.
I wasn’t entirely sure where “Demergence” was going when I wrote it, but the finished product was exactly what it was supposed to be. While not a Jungian concept, emergence is important in philosophy and thinking about its opposite clarified the over-arching series plot. Writing “Demergence” also forced me to re-think the middle of “Synchronicity,” making the latter a much better book. (OK, if we’re being honest, I probably cut half the book out and re-wrote it during the multiple editing passes. That’s painful. Cutting hurts.)
So that’s where we are today in Psycons & Grace. As a source of ideas for plotting a science/urban fantasy series, Jung and his writings are a thick vein of gold in a mountain of rock. It’s a lot of digging, but it’s worth it. That’s your insight into what propels me through this series, and why my novels are centered on psychology. I hope you enjoy reading Psycons & Grace as much as I enjoy writing it!