Winging It
| Star Traks: Waystation | |
| Episode name | Winging It |
|---|---|
| Season | Stardate 58--- |
| Episode number | 2 |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker |
| Year | 2381 |
| Stardate | Unknown |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | And They're Off |
| Next in series | Waypoint Harbor |
| Previous in timeline | Happy Trails [VEX] |
| Next in timeline | The Ballistic Substitute [VEX] |
Since her arrival on Waystation, Dr. Diantha has done her off-standish best to avoid getting involved in the lives of the rest of the crew. But now she needs a favor, and Lieutenant Commander Sean Russell is going to find himself involved in her life whether he likes it or not.
Summary
Featuring
- Captain Lisa Beck
- Commander Walter Morales
- Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter
- Lieutenant Commander Sean Russell
- Yeoman Tina Jones
- Dr. Diantha
- Bradley Dillon
Also Featuring
Author's Comments
I suppose that you would call this one a bit of metafiction, fiction about writing fiction. Traks has always had a slightly-intrusive narrative voice, but "Winging It" took that idea a lot farther than I ever had before. But it's the last run of short stories; it's as good of a time as any to try something a bit different.
I wish I could claim that this was my plan all the way along. To be honest, though, I originally intended for the story to be a regular story about Diantha and her background. The opening came easily, and I zipped right along up to the scene in the mall where Russell gets grabbed when I just stopped.
And I mean stopped. I didn't touch the story for a couple of weeks. This is usually a sign that something is very wrong. It took me a while, but I finally figured out what the problem was: the plotline didn't interest me at all. Now I don't exactly get paid for writing Traks, so if I'm not having fun, I'm not going to do it. I needed to go back and rethink things.
The rethinking wasn't going very well. Everything I came up with felt done. The breakthrough finally happened while I was laying awake in an uncomfortable motel bed somewhere in Virginia. Not to sound schizophrenic, but I had a conversation with myself very similar to the one that's in the final story. And that's when I had the idea to make the story about the process of writing a story (at least to an extent). Now that was fun to write.