When Star Wars Feels More Real Than a 9 to 5

There’s a reason why stories like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, or even The Hunger Games are set in such distant lands. We can’t feasibly imagine these dreamy quests and dangerous stakes in our modern society. It isn’t just the worlds—the Hunger Games sometimes feels like it’s coming closer and closer; rather, it’s the characters that create these better-than-here realities.

Imagine this: Harry Potter, but the main character is Ron Weasley’s dad.
Your story would certainly include magical elevators and talking cats, but only because these are the obstacles Mr. Weasley may face on his way to a dimly lit cubicle at the center of bureaucracy.

Doesn’t sound too appealing, does it?

All of these stories may very well have the dimmest, darkest settings and still be as engaging as we desire—so long as there is an engaging life that is being lived. Ask yourself: what do you consider an engaging life? Is it a simple life, filled with farming and small-town community? Is it rebellion, and fighting against an existential threat? You probably read stories that follow similar landscapes. Why is it, then, that you get stressed when these stories come close to reality? Why are you too nervous to stop on the side of the road and help the stranger with the flat tire?

Is it because you’re afraid of what that stranger with the clearly broken-down car may do to you while hundreds of commuters pass you by and watch your every move? Or perhaps you don’t want to be late to that coveted office job and fear what your boss may say while you explain your heroic act.

What is it that you’re actually afraid of here? A little bit of living? The fear of losing that job? That one is understandable, but if everyone helped those broken-down strangers, well, you can’t fire everyone.

I recently re-watched Rogue One, one of my favorite movies of all time. I love it so much because, as strange as it sounds, I relate to it. Maybe it’s nothing more than my ancestral caveman blood wanting to topple an immense, looming threat.

Is that so bad?

We’ve been conditioned to believe that a sedentary, tech-heavy life is the good life. Simultaneously, our mental health cumulatively is deteriorating. I personally accredit this to our lack of real purpose in our modern jobs, in these sedentary ideals. When I wrote Solbound, it felt like something more than just sedentary typing and staring at a computer screen. As many authors understand, I was in that world, defeating enemies and fighting an evil ringleader. I could heal old wounds through the characters I wrote in a way that I’d never do by making a PowerPoint presentation. That’s why I write, and also why I read, watch TV, and enjoy distant stories—they’re distant from this modern dystopia. They give me purpose. Stories give us purpose.

This is a sad reality, nonetheless. Sometimes I hope that we can collectively snap out of this psychosis and I won’t feel the need to write fictional stories anymore, or at least to see my friends, family, and of course myself, living so distantly together.

U.S. citizens spend an average of 7 hours and 3 minutes staring at screens every day, with young adults reaching 8.8 hours a day. How much of that is at office jobs? More importantly, how much of that is on things that we enjoy? Things we want to do?

I don’t personally enjoy scrolling through Bluesky, Instagram, or a news app because I enjoy it, but because I’ve trapped myself into thinking it’s what I should do.

Rather than giving myself a break from the onslaught of tech, I tuck myself into it, exhaust myself, and then find myself too stressed to give a cup of sugar or even play with my cat.

Perhaps it’s increasingly becoming the norm.

This drain isn’t something we can just snap out of. It takes time. Replacing a bad habit with a good one would be easier. What we can be more mindful of are our actions.

Ask yourself—why am I re-watching Rogue One?
Is it because I need a thrill, an escape from this more real dystopia?
If so, what can I do to be Jyn Erso or Cassian Andor?
How do I bring Rogue One to reality?

(Maybe don’t do that one… Can’t say I have much power against a Death Star.)

Writing Exercise

Create two mirroring plots in two vastly different worlds. One is set in an exciting, awe-inspiring fantasy, and one in an office complex.

Do not change any of the characters’ names, roles, or personalities. Instead, bring a bit of thrill to finding the office’s one missing stapler—also known as the Fuser of Runes.

See just how different, yet similar, these stories come out and share them with me if you’d like!