Writers, how many of you have had this problem: An idea that’s really cool but has no thematic connection to your material? Gotta put it in there, it’s too cool not to, but too many things inserted for style at the expense of structure and you end up with a pretty yet discordant mess. Nice to look at, but threaded with meaninglessness to the point that it hurts your brain. On the other hand, if all you do is have structure but no sparkle, your writing becomes as dry as reading a road map. Organized, well laid out, and utterly boring.

The Exo-Suit started as a pure indulgence in my love of robotic suits. I’m writing sci-fi, why not throw in a robot suit? Certainly not a stretch. Other than my love of giant robots, there was no other motivation. Luckily, as my story evolved, I was able to inject thematic significance. The Regime is symbolic of a dark age where the ruling power prefers the outward over the inward, why not make the Exo representative of that? In so doing, I created multiple layers of the Exo, each more cumbersome than the last. Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading about it. Here it is: https://dirtyscifibuddha.com/echo-glossary-of-concepts/