The Steampunk Boiler Room

So I have been working on a major overhaul of a piece ("Mechanics of the World"), and I am having a very healthy debate with myself about whether there needs to be some sort of "action" in the story. I ponder this because the vast majority of the longer works that I have read in the genre are very action driven. Would a steampunk piece work written as a more literary-minded work with a less aggressive questioning of science? I.E., would the piece work with a slower-moving plot that is more introverted with its characters?

Just curious. I appreciate your thoughts.

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J Boone Dryden
Director, the Milwaukee Writers Workshop
Director of Programming, WriteCamp Milwaukee