Writing Science Fiction
The Most Difficult Genre to Write…
Even much harder than thrillers.
Say you have this great story set on a space station. People just living and working and having families and everything. And if you could set the story in a mall here and now, or an airport here and now, then it is not science fiction just because you called something a space station. What element makes it science fiction? Gravity issues, atmosphere leaks, aliens with six arms, and so on and so on.
If the story could be set here and now, not science fiction.
And you set the story 100 years in the future. Okay, so here and now is the equal to 1926 technology, so have you extrapolated the technology 100 years?
And do you understand at a deep level the difference between a solar system, a galaxy, and a universe? Do you understand distances in space, for example Voyager has just managed to go 1 light day in distance. The nearest star to our sun is 2.5 light years away.
Do you understand that all construction materials are plentiful in space. Do you understand that with the right internal construction, anything can be built at any size. Do you scoff at the theory that our moon is artificially built because of its size? Have you read Ringworld by Larry Nivin?
Kris started off her incredible Diving series by asking what would it be like to wreck dive an abandoned alien ship in space. And now she has imagined so much more using history and size and fleets and graveyards and so much more. (You can get all 18 books and all 10 major Diving novellas that won awards in Asimov’s, 28 great Diving science fiction that anyone who wants to write sf should have and have read.) THREE SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS BY KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH
We are doing two special workshops in that Kickstarter on writing science fiction. You think you understand gravity, unless you have a degree in science, you do not, and most certainly do not know how to use it or inertia in sf stories. And if we get far enough, every backer will get two history classes on science fiction.
Seems that three out of four new writers I meet want to write science fiction, but are not willing to learn how, even the basics.
To these newer writers growing up with Star Wars and Star Trek and sf games and so on, it seems like it would be easy.
Well, it is not, and space ships do not go “whoosh” and there is no up or down outside the ship in space. And let’s not even talk about time deletion. For example, did you know the Andromeda Galaxy is millions of light years away, but at the right speed in a ship, you could get there in a few weeks?
Science fiction is fantastic fun to write, just takes some learning of the basics. We’ll teach you gravity, inertia, and handwavium in the special classes in this science fiction Kickstarter. Check it out.
THREE SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS BY KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH
