Hot answers tagged science-fiction
21
Seems to me that consistency is a big thing. Internal consistency and external consistency.
External consistency: on Numb3rs, they use real mathematical jargon assuming people will not understand it and will accept it at the Wikipedia level of understanding. But I actually do understand many of the techniques they talk about and they simply cannot be used ...
16
First off, "grok" is not copyrighted; you can't copyright individual words, even made-up ones. Therefore fair use (a defense against an infringement claim) does not apply. That doesn't mean it's impermissible, in fact it almost certainly is fine.
It's also not trademarked, as it is not being used by the Heinlein estate to identify a product or service. And ...
14
Basically, anything that the reader considers implausible when he's already suspending disbelief, can spoil the illusion and break that suspension. The key issue to understand is that up to a certain point, your story is exposing the world of the story, and explaining what's allowed and what isn't. Anything you establish clearly, the reader will be willing ...
14
My preference would lean toward no capitalization at all. Definitely not differing caps throughout the book. In fact, I wouldn't hyphenate it. To treat a new word as a normally used word gives a valuable feel of reality to the object. Isaac Asimov used this technique in his sci-fi Foundation series, and it lent credibility to the world he created.
Of ...
12
The way a character thinks of a ship tells a lot about the relationship between the character and the ship. For example:
Someone who thinks of the ship as an inanimate tool will naturally tend to refer to it as an "it"
Thinking of a ship as a "she" implies a more sentimental approach, pretending that the ship is an individual, maybe even actually ...
12
Westerns are essentially historical fiction, set in a very specific time and place. And there's a mythos associated with that time and place that may be out of step with modern life. Most successful modern westerns of which I'm aware have subverted the western tradition, making it grittier and more realistic. I'm thinking of movies, but also Cormac ...
11
If you're writing for an English audience, your readers are expecting an English novel. From a reader perspective, it is utterly tedious to read a lot of dialogue you cannot understand. Providing translations can help, but that's equally tedious, since the POV character won't have those translations. I would recommend keeping use of foreign language to a ...
9
Just from the information you've provided, it seems you're creating a convoluted and potentially confusing situation for no good reason. If, however, this is important to the story, you can always refer to "Earth" (formerly "New Earth") and to "Old Earth".
Using a slightly different version of the word would work, but I believe that's already been done: ...
9
Don't worry about "it's been done before." Your goal is to do it your way, and never mind what anyone else has done.
Your theme (Lack of purpose => Apathy => Failure to adapt => Vicious cycle) is interesting, but I'm having some trouble connecting it to your précis. How does "too much freedom" equate to "lack of purpose"? I think linking it to ...
8
On the general topic of opening with a dream, I'm going to second Kate's excellent comments: it's a technique that's heavily predisposed to backfire, because you're explicitly kicking off with something that is not part of the actual story, of what's actually going on.
Even if there is a clear connection to the actual story (e.g.: the dream becomes a plot ...
8
Opening with a dream is a technique that I've seen get a lot of criticism. I think there's a few reasons for it.
One, if you're using the dream/vision to immerse your readers in a world, it's asking a lot of them to get immersed in that world, and then a few paragraphs later have to jump into a whole NEW world when the dreamer returns to reality.
Two, it ...
8
Science fiction has the advantage of being more loosely and broadly defined than the Western. Westerns are limited by definition to a narrow group of settings. But SF? As Nabokov said, "If we start sticking group labels, we'll have to put The Tempest in the SF category".
Now, maybe "space opera" will go away after we've been in space for a while, sure, or ...
8
To me, the difference is not whether the story has a logical explanation, but whether it could have an explanation in this universe. Another way to say it: Fantasy may violate what we know to be true of the universe. Science fiction may not.
A monster, an alien planet, or "magic" could be either fantastical or science fictional, depending on whether it ...
8
Paragraph length isn't the problem here, although the paragraphs could stand to be broken up a bit. The biggest problem here is a problem of focus and organization. A paragraph should have a fairly concise point; it's not simply a container for sentences.
The main problems here are those of organization (on the large and small levels) and editing.
Focus
...
8
Is Star Wars fantasy or science fiction? I say fantasy, but they sell it as SF.
So there are stories which meander along the borders. But to categorize your story you should not only ask what it is about. For example it's also important how the story ends.
We are tagging genres to make it easier for the readers to pick what they want. If you sell a romance ...
8
I can think of a few ways:
1) Cheat. This was how Tolkien did it, so you'd be in good company. He just listed somewhere in the appendices that "Year 5798 by Gondor's calendar = 144 Shire Reckoning" and let the readers do the math.
2) Make the characters work out a solution. If you have characters on Terra and characters on Pluto who meet, they're going to ...
7
Your premise may be central to your story. But that doesn't mean that it requires paragraphs of explanation, or that you should sideline the characters and just talk about your awesome idea. Rather, if you find that the explication of your idea is taking too much time, you probably just aren't cutting it hard enough.
To illustrate, let me post the first ...
7
From a fellow engineer/programmer who's launched herself headfirst into a novel-length project, there's a few tips I've been picking up through trial and error.
I agree with Kate - write lots. Doesn't matter what. Could be an online RP, or speeches, or a journal. But keep writing, since that's how you improve and the process gets more natural. Especially ...
7
Kindall tackled the legal aspect. As for reception/perception considerations, here's the rule of thumb I'd use:
If you're using the same word in the same way for the same thing, and your story is about that thing (or concept, or whatever) - you're crossing the line. That's like saying "I'm writing a story about the same Smeerps Albert J. Jones wrote about," ...
7
Ask yourself what the traditions of your space navy are. Does its culture trace roots back to a wet navy? What was the pronoun tradition of that navy (the Russian navy uses "he", for instance)? Were there sociopolitical reasons that the tradition would be challenged or altered along the way? Does the captain get to choose the ship's gender? Do the crew argue ...
7
Lauren gave the single most universal method - let me expand on that.
Note there doesn't have to be a literal character for the cabbagehead - a virtual one will do. Get some quotes from 'MYTO for dummies'. Get a cautionary work safety series series "Accidents resulting from and involving mishandling MYTO". Outright break the fourth wall having the omniscent ...
6
This passage reads like an info dump—a lecture from the author to the reader, with no strong purpose in the story.
If you could name the planet something else with no loss to the story, that tells me that the name isn't important to the story. If I'm right about that, then call it something else, and delete this passage.
If the name is important to the ...
6
I'm afraid this piece feels far too jumbled for me to be intrigued by it. I feel like a lot of unrelated information is being thrown at me, and most of it isn't even real information - it's vague hints at details that haven't been revealed yet, and at this point I still have no idea why these details might be interesting.
This may be counter-intuitive, but ...
6
I can appreciate the feeling, since I started out that way myself, but it's not an adult way to write. The short answer is "No, find your own voice."
The longer answer, and explanation: You're suffering from Red Shorts Syndrome.
What does that mean? Well, let's say you watch a race, and the guy who won the race wore red shorts. If you want to win a race, ...
6
Don't be afraid of using cliche plots. Plots are all cliche. Think of architecture: for the most part, buildings all follow the same general rules. That's because these rules are necessary for the building to be structurally sound.
Plot is much the same. A standard frame with which you hang all the unique flourishes and twists that will set your work apart ...
6
When you say you suck at plots, you may be looking at the wrong level. Everyone sucks at it to start with. I suspect that a plot never comes fully formed to anyone. You have to tease it out. You have to play with the tools of writing. I am currently reading Story Engineering and loving it (long as you skim over the first 50 pages of sales pitch.) He talks ...
6
Both scenarios have lots of potential for great storytelling. When choosing between them, consider what kind of story you'd most like to tell, and which of the two is going in a direction you find more interesting/compelling.
Let me throw some light on the primary differences between the two avenues you're suggesting.
Conspiracy
If the drug is a secret, ...
6
Wherever your characters are from they will have their own culture and their own language. It's pretty easy to come up with some random names for characters but if you have more than one character then the naming construction for each should be similar, with similar syllable count and length. If they have a culture that respects class hierarchy then they may ...
6
Introduce a cabbagehead character.
"Cabbagehead" is a term from Phil Farrand, who wrote the Nitpicker's Guides to various Star Trek series. He points out that particularly in NextGen, it became necessary for one person to abruptly (and temporarily) develop the IQ of a head of cabbage, so that the other characters could explain the situation and the audience ...
5
Although it's been answered already (and it's a good answer), I'd recommend you reconsider your chosen course of action and think about the implications.
First of all, it would be highly unlikely for people who were originally from "our" Earth to only mention "Earth" using the Latin phrase. All their history books and reference materials - anything to do ...
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