Hot answers tagged science-fiction
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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
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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
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
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
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 ...
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 ...
5
You want names that are entirely alien to us? Let me share a story - interestingly, an entirely real story about a species with most unique names.
Learning these names is within grasp of humans, although communicating them by anyone else than given name's bearer is nearly impossible.
The species is the horse, and the names are the scents of their breath.
...
5
Hmm. In situation A you get to work with the theme of a government lying to its people "for their own good"-- security vs. freedom is what that is, and you get to use the secrecy of the drug as a plot device-- who will the girl tell; who will believe her? Who else will find out, and who else already knows?
In situation B you get to work with the theme of ...
5
To me, the science in science fiction is what differentiates the two. That is usually represented by devices of some sort. Nor does it necessarily need to be a silicon-based device, a carbon-based biological based device would equally foot the bill. But there is always some device that is what makes the special power of the world (be it a method of ...
4
I think Philip K. Dick said it best:
Fantasy involves that which general opinion regards as impossible; science fiction involves that which general opinion regards as possible under the right circumstances. This is in essence a judgement-call, since what is possible and what is not possible is not objectively known but is, rather, a subjective belief on ...
4
Have you already considered flipping a coin? I'm not kidding.
Ok, the answer "your story, your choice" will not help, even though it is the best answer for your question. So I'm telling you the real question behind your question:
"How could I overcome the resistance to write?"
Oh, you won't like the answer to this one either: Just write.
If you want to ...
4
Lauren's and SF's answers give good advice for dealing with the necessary explanation. My additional advice is: make sure it's really necessary.
Driving a car is a pretty complex task (ask anyone who's taught a teenager :-) ), and there are cases where it might be important to describe in detail the revving of the engine, the easing-out of the clutch, the ...
3
If you are just using dates in narration, as opposed to in dialog, you could just use Gregorian dates. When an American or European writes a history book today, they routinely use the Gregorian calendar even if that's not the calendar used by the people they're talking about. This only matters if the date itself is significant to the subjects.
If the ...
3
One further option is to have the aliens adopt "earth names" as part of the plot because their (non-verbal) method of identifying individuals is incomprehensible to mere humans. Perhaps their species all vibrate at a characteristic base frequency and each individual has an unique overtone.
You can then make the decisions made by the aliens about appropriate ...
3
All around, it's actually not too bad. Some tips:
The natural tendency when you're writing action scenes is to over-describe -- so start cutting bits. Look for things that are redundant, and especially look for things that are over-specific with limbs (hands, legs, etc.), and with measurements. The readers don't need to know where all the limbs go unless ...
3
There are a few ways to answer this. Which answer you use depends on what you want to achieve - something lacking in the original question. Does the work already exist and you're just trying to categorize it? Or are you in the planning stages?
For this answer, I'm assuming that there are deities or other spiritual elements explicitly in your story.
If ...
3
The ideas in this excerpt grab me. We have a first-person narrator who's dead; how does that work? This seems to have involved some sort of deal to help the narrator's son, and there seem to be alternate timelines or worlds involved. This makes me curious and it does not feel too information-intensive. I get the sense that you'll explain these details in ...
2
Whenever this question comes up I always say that the clue is in the name. It's SCIENCE fiction. That means that the story must absolutely rely on science in order to be told and if it doesn't, it's probably fantasy. Now that doesn't mean that the science in the story has to be real, neither does it have to make sense (except within the logical parameters of ...
2
I hope this explains what's been said as opposed to reiterating it.
-ing phrases slow the pace. Subsidiary clauses slow the pace. You're writing action. Don't slow the pace. Modern middle school English teachers ask students for sentence variation. -ing phrases are a common result. These phrases may sound scholarly, but they do not work in fiction.
If you ...
2
Real difference:
Science fiction pretends to be possible. It says We haven't managed to pull this off yet, but we still might someday! Or else, it says We never pulled this off, but if history had gone a little differently, we could have!
Fantasy flat out says This shit is impossible, but it's happening anywayyyy!!!!
Secondary difference which is a ...
2
From the point of view of practicality it's pretty hard for human beings from earth to adjust to other solar cycles etc. We're not built to operate in days much outside of our current 24 hour clock. People working in locations where the days are unusually long or short (or practically non-existent e.g. the South Pole) experience bizarre physiological and ...
2
Disclaimer: I've written two non-fiction books. I'm presently struggling through my first novel, which does not include aliens. So I'm speaking here more as a reader than as a writer.
As Tannalein says, I'd avoid making names that are unpronouncable. One could make a logical argument that an alien race would have an alien system for making sounds, and so ...
2
This is a tough question and it's been in my brain all day. I've been trying to really think about what separates these two groups, which I hoped would lead me to what brought them together. At first I was thinking about sentience, but it doesn't sound like you have a person falling in love with a rock, but instead robots (or something akin).
So then I ...
1
I'm not familiar with this "domain" level in taxonomy. That must be a new idea since I was in school. Of course Linnaeus originally defined the kingdom as the highest level, and he identified three kingdoms: plants, animals, and minerals. When I was in school I was taught that biologists debated whether things like fungi should not be broken out into a ...
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I think it needs to be kept secret, scenario 1. Otherwise, curious citizens might have already tried resistance, stopped eating and drinking to see the effects of being off the drug. In either scenario, the drugged population would be apathetic about getting rid of the drug. Their emotions would be suppressed, so they wouldn't rebel, and (in scenario 2) ...
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To come from the other side, I think fantasy will usually have characters with some form of "mystical" power - however it is described or explained - which is core to the story. The power is not something created - which would imply that everyone could have it - but something which is indigenous to the character or characters.
In SF there is often no sense ...
1
I'd like to add, in the realm of screenwriting, science fiction as a genre is expanding more and more. With the current state of special effects technology and the lower costs involved in making a beleivable story, the future is wide open for stories that previously were too expensive to make or even imagine on the big screen.
We will always look to the ...
1
I find that using dreams often leads to creative plots, if you reset the dream in another location and change some of the events to fit your genre.
Also, collaborate with your friends and family on your ideas, many of the stories I've written have come from discussions I have had with friends from my creative writing group.
I hope that helps :D
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