I've been writing science fiction since 1980. There was no question of my writing anything else (other than fantasy, which is essentially the same thing). My start was simply writing a story and sending it off to SF magazines. After my third submission to Asimov's, the editor wrote: "we would like to see more of your work." That was my incentive. Just over a year later, he offered to buy a story if I made "a few small changes." Three rewrites later and I had my first sale.
I then began writing my first novel and soon got an agent and a sale. I've kept at it since then and rarely go a day without writing something.
My stories all start with a concept, a character, and a setting. Concept is first, and I usually start writing from there, with the character emerging as I write. I am a pure pantser: I don't know where the story is going, but take clues from the characters and the action to show me the way.* I find it very important to listen to the character and understand the implications of everything they do or say. For this reason, I don't make major changes to the plot after I finish the first draft; they are more likely to make things worse than improve them. I just concentrate on cutting the weak parts and making what's good even better.
But enough about me. What about science fiction? I've listed some random things writers need to be aware of.
Probably the best book I've found about writing is Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of the Selling Writer. Swain is unlike other guides and is especially good if you don't want to plot things out. He talks about using motivation-reaction units to push the plot along: they involve something happening to the character, who then reacts to it. The reaction causes something that motivates the character, and so on.
Science fiction has been termed the literature of ideas but is better described as the literature of new ideas. The genre will always welcome new concepts or new twists on old ones. Don't try to write something that you've seen before unless you're going to come up with a new way to use it.
You need to read widely in the genre, not just recent things, but stories from the 1940s on. People often have the problem of "reinventing the wheel" -- introducing as new something that readers of the genre have been reading for a half century. If you know what other people have done, then you can write with that in mind by finding an angle that hasn't been used.
Still, not all SF writers hold up well. Those who still don't seem dated today include Fritz Lieber, Cordwainer Smith**, James Tiptree, Jr., Jack Vance (no one was better in creating weird societies and characters), Ursula K. Leguin, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, Alfred Bester, Theodore Sturgeon, and Hal Clement (the father of modern hard SF).
Remember -- science fiction movies are twenty years (or more) behind the written literature. Don't use them as a guide to what's new.
Download and memorize the "Turkey City Lexicon" (https://is.gd/Hr675A). It identifies mistakes novice science fiction writers tend to make.
Most science fiction novels today fall into the categories of "hard SF" (where the science is the story), "military SF" (space battles), and "space opera" (adventure stories set in space). Some books are combinations of these. But this doesn't mean you can't ignore characterization. The best books manage to include a three-dimensional character in all the action.
My own personal preference is not seen a lot anymore: social SF, which shows changes in society and how it affects people. There's some of it, but rarely is it a basis for a novel. Maybe there's no interest in it, but maybe it's a niche to try.
The biggest mistake I've seen in science fiction is starting a novel with a great big battle scene. Yes, it seems like an action-packed way to attract the reader, but the problem is that without context, there is nothing at stake. Before the battle, you have to have the reader learn who is fighting, why they're fighting, and how it all matters to the characters.
Science fiction is primarily about characters and how they react to their world. It is not about technology per se. It's about how technology causes a change in behavior. And the more unexpected (but logical) the behavior, the more interesting the story.
Modern science fiction started out in the pulp magazines, and the short story was king. Even today, the cutting edge of the genre appears in short fiction. It's worth it to try your hand at writing short stories, and if not, to read it in places like Lightspeed (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/), Clarkesworld (http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/), Galaxy's Edge (http://www.galaxysedge.com/). If you're into hard SF, Analog Science Fiction -- the oldest continuously published a magazine in the field -- is worth a look.
There's really not a strong demarcation between science fiction and fantasy and nowadays there can be combinations of both.
It’s worth looking at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (http://sfwa.org/) web page, for advice and suggestions from professionals in the field. Their advice on contracts can save you a lot of trouble later.
Of course, like any other form of writing, science fiction has many paths. It's up to you to find the one that fires your imagination.
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*Just today, an idea came to me as I was writing that will be essential to the resolution. I had no idea how I was going to handle it.
**With one exception: "The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal" is ugly today.
- A Solivagant Writer,
Chuck Rothman
Thank you for joining us for this week's Solivagant Writers. Leave us a comment below and tell us what you thought. This week's Solivagant Writer was Chuck Rothman. You can follow him on social @ChuckRothman. Give us some love and share this post if it helped you in your writing. Farewell until next week, and have a happy Monday!
Written by: Chuck Rothman
Produced by: Bethany Lord