I love Sci-Fi, but right now it's driving me mad! - Writers Forum

scifi maniac · 11-09-2005, 05:13 AM

I'm the type of person who would always prefer aliens and spaceships, lasers and robots to the world of wizards, faeries, wands and pixies. It's just that I find writing science fiction is quite difficult because I have to stop regularly to think of new technologies, think of the way people talk differently, and how people would behave in general in a science fiction universe. I also have a problem with worrying about contradicting myself when I'm trying to describe complicated aspects of my story. A lot of these problems would not arise if I wrote in a modern context (save perhaps my latter problem), and I just was wondering how to tackle the problems. Should I write down every single futuristic name I'm going to use in my story? Should I plan every single piece of technology I'm going to use? And should I plan my settings carefully so as to avoid contradiction (ie. draw a diagram)? What about people in general? A lot of modern day terms are not useable do to the futuristic nature of science fiction, so I find I have to make new phrases the equivalent of say "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" or "A dog is a man's best friend." They aren't the best examples but I mean, in the future, baskets won't be used anymore, eggs may not be consumed anymore, and dogs' rightful places at the sides of men may have been usurped by some other unknown creature. I need help in answering the questions above, because they keep pestering me everytime I sit down to write. (Please don't try to advise me against writing sci-fi at first, because it is all I want to write at the moment.)

journyman161 · 11-09-2005, 05:26 AM

I think you're worrying about nothing. Already eggs are not kept in baskets, yet the saying is still valid. Dogs have been vastly devalued in our society but we still have the saying.

I think you change the sayings only as needed, so if you have a world where chimps are the companion of men then it becomes Men & Chimps are best chums or similar.

When technology changes, think of sayings to use that relates to them - fell like a hovercar in vacuum, fell for it like a star in a black hole etc.

You're a writer, use your imagination & invent your own but don't throw old ones away unless you have reason to do so.

PamHKyle · 11-09-2005, 09:31 AM

Don't worry too much, 'cause if you do, after a while you won't be able to write a single letter.
Just write the story like you had in mind, and regularly re-read it (or have a trusted person read it), to check coherence (and I do mean regularly: you don't want to find out as your busy at page 50 that you've made a major mistake in page 2, so your whole plot line doesn't work and you have to start all over again).

As for changing the sayings, take journyman's advice: only change them if you have to.

And last: the list of futuristic names. When you're going to use a lot of (or a few very siimilar) newly invented terms, I'd suggest you make a refference list for yourself, with the name/term/whatever and a short discription. That way, if you're further down in your story and you doubt wether you named a certain thing A or B, you don't have to rescan the whole thing, just look at your list. This goes for any genre with a lot of selfinvented (or not very common) names. After a while, you won't need it anymore, but as you're just starting on a story, the list'll be your best friend.

So, happy writing, and hope to read some of it soon

MisterL · 11-09-2005, 10:20 AM

Hi.
It's hard to know how to respond to this wothout knowing the kind of sci-fi you are writing. If it is hard sci-fi then you do need to make sure you have no contradictions, and that your technological advances have some grounding in physical fact. If, however, you aren't concerned with that kind of realism, then simply don't worry about it!
In something I am working on at the moment I refer to micro black holes. I spent a long time online researching, breaking out old physics notes, and established a point where the laws of physics as we know them can no longer describe the properties of an MBH (this occurs at the Planck mass). I then decided that so long as I used this limit in my own stroy I could do whatever I wanted with them, because no physicist can prove me either right or wrong; they can only theorise. On the other hand, I could have simply decided to be a bit vague, have one of my characters refer to a reactor as 'an artificial singularity engine,' and left it as that. Nobody would be any the wiser about the specifics of the situation or would be able to pick up on any errors I may include, and everyone would happily be exploring space ever after.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that it's your choice. The concerns you have regarding systems and technology are only there if you choose to worry about them - there are ways around it by being vaguer with your descriptions of them. (And this isn't neccesarily a bad thing, because your characters may not know how to describe the technology themselves. Me, I know very little about computer software or hardware (er... maybe it's the hard drive? Is it plugged in at the wall? etc), about plastics technology, digital TV signals, etc etc, and yet I live in a world where these things are used all the time.)
With regards to the language, this is your opportunity to have fun. If your characters are human then make sure to stick to SI units (I once read something where every measurement and description had a made-up name - arg. It's very very rare that I fail to finish reading something I start, but that... arg.). Things like eggs in baskets and dogs being man's best friend you can make irrelevant anyway - such sayings are cliches and you'd be a lot better off finding alternatives for any of them. If you are going to invent futuristic sayings try and make them funny, otherwise they are just jargon.
Remember shows like Ulysses 31? Galloping Galaxies! Holy Black Holes! Quivering Quasars! Okay, so these are cheesy and are only funny in an ironic way now, but at the time these were the creators' attempts at futuristic sayings.
How about this kind of thing:
'You don't use a black hole to pick up litter' - A saying about overkill.
'Nanants in your pants' - or the clearer 'nanites', but then it wouldn't rhyme.
'I've got my AI on you!'

'3-dimensional space calling Paul!' - an alternative to 'Earth to Paul!' in a less terra-centric society - or it could be adjusted to be the equivalent of having your head in the clouds - having it in a higher dimension, k-space, or something like that.
You could also include scientific concepts in speech as well, to indicate a that the more outlandish concepts in physics today are more firmly in the public eye in the future:
'She was talking so fast her words were undergoing time-dilation.'
'She was was the star and we were her accretion disk.'
I hope this is vaguely helpful and I haven't missed the point somehow. Good luck.

Mike C · 11-09-2005, 05:33 PM

Try writing the story without technology. You use a TV, but you don't know how to build one. A pilot can fly a plane, but can't but one together.

Don't get bogged down in trivia and detail. All good stories are not about science, don't rely on technology, don't need funny names or updated colloquialisms. All good stories are about people and how they interreact with eachother. That's all.

As for thinking up funny names - try to remember, Paul, for example, existed as a name 2,000 years ago, and probably will in another 2,000. Don't try to be gimmicky - just write the story.

suzakugaiden · 11-09-2005, 07:17 PM

"so I find I have to make new phrases the equivalent of say "Don't put all your eggs in one basket" or "A dog is a man's best friend.""

Cliches/idioms like this are old as dirt already. They aren't going away any time soon. For tht matter, they'll probably still have dogs in the future. Second, people don't care eggs in baskets today, unless you've got a good reason to.

I mean, look. Societal change is slow. Currently, it just SEEMS faster because of the communication era, but it's taken us a long time to get there.

Also, you don't need a LOT Of new technology.

scifi maniac · 11-10-2005, 02:14 AM

thanks for the tips, and i think i will be more vauge. i know NOTHING about physics at all, and it's sometimes hard to craft a science fiction story out of a brain that knows little science at all apart from basic particle movement and metallurgic separation

so thanks anyway, but right now i'm just trying to get my head around my story. i'm afraid to start writing because i might not have the desired outcome.

journyman161 · 11-10-2005, 02:40 AM

PM me if you would like help with the science stuff. Be glad to help

Hand · 11-10-2005, 08:31 AM

Don't be Tom Clancy, who uses ten pages to intricately describe the inner workings of a ballpoint pen. Tell the story, and add the technical stuff if it's valid or necessary.