Is Writing Science Fiction Hard?
Depending on your concept of what a science fiction short story or novel is, writing one could be harder than other genres like fantasy. This is because besides writing a story, you could also be trying to convince your readers that what future you are writing about could possibly happen one day.
This has a direct effect in your reader market. For example, if you are writing about people turning into mindless and ferocious zombies as a result of being infected with a virus, there are many people who don’t believe that this could happen.
As a result, they would not buy your short story or novel about people who turn into zombies once infected with a virus. Luckily, zombie stories are quite popular these days that there are even movies and television series made about them.
This is how important or how unimportant believability is in writing science fiction. Many aspiring or inexperienced science fiction writers believe that to write science fiction, one needs to have a good grasp of real scientific knowledge.
Hard Science Fiction
Perhaps the reason many aspiring or inexperienced science fiction writers believe that you need a good grasp of real scientific knowledge is because of the science fiction literary societies.
These science fiction literary societies hand awards like the Hugo Awards to science fiction authors who they think have written the embodiment of what a science fiction story should be.
Usually, the winning stories are Hard Science Fiction stories. But just what are these stories? These science fiction stories are characterized by their heavy emphasis on scientific accuracy and logic.
To read one of these science fiction books, one usually needs a good grasp of scientific knowledge. We are not talking about elementary or highschool level science knowledge, but college level and even advanced scientific knowledge.
Writing Hard Science Fiction Or Even Just Basic Science Fiction Could Be Tedious
This is why not many writers want to write science fiction. Many science fiction writers think that to make their stories read like science fiction, they need to involve something about science in their stories.
If their stories have science in them, they think that they need to write about science that is believable. This means writing about science that could be found in science books and journals.
So, according to some, if you write science fiction, you must have a science book close at hand for reference. For example, if you were writing about space ships going to blackholes, you would need a science book about blackholes.
This could become tedious, especially when you have to stop writing repeatedly just to check your science book to know if your writings about a scientific knowledge is accurate so your readers would believe your story.
You might think this not true, but just try describing for example a world where the earth has become a desert planet. You would have to explain what people eat, where they live, how they find food and so on.
Again, to be able to write such things you would need to a science book at hand. This would be a book about deserts and desert living cultures. This is not unlike other story genres where you do not have to be as accurate with your information.
Have You Ever Tried Fantasy?
One genre that has more flexibility as against science fiction is the Fantasy Genre. As the name implies, fantasy genre stories deals with stories that are out of this world or literally, unbelievable.
I think everyone is aware that fantasy stories usually deal with stories about magic, mythological creatures like dragons, places that are out of the realm of reality, and so on. In short, these stories are not to be believed as true in the first place.
Compare this to science fiction who deals mostly with robots, alien planets, spaceships and aliens. Science fiction deals with subjects that exist or has the semblance of being real but yet undiscovered.
As a result, readers of fantasy suspend their belief when it comes to reading these kinds of stories and are more forgiving of the imagination of the author. What they care about is not to believe that these stories are real, but their main concern is for the author to bring them to a fantastical world through their writing.
This must be why the Harry Potter Books have sold well and made its author, J.K. Rowling a billionaire. In fact, there is now a very long trend where fantasy books have been outselling science fiction books for quite a while now.
Fantasy And Science Fiction Are Related
It is a known fact that many science fiction writers also write fantasy and vice versa. So, don’t lock yourself in one genre only which may harm your writing career. In fact, many science fiction writers are jumping into the fantasy genre because it is more popular these days as compared to science fiction.
One example of an author who writes both science fiction and fantasy is George RR Martin who is best known for his Game Of Thrones fantasy series. If you happen to research his work, you would find that many of his earlier writing works is in science fiction.
How Believable Is Your Science Fiction Story?
As previously discussed, unlike fantasy where the readers suspend their belief of reality, science fiction readers want a semblance of believability in the science content of the author’s story.
Writing a science fiction story is especially hard if you are writing about a future that is not too distant, for example fifty years in the future. You might think that this is such a short time for a science fiction story, but consider how slowly science develops.
Robot Stories
Let us take the case of robots. Since the 1950s, many scientists and science fiction writers and even just plain normal people predict that robots would soon develop into the metallic version of humans.
Many predict or assume that someday, robots would have the intelligence, reasoning, emotion and the physical features of a human. However, it is now the year 2021, and although robotic technology has considerably evolved, robots are nowhere near replacing humans.
Sure, many robots are now doing the jobs of humans either in the area of brain power or muscle power. But they are still operated by humans and are nowhere near becoming the overlords of humans.
But one thing good about this thinking is that many still believe that robots would eventually do. This is not a hard science fiction to sell and is a staple in many science fiction stories. Many people have accepted the fact that what the science fiction stories are telling will be true in the future.
So, if you are a science fiction writer, it is good to tell stories of robots becoming as powerful and intelligent as humans and even replacing humans. There is a ready market for these stories about robots.
Colonizing Other Planets
Another staple of science fiction stories are stories about reaching and colonizing other planets and meeting aliens. It is true that humans have landed on the moon since the year 1969. So, the possibility of humans reaching other planets besides the Moon is possible.
In fact, humans have already successfully landed a space probe on Mars on 1997. However, it is now the year 2021 and there are still no human landings on Mars. Going back to the Moon, there is still no single colony on it.
But everyone now believes that in the not so distant future, we would have a colony in the Moon, Mars and the other planets in our the solar system. To many people, it’s just a matter of time and probably not in many people’s lifetime.
But again, stories like these sell especially now that space exploration is being undertaken not only by government agencies such as NASA but by corporations as well such as SpaceX.
One recent science fiction novel success story is The Martian by the author Andy Weir. What made his novel so successful is that the book is as real as it could be in discussing technology and space knowledge as possible.
Aliens And Alien Worlds
Perhaps the most flexible or imaginative stories come from stories of aliens and alien worlds. The sky’s the limit in terms of imagination for this one. Think about such popular science fiction franchises such as Star Wars, Star Trek and so on.
This is where I drop the “there are aspiring or amateur science fiction who think that you need good knowledge in science to be a science fiction writer” bit. Clearly, science fiction franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek do not go in depth with scientific knowledge to tell their story.
But these science fiction franchises are popular and beat out other science stories with a heavy bent towards scientific realism. In fact, many of the science fiction books that have won awards from science fiction societies do not make much money in terms of sales and readership.
Aliens and alien worlds are as far as can be possible from real science yet they sell well. If you compare them to fantasy stories which are as far as possible from reality, you would find that they have similarities and even overlap at times.
Old Science Fiction Radio Dramas
If you are an aspiring or amateur science fiction writer, I strongly suggest that you listen to science fiction radio dramas, both old and new. I have been listening to these radio dramas in YouTube constantly and have learned a lot on how to create a science fiction story.
One of the things that you would learn when listening to them is how to write a dialogue. The most interesting stories contain good dialogue between the characters. Often, the dialogue between characters is so good that they almost tell the story by itself.
Another thing I learned by listening to old radio dramas about science fiction made during the 50’s or 60’s, is that most of these radio dramas when referring to aliens mostly talk about Martians. It seems that during those times many people believe that if there were aliens, they would probably be Martians.
Fast forward to the year 2021 and we have now landed space rovers many years ago in Mars and are preparing to land humans in Mars. People know that there are no Martians and it would seem that these old radio dramas would not be listened to.
However, there are still people who listen to these radio dramas even though the science behind them have been proven to be not true or incorrect. This means that science fiction is not about the science itself but the stories and how they captivate their readers or listeners.
Science Fiction With Very Little Or No Science
Is it possible to write science fiction with very little or no science at all? The simple answer is “Yes” and these stories may even be very successful. What could be your science fiction story subject besides science?
There are many alternative science fiction subjects besides science. Remember that science fiction can deal with future scenarios. This future scenarios could be futuristic subjects that discuss the future of politics, economics and society of humans.
For example, in one science fiction story I heard written in the 60’s, the future government of America have legalized the hunting and killing of people. In this future human world, this is the solution of the American government against crime.
What I heard is a 1950s or 1960s science fiction story. But guess what, there is a similar story just like this that became a movie franchise. If you are thinking about the movie The Purge then you are correct. There is no science in this movie but it conveys a futuristic America.
Perhaps one of the more famous example would be the Hunger Games movie franchise. There is almost no high tech involved in the story but the story about a fight to the death competition for food is very futuristic. People love these bestselling books and blockbuster movies although it hardly has any science in it.
So, if you are low on science knowledge, think instead of future political, economic or societal scenarios which are very different or are an exaggerated version of the current political, economic, or societal scenarios of today. You might just have a bestseller science fiction book without any science in it.
Conclusion
Many aspiring and new science fiction authors think that to write science fiction, you need to have a good grasp of scientific knowledge. This is false. Unless, you are writing about technology or science that is not far reaching, you could write good science fiction stories using just your imagination.
There are already many staples and accepted science fiction concepts which readers have accepted to be true or would happen in the future, and thus a future reality. Robots, Colonizing other planets, Aliens are just some subjects where you can get good readership.
You could also write science fiction with very little or no science at all. Scenarios that involve the future of human politics, economics and society can also be good bestselling stories for you.
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