A lot of people scoff at Science Fiction. They think it’s all spaceships and silly robots.[i] But writing Science Fiction can make you a better writer, because it encourages you to consider elements of your work that are more easily ignored when writing straight fiction or other genres. This article, which is adapted from an email I sent to the writing team developing next seasons productions for Little Wonder Radio Plays, describes three key reasons why you should try Science Fiction to become a better writer.
1- World Building
Science Fiction kind of forces you to ask a lot of how and why questions. Why don’t they just teleport to the spaceship? How do these guns actually work? If the computer can hear people’s thoughts, what does it understand?
These questions are made obvious and forced on you in Science Fiction – it makes you think – whereas they’re questions we can get lazy about in normal fiction. Why does the bus arrive at that moment? Because it’s on the timetable, job done, forget about it. But in a story, everything must happen for a reason. So, the Science Fiction habit of asking how and why is incredibly valuable in all genres. It’s not just in Science Fiction and fantasy that you should be consciously building a whole world filled with purpose and rich in metaphor: it’s every piece of work you do.
So, try out Science Fiction to get into the habit of saying: what does this mean? Why does it happen? What would happen if?
2- Set Pieces.
It’s Science Fiction. Spaceships. Gun battles. Crazy robots. It’s easy to imagine STUFF happening that is big and exciting. So, make big and exciting stuff happen!
Why is this important generally? Well, I’m wading through competition entries at the moment, and you wouldn’t believe the number of plays I have received where it is basically two people talking to each other in what could be any old place. Why aren’t they doing anything? Couldn’t they be having this conversation on a sinking ship? As they walk through train carriages looking for a stolen bag?
Action is rich with symbolism and much more interesting for the audience/reader. I’m not saying fill your story with gun fights. But ask yourself – would this work better if they were doing something more than just standing talking to each other? Again – a lesson from Science Fiction that can be taken anywhere.
To be fair, Childhoods End by Arthur C Clarke is 300 pages of people sitting talking to each other (and is brilliant). You don’t NEED set-pieces. But you should certainly consider them.
3. Big (Original) Questions
Science Fiction makes it easy to ask big questions because you imagine stuff that doesn’t exist yet then say: what would happen? What if we were all telepathic? What would happen if we all had teleporters to the boy who insists on walking to school? It encourages a good habit: ask more specific questions to explore big moral themes. How do I deal with my alcoholic mother when I’m trying to stop drinking, she’s dying of cancer and all she wants me to do is get her another drink? Specific questions that force you to use your imagination are essential and lead to much more interesting stories than starting out broad and vague (what happens when we die? Wow, I’m so deep.)
As an aside, this is almost exactly how it works in scientific research. People who go looking for a grand theory of everything usually find nothing but fluff. People who try to understand why all the children in the town surrounding the nuclear power plant have unusually high IQ’s tend to find bigger answers than just those they were searching for.
So yes, you should take Science Fiction seriously, and you should write some.
So, that’s why Science Fiction. Are you asking how and why? Have you thought about shifting the setting or running your conversation through a set-piece (which will develop significance as you write)? Are you asking specific, difficult questions that interests you?
Don’t be a lazy writer. Ask all the questions. The more you do, the more interesting your work will be. Practising with Science Fiction is a good way to get into the habit.
[i] What, I ask you, is wrong with Spaceships and Silly Robots?
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