McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Why am I not writing SciFi/Fantasy?

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Dragoon:
In my experience it comes down to how much preparation you do with the setting of the story.

Contemporary stories are easier because they are about the world we live in, which happens to be quite thoroughly fleshed out with people, history and geography and such.

When writing fantasy/scifi you're starting from scratch, at least if you want to avoid having a cookie-cutter setting. That means you have a lot of inventing to do. You need a realm with nations and cities. Then comes religion and politics. And don't forget history and culture. When you have most of this you have a bunch of "landmarks" to navigate by, which makes it much easier to figure out how the story should go and what motivations the characters have.

Another great thinking-challenge fantasy/scifi has is the element of magic/technology. It's important to nail down very specifically how the m/t works, what it can and cannot do, and how this impacts the setting and story.

With good preparation you'll be able to implement the exotic elements in a natural and believable manner.

I hope this helps.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Dragoon on March 02, 2011, 12:52:00 AM ---Contemporary stories are easier because they are about the world we live in, which happens to be quite thoroughly fleshed out with people, history and geography and such.

--- End quote ---

On the other hand, contemporary stories are harder because there's so much existing people, history, and geography you have to research and make right - while still staying within the laws of physics and so forth every bit as much as SF.

meg_evonne:
Someone on these threads flet strongly that reading in your genre could cause problems with writing it. Perhaps they were referring to keeping your ideas original and not borrowed and relocated etc.

Yet, all the advice I've received says being as knowledgeable about your genre--historical and new release, is helpful and essential. So there are two sides to that argument.

I'm with Snowleopard, let your fingers do the walking. Something is inside that wants out, then let it out.

jeno:
This is reminding me of a short story I read - maybe by Neil Gaiman?

It was about a discontent writer who lives in an over the top, gothic world. He keeps trying to write literature, but in his world 'literature' is all about the haunted houses and melodramatic deaths and sword fights. Only the poor writer is unsatisfied by writing about these day to day dramas. He yearns to write something different, something a little strange.

He ends up finding happiness by writing about a depressed suburban housewife.

So, moral of the story - write what you want, dude. They're your words, use them as you will - even if those words take you to strange, uncharted territories.  ;D

SuperflyMD:

--- Quote from: Dragoon on March 02, 2011, 12:52:00 AM ---Contemporary stories are easier because they are about the world we live in, which happens to be quite thoroughly fleshed out with people, history and geography and such.

--- End quote ---

I think that may nail it for me. The story is about a young paramedic (which I once was) in the town where I used to live who stumbles on a drug smuggling ring--can you guess which part is fictional?  I keep stopping myself from using people I actually worked with as characters.

I'm going to finish this story, since I'm already 10,000 words into it (and I like the story, I need to see how it ends) but then I'm heading to something more speculative.

SF

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