So you want to write some science fiction stories, do you?
Some real science fiction stories, stories where the science matters as much as the characters? Then you want to write the subset of science fiction that I call Technofiction.
How do you start?
You start with the premise that science and technology are interesting to write about because they change how we humans live. So the first step in any good Technofiction story is observing the differences that science and technology make to how humans live (or aliens, for that matter).
The first step in a good Technofiction story is observing what difference a new invention or concept makes in the day-to-day lives of a community. The community can be a contemporary one, futuristic, historical, on Earth, in a space ship, or any other situation. What is important to observe is: How is the life of that community changed by the invention or concept you are thinking about?
Step two is adding insight. You then have to devise how interesting characters will experience the changes you are observing. This is where you add the classic elements of the human condition-love, revenge, honor, jealousy, dedication, any of the classic human motivators.
So Step One in a good Technofiction story is knowing what difference the science and technology make, and that’s what this book is about. (For Step Two, check with Will Shakespeare and his group.)
This book is a collection of essays about various topics that I have used as the basis of my Technofiction stories. The goal of this collection is to show you how to think about science and technology, so it can become a platform for your interesting story.
In some cases, the relation between one of these essays and a story I have written is direct. The discussion in this book on the “ooze zone” of gas giants led directly to the story “Pressure Point” in my book, The Honeycomb Comet.
In other cases, the connection is indirect. The essays in the section on human thinking have permeated all my stories, because they are essays about why humans act the way they do.
About half the essays are on specific science topics, the other half are on observations I have made about how the world works, and how human thinking works. All of them are insightful, rather than scholarly, treatments of their topics.
The essays are broken into volumes.
Volume One: “The Evolution of Technology” is the most important. These essays talk directly about how technology evolves and how that evolution affects the way people live. Here you will learn about the “commodity applications” and “surprise applications” of an emerging technology.
Volume Two: “Space Travel” lays the foundation for stories where space travel is always slower-than-light (STL). STL space travel is harder to write about because things take so long to happen, but, sadly, it is the kind of space travel we are going to have to deal with in our real world. The good news is: If you think within the STL framework for a while, interesting stories will pop out, and they come out with a refreshingly different slant from contemporary “space opera” stories.
Volume Three: “Evolution of Life” talks about how tightly tied the human body and human thinking are to living here on Planet Earth. It is about the importance of evolution to the human condition we experience. There is also discussion of what changes we can expect evolution to bring us humans in the future.
Volume Four: “Human Thinking” is a fun one. It is about how humans think, what influences how we think, and how our thinking processes affect our motivations. This is where Roger-style science looks at the driving forces behind Shakespearian-style motivations.
Volume Five: “The 9-11 Disaster and Panic Thinking” is about a textbook case of humans responding to their own fear. Sadly, it is a textbook case many of us have experienced personally, but, for that reason, the lessons learned are vivid. This is a collection of essays I have written as the 9-11 Crisis has evolved. The observations I have made show up in all my later writings. This section is a fine example of how the human motivation of fear drives actions in a real world setting. If the people of your setting are dealing with something brand new and scary, this section can offer a lot of insight.
Volume Six: “Other Topics” is a catchall of various topics that I have written about. It ranges from terraforming, to stars shining, to how to make better TV programs.
Volume Seven: “Humanity’s Place in the Universe” is about different ways to perceive the universe around us. The essays talk about mankind’s relation to a creating deity, the universe’s relation to a creating deity, and similar topics.
In sum, these essays are examples of the kind of thinking that goes on in preparation for writing a good Technofiction story. Making observations such as these is the first step to an excellent, informative, and different style of science fiction story.