SciFi Writing Craft II: Putting the “Hard” in Hard SciFi

Tuesday August 12, 2014

Ben Bova wrote a book about writing science fiction called The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells. I bought and read the whole thing, along with several other how to manuals for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers trying to break into the traditional publishing market. Let me say one sentence on traditional publishing: you're probably going to have a bad time. I'm no longer considering the traditional publishing route for The Good Humans. That's a different topic for a different post. What stuck with me from the books that I read, including Ben Bova's, is that Hard Science Fiction is in perpetual shortage. In Bova's words, this is directly caused by "... it's hard to write."

If you're nodding and saying (OR THINKING) "hey, yeah, that's right!" guess what: all well written science fiction is hard to write. Writing any fiction is filled with the peril of creating plot-holes, plot worm-holes, and general cases of not making any damn sense at all. In comparison, writing non-fiction is filled with the danger of writing lies. Chew on that thought for a moment. The worst you can do is be inaccurate or leave a plot hole. At least you're not misinforming people.

So how do you supply what is in great demand without making a fool of yourself? The secrets are research and restraint. Let's talk about restraint first. If you're writing hard speculative fiction, your work is supposed to be grounded in reality, i.e. no telepathy, no superhero type powers, and The Force is definitely out. You want it to be speculative though. You want to go beyond today and today's technology. That's ok! We can still do that, but we have to do some literary housecleaning along the way. When I say you have to show restraint, I mean you have to show restraint in what you show your reader. The neat part about writing fiction is that you can have your reader suspend disbelief, and it's easier if your smoke and mirrors are omission based. Sure you want to tell your reader how your anti-gravity drive or jet pack works, but you run the risk of being wrong, and that's where your science fiction goes soft. Better to omit the way things work and just have them work than to not make sense.

What about things that cannot be omitted? That's where research comes into play. A warning: it's the simplest topics that will destroy your readers' suspension of disbelief in hard scifi. If they know you don't know what you're writing about, consider your reader disenthralled.
If you are going to go into detail, especially about a real topic that has solid science behind it, you better not get that stuff wrong. If your character is shot in the stomach on the left side, for example, it would be wise not to say how they have a liver injury (unless the bullet passed to the right side of their abdomen where the liver resides.) I would personally be more worried about a splenic injury with that type of wound. It is here that the internet becomes a powerful tool and not just a source of procrastination. Science is everywhere on the internet. There's a wiki for everything.

A science fiction writer would benefit from reading and learning as much as possible about different subjects. Biology, physics, chemistry, astronomy, etc. Before you reinvent the wheel, check your idea online - the REALITY of the science behind your scifi concept may be way cooler than the doohicky you thought up, and your fiction looks way more slick in the end. Remember: omit needless words. Omit needless concepts. Don't tell your reader something that will break your carefully crafted suspension of disbelief. DO your research.