Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Imagine a hover car zooms past you at 200 mph and you almost drop your handheld video phone and almost spill your reconstituted neo-soy latte all over your gravity boots. With a scene like that all we can do is imagine.

We’ve all had similar experiences though. Maybe you were stepping out into a street and an Explorer zips by at 55 mph and you almost drop your iPhone and spill your regular soy latte all over your new All Stars. You place yourself in the 2055 world and you’re awed by the sheer freshness of everything, but you can still gather how a person similar to you might feel when the hover car comes ahovering past – the trauma, the frustration, your whole life flashing before your eyes.

This is very crux of science fiction: creating an exotic, yet real and futuristic world while simultaneously portraying believable characters that not only have real human problems, but are quite familiar with the futuristic world around them, having been raised in it after all. How can you mention that cutting edge cybernetic implant if your characters would never think to mention it, being that their cybernetic implants are about the equivalent to our can openers today?

The answer is one of subtlety. Science fiction writers have to slip futuristic details into a cityscape and the characters must notice these details, mainly because something’s different in their world.  Maybe another character notices the man almost get hit by the hover car and for some reason, immediately afterwards, notices his gravity boots. Normally, he wouldn’t think twice about a pair of gravity boots. Only thing is they’re on earth – why would a man on earth be wearing designer gravity boots? As a fashion statement? Was there a warning this morning about the gravity generating plant not ten blocks away possibly on the fritz?

Subtly and real human emotions are what make or break science fiction. A science fiction writer must always remember that though the world their characters walk within is fascinating to us, it’s just another place for the actual characters. No one who picks up any fiction book wants 30 pages describing the orbital station of Mars. Nor would any of the characters sit in a window and pontificate over the glory of something they’ve seen a million times before.

Would you want someone to describe the back of a barn you’ve seen every morning since you were 3 years old? Of course not! Maybe you would need some refreshing details if a vandal had spray-painted the back of the barn, but that’s a completely different story, isn’t it?

All readers want characters with whom they can sympathize and laugh, whether literary fiction, fantasy, mystery crime novels, whatever. Sci-fi is no exception. In fact, you have to sprinkle in the spices of science as well, science that transports us from one reality to another, science that instills in us a sense of amazement, all the while satisfying our basic human need for companionship.

My hats off to science fiction writers of all breeds: novelists, short story writers, television and movie scripters alike. Their role is artful and their contribution to the health of our imaginations is astounding.

Live long and prosper, writers, and I hope to see you in the future!