Questions for Writers - 19 Questions For Writing Sci Fi Set In Space

19 Questions For Writing Sci Fi Set In Space

By Minerva Shelley

Copyright 2018 Minerva Shelley

First Edition

Contact the Author and Publisher at MinervaShelley.wordpress.com

Question 1 When is it?

Is your story set far into the future, maybe a hundred years, or a thousand, or tens of thousands? Or maybe it is set just round the corner, within touching distance of todays technology? Perhaps it is set in an alternative past where humanity got their act together a bit faster, and so there are people living on the moon in the nineties.

Whatever time period you choose be aware that this will affect the technology and culture you are writing about. But dont be afraid of that! That could be half the fun and the strength of your story.

Remember that setting it after modern time keeping has fallen out of fashion is totally doable too. Maybe they dont use numbers, or maybe they count from a different important event than we do.

And it does not have to be set in a universe where humans or their calendars exist; if you are writing about aliens who have never heard of or met a human, then it does not make much sense to use our dates.

So think about when your story is set, but dont caught up in mapping it out perfectly, very few readers will want to know the exact date and time. Its more important to signal to your readers what to expect than lay it out exactly. That could be with a mention of a long ago Earth song, or modern day items seen as ancient artefacts. You could flat out mention the date, but if theres no framing device for it that might be a little odd. If it is an important holiday or someones birthday, then that could work as a way to tell the reader what day it is, but otherwise letting it be explained through context would probably be a better idea.

In fact, knowing when the story is set might be more important to you as the writer than the reader, so if it feels forced dont be afraid to remove the hints and let the story exist in a foggy, dateless future.

Question 2 Is space travel going to be a major part of your story?

Is your story going to be set in a space ship while your characters go on an extended odyssey meeting new cultures? Or are they only going to hop in and out of the odd ship when they need to get somewhere fast? Or maybe the characters get no closer to the stars than the top of a nearby hill or the highest floor of a skyscraper? Whichever ends up being the case its a good idea to figure it out early. If you dont, your characters might find themselves stuck as you work out how people move around the universe youve created.

If you want your characters to regularly traipse across the stars, but also spend time on planets, it might be a good idea to set out some time frames for how long it takes to get to places. That will help you work out when things happen and whether or not they will happen on a planet or on a spaceship.

If space travel isnt going to be a regular thing in your universe, maybe it is the equivalent of nineteenth century migration and so it is a rare event in peoples lives, you should show that to your reader. Try making it clear that this is a big step in their life, give reasons for it and set the stage for more emotional impact and maybe even some tension. After all, if people only rarely go into space, there must be a reason for it. Dont be afraid to show that reason either though events in your story, or through context, or indeed by having someone say why they think going to space is a bad idea.

Question 3 How do people travel through space?

There are many ways to write space travel, for every writer that uses a new and novel way of getting their characters from point a to point b, there are as many who hand wave it away. There isnt a single way to get it right, just like there isnt a single way to get it wrong.

The key here, like with most things, is ensuring internal consistency. Dont say teleporting across solar systems is impossible, then have someone do it in the next chapter.

So, do your characters go into a cryogenic freezer for a thousand years to reach their new home on a far away planet? Or do they just zip through a wormhole made by their ship, travelling across half the galaxy in less time than it takes most people to get to their local cinema by car? Do their ships fold space like a bed sheet, or rip holes in it, or bend it? You can pick and choose from what has been done before, or make up something entirely new.

Or, pick a mish-mash of different ideas and put them together. Theres nothing and no one stopping you. And there might be many different steps, requiring you to write your characters hopping from one to the other.

Is there terrible traffic to get out of the solar system? Perhaps travelling any distance at all takes months when you are in the solar system, but once youre out of the traffic, you can go at unimaginable speeds through the emptier parts of the galaxy. At least until you reach the next traffic jam.

Remember too, while there is a lot to be said for including the science in science fiction, people rarely want to read a physics textbook in the place of a novel. Some probably do, I dont doubt it. But over all keep your science descriptions brief and dont be afraid to avoid the hard science. You can always give whatever gives your ship the ability to faster than the speed of light a nice name, or shield it in a metaphor, and then leave it at that. Plenty of writers have done it before you.

Question 4 Where are the aliens?

How much do aliens feature in your story? Are there none, is it a story only featuring humanity, with, perhaps, the odd robot or artificial intelligence thrown in? Or maybe it is the exact opposite. There is not a single human to be seen from the first page to the very last one. Or your story falls somewhere between these two extremes, with aliens and humans working with and against each other in a diversely cast universe.

There are hundreds of different ways you can play with this. You can have your characters travel meeting new and interesting aliens at every stop along the way. You could centre your story around a small cast, one populated with many different species. A story featuring a single human surrounded by one or more alien cultures could also be really interesting, and would give you the chance to really dive into the world building!

One thing you do have to remember is to be careful if you use obvious pastiches of human cultures as the basis for your alien cultures. You dont want to hurt one of your readers by writing an alien that is obviously a harmful stereotype. Think about the cultures you are borrowing from and whether or not the information you are using comes from within that culture or outside of it.

Just remember that ultimately you want your readers to connect with your characters, whether they are aliens or humans. So, use the same tricks you would for building empathy between reader and character if that character were human.

Another thing to play with, and this can be a fun way of building your character, is to think how and why they reach the page. If your band of misfits on a spaceship include an alien from a culture that has a vast trading empire, then they are going to have a very different backstory to the alien that comes from a backwater planet that has only just discovered space travel. Characters backstories inform the reader of their culture, and the aspects of their culture that they show to the reader will, in turn, shape the readers idea of their backstory.

Question 5 What incredible scientific discoveries do people see as everyday?

If someone from now was catapulted into a sci fi universe that person would see things that would amaze them, but what would the people of that universe think of as every day and not worth being surprised by? This can be really useful to show how advanced your storys universe is in comparison to our own. If the main character doesnt so much as glance at something we would be terrified by, the reader begins to understand the universe a little better and is forewarned to expect incredible things.