Well, it's been a while, but I'm back. That's the good news. The bad news is that so is Cy.
Cy: That has to be the longest lunch break I ever took. What aspects of character creation are you going to make me laugh at today?
None.
Cy: Huh?
Today we're going to be talking about genre writing. The character creation and fictional worlds is going to have to wait for a bit.
Cy: I don't see why.
Yeah, yeah. Button it, okay? I only agreed to let you sit in on this article because there was no one else available. Why are you here, anyway? I thought you and James were supposed to be rehearsing that scene in Chapter Two.
Cy: Yeah, but Lunar Eclipse are playing tonight and James got two free tickets to the concert.
What, and he didn't invite you?
Cy: I have a ship and seven hundred and fifty people to manage. I can't just take off and spend three hours listening to music. Anyway, we decided to take a short break from rehearsing our scenes. Us fictional characters need time to relax. It's not easy working in books, you know.
Try writing them someday. Anyway, getting back to the subject of writing, when you approach an agent or publisher, it's important to know what genre your book is along with its target market, and to let them know as well.
Cy: Well, duh!
You'd be surprised. A lot of people miss that out, and if an agent has to guess, they often get it wrong.
Cy: Ah. You mean this is a screw up you made when you first started approaching agents?
Yep.
Cy: Suddenly I'm interested. Do go on.
I will as soon as you shut up. As Cy has so brilliantly deduced, back when I first started submitting to agents—
Cy: —in the days when woolly sheep roamed the Earth—
Um...woolly sheep are still roaming the Earth, Cy. Well, grazing the Earth.
Cy: Are they? Well, what are those other woolly things with pointy bits that went roaming?
I think you're talking about woolly mammoths.
Cy: Yeah, well, whatever. I flunked Natural History at school.
Anyway, I sent off a MS to a literary agency, and forgot to mention that it was targeted at an adult (or at least young adult) audience. End result: it wound up in the children's section, which promptly rejected it. Given the amount of violence and profanity in there, this was no great surprise.
Getting back to the main topic though, I guess what I write is speculative fiction.
Cy: Specu-huh-na-what-what?
Speculative, Cy. Means what if.
Cy: I thought all stories were based around a what if concept. Otherwise, they'd be history books.
Well, yes, to a certain extent that's true. Speculative fiction is the science fiction and fantasy version of what if, or the alternate reality version.
Cy: You what?
Busy night, was it? You're not usually this slow. Anyway, let me give you a few examples based on my own work or work in progress:
Project Tau
What if...there was a future where cloning people for labor, experimentation and/or hazardous work was a reality? And what if a young college student suddenly found himself mistaken for a clone and ended up trapped in one of the labs?
Cy: You are, I assume, talking about Kata from the first article?
Yep, that's the one.
Sauria
Everyone knows that a huge meteor hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. What if...there was a parallel Earth where that meteor never hit? And what if humans somehow found a way in there?
Cy: In other words, Jurassic Park without the impossible science?
Not quite. There's every chance the dinosaurs would have evolved a little, and Sauria tells the story of the human invasion from the dinos' point of view.
Cy: That...hmm. Given how many kids love dinosaurs, that one could actually be pretty cool.
Thanks. I try.
Cy: So what was the situation behind my story? I mean, that's the one which is flying around out there now, isn't it?
Oh alright. Since I doubt I'll get any peace if I don't put yours up, here:
Nemesis: The Journey Home
What if...a bunch of kids/teenagers in the future found themselves all alone on a ship the size of a city and had to build up their own society? What if...someone very powerful was trying to kill them for reasons as yet unknown?
Cy: Yeah, no kidding; they don't get much more powerful than the Military.
And what if they fled to our time to hide, only when they returned they accidentally brought the pupils and faculty of a twenty first century school back with them?
Cy: And what if I punched Clarice Henderson in the face!
That's not enough of a what if to build a story, Cy; only an encounter.
Cy: I know that. It's just a nice little dream I had while she was on board and trying to take control of my ship! James got to slug her, so why didn't I?
Because James is enough of a gentleman to stop at a single slap, that's why. You would have put her in the mediwing.
Cy: I might not have. So...I know which genre my stuff falls into, obviously, but does that apply to the other stuff you're writing as well?
Yes; within the realm of speculative fiction, my work can loosely be classed as soft sci-fi.
Cy: Is that like soft—
No. To illustrate the difference, let's take a hypothetical situation with a couple of characters who just joined us: specifically Hard Sci-Fi Character and Soft Sci-Fi Character.
Cy: If it's sci-fi, shouldn't their names have a lot more apostrophes and hyphens than that?
Does your name have a lot of apostrophes and hyphens?
Cy: Well...no.
Then neither should anyone else's.
Cy: Right, right. What was the name of that planet you invented again?
C'a-hy'ri'n-su'li-'ko. And I was six at the time, so I was allowed to make amateurish mistakes like that one?
Cy: And you thought it was so cool. How many apostrophes is that, four?
Five, and I'm not sure I got them in the right places. I also can't remember if there was a Y in it or not. Like I say, I was six when I invented that solar system and all the planets in it.
Cy: The others weren't so bad. Lessee, you had Morl, famous for the white mnerlol trees that grow so fast you can actually see it happening, Katu...I forget what was special about that one. And that planet that was really one giant diamond.
Segamia, yeah.
Cy: You wouldn't have coordinates for that one, would you?
Forget it; that was part of a collection of solar systems in a separate part of the galaxy. Anyway, there's nothing on the Nemesis that can harvest diamond.
Cy: There might be. About eighty five percent of it is still sealed, remember? There's a whole lot of rooms and stuff on the Nemesis that none of us know about.
Well, there's nothing that can carve a big diamond into smaller diamonds. Trust me on this. Now instead of humiliating me, why don't we get on with the article?
Cy: I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to do both at the same time, but alright, I'll give it a try.
Good. Thank you. Now, let's get back to the difference between hard and soft sci-fi. So tell me, Hard Sci-Fi Character, how does that time travel technology on your ship work?
Hard Sci-Fi Character: Well, in 2102, scientists discovered a way to harness tachyon particles which, as you know, are the only particles known to travel faster than light. Upon activation, a chemical is released out of several jets into space that combines with the Hawking particles found only in the Type-Theta radiation discovered in 2152. The chemical and the Hawking particles mutate to create a kind of super-tachyon particle, which multiply and form covalent bonds with the metal atoms of our ship's hull. At this point, the ship is carried along with the tachyon particles faster than light, and the end result is that we will travel back in time. Bit like Superman flying around the Earth that time, remember? When we arrive at our chosen time, we release another chemical that dissolves the bonds and so we remain in place while the tachyon particles continue on.
Cy: I think my brain just melted. Hey, why didn't you get me in to do the other one? The Nemesis can travel in time, you know.
No it can't. The crew travel in time. The Nemesis stays right where it was.
Cy: Shouldn't that be when?
Ignoring you. Alright, Soft Sci-Fi Character, how does the time travel technology on your ship work?
Soft Sci-Fi Character: Push the button.
See the difference? Hard sci-fi goes into a lot of detail about how something works, while the attitude behind soft sci-fi is more Who cares? It works, right? Stop trying to over-analyze and get on with the story. It's far more about the interpersonal relationships than about demonstrating the author's astonishing grasp of engineering and technological know-how.
Cy: Because some authors don't have engineering and technological know-how.
This is very true. Hard science bores me stupid; I'd much rather know what everyone's getting up to.
Cy: Do you do any research?
For Nemesis? A lot. Since it's set in our own solar system, I had to study maps of the planets with all the named features, along with size, rotational periods, orbits, all sorts. I also had to study the effects of zero gravity on those suffering it for the first time, along with EVAs and roughly how long a person could survive outside a spaceship without a suit before their head explodes.
Cy: That's an urban myth. Being out in space without a suit will kill you pretty quickly, but nobody explodes.
Well, I didn't know that at the time, did I? Anyway, I enjoy studying the solar system.
Cy: Just as well, since you're mostly a sci-fi writer.
Actually, being set in space isn't what makes a sci-fi novel. As I understand it, for a book to be classed as science fiction, the story has to be dependent on some form of scientific technology that's either not available now, or wasn't available when the book was published. This doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be set in the future; Star Trek may be sci-fi, but so is The Stepford Wives.
Cy: Are you talking about the original or the remake?
In this case, both.
Cy: Oh right. So are we done yet? I got things to do.
You were the one who insisted on sitting in, Cy. But yes, I think that about covers it. For all those still reading, thank you, and I promise faithfully that Cy will not be making an appearance in the next article.
Cy: Hey! Some of the readers might like me, you know.
Oh...fine! I promise faithfully that Cy will not be making an appearance in the next article unless people request him. Happy now?
Cy: I guess...
Good. See you next time, folks!
by Jude Austin
Brit Writers Blog
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