Writing science fiction is fun.\u00a0 I know, I do it myself.\u00a0 Having a degree in physics isn’t always a help, though, since the kind of stuff I wrote up in my thesis would take waaaay too much explication to put in a story.\u00a0 It would be the mother of all expository lumps, and that would just be to explain why the photoelectric effect is wavelength-dependent.\u00a0 (Just trust me on this, OK?)<\/p>\n
So, you want to write sciency-type stuff in your story and you don’t have a science degree.\u00a0 As I just showed, that can be an advantage–but you still have to find ideas somewhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n Please, for the love of Ghu, don’t get your new cool science ideas from any publication that has classified ads or a byline involving the AP, Reuters, or BBC.\u00a0 Bless their hearts, they try (sometimes) but they usually get it wrong or the editor hamfists the story to make it “fit”.\u00a0 You need to go where the science geeks go to catch up on news, like PhysOrg<\/a>.\u00a0 Not only are these stories that usually haven’t hit the newswires yet (meaning you aren’t following an old trend) but the articles usually have links for more information *and* are written for non-specialists.\u00a0 I would also avoid any site that mentions “chemtrails” if not IMMEDIATELY followed by the online equivalent of pointing and laughing.<\/p>\n Now, maybe you just need some background sciency-type stuff for your space opera.\u00a0 That’s cool too.\u00a0 For absolute beginners, I recommend the funny and painless Cartoon Guide to Physics<\/a>.\u00a0 (Warning!\u00a0 Contains science puns.)\u00a0 You can have a lot of fun if you understand basic momentum in a zero-gravity environment.\u00a0 Beyond that it depends on what you want to do from there.\u00a0 Something involving stars?\u00a0 Learn about the star in our own backyard, the sun, in the history of the first solar astronomers<\/a>.\u00a0 Since it is written in terms of how *they* learned, it’s easy for non-specialists to learn it too.<\/p>\n So your space opera needs some technobabble about the New Space Drive that Empress Dooziflix is smuggling in her frilly undergarments (Yes, an entire space drive.\u00a0 Don’t judge.\u00a0 She’s big-boned!) You may want to read up on relativity as it is currently understood so you don’t use up the galaxy’s supply of handwavium.\u00a0 (You do<\/em> need to think of other sf writers, you know!)\u00a0 I recommend the *highly* readable Kip Thorne and his Black Holes and Time Warps<\/a>.\u00a0 Sometimes you will need to toss out a rule for the demands of plot, but you should know *which* rules you are tossing.\u00a0 Keeping some of the fun bits can cause handy plot issues and character dilemmas–if you keep relativistic time dilation in, for example, Empress Dooziflix might be late for her manicure (which starts a small war in the Oort sector).<\/p>\n Things that Make Me Grind My Teeth:<\/p>\n – Explosive decompression does not turn people into hamburger.\u00a0 Dead, yes.\u00a0 Bloody, most certainly.\u00a0 But the body will be intact unless something solid goes through it.<\/p>\n – Humanoid Aliens:\u00a0 Good grief, we have weirder critters right here on our own planet, and they evolved right next to us!\u00a0 (Spiny echidna, anyone?\u00a0 Manta ray?)\u00a0 Ixnay on the green dancing girls.\u00a0 And do I really have to explain why humans and aliens won’t be having sex with each other?<\/p>\n – Universal Translators: We don’t have a translator that works for the main languages on Earth–partly because of jolly idiomatic expressions, but also because some cultures don’t have WORDS for things other cultures find important.\u00a0 Gaelic, for example, doesn’t have a word for “yes”.\u00a0 You have to use an affirmative form of a verb to answer a question.\u00a0 (“You see that?”\u00a0 “I see.”)\u00a0 English doesn’t have emphatic pronouns like Gaelic does.\u00a0 (“Mise” = “ME!”)<\/p>\n -Alien Monocultures: We sure don’t have a monoculture on Earth, do we?\u00a0 Look at it from *their* perspective.\u00a0 They are bound to have different political parties, religious cults, fans of music groups, in-laws.\u00a0 Or equivalent.<\/p>\n There’s more, but that’s another post…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing science fiction is fun.\u00a0 I know, I do it myself.\u00a0 Having a degree in physics isn’t always a help, though, since the kind of stuff I wrote up in my thesis would take waaaay too much explication to put … Continue reading