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Anonymous
Science fiction help. 2017-03-30 09:27:03 Post No. 9313408
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Science fiction help. 2017-03-30 09:27:03 Post No. 9313408
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I plan to enter a sci-fi short story contest with a deadline exactly 3 months from today, with a hefty sum of money as the prize.
What should I do? Any pointers on short stories in general, science fiction, cliches to avoid in general. I've read a few famous books such as Frankenstein, 1984, a Connecticut Yankee etc, but I could read more.
It's a question of some 500 dollars, help a brother out.
Here's a passage i wrote today which may serve as the prologue to my story.
"My meditation on the stars is an obligatory duty, as vital to my survival as food and drink. Tonight I stepped out to gaze at those twinkling lights of heaven, illuminating the abyss, once more. It is not hard to meditate under the stars, for there is a peculiar quality of mystery that makes even the slowest dunce thoughtful in the vast chasm above our heads. It makes a man think of his utter insignificance: nothing but a speck in the long, infinite stream of time. But how majestic and wonderful is the fact that this small speck can look at this assortment of lights, and wonder?
R8 the prose too.
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>>9313408
The prose, whilst good, feels out of place for sci-fi? In general the genre fits better with minimalistic, brutal and sparse prose than overtly poetic writing.
Read some Phillip K Dick to get a handle on what i mean - he's very much the master of short story sci fi.
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>>9313472
I've never written much, so I have some confusion regarding the nature of the prose, and the structure of the plot in general. What do you think a good sci-fi story is like?
I keep hearing about P. Dick, never read him. Must remedy that.
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>>9313408
Just read more science fiction, brainlet.
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>>9313408
The best way to win these things is not to write well or to construct a compelling story, but rather to know the publication and write to them.
Read previous winners, note any commonalities they have, and ape them.
>R8 the prose too.
pic related
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>>9313488
I second that what the op clearly requires is more Dick.
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>>9313563
Well, I was typing on mobile, noticed those mistakes instantly.
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>>9313408
Forget about prose until you make sure you have a plot outline, and have outlined your characters and setting. This only needs to be a side of A4 but it will keep your details consistent.
Populate these outlines with things that might not even make it to your story - your characters goals, quirks, flaws.
Genre stories tend to spring from a conflict of character, setting, and plot. Look for points of conflict in your character and setting outlines and build a story from that.
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>>9313408
o jesus. go read a whole bunch of Cordwainer Smith.
one thing that keeps a lot of mainstream writers away from SF is that you have to have done a metric fuck-ton of reading in the field before you attempt to venture in. there is every chance that when you embark on your epic tale of a young man who joins a force of rebels to fight against an oppressive authoritarian regime.. someone's already done it, and much better than you.
i shit you not: i was writing stories about a society run by AIs in the 90s before i discovered Iain M Banks, who had already done it, and had done it with more style, panache and aforethought than my feeble efforts. i stopped working on that scenario out of shame.
also you might want to rein in your purple verbosity. it's not a race to shoehorn in as many two-dollar words as you can.
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>>9313488
With a short story you don't have the time to write some sprawling space opera. You want to have one cool/neat idea that you run with. A lot of the best sci to stories take some philosophical/ethical idea and just run with it.
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Explores what it means to be human for example, and the divide between robots and man.
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>>9313408
Read Dick for crazy sci-fi plots. Read Asimov for actual sci-fi stories. Read Clarke or some other autist hard sci-fi for the actual descriptions of technology. Then write your shit.
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>>9313457
Very helpful, retard.
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