So today I’m going to be talking about how to write science fiction with consistent themes and motives and how to retain sustenance in your work.
Now, they say Quality over Quantity which is absolutely sound logic when writing a novel, but unfortunately many of us at one time or another has felt that we’ve needed to flush out a story with additional scenes and/or extended dialogue when we feel something is missing, but then feel that something isn’t quite right. So if you are in the process of adding to a mostly completed novel, don’t just start writing ideas down. Take a look at your world building and decide if there is any information that makes any part of the story work that might be missing, or decide if your characters developed in larger leaps than you wanted. Once you’ve identified what you’ve missed or where the book needs work, then you should be able to find a point within your story where some world-building content or character development could fit in comfortably.
The next thing that’s incredibly important is to make sure that everything that happens in your science fiction story works precisely as the world you’ve built would allow it to, and if it doesn’t it needs a reasonable explanation as to why. The worst thing in sci-fi is when a universe doesn’t consistently make sense. Make sure to follow the rules you have set out.
As well as the above points, one major point is to keep a track of where your story is going and what needs to happen at certain points in your story so you don’t have tangents of irrelevant narrative that doesn’t properly fit into the surrounding plot. It’s easy to go off track if you don’t pay attention to what you’re writing and keep in mind how it will affect the plot.
Finally, make sure that when you’re writing your novel that you don’t fall into any overused tropes. Examples of these include using Deus Ex Machina to save your character’s last minute, or killing off characters that just come back, or having a massive and senseless plot twist like making the villain the protagonist’s father. Doing so can quickly turn your book from a potential bestseller into yet another book that reads more like fan fiction than a novel.
And on that note I’m done for today, but if you want to read some smashing science fiction try one of my books here.
Take care ladies and gentlemen.