# Sci Fi ideas / advice



## Mesafalcon (Jul 17, 2015)

I wanted to try my hand at SciFi but, I am a bit skeptical about how well I can write technology. I also do not know what fan expectations are as far as each explanation of the inner working of fictional technical devices. 

Any insight/advice on Sci Fi fan expectations and how "technical" I have to get would help. Or, how much of the actual science should I am to give an explanation for?

_As a secondary question_ (no reason to start a new thread): I was wondering if anyone had any good advice or examples of robot dialogue that was made different than human dialogue, and how the author chose to make it clear when the robot spoke. I like the idea of different text when the robot speaks... but, I find that may be annoying to read?

Something like:

"Okay, get in there," said Luke.
"Yes I will get in there," C3P0 replied.


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## cinderblock (Jul 17, 2015)

Read a lot of sci-fi. A lot. 

You seem really uncertain about the genre. You'll get all the answers when you figure out who your favorite authors are, and why you like them. 

As a sci-fi writer myself, I don't really care for technology, unless there's a point. And the point must be one of three things:

1) it's cool
2) it's funny
3) its function is integral to the plot

90% of the times, it's none of these. It's just self-indulgent fluff, neither cool nor funny. Technology for the sake of technology. There's nothing more pretentious to me, than that. I don't care if it's wired in hard science, or not. I don't want to read a manual. Show me that you can write a thought-provoking story. Your so-called physics degree means nothing to me, unless you're writing a textbook.

As for your other question, I would never change the font, myself. You've already distinguished that CP30 is a robot by saying "CP30" replied. Changing the font, would seem tacky for me. 

If you want the robot to sound like a robot, try watching Star Trek: Enter The Darkness. Spock really sounds like a robot, because his lines are flawlessly constructed. 

But keep in mind, a robot doesn't have to "sound" like a robot. Why can't a robot sound like a human? Why can't it stutter and pause and use slang like a human? 

There are no absolutes in sci-fi, or any genre for that matter.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Jul 17, 2015)

You should be fine using the same font. Otherwise you just irritate the eyes. Then the reader is cringing every time. At least, I do. 

There's been so much done already. Like cinder said, make sure the story is interesting first.

After that, as long as it has a teeny tiny ground in reality, you don't need to be a physics professor and explain everything to the last detail. That's boring.


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## Schrody (Jul 17, 2015)

Crowley K. Jarvis said:


> You should be fine using the same font. Otherwise you just irritate the eyes. Then the reader is cringing every time. At least, I do.
> 
> There's been so much done already. Like cinder said, make sure the story is interesting first.
> 
> After that, as long as it has a teeny tiny ground in reality, you don't need to be a physics professor *and explain everything to the last detail.* That's boring.



Actually, I hate when someone doesn't explain their technology. Sure, I don't need to see the blueprints, but the least thing an author could do is to describe how it looks and what does it do. Take Hitchhiker's Guide for an example - a great book, but I was confused a lot of times.


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## InstituteMan (Jul 17, 2015)

I'm a fan of sci-fi, but I don't usually read a lot of *hard *sci-fi. I'm less interested in gee-whiz potential technology than I am in how technology impacts humans.  Farhenheit 451​ is a good example of the kind of science fiction I prefer, and it's not heavy on the technology. Sounds like your  sci-fi preferences may track similarly to mine. Read around within the genre a bit and see what appeals to you. Good luck!


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## Terry D (Jul 17, 2015)

There are many sub-genres of science fiction. You should be able to find one which suits your tastes. Whichever type your choose to write, I would suggest following cinderblock's advice and read within that sub-genre -- it also wouldn't hurt to read it the other sub-genres also. Here's an article which describes a number of the types of SF:

http://www.writing-world.com/sf/genres.shtml


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## Schrody (Jul 17, 2015)

Terry D said:


> There are many sub-genres of science fiction. You should be able to find one which suits your tastes. Whichever type your choose to write, I would suggest following cinderblock's advice and read within that sub-genre -- it also wouldn't hurt to read it the other sub-genres also. Here's an article which describes a number of the types of SF:
> 
> http://www.writing-world.com/sf/genres.shtml



Holy cow, my WIP falls under several categories


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## bazz cargo (Jul 17, 2015)

Steam Punk is fun. Mixed with a spot of Gothic thriller and you will have a blast writing it.


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## Schrody (Jul 17, 2015)

bazz cargo said:


> Steam Punk is fun. Mixed with a spot of Gothic thriller and you will have a blast writing it.



Anything's possible if you're a good writer


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Jul 17, 2015)

Everything is better with a coal furnace and a boiler. 

...Stop making me want to change my avatar back. >:O


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## Schrody (Jul 17, 2015)

Crowley K. Jarvis said:


> Everything is better with a coal furnace and a boiler.
> 
> ...Stop making me want to change my avatar back. >:O



Steampunk fan much?


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Jul 17, 2015)

Schrody said:


> Steampunk fan much?



You don't even know me! *Sob* 

Haha, you could say that. I would amputate my own arm and replace it with clockwork. And I just might have a top hat with a clock on it. And maybe a massive boiler on my back.

And a third arm from it's shoulder joint...

And a katana with a cog handle...

I'll stop myself.


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## Schrody (Jul 17, 2015)

I'm more for Cyberpunk


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## Mesafalcon (Jul 17, 2015)

Thanks for all these very on topic replies.
That gives me a nice sample pool of opinions to make some descesions on how to approach this. 

Which, i guess is what forums are for？


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## bazz cargo (Jul 17, 2015)

Sorry Mesa, you kinda hit a hot topic button here. Poor Crowley is missing a previous Avvi, mind you he could always revisit it for a day or so just for old time's sake. 

I think there as many types of Sci fi as there are jazz.


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## Mesafalcon (Jul 21, 2015)

bazz cargo said:


> I think there as many types of Sci fi as there are jazz.



Well, if this is correct, I guess that points towards me being able to wing it!


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## InnerFlame00 (Jul 22, 2015)

I second the advice to read a lot in the sci-fi genre and see what you like. Sci-fi in general can range from super detailed in technology description to just being like "yay floating cars!". Generally my take on it is to develop the technology at least to a level that most people could feel it to be somewhat plausible in a future setting but not to get super detailed. I also like to do the research on the physics of things to see if my idea would actually work. Really, it's about finding what works for you.


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## Mesafalcon (Jul 22, 2015)

InnerFlame00 said:


> I second the advice to read a lot in the sci-fi genre.



Yes, I would if I could. 7 month old at home and a 13 hour work day hinder that.

So, that isn't an option. Which is why I made this thread to maybe get advice from people who have read a lot of the genre, or are in the process of reading.

Gathering different POVs of do's and don'ts is second best to doing the reading myself and what I have to do...


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## Bishop (Jul 22, 2015)

Mesafalcon said:


> I wanted to try my hand at SciFi but, I am a bit skeptical about how well I can write technology. I also do not know what fan expectations are as far as each explanation of the inner working of fictional technical devices.
> 
> Any insight/advice on Sci Fi fan expectations and how "technical" I have to get would help. Or, how much of the actual science should I am to give an explanation for?
> 
> ...



As a long time sci-fi writer and reader, I can tell you that there are two types of people who read sci-fi. Hard sci-fi lovers, they're going to want as much science and mechanics as you can offer. Luckily for us writers, these are the minority camp. The second group is the group that just wants a techy tale where, in reality, all the explanations could just be "Magic. Got it." as Fry says. Sci-fi is more of a setting than a genre, with more than a few different sub-settings to choose from. It's the backdrop to the much more important thing: The story itself. It's a mask, it's embellishment, it's a motif... it's not a method. Does it really make a difference if your warp engines are powered by depleted dilithium crystals or by an artificial singularity? Sure, they might be a plot device later on, but the actual equations that make it work are really of little interest to the average reader, who's looking to find adventure and wonderment in the story. It's like how going to see a magician is incredible, but the magic is lost the moment someone tells you it was all just a mirror.

Different font for mechanical characters is one way to go... but I'd find it a little jarring. I should see it's a robot by his vocabulary being far more advanced, and his use of proper grammar and syntax. We should be able to tell it's a robot speaking (or an alien, or a computer) without anything aside from the words spoken:

"Hey, we gotta get to the ship!" 

"Hurry. We must return to the ship immediately."

Which was the robot?


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## Schrody (Jul 22, 2015)

Bishop said:


> "Hey, we gotta get to the ship!"
> 
> "Hurry. We must return to the ship immediately."
> 
> Which was the robot?



The second one is a robot


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## ShadowEyes (Jul 22, 2015)

Schrody said:


> The second one is a robot



Shhhh. Beep boop bop.


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## Schrody (Jul 22, 2015)

ShadowEyes said:


> Shhhh. Beep boop bop.



HAL? Is that you?


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## ShadowEyes (Jul 22, 2015)

Schrody said:


> HAL? Is that you?



If you believe... nthego:


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## Schrody (Jul 23, 2015)

ShadowEyes said:


> If you believe... nthego:



What is the mission of this forum?!


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## ShadowEyes (Jul 23, 2015)

Schrody said:


> What is the mission of this forum?!



Disneyland or bust!

Either that, or to provide Bishop with a distraction so that he doesn't take over the world.


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## Bishop (Jul 23, 2015)

ShadowEyes said:


> Disneyland or bust!
> 
> Either that, or to provide Bishop with a distraction so that he doesn't take over the world.









Pictured Above: Bishop (In ceremonial headdress)


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## Schrody (Jul 23, 2015)

Bishop: I am not your mother!


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## Mesafalcon (Jul 23, 2015)

Thanks for the jokes and odd responses here.

Bishop in a ceremonial headdress and schrody being your mother has zero to do with the OP or conversation.


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## Bishop (Jul 23, 2015)

Mesafalcon said:


> Thanks for the jokes and odd responses here.
> 
> Bishop in a ceremonial headdress and schrody being your mother has zero to do with the OP or conversation.



In that case, are there any questions you have on my original post, or something else you'd like to know? I've written five full length sci-fi novels and dozens of short stories and half-novels all within that genre. I've also read a LOT within the genre so, while I'd never call myself an expert in anything for fear of being proven wrong, I'd like to think it's a genre I know a bit about.


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## GVictoria (Jul 26, 2015)

A sci-fi is generally a story whose concept is based on scientific facts and research. For example, an invention was created scientifically.
Then you have to explain also how it was invented, how they had thought of it. You know, what materials they use, etc. The gist is enough so that readers can understand them


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## JustRob (Jul 26, 2015)

Good heavens! Have I really not commented on this yet? I am getting erratic. Unlike Bishop I am still working on my first novel, which some believe to be sci-fi because some of the science in it is fiction. That does mean that I've had to tackle the detail problem and certainly I opt for the "Magic, got it" solution. As I've frequently mentioned I effectively write as a medium channelling the thoughts of my characters and they have a pretty average level of comprehension when it comes to science. Hence even when a supposed expert tries to explain the higher mathematics with four-dimensional toruses collapsing into double spheres my version of Fry is struggling with images of women's breasts. It may be corny but the truth in even our moderately high-tech world is that people just use technology without understanding it. 

I remember reading one sci-fi book where most of the technology, especially the spaceships, was so ancient and alien that nobody knew exactly how it worked any more, so they just used it until it wore out, which took millennia. To give a simple example from our era, a friend who took a job teaching computer science at a college complained "The thing is that nowadays students only learn about interfaces, not how the computers themselves actually work." There's a big difference between the people who push the buttons and the ones who understand exactly what happens when they do. Once upon a time many men serviced their own cars but now I just open the bonnet of my Honda Type R and think "Magic, got it," and close it again. For all I know the Channel Tunnel is a wormhole in space-time that ends in the totally alien world called France. I still travel on the train through it though and I have noticed that on my altimeter watch the altitude above sea level goes negative, so perhaps it is just an ordinary tunnel, but that's a scientific detail. Also my watch is then telling the wrong time at the other end, so maybe the time dimension bit is true. Strange, that.


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## Bishop (Jul 26, 2015)

GVictoria said:


> A sci-fi is generally a story whose concept is based on scientific facts and research. For example, an invention was created scientifically.
> Then you have to explain also how it was invented, how they had thought of it. You know, what materials they use, etc. The gist is enough so that readers can understand them



Couldn't disagree more. Take a look at Star Wars as a film reference. None of it is ever explained. None of it needs to be. In books, Robert Heinlein's masterpiece, _Starship Troopers_ never explains how the power suits work, they just do. _I, Robot_'s short stories never go into how the robots work. The reader's mind takes over for any detail, and they happily immerse themselves because the story is good.


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## InnerFlame00 (Jul 27, 2015)

Bishop said:


> Couldn't disagree more. Take a look at Star Wars as a film reference. None of it is ever explained. None of it needs to be. In books, Robert Heinlein's masterpiece, _Starship Troopers_ never explains how the power suits work, they just do. _I, Robot_'s short stories never go into how the robots work. The reader's mind takes over for any detail, and they happily immerse themselves because the story is good.



And lets not forget the ever so fun pseudo-science


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## JustRob (Jul 27, 2015)

Bishop said:


> Couldn't disagree more.



Couldn't agree more with your disagreement. My novel is about a British time machine of sorts. The Americans want to build one but the original research has gone missing. Even when they build an exact replica it doesn't work and they suspect that the Brits are holding something back. The exasperated director of the British project eventually asks them "Did you remember to sprinkle it with fairy dust?" One thread of the story is the search for the "fairy dust", whatever that actually is, but it's not the only thing going on. Until then it's magic, got it? The story is initially described as a fairy tale, never as science fiction, so maybe it is magic. Nevertheless the science is partially fiction.


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## Mesafalcon (Jul 28, 2015)

Bishop said:


> As a long time sci-fi writer and reader, I can tell you that there are two types of people who read sci-fi. Hard sci-fi lovers, they're going to want as much science and mechanics as you can offer. Luckily for us writers, these are the minority camp.



This is the comment that helped, and what I really set out to comfirm. Because I do not want to get too much into the science and mechanics (because I am not capable more so than the averave Joe who has generally scientific knowledge). 

So, this is the one that helps and lets me dive into it without too much further thought.


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