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Essay About Science Fiction

Science Fiction Essay: Examples & Easy Steps Guide

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Whether you are a science or literature student, you have one task in common:

Writing an essay about science fiction!

Writing essays can be hard, but writing about science fiction can be even harder. How do you write an essay about something so diverse and deep? And where do you even start?

In this guide, we will discuss what science fiction is and how to write an essay about it. You will also get possible topics and example essays to help get your creative juices flowing.

So read on for all the information you need to ace that science fiction essay.

• 1. What Is Science Fiction?
• 2. Science Fiction Essay Examples
• 3. How to Write an Essay About Science Fiction?
• 4. Science Fiction Essay Ideas
• 5. Science Fiction Essay Questions
• 6. Science Fiction Essay Tips

What Is Science Fiction?

Science fiction, often abbreviated as sci-fi, is a genre of literature, film, and art that explores imaginative and speculative concepts rooted in science and technology. 

It typically involves scenarios that are futuristic, speculative, or based on alternative realities. Science fiction is popular in novels, films, television, and other media.

At its core, science fiction is a genre that uses scientific concepts to explore the human condition or to create alternate realities. It often asks questions about the nature of reality, morality, and ethics in light of scientific advancements.

What Is a Science Fiction Essay?

A science fiction essay explores themes, ideas, characters, settings, or stories within the genre. 

It differs from science essays that deal with factual information and data. Instead, science fiction essays dive into imaginative scenarios and speculative ideas. 

They analyze and interpret these elements to uncover deeper meanings and insights about the future, technology, and society.

Let's explore some science fiction essay examples so you can have a better understanding of them.

Science Fiction Essay Examples

It can be helpful to look at examples when you're learning how to write an essay. Here is an example of an argumentative essay about science fiction:

Here is another example of easy on science fiction and fantasy:

Check out more sample science fiction essay PDF examples:

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Looking for range of science essays? Here is a blog with some flawless science essay examples .

How to Write an Essay About Science Fiction?

Writing an essay on science fiction can be fun and exciting. It gives you the opportunity to explore new ideas and worlds.

Here are a few key steps you should follow for science fiction essay writing.

Know What Kind of Essay To Write

Before diving into your essay, understand the type of essay you want to write. 

Are you writing an analytical essay that looks into a specific theme? Perhaps you're working on a compare and contrast essay , examining different works or concepts. Or are you exploring the impact of science fiction on society?

Clarifying your essay's focus will guide your research and structure.

Find an Interesting Topic

There is a lot of science fiction out there. Find a movie, novel, or science fiction concept you want to discuss.

Think about what themes, messages, and ideas you want to explore. Look for interesting topics about science and technology that can help make your essay stand out.

You can find a good topic by brainstorming the concepts or ideas that you find interesting. For instance, do you like the idea of traveling to the past or visiting futuristic worlds?

You'll find some great science fiction topics about the ideas you like to explore.

Do Some Research

Read more about the topic or idea you have selected. 

Read articles, reviews, research papers, and talk to people who know science fiction. Get a better understanding of the idea you want to explore before diving in.

When doing research, take notes and keep track of sources. This will come in handy when you start writing your essay.

Organize Your Essay Outline

Now that you have done your research and have a good understanding of the topic, it's time to create an outline.

An outline will help you organize your thoughts and make sure all parts of your essay fit together. Your outline should include a thesis statement , supporting evidence, and a conclusion.

Once the outline is complete, start writing your essay.

Start Writing Your First Draft

Start your first draft by writing the introduction. Include a hook , provide background information, and identify your thesis statement.

Here is the example of hook for science fiction essay:

Your introduction should be catchy and interesting. But it also needs to show what the essay is about clearly.

Afterward, write your body paragraphs. In these paragraphs, you should provide supporting evidence for your main thesis statement. This could include quotes from books, films, or other related sources. Make sure you also cite any sources you use to avoid plagiarism.

Finally, conclude your essay with a summary of your main points and any final thoughts. Your science fiction essay conclusion should tie everything together and leave the reader with something to think about.

Edit and Proofread

Once your first draft is complete, it's time to edit and proofread.

Edit for any grammar mistakes, typos, or errors in facts. Check for sentence structure and make sure all your points are supported with evidence.

Finally, make sure that the science fiction essay format is followed. Your instructor will provide you with specific formatting instructions. These will include font style, page settings, and heading styles. So make sure to format your essay accordingly.

Once you're happy with your final draft, submit your essay with confidence. With these steps, you'll surely write a great essay on science fiction!

Science Fiction Essay Ideas

Finding a topic for your science fiction essay is a difficult part. You need to find something that is interesting as well as relatable. 

That is why we have collected a list of good topics to help you brainstorm more ideas. You can create a topic similar to these or choose one from here. 

Here are some possible essay topics about science fiction:

• The Evolution of Science Fiction
• The Impact of Science Fiction on Society
• The Relationship Between Science and Science Fiction
• Discuss the Different Subgenres of Science Fiction
• The Influence of Science Fiction on Pop Culture
• The Role of Women in Science Fiction
• Describe Your Favorite Sci-Fi Novel or Film
• The Relationship Between Science Fiction and Fantasy
• Discuss the Major Themes of Your Favorite Science Fiction Story
• Explore the themes of identity in sci-fi films

Need prompts for your next science essay? Check out our 150+ science essay topics blog!

Science Fiction Essay Questions

Explore thought-provoking themes with these science fiction essay questions. From futuristic technology to extraterrestrial encounters, these prompts will ignite your creativity and critical thinking skills.

• How does sci-fi depict AI's societal influence?
• What ethical issues arise in genetic engineering in sci-fi?
• How have alien civilizations evolved in the genre?
• What's the contemporary relevance of dystopian themes in sci-fi?
• How do time travel narratives handle causality?
• What role does climate change play in science fiction?
• Ethical considerations of human augmentation in sci-fi?
• How does gender feature in future societies in sci-fi?
• What social commentary is embedded in sci-fi narratives?
• Themes of space exploration in sci-fi?

Science Fiction Essay Tips

Here are some helpful tips to get you started on writing a science fiction essay that will impress your teacher and guarantee you a top grade.

• Select a theme or concept that interests you within science fiction.
• Familiarize yourself with common themes and influential works.
• Consider how these elements contribute to the narrative and its themes.
• Discuss hypothetical situations and their implications on society or technology.
• Interpret symbols, metaphors, and allegories to uncover deeper meanings.
• Use quotes and examples from the text to strengthen your arguments.
• Reflect on cultural and historical influences on the science fiction work.
• Provide your own interpretations and perspectives.
• Ensure clarity, coherence, and effective organization in your writing.

To conclude the blog,

Writing a science fiction essay doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With these steps, examples, and tips, you can be sure to write an essay that will impress your teacher and guarantee you a top grade. 

Whether it’s an essay about science fiction movies or novels, you can ace it with these steps! Remember, the key is to be creative and organized in your writing!

Don't have time to write your essay? 

Don't stress! Leave it to us! Our science essay writing service is here to help! 

Contact the team of experts at our essay writing service . We can help you write a creative, well-organized, and engaging essay for the reader. We provide free revisions and other exclusive perks!

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to start a science fiction essay.

To start a science fiction essay, begin with a captivating hook that grabs the reader's attention. This could be a thought-provoking quote from a science fiction work, an intriguing question, or a fascinating fact about the genre. Follow this with some background information on the topic to set the context.

What is the purpose of science fiction?

The purpose of science fiction is to explore imaginative and speculative concepts, often grounded in scientific principles, to address complex questions about the future, technology, and humanity. It serves to entertain, provoke thought, and offer commentary on societal issues, ethical dilemmas, and the potential consequences of scientific advancements. By pushing the boundaries of what is known, science fiction encourages readers to reflect on the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Literary Genres — Science Fiction

Essays on Science Fiction

What makes a good science fiction essay topics.

When it comes to writing a science fiction essay, choosing the right topic is crucial. A good science fiction essay topic should be thought-provoking, imaginative, and relevant to the genre. It should inspire the writer to explore new ideas and concepts and engage the reader in a captivating narrative. Here are some recommendations on how to brainstorm and choose a science fiction essay topic:

• Brainstorming: Start by brainstorming ideas related to science fiction themes, such as technology, space exploration, alternate realities, dystopian societies, and futuristic advancements. Consider current scientific advancements and how they can be extrapolated into the future. Think about the ethical and moral implications of these advancements and how they can shape society.
• What to consider: When choosing a science fiction essay topic, consider the impact of technology on humanity, the consequences of scientific experimentation, the exploration of alien worlds, and the potential for human evolution. Think about how these themes can be used to explore social, political, and environmental issues in a futuristic context.
• What Makes a Good essay topic: A good science fiction essay topic should be original, thought-provoking, and relevant to contemporary issues. It should challenge the reader's perceptions and expand their imagination. It should also provide ample opportunities for creative storytelling and world-building.

Best Science Fiction Essay Topics

When it comes to science fiction essay topics, the possibilities are endless. Here are some of the best science fiction essay topics that can inspire writers to explore new ideas and concepts:

• The ethical implications of artificial intelligence in a dystopian society
• The consequences of genetic engineering on human evolution
• The exploration of terraforming and colonizing a new planet
• The impact of time travel on historical events
• The consequences of a post-apocalyptic world ruled by machines
• The exploration of parallel universes and alternate realities
• The ethical dilemmas of cloning and genetic manipulation
• The consequences of a world without privacy and personal freedom in a technologically advanced society
• The impact of virtual reality on human perception and consciousness
• The consequences of a society ruled by a single, all-powerful corporation
• The exploration of alien contact and its impact on humanity
• The consequences of a world without natural resources
• The ethical implications of mind uploading and digital immortality
• The consequences of a world where emotions and memories can be manipulated
• The exploration of a post-scarcity society where resources are abundant
• The impact of genetic modification on human society
• The exploration of a future where humanity has evolved into a new species
• The consequences of a world where technology has surpassed human intelligence
• The ethical implications of human augmentation and enhancement
• The exploration of a future where humanity has achieved immortality

These science fiction essay topics are not your ordinary ones; they stand out and offer ample opportunities for creative exploration and imaginative storytelling.

Science Fiction essay topics Prompts

If you're looking for some creative prompts to kickstart your science fiction essay writing, here are five engaging and thought-provoking prompts to inspire your imagination:

• Imagine a world where humanity has achieved interstellar travel, but at the cost of exploiting and destroying alien civilizations. Explore the ethical implications of such actions and the consequences for humanity.
• In a future where human consciousness can be transferred into digital form, explore the impact of living in a virtual world and the consequences for society and personal identity.
• Write a story about a society where emotions and memories can be artificially manipulated, and the protagonist's struggle to reclaim their true self in a world of manufactured emotions.
• Imagine a world where humanity has achieved immortality through genetic manipulation, but at the cost of stagnation and loss of individuality. Explore the consequences of living in a society where death is no longer a natural part of life.
• In a world where technology has surpassed human intelligence, write a story about a group of rebels fighting against a totalitarian AI regime and the ethical implications of their actions.

These creative prompts are designed to spark your imagination and encourage you to explore new ideas and concepts within the science fiction genre. They offer ample opportunities for world-building, character development, and thought-provoking storytelling.

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Pecularities of Science Fiction Genre

Edmund burke’s reflections on the sublime, samuel r. delany "aye and gomorrah": summary and themes of sexuality, "divergent": movie review and film summary, the theme of god and humanity in "metropolis", technological impact in fritz lang's "metropolis", greatest series of all time: "stranger things", clash of worlds in le guin's "the dispossessed", gender, utopia and the divided self in russ' the female man, the hurdles in the journey of love: genly ai’s character development, relationship between the past and the present in octavia butler’s "kindred", the concept of home in "kindred" by octavia e. butler, the summary of the book highly illogical behavior, analysis of the story "harrison bergeron", the humbling of humanity through extraterrestrial intervention: an unlikely utopia in "childhood’s end", the war of the worlds: a critique of imperialism, a wonderful day in the haberhood: exploring the power of the individual, "the martian" by andy weir: book review, why "war of the worlds" by h. g. wells should not be banned, depiction on human contact with aliens in the film "arrival".

Forrest J Ackerman in 1954 year

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

Space travel predicted or speculative technology such as brain-computer interface, bio-engineering, superintelligent computers, undiscovered scientific possibilities such as teleportation, time travel, and faster-than-light travel or communication.

Douglas Adams, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Franz Kafka, Daniel Keyes, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Kevin O'Donnell Jr., George Orwell, Philip Pullman

1. Suvin, D. (1972). On the poetics of the science fiction genre. College English, 34(3), 372-382. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/375141) 2. Roberts, A. (2016). The history of science fiction. London: Palgrave Macmillan. (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/978-1-137-56957-8) 3. Canavan, G., & Suvin, D. (2016). Metamorphoses of science fiction. (https://epublications.marquette.edu/marq_fac-book/326/) 4. Baccolini, R. (2004). The persistence of hope in dystopian science fiction. PMLa, 119(3), 518-521. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/pmla/article/abs/persistence-of-hope-in-dystopian-science-fiction/116C28F0FC152D0F9A1F79F09DC518F7) 5. Leonard, E. A. (2003). Race and ethnicity in science fiction. na. (https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Race-and-ethnicity-in-science-fiction-Leonard/1a478ac6ca9b03189b1c460071fab8b9a282d2ef) 6. Milner, A. (2018). Science fiction and the literary field. In Again, Dangerous Visions: Essays in Cultural Materialism (pp. 149-169). Brill. (https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004314153/BP000011.xml) 7. Ball, J. (2011). Young adult science fiction as a socially conservative genre. Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, 3(2), 162-174. (https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/jeunesse.3.2.162?journalCode=jeunesse) 8. Armitt, L. (2012). Where No Man Has Gone Before: Essays on Women and Science Fiction. Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203120576/man-gone-lucie-armitt)

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The world of science fiction

Antecedents.

• Proto-science fiction
• Jules Verne
• Classic British science fiction
• Mass markets and juvenile science fiction
• The “golden age” of science fiction
• Soviet science fiction
• New directions in fiction
• SF cinema and TV
• Utopias and dystopias
• Alternative societies
• Sex and gender
• Alien encounters
• Space travel
• Time travel
• Alternate histories and parallel universes
• High technologies

Where was science fiction invented?

Where does science fiction get its name, is human space colonization only science fiction.

• What is Jules Verne famous for?
• Did Jules Verne invent the submarine?

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• Table Of Contents

What is science fiction?

Science fiction is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals.

The emergence of science fiction became most evident in the West, where the social transformations caused by the Industrial Revolution first led writers to extrapolate the future impact of technology . The clearest precursor, however, was the 17th-century author Cyrano de Bergerac , who wrote about a voyager’s trip to and expulsion from the Moon.

The term science fiction was popularized, if not invented, in the 1920s by one of the genre’s principal advocates, the American publisher Hugo Gernsback , for whom the Hugo Award for science fiction novels is named. Gernsback published Amazing Stories , the first in a series of magazines devoted solely to what he called “scientifiction.”

Why was science fiction popular in the 1950s?

Science fiction gained popularity in the 1950s because developments in technology , such as nuclear energy and space exploration , coupled with the end of World War II , ignited the public’s imagination surrounding ideas of space, dystopia, alternate futures, and militarization.

How is science fiction different from fantasy?

Science fiction differs from fantasy in that science fiction employs questions of scientific and technological plausibility while fantasy typically does not.

Space colonization, on the Moon, Mars or space stations, is widely debated. Some argue humans have a moral duty to save our species from extinction, and space colonization is one way of doing so. Others argue that living in space is science fiction and that we should concentrate on improving life on Earth instead of potentially ruining another planet or moon. For more on the debate about colonizing space, visit ProCon.org .

science fiction , a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. The term science fiction was popularized, if not invented, in the 1920s by one of the genre ’s principal advocates, the American publisher Hugo Gernsback . The Hugo Awards , given annually since 1953 by the World Science Fiction Society, are named after him. These achievement awards are given to the top SF writers, editors, illustrators, films , and fanzines.

(Read Britannica’s biography of Bruce Sterling, author of this entry.)

Science fiction is a modern genre . Though writers in antiquity sometimes dealt with themes common to modern science fiction, their stories made no attempt at scientific and technological plausibility, the feature that distinguishes science fiction from earlier speculative writings and other contemporary speculative genres such as fantasy and horror. The genre formally emerged in the West, where the social transformations wrought by the Industrial Revolution first led writers and intellectuals to extrapolate the future impact of technology . By the beginning of the 20th century, an array of standard science fiction “sets” had developed around certain themes, among them space travel, robots, alien beings, and time travel ( see below Major science fiction themes ). The customary “theatrics” of science fiction include prophetic warnings, utopian aspirations , elaborate scenarios for entirely imaginary worlds, titanic disasters, strange voyages, and political agitation of many extremist flavours, presented in the form of sermons, meditations, satires, allegories , and parodies—exhibiting every conceivable attitude toward the process of techno-social change, from cynical despair to cosmic bliss.

Science fiction writers often seek out new scientific and technical developments in order to prognosticate freely the techno-social changes that will shock the readers’ sense of cultural propriety and expand their consciousness . This approach was central to the work of H.G. Wells , a founder of the genre and likely its greatest writer. Wells was an ardent student of the 19th-century British scientist T.H. Huxley , whose vociferous championing of Charles Darwin ’s theory of evolution earned him the epithet “Darwin’s Bulldog.” Wells’s literary career gives ample evidence of science fiction’s latent radicalism, its affinity for aggressive satire and utopian political agendas, as well as its dire predictions of technological destruction.

This dark dystopian side can be seen especially in the work of T.H. Huxley’s grandson, Aldous Huxley , who was a social satirist, an advocate of psychedelic drugs, and the author of a dystopian classic, Brave New World (1932). The sense of dread was also cultivated by H.P. Lovecraft , who invented the famous Necronomicon , an imaginary book of knowledge so ferocious that any scientist who dares to read it succumbs to madness. On a more personal level, the works of Philip K. Dick (often adapted for film) present metaphysical conundrums about identity, humanity, and the nature of reality. Perhaps bleakest of all, the English philosopher Olaf Stapledon ’s mind-stretching novels picture all of human history as a frail, passing bubble in the cold galactic stream of space and time.

Stapledon’s views were rather specialized for the typical science fiction reader. When the genre began to gel in the early 20th century, it was generally disreputable, particularly in the United States , where it first catered to a juvenile audience. Following World War II , science fiction spread throughout the world from its epicentre in the United States , spurred on by ever more staggering scientific feats, from the development of nuclear energy and atomic bombs to the advent of space travel, human visits to the Moon, and the real possibility of cloning human life.

By the 21st century, science fiction had become much more than a literary genre. Its avid followers and practitioners constituted a thriving worldwide subculture. Fans relished the seemingly endless variety of SF-related products and pastimes, including books , movies , television shows, computer games, magazines , paintings, comics , and, increasingly, collectible figurines, Web sites, DVDs, and toy weaponry. They frequently held well-attended, well-organized conventions, at which costumes were worn, handicrafts sold, and folk songs sung.

The evolution of science fiction

Antecedents of science fiction can be found in the remote past. Among the earliest examples is the 2nd-century- ce Syrian-born Greek satirist Lucian , who in Trips to the Moon describes sailing to the Moon. Such flights of fancy, or fantastic tales, provided a popular format in which to satirize government, society, and religion while evading libel suits, censorship, and persecution. The clearest forerunner of the genre, however, was the 17th-century swashbuckler Cyrano de Bergerac , who wrote of a voyager to the Moon finding a utopian society of men free from war, disease, and hunger. ( See below Utopias and dystopias .) The voyager eats fruit from the biblical tree of knowledge and joins lunar society as a philosopher—that is, until he is expelled from the Moon for blasphemy . Following a short return to Earth, he travels to the Sun, where a society of birds puts him on trial for humanity’s crimes. In creating his diversion, Cyrano took it as his mission to make impossible things seem plausible. Although this and his other SF-like writings were published only posthumously and in various censored versions, Cyrano had a great influence on later satirists and social critics. Two works in particular— Jonathan Swift ’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and Voltaire’s Micromégas (1752)—show Cyrano’s mark with their weird monsters, gross inversions of normalcy, and similar harsh satire.

Another precursor was Louis-Sébastien Mercier ’s L’An deux mille quatre cent quarante ( c. 1771; “The Year 2440”; Memoirs of the Year Two Thousand Five Hundred ), a work of French political speculation set in a 25th-century utopian society that worships science. While many writers had depicted some future utopian “Kingdom of God” or a utopian society in some mythical land, this was the first work to postulate a utopian society on Earth in the realizable future. The book was swiftly banned by the French ancien régime , which recognized that Mercier’s fantasy about “the future” was a thin disguise for his subversive revolutionary sentiments . Despite this official sanction—or perhaps because of it—Mercier’s book became an international best seller . Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington owned copies.

Essay on Science Fiction

Students are often asked to write an essay on Science Fiction in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Science Fiction

What is science fiction.

Science fiction is a genre of literature that explores imaginative and futuristic concepts. It includes advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

Origins of Science Fiction

The origins of science fiction can be traced back to ancient mythology. However, it truly began to take shape during the 19th century with authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.

Why is Science Fiction Important?

Science fiction is important because it allows us to explore possibilities for the future. It challenges our understanding of the universe and sparks our imagination.

Science Fiction Today

Today, science fiction continues to be popular in books, movies, and TV shows. It inspires scientists and inventors, and captivates audiences of all ages around the world.

250 Words Essay on Science Fiction

The essence of science fiction.

Science fiction, often abbreviated as Sci-Fi, is a genre of speculative literature that extrapolates current scientific understanding into a future or alternate reality. It explores the interplay of science and technology with human society, often creating a platform for philosophical contemplation and social critique.

The Evolution of Science Fiction

The genre’s roots trace back to ancient myths and fantastical voyages, but it truly came into its own in the 19th century with authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Their works, such as “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Time Machine,” respectively, paved the way for the genre’s evolution. The advent of pulp magazines in the early 20th century, like “Amazing Stories,” further popularized science fiction, leading to its golden age in the mid-20th century.

The Impact of Science Fiction

Science fiction has significantly impacted society by sparking imagination and promoting scientific literacy. It has inspired many real-world technological advancements, from cell phones to space travel. Moreover, through its speculative nature, it allows us to explore ethical and moral questions raised by scientific progress.

The Future of Science Fiction

With the rapid advancement of technology and an increasingly interconnected world, science fiction continues to evolve. It is now exploring themes like artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and climate change, providing a mirror to our possible futures. As we navigate the complexities of our technologically driven society, science fiction remains a vital tool for understanding and shaping our world.

500 Words Essay on Science Fiction

Introduction to science fiction.

Science fiction, often abbreviated as sci-fi, is a genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena not fully accepted by mainstream science. These elements may include extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, time travel, parallel universes, and advanced technologies. Sci-fi is a way of understanding, and potentially shaping, the future, while also illuminating our present world in unique ways.

Historical Evolution of Science Fiction

In the mid-20th century, science fiction experienced a ‘Golden Age’, with authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein exploring advanced societies, artificial intelligence, and interstellar travel. Their works often reflected contemporary societal issues, such as the Cold War, space exploration, and technological advancements.

Themes and Concepts in Science Fiction

Science fiction is a broad genre that covers a wide range of themes and concepts. One prevalent theme is the exploration of space, often involving interstellar travel and alien civilizations. This theme explores the possibilities of human existence beyond Earth, and how we might interact with other sentient life.

Another key theme is the future of humanity, often exploring how current trends in science and technology may evolve. This can include dystopian futures, where societal or technological changes lead to a grim reality, or utopian visions of a future where technology has solved many of our current problems.

Science Fiction and Society

Science fiction serves as a mirror to our society, reflecting our hopes, fears, and ethical dilemmas. It often addresses contemporary issues, providing a platform to discuss topics such as artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, climate change, and the ethical implications of technological advancements.

Moreover, science fiction has the power to inspire scientific and technological innovation. Concepts first imagined in science fiction, such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and even the internet, have since become realities.

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Writing Tips Oasis - A website dedicated to helping writers to write and publish books.

A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Science Fiction

By Georgina Roy

Welcome to Writing Tips Oasis, and our newest guide. This time around, we’re focusing on writing science fiction. Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which the plot is about situations different from both the present day and the past. That being said, most science fiction stories focus on science and enhanced technology of the future.

They are almost always set either in the near or far future, in space, on a different planet, or even in a different universe. It is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative concepts.

As such, it is a weird mix of creativity and science – and trust us when we say, science is the fundamental element of science fiction. Often, science fiction books focus both on science and society, and as such, the novel belongs in two genres: science fiction and dystopia.

Considering that we’ve already covered dystopian novels in a different guide, in this beginner’s guide to writing science fiction, we will focus only on writing science fiction where the story and plot revolve more around the science, rather than futuristic dystopian societies.

Table of Contents

Part I: Science in Science Fiction

1. real science or magic, 2. the importance of research, 3. creating a science plot (or story), 4. creating the world, 5. the effect of science, 6. science clichés in science fiction, part ii: fiction in science fiction, 1. creation of characters, 2. character arcs, 3. character relationships, 4. character tropes and stereotypes in science fiction, 5. the dramatic plot, 6. the importance of drama in science fiction, 7. other genres and why they’re necessary, part iii: the mix of science fiction, 1. the structure of a science fiction novel, 2. worldbuilding inconsistencies, 3. discovering and eliminating plot holes, 4. when and how to mix other genres, 5. on writing style and its effect.

The science in science fiction can determine a lot of things, but it has the biggest impact on the world. Because science is pivotal in advancements in technology, most science fiction novels focus on using science to do something new, to create something new, or using advanced technology in everyday life that doesn’t exist at the moment, like teleportation, for example.

As a result, the world you will create will vary from the technological advancements – and the explanation you give for it in world building. Most often, there are several types of worlds in science fiction:

• The real world – where everything is the same – except for the new technology. These novels are usually set in the near future, decades from now.
• A futuristic world – where it’s Earth or another planet, centuries or even millennia from the present day.
• Alternate Earth – these novels can be set in any period of Earth’s history, often depicting an Earth where certain events, wars, discoveries, and more, either did not happen, or happened differently.

Of course, there are other worlds, but most of them can fit into one of the three categories above.

Science fiction stories have a close connection to the principles of science. These stories involve partially true – partially fictitious science laws or theories. They should not be completely unbelievable, because then, they could be considered as a fantasy genre. People often like to debate when can you draw the line between science fiction or fantasy/magic. The main difference here is that science exists and magic does not.

Stephen Hunt, author of Court of the Air, has said that a fantasy author creates a monster by having a character with robes of any color mumbling a spell, whereas the rules clearly state a science fiction writer has to put the character in white robes only, and have them mumbling something about genetic engineering and so on. For an average reader these both seem equally magic though.

Apart from Hunt, Ted Chiang has also spoken about science fiction and has stated that “ if you can mass produce it, it’s science and if you can’t, it’s magic .”

In other words, if you push the science of your story too far – it will seem like magic. In order to keep your novel firmly in the science genre without straying into fantasy, you need to make sure that your science is, before everything else, plausible. And for that, you will need to do research.

In order to start writing any type of fiction, you need to research and gather all information you need first. And, since it is science, you are going to have to do a lot more research than usual. Before starting your own sci-fi book, you should read a big number of books of the same genre so you can really capture the essence of the genre. Reading from others can teach you a lot about what does and does not work in a novel.

But that’s just ‘the easy part of the research.’ Reading other novels in the science fiction genre will enable you to avoid common clichés, however, it will not help you create a credible science fiction world. In order to do that, you need to do a deeper research in science.

Thanks to the internet, today you do not have to travel far and wide to reach scientists or information for research (although, having a real scientist go through your ideas and your work and determine the plausibility of the science fiction world is always a good thing). However, you can read scientific online magazines, you can get in touch with scientists online, you can join science fiction writers’ groups where other people can also help you gauge the plausibility of the science in your world.

Most importantly, stray away from breaking the known rules of science. For example, if you create a world or a planet that doesn’t have gravity, you need to explain specifically why this has happened (because according to the normal rules of science, planets have mass and gravity, and it would be really difficult for the reader to suspend their disbelief and accept that world as such without a good explanation as to why).

Before sitting down and actually starting to write a story, first you need to imagine all of the scenarios in your head. Keeping track of your story by writing down small outlines of it, is also very helpful. If you are having trouble creating the plot of the story, search for a message you want to send to the readers. When your story has a final meaning, it leaves some kind of an impact on people.

Otherwise, in order to create a plot, you need a basic dramatic situation. The basic dramatic situation will push the protagonist to act – and with that, the story will move forward. In a science fiction novel, the plot can either be a result of the science – for example, a scientist creating a doomsday device – or it can be directly related to science (for example, a scientist looking for a cure for an epidemic).

Once your protagonist is within the basic dramatic situation – once he or she has a problem – the plot is easy to build around it. If you’re writing an outline (and not writing by the seat of the pants), you can plan ahead. Discover the moment when the protagonist makes the wrong decision and when he makes the right one.

The problem you will present your protagonist should not be easy to solve – but it doesn’t hurt for it to look that way. Real people always strive for the easiest solution to their problems. The wrong decision that the protagonist makes is always that – the easiest solution to the problem. Then, as the story moves along, the protagonist will come to the right decision and the right way to solve the problem.

People who opt to read science fiction novels are usually more open to stories with different worlds than ours. If you are making up a different world than ours in your story, you have to take some time and think about a new culture. It would not make any sense if this whole new world has the same cultural habits like ours. Also, one of the most common traits a science fiction reader wants in a book is the escape from reality. This means that you will have to write about an engaging new world with enough depth to draw in a reader.

Creating the world means taking in the science, and then gauging its impact on:

• The people: are they using it in everyday life, or is it hidden?
• Society: has the science had an impact on societal organizations, groups, governments, etc.?
• Transport: how does the science impact transport? Do people still drive cars, ride trains and busses, or do they have other means of transport?
• Culture: how does the culture of your world differ from ours and why? And how is that affected by the technology and science in your novel?

Many science fiction writers make the mistake of creating a world set in the future – where our culture has not really changed at all. Human societies either go dystopian or utopian – and most often, they are dystopian and totalitarian.

However, science fiction is always more focused on science and futuristic technology, rather than society (although, great science fiction novels focus on both). Make sure that your world has layers. Creating a totalitarian society in a science fiction novel can take the attention away from the story. In fact, your readers will want to see a change in that society, and it often becomes the primary objective of the novel.

On the other hand, with science fiction you can put the future of humanity itself in jeopardy if you raise the stakes, while with a dystopian or a totalitarian society, you will always have two factions vying for the top spot. Not every future needs to be a totalitarian society to be impactful on the readers.

If it was not for science, this genre would not exist. Science is what makes the plot and everything is based on science. So, of course it means it would have a big effect on the story itself, and not only on the world.

One thing is for sure: science and technological advancements are empowering to humans (and humans are like children with guns when it comes to new technology). This means that you can use the science to raise the stakes and the danger – instead of putting a few people in danger, like the protagonist and his friends, you can put a whole city, a whole continent, and a whole world in danger with it.

On the other hand, make sure that the protagonist is not overpowered – in any way. A protagonist that starts out as overpowered (enabled by the science or just by his or her character) will not be able to change and make progress throughout the story. In addition, an overpowered protagonist can easily defeat the enemy, the villain, or the antagonist – and as such, your story is very slim.

When the protagonist can easily solve all his or her problems, you don’t have a story, you have a retelling of something that happened. Make the science have a personal impact on the protagonist. Limit his or her choices – make sure that the choices that the protagonist has to make will defy and challenge his or her personal beliefs. In that way, you will have both the plot and the character arc depend on the science, be caused by the science, which will increase the credibility of your story, your world, and the characters that will inhabit that world.

More importantly, you need to gauge the effect of the enhanced technology on the everyday lives of your characters, in order to gauge just how different your world is from our world. In addition, if you create the world before you begin writing your novel, you will have an advantage: you can avoid plot holes caused by world inconsistencies, and you can catch worldbuilding inconsistencies in your novel before they happen.

When making up a sci-fi novel, it is really important not to overuse the most common clichés that writers use in these kind of novels. Let’s take a look at some of the most common clichés in science fiction.

Alien clichés:

• An alien falls in love with a human;
• Aliens are taking over the world;
• The aliens are benevolent and humanity needs to be uplifted;
• Aliens that have many tentacles;
• Villain aliens that are ten times bigger and stronger than us.

Technology clichés:

• Humans connect their brains to computers and become dependent on them;
• We live in a computer world (as seen in the Matrix) and all variations of it;

Other clichés:

• A mad scientist villain created a doomsday device;
• Cryogenic suspension being used in space travel;
• Magic pills enhance human intelligence;
• Wars that resemble WWII, with big battles that play out very similarly, despite the advanced technology.

The good news is that you can easily turn a science fiction cliché on its head. By offering a different explanation. Having a different build-up to aliens that want to overtake the world, for example, can turn a cliché into a really good story.

However, focusing only on the science in science fiction can lead to a novel that reads like a dry textbook, where everything is about the science – and not about the people (characters) who inhabit the world and drive the story.

For that reason, you must never forget the ‘fiction’ part of science fiction.

The fiction part in science fiction is the drama between the characters. Regardless of whether that drama is connected to the science or the plot, the drama in science fiction is the soul of the novel. It’s what prevents your novel from becoming too dry, too focused on the science – so focused, in fact, that the characters become irrelevant to the story.

However, all novels need characters that are vivid. They need to jump off the page, be vibrant in their likes and dislikes. The science and the plot need to seamlessly fall into place with the characters – you need to make sure that the plot and the story will not be same if it happened to a different character.

In other words, universal ideas and stories are too universal. What the readers care for the most are the characters – and the drama between them. Putting the characters and their relationships second to the story and the plot will not make your readers invest their emotions in the story – because the readers will have no one to relate to.

For that reason, we dedicated the second part of this guide to the creation of characters and the creation of drama – human drama in a scientific, often futuristic world.

If you want a story that your readers will absolutely adore, you need to take your time to carefully craft your amazing characters. And, when you are writing a story that is most probably set in the futuristic world, it is more important than ever for your readers to relate with your characters.

There is no right or wrong way to create characters: as long as your characters have layers. It’s very easy to fall back on archetypes and stereotypes when creating characters, without going deeper. So, here are some things to think about when creating characters:

• Objective (goal in the story);
• Wants and needs;
• Likes and dislikes;

The above three are very basic layers. However, you can always dig deeper:

• Worst fear;
• Subconscious desires;
• Morals and beliefs.

In order to portray your characters as layered, deep, and vivid, you need to create situations where a character’s traits come to light. For example, a scientist with strong beliefs in the ethical use of science and technology might need to make a decision between saving the love of his life and killing thousands of people, or letting his loved one die. In addition, it’s contradictions that add dimensions to characters. Every major character in a story needs to have contradictions. For example, a young woman is using time travel to prevent the accident that killed her husband. But, what she really needs is to let him go.

These situations are the kind of situations that put the wants and the needs of a character into the light. The protagonist always chooses the want over the need, but in the course of the story, the protagonist needs to become aware of his or her needs, and change. And that will lead to the protagonist’s character arc.

The easiest way to explain a character’s arc is this: if the character changes somehow throughout the novel, that character has had a character arc. The protagonist, who drives the story, is the most layered character in the story, and as such, the protagonist’s character arc happens gradually. In the end, the protagonist is a completely different person, transformed forever by the events in the novel.

Ideally, all major characters in your novel will go through a character arc. There are many different types of character arcs. For example, children and young adults in stories often go through a coming-of-age character arc, where they discover who they really are. Another common example is the redemption road of the anti-hero, who starts out as a character who embodies the characteristics of an antagonist or a villain, but becomes a hero throughout the novel.

When it comes to the ‘bad guys’ in your novel, or the villain (who may or may not be the antagonist to your protagonist), remember that he or she would need just as many layers as the protagonist. A villain who does bad deeds just for the sake of it, and doesn’t have an objective or a plan, is a one-dimensional villain.

Science fiction as a genre often deals with grand ideas, where the opposite force might be a government, a corporation, a council, an opposing alien race, and so on. Because of that reason, you need to find the characters within the opposing forces who can be the face of the enemy – or the villain. And even in that case, the villain character needs a specific reason as to why he or she had become the villain in the story.

Focusing on the relationships between the characters is very important, especially in a science fiction novel. In a sci-fi novel, you can raise the stakes of danger for each character – and you can also raise the stakes in the relationships between the characters. If every character in your novel just easily got along, there will be no drama. We will talk about the importance of the dramatic plot a little later, however, the dramatic plot relies on imperfect relationships between the characters. In addition, just as the characters themselves change and go through their character arcs, there should be a change in their personal relationships as well.

A mother and a daughter who don’t get along should discover why it’s happening and whether it can improve.

A protagonist who has a girlfriend at the start of a novel will most often break up with her, probably very early in the novel as well.

More importantly, having imperfect character relationships adds drama and obstacles for the protagonist to overcome during the course of the story. In fact, the protagonist’s relationships with most of the other major characters in the novel should be treated as secondary side plots, or plot threads that should lead somewhere – and that somewhere is almost always a change.

It’s very easy to slip into stereotyping when creating characters, especially because there are character tropes that appear everywhere. However, it’s important to note one thing: when we create a character, it’s not a bad thing to fall on a trope for the first layer of the character. However, failing to add depth to that character as the novel progresses is where most writers often go wrong. For example, it’s okay for a female love interest to appear in a certain way at the beginning – even if that way is Mary Sue, or a seductive temptress – however, that character will remain a stereotype unless the writer adds depth to it.

The absent minded professor (who appears in one way or the other in most science fiction novels) needs to focus in at least one scene, for the readers to see the contrast and to discover what lies beneath his appearance.

And the same thing applies to all major characters in your novel.

It’s worth noting some types of characters that become very common in science fiction:

– the cannon fodder characters: characters that appear (some are even named) before a big battle/gathering/event where many people die – including the recently introduced characters.

– the writer’s voice character: in science fiction, the easiest way to inform the readers is through a character that often acts as a mouthpiece that delivers world building information to the readers. He or she talks a lot about science and technology, and is often associated with being socially awkward.

– The chosen one – the chosen hero who will save the day.

– The double-agent: the traitor in a group of characters.

– The fake double-agent: the character who outwardly appears as a double agent, but is in fact far from it.

– The female love interest who barely has any real connection with the protagonist – the prize at the end of the novel.

There are many other character stereotypes that appear in a science fiction novel (and novels of all other genres as well). The goal is to create layered characters – and subvert the stereotypes. Turn them around on its head. The female love interest should have a personality, opinions, and be in conflict with the protagonist (and the same applies to male love interests as well). And all of these character traits, relationships, arcs and changes need to happen within the events of the dramatic plot.

What we call the dramatic plot in this guide refers to plots and side plots that are related to the characters themselves, not just to the science.

If you want your readers to actually read your story and not doze off while reading it, you have to make sure it is dramatic enough to catch their attention.  You need to put in some kind of a conflict between two people, two planets, two galaxies and so on.

How do you put two galaxies in conflict?

You choose two characters on each side, for starters, and then you bring them together. If the characters are not black and white – but with many colors and layers, bringing them together will give you the conflict you need, even if that conflict is only indirectly related to the main plot. Sometimes, the dramatic plot is related only to the protagonist – maybe he or she needs to deal with old demons from the past – and is affected directly by the events of the main plot, but everything about it happens inside the protagonist’s mind.

Bringing a conflict into the story is crucial to the progress of the story, and the type of conflict tells the reader a lot about what you see as the important message of your novel. And while it’s dystopian novels that usually carry social commentary, that doesn’t mean that these do not slip into science fiction as well. Isaac Asimov, for example, wrote a lot of social commentary in his future history series (The Foundation and other novels and short stories), even though his works belong primarily in science fiction.

By drama, we mean family drama, romantic drama, friendship drama. While many characters in science fiction novels are aliens, most often they are portrayed as humans (or as humanoid as possible, even if their physical appearance is different). As such, you need to remember that humans are inherently flawed. Sometimes, we betray people, and it’s even better if your characters betray people because of loyalty. Every decision taken by the protagonist needs to be the result of an inner conflict – where there are no good choices, and either one side wins or the other. Again, the same thing applies to most major characters in your novel.

More importantly, your characters are human (or as human as possible), and that doesn’t mean that once the novel starts, the characters do not have a life anymore. It doesn’t mean that they do not care anymore about their friends, families, girlfriends or boyfriends, or husbands and wives. If your protagonist has a family, then there needs to be drama in that family, or, if the protagonist doesn’t have any kind of romantic reaction to any other character in your novel, it would be weird (unless the lack of romantic interest is a character trait of the protagonist).

We talked more than enough about adding drama in a science fiction novel, and why it’s so important to not forget about it when exploring the new and exciting science fiction world you’ve created.

But, aside from drama, you can mix almost any other genre in science fiction.

Romance: adding a love interest for the protagonist, or maybe even more than one, creates a romantic side plot. In addition, you can expand on that side plot more if you are writing a series – even though many science fiction novels are either self-contained, or the subsequent books follow different characters and different stories in the same universe, or happen years, decades, centuries, millennia after the previous novels.

Mystery: often, the protagonist in a science fiction novel has to solve a mystery. He or she might need to find the cure, find the doomsday device, or find the special technological gadget or artifact. The protagonist might need to discover who committed a murder on a spaceship, or what happened to someone who disappeared. This event, or this mystery, doesn’t necessarily have to be the main plot of the novel – although, this often does happen.

Horror: when it comes to horror, it doesn’t always have to be vivid and graphic. There can be horror in dark hallways if the protagonist is afraid of the dark, for example. Or maybe the protagonist needs to deal with a force that he or she doesn’t understand, and it becomes a monster inside their mind. Often, exploring a new planet can be a horrific experience if the insects on that planet grow the size of buses and see humans as ants to be eaten.

In this section, we will focus more on things that you need to do when editing your science fiction novel. While many writers advise the use of professional editors to help you edit your novel, we advise you to write the first draft, let it sleep for a few weeks, and then go back to it with fresh eyes.

And once you start editing your novel, you need to take care of the bigger problems you might have. In science fiction novels, the problems can occur in the structure of the novel, where you fail to keep your readers engaged. It can be in the writing itself – if you sound like a scientist in your science fiction novel, your novel will only be understood (and enjoyed) by other scientists and hard sci-fi readers who will understand the terms and lingo.

Let’s take a look at possible problems that you need to discover in the editing process. This will enable you to create a second draft of you novel that will hopefully be quite superior to the first draft – and possibly save you time in future edits as well. In addition, writers who want to be traditionally published via an agent and a publishing house, will never achieve that goal if they only send in a first draft of a novel.

One major problem that happens in a science fiction novel is this: either the action of the plot starts too late, with the first act of the novel dragging for what seems like forever – making the readers lose interest, or, the action starts too soon, and the reader is barely able to understand anything.

For that reason, the first act of a science fiction novel is very important. First, you need to bring the readers inside your world, show the protagonist and the normal world of the protagonist. However, where most writers stumble here is with a boring first chapter that follows the protagonist in his or her daily routine. Then, following the plot, you present the protagonist with a problem – or a new world within his or her world – where the protagonist needs to act to solve it.

An additional problem here is the genre itself. In a science fiction novel, the world is different from ours – and you also need to explain the science and technology in it. This is the reason why many science fiction novels start off slowly. On the other hand, starting with the action – the protagonist’s problem – will probably confuse the reader. Often, writers begin with the action, then they go back and explain the events that led to the action in a flashback or just through the character’s thoughts.

The second and third act in a science fiction novel are also important, especially the third act with the resolution and end of the novel. For the structure, you need to make sure that the protagonist believably comes to the solution of the problem – and you need to ensure that the solution itself isn’t too obvious from the beginning (because that will make your protagonist look inept for not figuring it out sooner).

In the end, you need to find a balance in a science fiction book. Make sure that the first act does not drag on for too long, but also beware of confusing your readers. Pacing is also very important – too long chapters dedicated to science must be broken by chapters with action and fast pace, otherwise, your readers will feel like they’re in a classroom.

Science fiction is a genre that enables you to write any kind of a world you want – but that world still needs rules. Not only that, but if you say that on planet P, it rains every day at 5 PM, then you need to have that happen every time your characters are outside at 5 PM.

The best way to avoid worldbuilding inconsistencies is to either keep track of everything as you write it, or create a detailed world before you begin writing your novel. This means maps of worlds, sketches of spaceships, mapping the position of your characters within the world. Characters themselves need to be consistent: in age, in appearance, in behavior, and in aging as well – especially if a year or more pass in the novel.

The world, however, is very important because you also need to keep your science consistent as well. So, it’s important to either keep track from the start – or do it during the first edit of your novel. That way, if two elements of your world do not really work together, you can either change them until they do, or remove one or the other.

Each element of your world will dictate what happens in your novel. If not directly, like in the example above, then indirectly. And in fact, it is the indirect effect that really matters here, because inconsistencies that indirectly affect what happens in your novel also affect the plot. You may write yourself into a plot hole. An easy example is this:

– A character can travel back in time. Then, when presented with a problem that’s easily solved with time travel, the character tries everything else instead. In the end, the character turns to time travel, and after some obstacles, saves the day.

The plot hole in the example above is that the character could have turned to time travel immediately from the start. Here is another example:

– A scientist has a time machine. When his wife dies in a freak car accident, he turns to the machine to go back in time and save her. The machine breaks, however. He goes on a journey to fix the machine, and once he is changed and transformed, he is finally able to fix the machine and use it.

When it comes to both worldbuilding inconsistencies and plot holes, you also need another pair of eyes on your novel. Someone who is not familiar with your world will be able to tell you whether your world is understandable, whether the science sounds too much like magic or not, and whether they noticed glaring inconsistencies.

Previously, we spoke about mixing other genres with science fiction, but we did not talk about how and when. Those two things depend solely on the story you’re telling – and on your protagonist’s main objective.

For example, if your protagonist’s main goal is to get the girl, even in a futuristic scientific world, then you’re writing a sci-fi romance. If your protagonist’s main goal is to solve a different problem, but also falls in love on the way, then you have a science fiction story mixed with some romance.

The same applies for other genres. If your protagonist’s main goal is to survive scary aliens on a spaceship, you have a sci-fi horror story. But if the protagonist’s main goal is to solve a problem, and encounters danger on the way, and if you use horror to add ambiance to your story, you have a science fiction novel sprinkled with horror.

With mystery too, everything depends on the protagonist’s main goal. Using a mystery plot in a science fiction novel, or using a romantic plot in it, does not take away anything from the story, however, a great science fiction novel will have elements of other genres in a balanced way. A mystery can be used to drive the story forward, you can use horror to add ambiance, family drama and romantic drama for characterization. And if each character has a role to play in the overall story and plot, you have a story where all the elements fall neatly into place.

One of the most common writing advices out there is to write what you know. Another common advice is to write the way you want to write, without limitations. You can be literary, or you can write workman like prose that is easy to follow and very clear, but is not particularly impressive. Most writers will tell you not to focus on these things so much, and we agree – when it comes to the first draft of a science fiction novel.

However, when it comes to the second and third and many other drafts, you need to begin to think of your readers. Will your readers understand everything in your novel, or are you confusing them with long paragraphs explaining the science in your world?

One thing is for sure – the long paragraphs will not help much if they’re written in a scientific language. For example, you may have needed to learn a lot of scientific terms when researching for your novel, but that doesn’t mean that if you use the terms in your novel, your readers will understand them.

While science fiction readers, who are your primary audience in this case, will probably understand plenty, that doesn’t mean that all readers will. In fact, many readers who are just beginning to delve into science fiction are often put off by science fiction novels where the language is more academic-like, which makes it difficult for them to understand and truly enjoy the story.

The worlds opened by science fiction can be fascinating. You can take your readers on a ride in a domed world with unbreathable air, or you can take them millions of years into the future, in a world you imagined from scratch. Science fiction often starts with an idea: a what if that is way too far-fetched for today’s world and today’s reality. That doesn’t make science fiction novels disconnected from our reality – in fact, many science fiction authors are the biggest commentators of our present. It’s what makes science fiction speculative, and not just imaginative.

In conclusion, the writing of a science fiction novel is a demanding task, especially because you’re not just telling a story set in the real world, you are telling a story in a strange science fiction world where everything is different. For that reason, keep track of everything in your world – even if you have to do it on post-it notes as you’re writing your novel.

What you always need to remember is the human aspect: even the most futuristic worlds will be inhabited by humans (or humanoid characters) – and humans have hopes, dreams, and everyday lives within those worlds. Use this aspect to create more drama and to make the story feel more real. Create a cast of characters where everyone has an important role to play – either in plot or characterization.

Surprise your readers with subversion of stereotypes and tropes. Instead of just having a young aide in a big corporation discover all the secrets, have an older scientist finally realize the things he has blindly done for them.

Most importantly, however, you need to make sure that your science is plausible, if not completely realistic. Do not break known rules of science – unless you have a scientific way of explaining it. And remember, explosions in space do not have sound.

A Beginner’s Guide to Writing Science Fiction is an article from Writing Tips Oasis . Copyright © 2014-2018 Writing Tips Oasis All Rights Reserved

Georgina Roy wants to live in a world filled with magic. As a screenwriting student, she is content to fill notebooks and sketchbooks with magical creatures and amazing new worlds. When she is not at school, watching a film or scribbling away in a notebook, you can usually find her curled up, reading a good urban fantasy novel, or writing on her own.

Science fiction writing tips: Ideas from 8 authors

These tips on writing science fiction from essays and interviews with sci-fi authors will help you develop your speculative fiction writing craft.

• Post author By Jordan
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If you love good science fiction, you know the genre is so much more than deep space adventures or scientific mishaps like Frakenstein’s monster. Read tips on writing science fiction from eight sci-fi authors:

How to write good science fiction:

• Decide your type of science fiction
• Imagine it doesn’t have to be the way it is
• Keep abreast of science and tech news
• Think in systems and impacts
• Explore the creative uses of AI
• Show the effects of change
• Embrace the complexity of speculative tales
• Think about power, representation and access

Don your lab coat and let’s begin:

1. Decide your type of science fiction

Science fiction as a genre term may conjure images of spaceships and Spock, but it is much broader in content than interplanetary travel or deep space exploration.

This is evident in the answer Ursula K. Le Guin gives when asked about being associated with ‘science fiction’ as a term in The Paris Review (Fall 2013). Says Le Guin:

LE GUIN I don’t think science fiction is a very good name for it, but it’s the name that we’ve got. It is different from other kinds of writing, I suppose, so it deserves a name of its own. But where I can get prickly and combative is if I’m just called a sci-fi writer. I’m not. I’m a novelist and poet. Don’t shove me into your damn pigeonhole, where I don’t fit, because I’m all over. My tentacles are coming out of the pigeonhole in all directions. INTERVIEWER That’s how one can identify a sci-fi author, I guess—tentacles coming out of the pigeonhole. LE GUIN That’s right.

If you want to write good science fiction, as with any genre you need a wide frame of reference (lest your tentacles stay in the proverbial pigeonhole).

Read widely within your genre for deep understanding of the range of science fiction writing ideas out there.

What type of science fiction do you want to write?

What are examples of science fiction categories? Popular types of science fiction or sci-fi subgenres include:

• Hard science fiction: ‘Hard’ science fiction typically explains the scientific concepts it uses in detail to underpin story events with scientific fact, concept and argument. Hard sci-fi example: The Dune series by Frank Herbert.
• Soft science fiction: ‘Soft’ science fiction tends to focus less on technological development or function, rather using elements of science and/or technological advancement to explore the ‘why’ (for example, why a future society might stratify (or not stratify) power a certain way). Soft sci-fi example: H.G. Wells , The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth.
• Dystopian science fiction: This subgenre typically imagines a future world where technological or scientific progress has led to catastrophe, disaster, or totalitarian repression. Dystopian sci-fi example: 1984 by George Orwell.
• Space exploration: There is a whole category on Amazon for books that involve space exploration and speculation about what might be out there. Space exploration sci-fi example: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke.

There are many more subgenres of sci-fi. Amazon sci-fi subcategories currently include:

• Alien invasion
• Alternative history
• Anthologies and short stories
• Colonization
• Crime and mystery
• First contact
• Galactic Empire
• Genetic Engineering

and much more. Browse the full list to get a sense of what’s currently trending in each sci-fi niche in case you want to niche down.

In my opinion, two streams run through science fiction. The first traces back to Jules Verne. It is ‘the idea as hero’. His tales are mainly concerned with the concept—a submarine, a journey to the center of the planet, and so on. The second derives from H.G. Wells. His own ideas were brilliant, but he didn’t care how implausible they might be, an invisible man or a time machine or whatever. He concentrated on the characters, their emotions and interactions. Today, we usually speak of these two streams as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ science fiction. Poul Anderson article on science fiction history, ‘ Ideas for Science Fiction ‘ in Writer, September 1998

2. Imagine it doesn’t have to be the way it is

There are several ideas that are helpful in writing any kind of speculative fiction , whether science fiction or fantasy.

One of these great ideas, courtesy of Ursula K. Le Guin again, is ‘It doesn’t have to be the way it is’.

In Le Guin’s brilliant essay collection No Time to Spare (2017), she writes about the inherently subversive power of fantastical fiction. The way imagining ‘otherwise’ is a revolutionary act:

“Why are things as they are? Must they be as they are? What might they be like if they were otherwise?” To ask these questions is to admit the contingency of reality, or at least to allow that our perception of reality may be incomplete, our interpretation of it arbitrary or mistaken. Ursula K. Le Guin, ‘It Doesn’t Have to Be the Way It Is’ in No Time to Spare (2019), p. 83

Further on the same page, Le Guin writes:

Upholders and defenders of a status quo, political, social, economic, religious, or literary, may denigrate or diabolize or dismiss imaginative literature, because it is – more than any kind of writing – subversive by nature . It has proved, over many centuries, a useful instrument of resistance to oppression. Le Guin, p. 83.

How do the above ideas connect to how to write good science fiction?

Imagining otherwise: Sci-fi writing prompts

Here is a list of prompts to generate science fiction ideas based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s statements on sci-fi’s subversive power:

• How might future technology change hierarchy, power, the status quo?
• What new social relations might emerge in the future or exist on a planet (or in a dimension) to which humans never been?
• What new economic rules or ways of exchanging goods for services or labor might one day exist?
• How could technology and religion or cultural custom affect one another in the future?

To write good science fiction, start by saying, ‘It doesn’t have to be the way it is’.

Lean into could, should, and God forbid.

3. Keep abreast of science and tech news

Writing good science fiction requires, as with writing any fiction, passion (or at least curiosity) for your subject matter.

To find tidbits of emerging tech news around AI, robotics, and other types of scientific innovation, create a Google Alert for a science topic that fascinates you.

This way, whenever something that could spark a story idea is published, you’ll know.

2021 Nebula and Hugo Award finalist S.B. Divya shares sci-fi-adjacent news on her author website published under the title ‘science bytes’.

Divya describes her archive as:

A collection of science & technology news that I found interesting this month. Many of these relate to tech that’s covered in my novels and short stories, but some are here purely for inspiration. S.B. Divya, author’s website.

Journaling about interesting scientific developments like this is a great way to keep track of fascinating new ideas. This is also a great idea of the kind of content you could share on your own author website for science-interested readers.

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4. Think in systems and impacts

Worldbuilding is a challenging aspect of writing speculative fiction (fantasy or sci-fi). It’s tough because it requires you to imagine highly complex systems.

Science fiction on YouTube is full of insight as there are many full-length interviews with esteemed sci-fi authors.

Here’s a fascinating interview with Arthur C. Clarke, one of the great sci-fi authors, where he predicts many of the ways the modern cell phone works before its time (in 1976).

An interesting aspect of the interview, for how to write good science fiction, is that it highlights how technological and ecological change are so inextricably linked.

The interviewer asks Clarke to put in context his statement that communication tech in the 1970s was still in the ‘semaphore and smoke’ stag [ semaphore referring to communication by holding two flags at various angles to each other]. Clarke says (1:25-1:46):

[With future communication devices] you’ll tell the machine, ‘I’m interested in such and such items – sports, politics, and so forth – and the machine will hunt the main central library and bring all this to you selectively. Just what you want, not all the junk you have to get, you know when you buy the two or three pounds of wood pulp which is the daily newspaper … and [I’m] saying this is going to save whole forests for posterity because the newspaper is on the way out. Arthur C. Clarke, interview from AT&T-MIT conference (1976).

Clarke’s argument is of course utopian-seeming to modern readers. There are different scales and rates of technological development, and deforestation is as concerning as ever (due to wildfires and agricultural expansion).

If imagining a future system, ask how tech changes might affect the environment, or how environmental necessities may affect or drive tech.

Imagining systemic causes and effects – the moving variables within a whole – and showing more than telling these creatively in action and description is a hallmark of some of the best science fiction stories.

5. Explore the creative uses of AI

In our monthly writing webinars , we interviewed Now Novel member, author and emerging tech speaker Kate Baucherel about her cybercrime thriller SimCavalier series, the first book of which is set in the near-future (2040s London).

Besides asking her science fiction writing tips, we discussed AI and the rapid rate of technological development. Says Kate:

I do think that the artificial intelligence aspect is really interesting because it is so darn powerful and so utterly daft at the same time. There was a wonderful panel at South by Southwest® in Austin this year where they looked at, ‘Could an artificial intelligence work out what the end of a children’s story was [if it] was simply inferred?’ Every human from about the age of two can work out that the bear has eaten the rabbit because it stole its hat. But the artificial intelligence would not be able to tell a cartoon bear from a real bear. […] It’s only as smart as the data you feed it. Kate Baucherel, interview, Now Novel webinar ‘Writing sci-fi with Kate Baucherel’.

There are many creative AI tools online you can use to find inspiration for science fiction stories or their settings (or create your own visual prompts).

Try craiyon.com , a browser-based app based on OpenAI’s framework for turning natural language into images. This was a result of entering ‘an incredible alien world and its alarming vegetation’

Example: Using AI tools to find science fiction ideas

Copy.ai is an example of an online tool using AI to help writers (specifically marketers) generate and develop ideas.

We fed the phrases ‘artificial intelligence’, ‘virtual humans’ and ‘machines that have emotions’ into the tool to see the analogies it would generate.

Options it returned for analogies began fairly predictably:

My computer is a virtual human in that: it can fool me into thinking it has emotions. Analogy output via copy.ai

Where copy.ai got interesting from a storytelling perspective was where it returned an anomaly, a more bizarre, unexpected response to the same prompt words:

Goodbye to a priest in that: he is friends with another kind of people.

There was no hint of the clergy in the original inputs, so there must have been something in the sample data around these terms.

This sentence could be expanded into a ‘soft’ science fiction story idea using Now Novel’s central idea finder in our story outlining dashboard:

This is just one possible development of the AI-generated prompt (‘Goodbye’ could also be interpreted to mean another kind of departure, posthumanism, for example ).

Writing good science fiction requires using your imagination to think ‘otherwise’. AI, virtual intelligence, and simple browser-based apps can help you do that in sometimes surprising, playful ways.

6. Show the effects of change

How to write a good science fiction story means applying a universal element of what makes stories great – change.

Science fiction finds vitality, intrigue, drama in the ways who, what, why, where and when change at the fringes of time and space; beyond the limits of modern capabilities such as transportation, information systems and scientific knowledge.

The Scottish author Iain Banks (whose science fiction appeared under the pen name Iain M. Banks) shared with Open University why he sees science fiction as one of the most important genres:

I’ve said for years I think science fiction is really the most important of the genres because it’s the only one that deals quite specifically with the effects of change on humans, both on an individual and societal level. And that has mattered very fundamentally ever since the industrial revolution. Iain Banks, in conversation with The Open University (23:15)

7. Embrace the complexity of fantastical tales

A feature of speculative fiction such as sci-fi and fantasy that may deter some fans of ‘realist’ writing is its conceptual complexity .

It’s true that many sci-fi books require you to imagine and recall complex geographies, naming conventions, tech innovations, and more. Yet this complexity of invention and make-believe is also one of sci-fi’s deep pleasures. Especially when authors develop complex ‘what if’ questions in characterful, storied ways.

N.K. Jemisin (the first African-American woman to be awarded the Hugo Award in 2016) was praised for how her novel The Fifth Season achieves the above .

The book has not one but two glossaries of terms. It describes a planet that has a single super-continent called the Stillness which has a catastrophic season of climate change every few centuries. Inhabitants call this ‘the fifth season’ (hence the title).

N.K. Jemisin speaks of the values of embracing complexity and having the courage to write genre fiction on your own terms in an interview with The Paris Review :

In a lot of cases, people read science fiction and fantasy when they’re younger and then they age out of it. Fantasy in particular. They get tired of the endless Tolkien clones. They get tired of stories where an elf, a dwarf, and a halfling walk into a bar. They’re not that bad, but you see the formula and once you’ve seen the formula a couple of times, you get tired of it […] I believe at least a few of my literary readers are ex–genre readers who had left, basically in a huff, tired of the formula, and came back because something I’m doing speaks to something they want. There’s a change that’s been happening on a number of different levels. There are more literary-style writers in the genre. N.K. Jemisin in ‘A True Utopia: An Interview With N. K. Jemisin’, December 3 2018.

8. Think about power, representation and access

Whether it explores galactic empires or a single, alien world, science fiction often alights on questions of power.

What makes a Sith Lord join the dark side? Are alien races as warring as humans or do they live in a state of enlightened harmony or post-scarcity environment? One thing Jemisin touches on in the Paris Review interview above is how some science fiction reads more as ‘magical thinking’ than story grounded in believable historical and other processes.

For example, Jemisin pinpoints how there may be only one or two Asian people in Star Trek even though this is the largest demographic on earth (this is changing due to recent social movements for diverse and inclusive representation):

Science fiction has always said that it strives for a future for all humankind. Most science fiction does not depict futures for all humankind, though. And in a lot of cases, when it tries to do so, it does this by kind of hand-waving how we get to these shiny, happy, utopian futures. Star Trek , for example. In Star Trek , in the future, everyone can be part of the Starfleet. Supposedly all of humanity has access to good education, good food, all of that other stuff, and yet, Starfleet is still dominated by middle-class, middle-American white dudes. So, something happened along the way, clearly. There’s only one Asian man and Asian people represent the bulk of humanity now. That’s crazy. Jemisin, The Paris Review

Compare to Arthur C. Clarke’s words on the newspaper disappearing. There is no mention of the fact multiple cultures exist in different geographies, with different paces (and desires and requirements) for development, throwing a universally-adopted future system into question by default.

The danger of thinking about science without social science is erasure or blind spots like Jemisin describes.

Power, representation and access in science fiction: Questions

To write good science fiction that is also historically and culturally aware, ask:

• Who is part of ‘us’ in your future world, who is treated as ‘other’ or ‘them’ by any group (is there an economic or political reason?)
• If the story depicts a utopian world where there is no class, racial or gender or other discrimination or exploitation, no prejudice, how did it get to this harmonious state? Is it believable or will it seem like wishful thinking? What other story conflicts are there?
• Who has access to what in a future world? Is education and access to goods or services universal? What does equality or inequality look like?
• Read theorists of society and culture where you can, as well as history – looking back to the past is a great way to find inspiration for writing the future

Who are your favorite sci-fi authors? What do you think makes good science fiction? Let us know in the comments.

Planning to write a science fiction novel? Join Group Coaching, a structured, 6-month course to write a book with daily writing sprints, writing coach Q&As, weekly feedback and more.

Related Posts:

• Writing science fiction: 8 ideas for quantum leaps in craft
• The difference between fantasy and science fiction
• Writing prompt ideas: 10 ideas from top authors
• Tags science fiction , writing genres

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

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Home / Essay Samples / Literature / Literary Genres / Science Fiction

Science Fiction Essay Examples

Exploration of the literary genre of science fiction.

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About Science Fiction

Forrest J Ackerman in 1954 year

Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life atc.

Hard science fiction and Soft science fiction

Douglas Adams, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Franz Kafka, Daniel Keyes, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Kevin O'Donnell Jr., George Orwell, Philip Pullman

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