Gandalf and Kenobi
C.S. Boyack asked the following:
“You’ve made a big splash in fantasy, and danced around with paranormal. Are you going to take on science fiction any time soon? You’ve talked about super heroes, but I believe they had ties to Windemere.”
There’s a lot of ground to cover on this one and it’s hard to tell where to start. I’m going to begin with my little fear of attempting science fiction. When I was younger, this genre was all over the place and very beloved. I don’t see it as often as before these days and I wonder if part of it is because of us becoming too critical. Make one wrong move in science fiction and you’ll get crucified online. ‘That type of technology wouldn’t work because of this’, ‘I want more realism in my fiction’, and so on and so forth. People take this genre very seriously and want it to have as many facts as possible. Sometimes at the detriment of the fiction part, so it makes me pull back from the genre.
I still have the superheroes and alien bounty hunter though, so I’d never say never. Yet, I think those have some cushions. Superheroes have become their own subgenre at this point and get leeway. Once you have a character flying and spitting fireballs from his nostrils, you can bend some other laws of physics a bit. Not to mention you have a long history of magical heroes and technology heroes, so the genre acts like a bridge. I could put them on Earth or keep them in Windemere with only the scenery and goon weapons changing. The powers, mentalities, and adventures would stay the same. As for the alien bounty hunter, I’d be in a different galaxy and could always say things work differently than on Earth. Dragonball Z did this a lot with planets having different gravity levels.
There is the word ‘soon’ that I have to consider here. Next year will be a lot of prep work while the last 3 Legends of Windemere books are published. I’ll have Ichabod Brooks (fantasy) and another Dawn Addison (paranormal) story to put together too. As far as bigger projects, I might outline and write 1-2 of the Dawn Fang series (vampires/fantasy), but still no science fiction. Unless I’m forgetting something. Well . . . there is that one, which I’m unsure of. Let me do some research. Be right back.
*worst elevator music ever recorded*
Nothing conclusive on dystopian stories, so Bedlam is in the middle. It might be considered low level, simplistic science fiction since it works off an alternate reality that depends on technology instead of magic. You have diseased animals, the Half-Deads, and bizarre civilizations that have grown out of the rubble. All of them have some connection to reality, but stretch things a bit. One could say I’m using this to dip a toe in the sci-fi water without dedicating myself to the genre. It obviously isn’t fantasy or horror or paranormal, but it isn’t completely science fiction. Again, my nervousness about entering such a highly criticized arena has me making excuses. I’d say this is only my circle that does this, but I see it whenever I read comments under a sci-fi movie review. Even Star Wars gets questioned in terms of realism . . . a movie with space wizards and laser swords gets criticized for being unrealistic. No wonder I stay with dragons, casters, and orcs more than humans.
The thing to take away here is to never say never. Will I try science fiction soon? Probably not in the next year or two. Maybe not for a while considering I have so much fantasy on my plate. Most of the sci-fi I would do is superhero style, so it could be that I never go fully into the genre. Then again, who knows if I’ll revive one of my older ideas because of a spark. Gotta love these vague answers, but you never know.
Legends of Windemere 
Reblogged this on Entertaining Stories and commented:
Should Charles take on science fiction? He offers some compelling reasons. Stop over and chime in.
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Thanks for the reblog. 😀
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Never say never, Charles. I know for a fact that Science Fiction Romance is huge right now and no one on the planet Earth could’ve ever predicted that. I know it can be daunting but if a story emerges from your mind, I’d say go for it. 🙂
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We’ll see. Honestly, I gravitate more toward the zoology and biology side of science. The nature world can be included in fantasy without the science label. The tech and space stuff don’t grip my imagination in a way that I want to write about them.
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Funny you should say that. My next big project is going to be called Grinders. These are people who experiment on animals and themselves to try to become more than what we were born with. I’ve already collected a bunch of genuine articles about these people. One even injected dye in his eyeballs that allowed him to see in the dark for a short time. They’ll make gritty characters for science fiction. I’ve said many times that I’m not the space opera kind of guy, and prefer my SF closer to home. Maybe it’s mad science, but it qualifies.
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I like that idea. There was a Batman Beyond episode that had something like that. 90’s cartoons seemed to have a lot of splicing. Even in fantasy, you get stuff like that through magic. So much you can do with that idea.
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I have a bunch of decent world building ideas, but need to finish two projects before diving in.
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Always something higher up the food chain. 😉
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Seems like. I need Yak Guy to ride into the sunset, and a fictional baseball season to end, then I’ll get more serious.
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Yak Guy the big release for this year?
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That’s the plan, along with the shorter project. Might squeeze in one more depending on how it goes.
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Not a bad project docket.
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Oh, I get you now. I’m more interested in military sci fi and alien sci fi romance than space travel. So, are you saying that Planet of the Apes is considered fantasy rather than sci fi?
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It’s definitely science fiction. There’s no magic and I swear there was some space stuff involved. The newer ones are genetic/disease related, right?
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I’m mostly talking about the books but I think you’re right. The new ones are disease-related.
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Never read the books. How close are they to the movies?
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Pretty close to the original with Heston. Although, it’s been 20 years since I’ve read them. My memory’s not what it used to be. 🙂
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Doesn’t surprise me that the newer ones are further from the books. Most people probably don’t realize they were books first . . . I didn’t.
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I’ve seen those commenters before, and I kind of ignore them (sorry). It makes for a fun debate on occasion, but when world building, I get to have it my way. If you take Star Wars for what it is, you tend to enjoy it more. It’s fun to debate whether it’s fantasy or science fiction, but not to the point of failing to enjoy it for what it is. George Lucas gets to have it his way too. I guess that puts me more in the SF as background category as opposed to the Hardcore SF folks who expect all these ideas to become reality one day.
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Star Wars is definitely a combo with those genres. I think the echo chamber of the Internet makes the fighting worse. The loudest voices get attention and those tend to be negative. Not to mention algorithms make you see only what you want to see. I tend to go right by or only spend a minute, but I feel it would be different if it’s my own work. That makes me want to defend. Hard to do when you knowingly ignore scientific fact and that’s what some people put above entertainment.
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I embraced the pulp era in my last bunch of short stories. I’m pretty sure a bunch of things from Rocketmen couldn’t happen, but people still enjoyed the story.
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It’s funny how some stories go under the radar. I wonder if one that doesn’t touch on Earth can get a little more forgiveness.
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Possibly, but some will be unhappy no matter what you do.
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Sad, but true.
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Reblogged this on Archer's Aim and commented:
Excellent considerations for moving to another genre. However, I do see some writers doing well by focusing more on the story than the intricacies of technology. For me, I seem to have mainly fantasy ideas though I might be willing to dabble myself given time to research the science to some degree.
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Most of my ideas are fantasy too. The thing is that I see authors focus on story, but readers go for the science. Almost like each side has chosen only half of the genre to pay attention to.
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Agreed. Some people like hard science like with The Martian while others like Star Wars. I think many of us understand there are no fireball explosions in space – we just understand the message is that the ship just blew up. I can be entertained by either and like to read both.
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I’ve been more on a magic and supernatural kick these last few years. I think I remember a sci-fi show that had silent fights to be more realistic. Kind of boring after a bit. Guess some sacrifices need to be made for entertainment.
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Indeed they do…
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I’m with you on a fear of writing science fiction. I saw a review where one addict tore the writer to shreds for thinks like “no shock waves in space.” OMG I would be killed given what I know about space.
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I’ve seen stuff like that too. This is why I’m leaning toward having my alien bounty hunter be stranded on a planet.
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I agree. I’m not leaving the Earth is the way I handle it.
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There’s a difference between “no shock waves in a true vacuum” and “no shock waves in space.” When, for example, a starship is blown up and there’s a lot of vented atmosphere and whatnot, there’s now a medium for a shock wave to travel through, at least a little bit. (When stars explode, you betcha there’s a shockwave!)
Some of the people who like to nitpick the science in sci-fi are… less than experts on the topics they’re nitpicking, shall we say. I once saw someone claim that ALL science fiction in which lasers are used as weapons (or any other laser that could reach more than a couple of meters) was flat-out wrong, because lasers do not and can never have better range than that. He even had a lot of math to “prove” that he was correct. I’m sure you can think of a few real-life examples of why he was wrong. 🙂
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Thanks, Thomas. I’m still very afraid. 🙂
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Heh, that might have been one of my reviews.
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I don’t think so. 🙂 Although I do enjoy your reviews.
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“Make one wrong move in science fiction and you’ll get crucified online[…] People take this genre very seriously and want it to have as many facts as possible.”
After ‘this book is full of grammer error i wish i would not have read it,’ accusations of scientific inaccuracy are probably among the most common FALSE complaints about science fiction novels. They’ll complain that you got some fact wrong (even if you didn’t) if you write fantasy, too. If you actually WANT to write science fiction, you can’t let risk of such complaints stop you from writing it.
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Good point on wanting to. Many think doing fantasy means I’ll do science fiction or have an interest. There are times I do, but they’re too fleeting to make much out of. Have to admit that I never saw much of the false ones. Though I shouldn’t be surprised.
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I think you’d be fine, as long as you don’t label/categorize your story as “hard” sci-fi.
There are a few really obvious things that people get wrong, like having spaceships maneuver like aircraft/boats, or confusing galaxies and star systems, but I think a very small amount of thought/research would avoid those. If you’re doing space opera, authors usually just ignore things like differences in gravity or atmosphere on planets, and I don’t remember hearing any complaints. Readers (including myself) just want a story in an exotic location when they read space opera.
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I think the complaints come from people who think everything is hard sci-fi. Kind of like fantasy fans that think everything should be high or low magic. I can see the appeal to having spacecraft maneuvering like airplanes though. Guess I’d go space opera if that allows me more exciting chase and fight scenes.
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If you want an aerial dogfight, just have one of the ships/fighters/shuttles duck into a planet’s atmosphere because it attenuates the enemy lasers.
A space chase seen does seem a bit boring because it’s just mass and thrust, but I have one idea I’m going to throw into a story someday to make it a bit more interesting…
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This is why I’m still leaning toward crash landed aliens. Not sure it would work the way I want.
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I meant to type scene, not seen, obviously. Funny how the mind works when you’re trying to talk and type at the same time….
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I say go for it. Some people would complain about inaccuracies, sure. Some complain just for the sake of complaining. And after reading enough of your work, I know that a sci-fi story by you would be an entertaining read.
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Guess we’ll see. I’d need to think of something first. 😀
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A definite maybe, then.
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Pretty much. 😊
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Go for it, Charles. In fact, with the new president taking over in the U.S., he will be surrounding himself with advisers that think science is fiction.
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So I can just write anything with a round Earth and it’ll count?
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Yes…a round earth…with melting polar ice caps.
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Great post. I love that sci first has branched out so much in the last decade.
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It’s definitely become more accepted.
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dude this is awesome! I was thinking of turning some of my drawings into animations, and this reminded me of that, thanks!
Also, the lost? search page of my blog has a gif of your picture above! crazy
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Love that gif. Very cool idea to turn drawings into animations. What kind of program does that require?
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Haha! Thank you! If you type ‘gif’ in place of ‘www.’ while watching any youtube video that isn’t too long, you can make a gif out of anything. just be sure it looks like ‘gifyoutube’ when you do it.
By this, it doesn’t really require a program, so you don’t have to download anything except for the gif itself!
If you don’t want the gif on your computer, you can ask your media gallery to keep it by copying the url into your library, and then it will go there.
fun part, you can make your own short video upload it to youtube, and then turn it into a gif!
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Awesome. Thanks for the info.
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Always!
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Science fiction is my favorite genre. And sometimes stuff is weird and implausible, but as long as it it a good story I think people are willing to use their imagination to full in the gaps. A lot of stuff isn’t possible yet or has its flaws in sci-fi. That’s why it’s fiction!
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Maybe it’s the circles I hang out in. Just happen to see a lot of people tearing sci-fi apart for facts. It does get bizarre when it’s aimed at alien worlds and future tech.
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I think that kind of ruins things. It’s fiction, and imaginative. A lot of stuff in movies now days even isn’t accurate. Why aren’t the people in star wars floating all over the ship? Sometimes disbelief has to be suspended in order to experience and enjoy new things. If people want straight facts, read nonfiction. That’s what I think 🙂
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I’ve seen people complain about no floating in Star Trek. Star Wars seems to get a pass there, but hit on how light sabers should work. Makes me wonder if people either refuse to suspend disbelief or forgot how to.
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I guess so. It’s obviously not real so why argue about if it would work or not? It’s aweaome, so enjoy it!
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Exactly. 🙂
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