: Re: When writing science fiction, how important is it to provide scientific details for the (fictitious) things you are presenting in the story? I know there is a difference between 'hard' and 'soft'

@Megan928

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You only need to present as much information as is necessary for the plot.

Let's use the classic SF technology, Faster Than Light travel. If all it's doing in terms of the plot is moving the characters from A to B, no further elaboration is necessary. On the other hand, if the method is important, you need to get into it more. To use an example I've read recently, Glynn Stewart's Starship Mage series. There FTL is literally magic; a specially trained mage can cast a spell that teleports a ship no more than a light-year in a single jump. Because it's important to the plot, you quickly learn more about it and the limits; how often a mage can make a jump without their head (literally again) exploding; how the ship has to be prepared for the spell to be cast, details about the special place on the ship where the mage operates, and so on.

Because the series features space battles and pursuits and piracy and boarding actions and all the classic space opera fun, all of that is relevant. You need to know a bit about how the (magic) tech works and its limits to justify why, for instance, the main characters can't simply jump somewhere else when the bad guys show up, or why seizing the ship's sanctum means they can't run, and so on.

Now compare that to, say, Star Wars. You need to make calculations to jump to hyperspace, you can only fight in normal space, and in some places you can't go to hyperspace. That's about it. But in terms of the story, that's all you need to know.

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