: Re: Does the concept come before other "literary devices" in philosophical science fiction? I have read in a few books about writing science fiction that a compelling concept should override considerations

@Courtney562

Vote Up Vote Down

Strength in good writing comes from its unitary nature. Concept, characters, plot, settings, and the unfolding of the story itself should be all one thing. This may sound like waffle. It does have the drawback of being a high-level abstraction, but even high-level abstractions have their place.

In practical terms, stories can start from anywhere. If you are interested in writing philosophical science-fiction (hereafter, PSF), then you want to write with a concept. If so, you will need to look at a suitable setting where that concept naturally arises, the right characters who can personify aspects of the concept in a variety of ways, and especially the consequences of the concept on the characters and on the setting.

Above all you are writing a story. Always try to make sure the concept is in the service of the story. This is not an essay or a text book about the core concept.

For example, if your PSF story involved a near-future world where a device had been invented that could access parallel versions of Earth. Not radically different ones where, for example, Hitler won WW2, but parallel Earths with minor differences. Star Trek: The original Series had four seasons and not three, sort of thing.

This will raise questions about identity, causality and destiny (you can see different life choices made by different versions of the characters and how they work out), how this affect the nature of the economy, politics, even entertainment (remember that fourth season of ST:TOS, and what hit movies, books, TV shows not made in our world), and would some worlds be better than others or much worse? What would be the consequences of wanting to replace a version of yourself who had had a better life in his or her world.

Basically no matter how strong or powerful the core concept is, it is expression as a story that matters the most. The core concept of any PSF story is not a substitute for good storytelling. This means the characters must be well done, the setting must feel right, and the plot has to be the sort of plot that best illustrates what the consequences of the concept will be.

Let me give you an example of what is involved in working through a concept to be able to write good science-fiction. The British Sf author Bob Shaw devised the concept of slow glass. Glass that slowed down passing through it to an incredible amount. This was an extrapolation of what happens already in nature when light passes through any transparent medium.

What Shaw did was not simply write a story using the first possible consequence of slow glass. He carefully considered all the possible consequences of an invention like slow glass that he could think of. This process he said was like treating those consequences like the facets of a diamond. Turn it this way and certain possibilities emerged, then turn further and other possibilities appeared. It was only when he found the possibility arising from slow glass with the greatest emotional impact, then he used that to write a short story.

Shaw went on to write a series of slow glass short stories. Most of which were incorporated into a fix-up novel.

Consider doing the same thing. Think through as many consequences and as many possibilities related to a philosophical concept and find ways they lead to stories. When you find the one with most emotional impact, then that's the one should consider writing.

Good luck with writing philosophical science-fiction!

(0)

Login to post a comment!