Excuse me, but there's not enough Sci-fi in your Sci-fi

[Silver Bee]

A few years ago, I had a nice group of characters that I wanted to use in some form or another. I was very fond of them (I still am) and, since some of them have very peculiar and special treats, I decided that they could very well fit in a sci-fi novella I had a couple of ideas for.

However, as I progressed, I realised the sci-fi elements were pointless, terribly superfluous. I was trying to squeeze in slightly futuristic elements, vague references and unnecessary remarks just for the sake of it being the genre I wanted it to be. It wasn't working at all[1], and I soon realised this particular story could be told as a regular piece of drama fiction. Creating an entire universe to justify the choice of genre and give the proper vibe and atmosphere was not necessary.

To this day, the story and characters remain unused, boringly floating in the Creative Limbo of my brain, because I feel, *I feel* they belong in a sci-fi setting.

Any similar stories? Have you abandoned a story because the genre was wrong and you were just being stubborn? How much sci-fi does your sci-fi need?

[1]Or that was my impression at the time. Maybe it was? Oh dear.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Science fiction is a remarkably fluid genre. Only a hint of the future, technology, or alternative setting can be enough to class a story as "sci-fi".

It's possible that you were simply trying to over-egg the science fiction elements, thinking the story needed them - when the story itself was telling that subtlety was the key.

2c.

 

[Nick B]

There are a great many superb sci-fi novels that could quite easily be set in a different genre. Our own work could quite easily be set today, or even as a western if we had wanted it to be.

 

[chrispenycate]

I trust the story went into storage somewhere? Because even if the final balance was wrong, there might have been elements which would integrate into another setting, some other time. Or you might reread the original and see the incredibly obvious way in which it could be modified to make the story function as it was, with just a minor change…

Stubborn, me? But I'm living in an SF universe. So much change has passed in my lifetime. So probably my characters are going to take their SFism as natural, like my grand-niece with smart phones. Just as well, as my characters regularly leave the path I've laid out for them, and investigate alternative itineraries (apart from one dragon who is remarkably cooperative, but doesn't fit in SF environments any too well at the best of times).

Certainly a number of great science fiction stories contain very little of the futuristic, or mechanistic - I will cite as my principal example Keyes' 'Flowers for Algernon'. Science fiction? Magnificently. Gadgets, explanations, anything that shouts 'The Future'? None. We don't need flying cars or spaceships to build a new universe - even if I don't understand why the Editor decided to stop moon landings so fast, and concentrate on unmanned missions because they're cheaper - I don't think the story comes through half as well, and I'm not going to see the final volume anyway. So let your story develop with the few SF trimmings it demands, and don't worry if it's already retro before it's sold - it is the story (and the storytelling) that are important.

 

[Droflet]

I go for character and story. Story, story, story. The Sci Fi elements take care of themselves. Story first. tech, hmm, well down the list.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Story first. tech, hmm, well down the list.

I regard it just generally as a mcGuffin to allow the scenario. Like Aliens can put our own attitudes under the spotlight, but you need some SF to have reason for aliens, unless you find a hidden Amazonian civilisation.

Really I don't feel I hardly need SF in a story unless it's got interstellar civilisations. Just a small amount if it's Earth bound, to examine a different social set-up or have reason for collapse of civilisation in your post apocalyptic tale.
I don't think god like genetic engineering, ultimate gadgets, flying cars, robot butlers (or sex bots) or nano-tech, transporters, replicators, artificial gravity, shoebox sized fusion reactors etc OF THEMSELVES make for a better story or even "good" SF. Today's tech of itself in a story would only be mildly interesting as background for about a chapter for a load of people waking up from 10th C. Druid's Sleep and no interest to contemporary people, thusly "future" SF tech in a story set in future (with no time travel/suspended animation) is really of limited interest compared to the characters and the story.
Compare Shockwave Rider with Iain M. Banks. Or the first Foundation book.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Hi Sliver Bee,

It's yours to own so write what you want to write I remember Dan O'Bannon or Jim Henson talking about Farscape saying its biggest secret was that it was a comedy set in an alternate universe. I feel similarly about the recent Battlestar Galactica; it is a political drama and a philosophical work on humanity more than a sci-fi. I'd even venture that Breaking Bad has fantasy elements that give it an 'otherness' flavour - and possibly part of it's huge success.

I was trying to think of books that have done this, but I'm not that widely read outside of horror. I did pick up Michael Crichton's excellent State of Fear and Airframe in the sci-fi section at Borders, and they're far from sci-fi-fi. (Climate Change, and aircraft manufacture!)

Characters are always more important as they move a story as opposed to passively being moved by an external story. To that end, I'd just write it and let them do their thing within your structure.

An exercise I have made use of from The Writing Excuses podcast is to re-draft stories in other genres. It's so interesting to see which characters then become focal in a different genre. I'd recommend doing this in synopsis format only, or perhaps the first few pages, as it obviously will take a long time to write a load of same-story/different-genre stuff.

pH

 

[Jo Zebedee]

If I worried about the lack of genre in my stuff, I'd never publish. Until two months ago, my fantasy coming out next year - which had already sold, so that tells you how much of a barrier it was - was still either fantasy or mainstream while i dithered to decide.

Write. Don't worry about what it is, or what it will become. If you love it, write it. Readers are rarely as bothered by this as we are led to believe.

 

[Bloom]

Write. Don't worry about what it is, or what it will become. If you love it, write it. Readers are rarely as bothered by this as we are led to believe.

Love this. Keep forgetting what I need to do more than anything to succeed as an author is write, write, then write some more...

 

[Ihe]

I find people's expectations will play more of a part in defining something as SF than your intentions would. A prime example for me is a series I love: Person of Interest. I've heard/read people complaining about it expecting too much suspension of disbelief to work. This is mostly because they feel it is closer to a modern police procedural/spy thriller, rather than a soft SF set in modern times, which is what I consider it (all powerful AIs? C'mon, it's definitely SF).

 

[Foxbat]

Characters are always more important as they move a story as opposed to passively being moved by an external story. To that end, I'd just write it and let them do their thing within your structure.

This.

Have faith. A story is bit like a cat - throw it out of a window and watch it land on its feet(most of the time).

Disclaimer: I definitely do not, throw cats out of windows (although I did once climb a roof to rescue my cat). He's long gone now but he was called Big Shug, he was the neighbourhood bully with a scar across his nose and I loved him to bits.

 

[J D Foster]

I think an exciting story would work across most genres, the same characters and plot for a murder mystery might easily work on both a space ship and a cruise ship. I'd say it's time to go back to that story

 

[Toby Frost]

I suspect that a story can be one genre by its setting but another by its structure. So you could have a setting of fantasy, but the story could really be a western (Joe Abercrombie’s Red Country springs to mind). Blade Runner is SF in setting but its story is film noir. Redemption Falls by Chris Wooding is pulp adventure (perhaps even pirate adventure) but the setting is steampunk. So I see nothing wrong with this at all and I don’t think purists have a right to get annoyed that what you’ve written is really “X in space”. It doesn’t hurt the genre, if you ask me, because (a) the proper place to discuss real science is surely in a scientific journal and (b) it widens the potential audience for the genre by having a story that doesn’t rely on detailed tech stuff to work.

As to the actual amount of SF technology you need, again I think that’s fine. Take 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale: in a lot of ways their worlds have gone backward from the time when they were written. They’re still good SF even if they focus on people’s behaviour rather than objects. I think people sometimes forget that setting a story in an unreal setting enables the writer to talk generally about things in a way that they couldn’t do with a real-world setting. And then there’s the small point of writing what you enjoy writing. All of which boils down to “Don’t worry about it”.

 

[CWScott]

A lot of futuristic sci-fi could be set in present day. At one point I thought one of my stories could be set in present day Earth instead of an off-world colony. I didn't have much tech. The aliens could have easily been invading Earth. There are so many books out that are classified as sci-fi, but are maybe more of a techno-thriller. The tech isn't futuristic, and isn't science fiction. It does blur together.
I agree with what the others have said. If you have great characters it almost doesn't matter what setting or genre they are in.

 

[David M. Kelly]

Include the level of genre elements that you're happy with and don't worry about it too much. Whatever you do, some people will like it, some people won't--that's how it works