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im trying to write a sci book and would like a little help.

the thing about sci fi is that if it says that something can happen now, it must be able to happen.

here is an example of bad sci fi, that never made it into a book. a writer (who happen to be 6' 2") tried to write a book about a group of astronauts during the moon mission. all of his astronauts were over 6 foot. if anyone has ever met astronuats, or done any research on it, you would know they are all much shorter. this is due to the fact that for ever inch taller, the mission would cost thousands more.

a good example is at the end of "the abyss" the crew of the deep sea station were brought to the surface without decompressing. one of them stated. "we should be dead". a reply to this was "the aliens must have done something to us."

the primise of this story is that our civilization was not the first on earth. humans were not the first attempt by evolution to creat an intelegent race. (yes i know evolution is not a sentient being, so it does not actually try to do things. but as water finds its own lvl, so does evolution cause improvements, that would eventually lead to intelegence). almost all, if not all of the evidence of this earlier race were distroyed by a multi million year global ice. it has been shown that this happened at least once.

what im looking for, is the hero of the story finds evidence of this race. where would he find it. how would he find it.

in the story, the ice age was caused by three super volcanos erupting within a small time frame. (less than a century: long enough for one cloud to disappate, before the second erupted, but too short for the ice to melt signifactly between)

if anyone has any suggestion, and would be willing to give me some idea, please do.


the more man learns, the more he realises, he really does not know anything.
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In my opinion most science fiction is like old west stories. They may start out with a little logic and then quickly succumb to shoot em up stuff. The Alien series was popular for the reason it was intended to appeal to not so smarts that liked gore with a little suspense provided by victims walking down corridors scared as can be. I do not read current science fiction but in the distant past I read some of the good stuff, like, Jules Verne, 2001 Odyssey, Frankenstein and others. Good writing is far better that movie style interpretation. With that limitation on my background I will try to offer suggestions. Stephen King is getting very rich on my idea of crap.

If money is your primary goal then try the combination used by Stephen King- horror and beyond science reality. Read one of his books if you can and study his style. He gets away with the impossible. If you want studious approval read Frankenstein for the flow of the idea and potential for reality embedded in the work. I understand that Alex Asimov wrote some good science fiction but I never read any of it so I make no comment; try it out. The library has some very good books on all kinds of writing; I have read a lot of them.

1. Get an idea from real life of some unusual, possibly freak, happening and enlarge it into you main premise. Or take a real science story and have it go sour with unexpected results- you can decide how and what.
2. Make the body of the story work towards the eventual finish. It must be original and entertaining. A little mystery helps.
3. Devise a conclusion consistent with your original introduction and provide a logical outcome that has some surprises.

Think about the abundance of virus stories gone wild that have been sold and are still being written. Don?t waste your time rehashing old ideas because Hollywood has word thumpers doing that on a daily basis.

I hope this is of some help. The actual story ideas I am keeping for myself until I can not find anything real to write about. Good luck.
jjw

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Good science-fiction is based on logical premises, and is true to science in its foundation. For good example, the book "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov and another person whose name I cannot remember is a tale that combines archaeology and astronomy in an exciting different way. The alien culture is set in a world that only sees nightfall every 2000 and some years. The book deals with the consequences of that nightfall, within the society. It is well thought out, the logic is plausible, and the conclusions are within the realm of possibility. It is good science-fiction, well worth the reading. Take a look at how the master works before you condemn all works of science fiction as worthless. There is much out there that is trash, but there is also much that is good. Take a look at analog magazine sometime and read what currently people are writing before you condemn it all.

Amaranth

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thank you, Amaranth Rose, that is what im trying for. ive read much of the trash that jjw004, refers to, and have no interest of making more. some of my favorite books make references to real life science. an example is one that refers to several land marks on the moon. if you look at a map of the moon while reading the book, you can trace the path of the hero as he travel it.

Ray Bradbury is another that i love, he always based his stories on as much science as we know. i can think of not one of his stories that were the "spaced based western shoot-em-up" variety. While Heinlans books did occasionally have shooting (one i remember occured during ww 2), the shooting is usually in the background, with little of it having anything to do with what is going on.

my favorite series is Ann McCaffe (please forgive me if i tortured the spelling) tower series, which has almost no fighting going on.

another favorite is the Pern series. if there was ever a war or a shootemup there, they were not recorded. all of these share a main point. if they tell you there is a star in a certain point in space, you can look the star up in the sky or in the star map we have. If they tell you that a certain chemical reaction will produce a certain result, and if its something within our own science, then you can go out and duplicate the reaction.

the problem is that i dont know enough to find where this proof would be found. can anyone make any suggestions.


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the book, "Borderlands of Science", I forget the author's name, is a great start in the right direction. If you want to make your science-fiction plausible and believable, this book is a great place to start. It explains why spiders can't be 20 feet tall and various other things of importance. I can't lay my hands on my copy right now, but it's a heck of a good reference for scientific things in various fields, including geology and Astro biology. I can highly recommend it for anyone who wants to write science-fiction that is plausible and believable. It's an excellent reference source.

Amaranth

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Amaranth says:

" Take a look at how the master works before you condemn all works of science fiction as worthless."

Who called anything worthless?
jjw

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i googled that name and came up with an author named Michael Shermer. ill see if can find this. thanks.

this may explain it best its from michael shermers book

"A writer of science fiction can perpetrate literary sins that are anathema in "mainstream" writing. But one thing you cannot get away with in my universe is botching the science of your story."


the more man learns, the more he realises, he really does not know anything.
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Good find dehammer:

I thought I was giving you some useful guidance. There was no intent to discourage you from you goal of writing science fiction. Keep in mind that writing on any subject will have ground rules and the best originality will fail if not properly presented. I had that happen to me, a neophite writer, on my first book which had so many numbers I think it not only would bore but would actively scare them off. I am going to rewrite and republish it.

Final word, always think in terms of the reader.

jjw

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true. any story has to have some basic things or it will never succeed. those books that were made into the movies usually were the type that did not require the movie watcher to think about it. in a few cases i know of, the movie verson took away what was required in the book. some authors can write for a viewing audiance and others cant. You did mention it being for money. most successful writers tell you to never write for money. there are a few exception. harlan ellison has frequently writen a book because he needed the money, but most of those were done under a fake name.

all the writers ive ever heard address the question all state that you write to express a story, if its good, it will make money, or at least get ppl to think. If its bad, you enjoyed writing it. I have actually writen three stories, but have never attepmted to get any one of them published. perhaps this one will be good enough i can.


the more man learns, the more he realises, he really does not know anything.

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