by Guy Stewart

The rules I’ll be following as I write this column are ones I’ve gleaned through decades of reading writing books, online blogs and through hard practice: one column, one point; reiterate the point in the title and with a concluding bullet; keep it straight-forward and short.

IG/SA will focus on science fiction. By definition, the science will be natural science: empirical phenomenon that are observable and testable which can be applied by technology and may be quantified logically, often in mathematical symbols and statistics. Social science will be allowed as a result of the natural science but won’t be the sole foundation on which a story is predicated as it was in Brunner’s STAND ON ZANZIBAR and Orwell’s 1984.

For example, while Frank Herbert’s DUNE books include a great deal of social science, they are about interstellar travel, the Arrakis spice that makes such travel possible and the ecology of this desert world that makes it the sole source of spice.

For the purpose of this column, science fiction will have more or less plausible, non-supernatural content, explore the consequences of scientific innovations and will most often be written rationally exploring alternative possible worlds or futures. My own published SF – “sci-fi” here, it is pejorative – has looked at faster-than-light travel, a bioengineered Alzheimer’s cure, space cities with children, instantaneous matter transmission, alien-human conflict, and an alternate history discovery of viruses.

Now to the meat of this first article: How do you build a science fiction story?

Story (“short story” in this case, the place every writer should begin) is a swiftly sketched situation that quickly comes to its point. “The art of storytelling is doubtlessly older than the written record of civilization. [Short stories are] straight to the point, [contain] starkly brief narrative, severe brevity and unity. [They are] less complex than novels and made up of one incident, a single plot, a single setting, a small number of characters [and they] cover a short period of time. [As to] dramatic structure [of course they have] exposition, complication, rising action, crisis, climax, resolution, and moral. The story [should] start in the middle of the action [and there is an] abrupt ending, [often] open [ended that] may or may not have a moral or practical lesson.” (edited down from the Wikipedia definition)

Ideas are plentiful. COSMOS online (https://www.facebook.com/COSMOSmagazine) and Science Daily (http://www.sciencedaily.com/) give ideas away for free. But how do you construct a STORY out of an idea?

1) Create a setting, a place that the story can happen.

For example, Alzheimer’s research usually doesn’t happen in a daycare. The discovery of a wooly rhino skeleton doesn’t usually happen in New York City. The idea suggests the setting.

I am currently using nanomachine research at the University of Minnesota that has reached the human testing stage.

2) You’ll need a character.

It can’t be a normal person. Ensign Miles Vorkosigan in Lois McMaster Bujold’s short stories is a man profoundly damaged by chemical poisons before he was born. He’s a dwarf in a society where physical prowess is demanded, ergo, a militaristic society. Every problem he faces calls into question his ability to perform up to the standards of that society. He obviously cannot do so fairly – so he cheats. The character has to have problems and flaws as well as the ability to overcome them. Do you know someone like this in “real life”? If so, take some of their traits and mix them into your character.

To my situation above, I’ve added an older, profoundly physically and mentally handicapped sister and her younger, ADHD brother who can’t read at grade level.

3)  Add an idea.

A real one from the sources above or one that can be extrapolated from reality. The key here is to ask yourself the question: what science idea excites me?

Brain research will eventually reach brain reconstruction. This is supported by current science: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111124150837.htm. To the Setting and Character above, I add experimental brain reconstruction.

4)  Insert one or two others who attempt to block the main character from accomplishing his goal; throw in a dubious ally for flavor.

The story moves apace from there with events followed by consequences leading to some sort of climax and then a wrap up.

To the Setting, Character and Idea above, I’ve given my character a mom and a best friend; a slightly egotistical, chilly supervising doctor; and a well-meaning math coach.

5) The Character, in the Setting, must face the consequences of the Idea with his friends against the enemy.

Once you have the mix, follow the standard outline of story: event, consequence; bigger event, bigger consequence; pivotal event, pivotal consequence; climax; denouement. Once you’re done, you’ve let it sit for a few weeks and have polished it to faceted glory, ask yourself: Are you excited about the story? If you aren’t, no one else will be.

In the story I started, the Character has to make a choice that costs him something in the end. That climax has to have been set up ahead of time. When my character, CJ is faced with the imminent death of his sister, he has to choose to hurt all of those around him or choose to perfect the idea as a legacy. A TOUGH choice for a fourteen-year-old boy!   ~BE 
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