How (not) to plot an SF story
Tags: blog, lol, personal, process August 21st, 2012Snippet from our holiday in Brittany:
Me: “So, I want this story to be about child refugees and their experience. It kind of needs something else to be SF, though…”
The H: “Space stations? Spaceships? AIs? Nanomachines?”
Me: “Ooh. I like nanomachines. Sold, now I have to think of a plot to go with those. Mmm…”
Yup, this is how my SF gets plotted, which kind of explains a lot of things…
(I usually get the setting from combining one societal thing with one science/SF thing; however, at this stage I’ll throw in a random element to provide the actual plot that goes with the setting. Lately, it’s been a fairytale motif, go figure)
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August 21st, 2012 at 8:15 pm
That makes me feel better about the fact I do almost the exact same thing!
August 21st, 2012 at 10:17 pm
That’s pretty much what I do. It’s what Graham Joyce has said to me that he does on occasion as well. Also what the indie rpg Shock Social Science Fiction enforces in its rules.
August 22nd, 2012 at 1:29 am
Have you ever heard of TRIZ and its application to fantastic ideas?
=> here for instance: http://www.trizexperts.net/GF98cid.htm
August 22nd, 2012 at 2:50 am
I thought doing it like that was a secret, or Not Allowed!
(I do it too, frequently. Of course!)
August 25th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Dylan, Will and Jennifer: Hahaha, so glad I’m not the only one!
Thanks!
@Next_friday: no, I hadn’t heard of it, sounds like fun