186. How Much Science in Your Sci-Fi Stories?

“Go ahead and base your sci-fi entirely on your own imagination, whatever science that you want to integrate into your story. And make it feel real.“ —Beth Barany

How Much Science in Your Sci-Fi Stories? 

That’s the question from a listener Beth Barany is answering in this How To Write the Future podcast episode. 

She answers whether you can base your novel entirely on your imagination, whether studying science is necessary, plus she invites you to get in touch with any questions that are niggling you about your science fiction writing. 

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Transcript

186. How Much Science in Your Sci-Fi Stories? 

Introduction and National Science Fiction Day

BETH BARANY: Happy National Science Fiction Day, everyone. It was recently National Science Fiction Day on January 2nd to celebrate Isaac Asimov's birthday. He is one of my favorite science fiction writers. 

I would like to know what is your favorite science fiction book? Go ahead and drop that into the comments, or DM me or write me through email or through my website at how to write the future.com. I would love to know.

This is an unofficial holiday. And why can't every day be National Science Fiction Day?

Happy reading, and on to the episode.

Can I base my sci-fi entirely on my imagination or is it a good practice to study science a bit before attempting to write it? Thank you so much for your question. This question comes from Tomaso Deep. Thank you so much. I just wanna say very interesting question. 

[00:58] Meet Your Host: Beth Barany

Hi everyone. I'm Beth Barany. I run How to Write The Future Podcast.

I'm a science fiction and fantasy writing teacher, as well as an award-winning novelist of science fiction and fantasy. And I'm passionate about helping writers write their novels, market them, and publish them. I'm also very interested in helping creative entrepreneurs get their writing businesses up and running.

And lastly, I'm a filmmaker. More about that in a future episode. 

[01:26] Answering Tomaso's Question: Imagination or Science?

Today, I'm gonna answer Tamoso's question. Can I base my sci-fi entirely on my imagination or is it a good practice to study science a bit before attempting to write it? I'm of two minds. I wanna say yes to both.

Number one, go ahead and base your sci-fi entirely on your own imagination. Whatever science that you want to integrate into your story, and make it feel real. Awesome. And it's really about confidence, right? Like if you are so excited about studying science a bit before attempting to write it, go for it.

I studied science and read a ton of sci-fi as a child. Then I took a big break from science. I was on a science track. I actually was in a pre-med track heading toward medical school, but dropped out of it at age nineteen, went into the social sciences, stepped away from studying science for a while.

So I started studying science again with the eye of writing science fiction at some point, and it was really a confidence thing that made me feel ready to write science fiction.

I felt like I had gotten up to speed on a lot of what was going on in science, and I got to learn a ton about physics because my husband is a high school physics teacher by day, and a writer by night. And I really felt I had a grasp on things and had some good ideas, and then I was ready to write. 

So the real question here I would ask is: Are you ready to write?

If you feel ready, I say go for it. You could always go back to science in revisions and study the things you want to make better, and clarify and make more specific in the editing process.

There really is no one right way to go into writing a novel, into writing a science fiction novel. And you may be thinking that there's some perfect way, or that if you don't do it right, that's it, you never get another chance.

But the cool thing about writing is you learn a lot by doing. So anything that is in the way of sitting down to write, I always question: do you really need to be distracted with those things or are they giving you fuel and inspiration so that you can sit down and work on the book?

And without having more information, I really don't know.

[03:43] Balancing Writing and Research

There's a third option that is you could start writing and do research along the way.

So when you say study science, I really don't know if that means the fundamentals of science, or a specific scientific domain or something else.

So I would say follow your interest, follow your curiosity. Really listen to your own gut instincts or wherever your instincts live in your body and follow that.

The most important thing here is that you take action and write.

And if you're gonna research, also maybe give yourself a structure to do that, and with specific questions in mind.

So here's another pathway you may want to take, which is write the, write your story, and if the story is not as extensive as you would like, then give yourself some time and do research, and then use that research to rewrite the story.

Pro tip: I'm always researching science. I write science fiction. I'm always researching science, and I really just let my curiosity lead me.

So what are you curious about? 

Write down your questions so that when you research, you know when you have stumbled upon your answer.

Writers are often lifelong learners, so you can be learning and writing at the same time.

I encourage you to do that, and I also challenge you to do that.

All right. 

[05:06] Encouragement and Final Thoughts

If anyone has questions that I haven't yet answered, please go ahead and just drop them in. 

And even if you searched and you found a version of my answer to your question, go ahead and ask it again. You're welcome to provide some context, so I can help you better. I am very interested in answering your questions on the podcast.

I do a batch of these every once in a while.

So please do, go to how to write the future.com and fill out the form, or you can leave me a voice message. There's a few different ways you can do that. So really, it's not that hard to reach out to me. I encourage you to do it.

Writers, take action. Yeah. 

[05:47] Conclusion 

All right everyone.

That's it for this week. Write long and prosper.