I’ve never been nominated for the Bloggies (haven’t won either, obviously), but figure I’d let you folks know that nominations are open for the 2009 Bloggies and if you wanted to nominate WISB, well, there you go. Anywho!
You all remember that huge list of book review blogs that I posted not too long ago? Well, if you don’t remember it from here, you probably remember it from somewhere else, right? Well, the good folks at Sci-fi Songs have made a fantastic song about the meme, with the lyrics being the names of the various blogs on that list. I get a mention in there, but the song is primarily about John Ottinger of Grasping For the Wind. Check it out the song here!
What makes a good science fiction story? What elements do you need? Well, the following list are what I think are necessary elements to every science fiction story, including elements that should be givens for stories in general. Feel free to disagree with me in the comments section of this post. In no particular order: Sympathetic CharactersTack onto this characters that your audience can identify with. Science fiction is known for having aliens, robots, and other bizarre things as centerpieces to the story. If one of those oddities happens to be a significant character that you want your readers to be interested in, then you have to make them somehow “human.” The readers need to sympathize with those characters, understand their struggles and motives, etc. Technology (or a damn good reason for the lack thereof)Science fiction doesn’t exist without technology. A story set in 1776 is not science fiction, unless you can make a convincing time travel story (but then, in theory, your story would have started in the future rather than 1776). If you have a complete lack of technology, then you should be able to justify that–dystopias can still be science fiction even if there is little to no technology present. The FutureWell, duh, right? This requirement is somewhat difficult, though, because for obvious reasons a lot of novels that are science fiction aren’t set in a real future. 1984 is technically set in the past, now. So, to amend this, I will say that the future must be the future at the time of publication. Yeah, procedural-ish and annoying, but so be it. Science fiction is about the future, so it must be there. ConflictBecause what story can exist without some sort of conflict? Okay, so there are stories that have no conflicts, but those stories aren’t generally remembered for being good, right? Science fiction stories do well with some sort of conflict. I’ve never read a successful science fiction story in which nothing happened. Ever. Something InterestingThis can be a conflict, a character, or maybe a fancy new technological idea. Regardless of the “interesting thing” you choose, it has to coincide with the plot and make us, the readers, interested. Think back to some of your favorite science fiction stories. What made them interesting to you? Cool tech devices? Space travel? Weird aliens? A clever dystopic view of society? Take the good things away from your favorite stories. They were successful for a reason! There you go. Five Things that every science fiction story should have! What do you think? I may do another list in the future, by the way, so keep a lookout!
Two things:First, I’ve recently discovered an interesting little widget that allows readers (and presumably passersby) to make suggestions for content. I’m down for it, but I would like your opinions on the matter. The widget is called Skribit and allows for anonymous suggestions and should be relatively unobtrusive. Would you use it to make suggestions for content? Second, are you satisfied with the content on WISB? What could you do without? What do you come here for? Your opinions are welcome. Criticism is good. I want to improve as a blogger and I can’t do that without your thoughts! Thanks!
Science fiction isn’t dying, contrary to what people are saying (about literature, I mean)–it might be losing some ground, but proclaiming it on the verge of death is like saying books themselves are dying, which is another can of worms that people really need to research before babbling doomsday theories about. With that in mind, however, here are my nine reasons why SF is still awesome (not entirely about literature, I mean): TVSay what you will about some of the garbage on television, but shows like Battlestar Galactica are prime examples of why SF is very much alive and very much filled with awesome. The constant reruns of other classic shows, such as the multitude of Star Trek series, X-files, and even the original Stargate SG-1 have helped make SF television worth watching–you can get the new and the old in one bite. And don’t forget all the other interesting shows floating around (some good and some not so much)! MoviesLet’s just put aside the arguments about whether or not Star Wars is SF and also just put aside the prequel movies altogether. They don’t count. What does count are movies like Pitch Black, Sunshine, X-men (the first two mostly), Evolution, The Matrix (the first one, not the sequels), Terminator 3, “I, Robot,” The Chronicles of Riddick (say what you will about this one, but it was a good movie), The Island, Spider-Man, Children of Men, V For Vendetta, I Am Legend, Transformers, Iron Man, Wall-E etc. Those are just a few of the titles in the last 10 years that we all most likely remember, or should remember. The movies coming out are still good, some of them playing games with the SF elements (Evolution) and others taking them seriously (Sunshine). I love SF movies and thankfully there are plenty to come in the future that will keep me entertained. Cool IdeasYes, science fiction is still pumping out the ideas. Just because it’s not making us go “oh my lord, that is truly the most amazing thing ever” doesn’t mean the ideas aren’t there. It’s just somewhat more difficult to surprise us with technology anymore. Spaceships and nanotechnology don’t make us jump up and down like school children like they used to. But the ideas are still there, and they’re getting more complex and more fascinating and dangerous every year. The best part is that some of the ideas we’re seeing might actually come true because they are based on real science. Take nanotechnology, which might actually create super-humans and what not. Wouldn’t that be cool? I think so. Scifi GeeksOkay, so this is one of those things that is great and utterly crap at the same time. First off, scifi geeks can be a little too obsessed (like those Star Trek fans who actually think it’s real). The thing is, all forms of geekery, even literary geekery, have these overly obsessed types. That’s just the way it is. For the most part, thankfully, scifi geeks are some of the best geeks out there. They don’t always get it right (some shows/books/etc. really aren’t as good as they make them out to be), but at least they’re keeping the genre alive by consuming the hell out of science fiction books, television, movies, comics, etc. Without them, the genre wouldn’t be where it is today. At least that’s my opinion! Comic BooksOkay, so comics have been around for a hell of a long time, and science fiction comics just as long. But comic book movies haven’t been around quite as long, and good ones haven’t started springing up except in the last 10 years–and most of those have been science fiction or at least close. True, not all of these comic book movies have been all that great (some of them have been downright terrible), but the good ones have, in my opinion, revitalized the movie industry, for the most part, and done wonders for science fiction as a whole. Now we’re seeing a lot of cross over in the opposite direction: science fiction shows being turned into comic books and their stories/characters expanded as a result. True, this type of stuff has been going on for a while, but it seems like it’s more popular these days than in days past. And it doesn’t really matter if it’s an old thing or a new thing: it’s working, it’s cool, and that’s all that matters! Non-Genre Authors Driving FocusThe title isn’t clear, primarily because it’s hard to put all of what will be said here into a short title, but it will have to do. Basically, quite a few authors who have received acclaim outside the genre have written books within the genre and embraced them. Michael Chabon, for example, has basically flipped his middle finger off at all those folks that tried to claim he and other science fiction writers were writing crap. We need more folks like him out there, for sure, but thankfully the genre as a whole has been grabbing a lot of non-genre attention as of late. And, it drives genre readers to work outside of their comfort zone. That’s a good thing! Space OperaIt’s been around for a long time, I know, but the subgenre has really blossomed lately (at least that’s what I see). Whether or not it is “new” as the whole “New Space Opera” title suggests, space opera is still kicking. I love me some space battles and interstellar civilizations, even when it’s all blended together in a dark cup (if that makes any sense). Of course, I’ve always loved space opera, so the supposed revitalization of the genre brings a smile to my face. Give me some Tobias Buckell and John Scalzi any day of the week! And, if you’re feeling friendly, toss some Charles Stross and Alastair Reynolds in there too! Science Fiction Becoming RealityWe may not have nanotech-augmented super humans who can heal on command and survive the vacuum of space, or interstellar transports that can take
It was brought to my attention that some of you out there were curious about my blogging collaboration idea. I’ve actually already started working on this idea with another blogger (Tycho Garen, in specific). Basically it would work something like this:Two or three individuals (or more, I suppose; for the sake of this discussion, though, I will use ) would agree on a topic of discussion, such as a question or a controversial idea or whatever. Someone would agree to start and would thus write his or her response to whatever the topic happens to be. That response would be handed to another person, who would then, in theory,post their response to the topic and then any rebuttals to the first person’s response. Then they would go back and forth in debate style (friendly, of course, because nobody wants to have any of that angry debating crap) until either nothing else can be said or both parties agree that nothing else needs to be said.Responses would be posted in pairs on alternating blogs. In the case of Tycho and I, the first response for our little dialogue is going to be up at on his blog (his response to the question, my response to the question, and a rebuttal). Then, we’ll alternate. In the event that we have nothing else to say after two rounds, then things still alternate and we simply choose another topic.There are plenty of other ways to do this, though. One suggestion was to have it where a topic was chosen and then one person would post on their blog, the next person would post a response on their blog with a link back to the initial response, and back and forth like that (a dialogue between blogs, if you will). I’m still interested in trying this version, which hopefully is clear from my description.And you’re free to suggest different ways to do this. So, if you have suggestions for different formats, then by all means suggest them! So, what do you all think? Any other sf/f bloggers interested in producing cross-blog dialogues? It’d be interesting and would offer a unique way to cross-pollinate readers and do some nifty things withing the blogging world. Let me know what you think.
