As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world, you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.
Ray Bradbury
Our ideas for fiction come to us from our own experiences, but never exactly copied. If nothing else, names get changed to protect the innocent/guilty.
The worlds in which we write are also changed from the everyday, by a little or by a lot. Alternate history is invented by changing one event, and then seeing how that change plays out across all its consequences. Suppose Catalina of Aragon had borne a son instead of a daughter? No divorce from Henry, no split of England from the Catholic church, no Queen Elizabeth I, massive downstream changes.
Science fiction may start from just one invention, or one small change in how (we think) the world works. What if we found octopi making tools? Or an event that really might happen any day now, we just don’t know when, like a pandemic, a supervolcano, an incoming giant asteroid…
And the consequences of the change always depend on how people behave. Badly, too often, but also kindly and heroically often enough.
Challenge: change one thing about our real world. Then write a scene about the consequences of that change. If the consequences become very complex, perhaps an outline or catalog of them rather than a scene.
Is anyone doing DaKoWriMo starting next week? I found a project that needs doing amongst my daughter's cleanup. She had copies of the screenplays, mine and my husband's, which I did not have. I need to get them into the computer so they can be preserved and edited. I only had the short story form of Fire, the screenplay is way more complex and better written, I think. Whether it will ever see a screen is another question entirely.... but the first step is keying it in. Deborah wants her copy back when I am done.
If you have a goal, sound off!
DaKoWriMo Goals
Dconrad: 20,000 words
Mercy Ormont: get "Cholly" ready to publish on Amazon
mettle fatigue: write any fiction
RiveroftheWest: illos for the riverboat story
ThurzdaysChild: weekly writing sessions, one to four hours each.
READERS & BOOK LOVERS SERIES SCHEDULE
If you’re not already following Readers and Book Lovers, please go to our homepage (link), find the top button in the left margin, and click it to FOLLOW GROUP. Thank You and Welcome, to the most followed group on Daily Kos. Now you’ll get all our R&BLers diaries in your stream.