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The Science Fiction Novel

Nanotechnologies, space travel, Moon or Mars colonization, all of these are familiar aspects of Science Fiction. We shouldn't forget popular science fiction such as Star Wars, Star Trek and Ender's Game all that have aspects of science fiction but aren't the hard science that pushed the envelope of science such as Jules Vernes. So join us without the kids, the pets, the chores, the cleaning, the phone, and the doorbell for at least 40 uninterrupted hours of writing. Christine from To The Letter is making the time, just for you.

Hard Science Fiction
Hard Science fiction contains three main elements: It should happen in the future, it has to have a physical science element and it cannot contain any science inaccuracies. This genre is a balance between the story, the characters and the science. You don't have to be a scientist to write Hard Science fiction just a great storyline and the ability to do research. The trickiest part of Hard Science fiction is being able to follow and predict accurately the impacts of the technology to the forward motion of the story.

Soft Science Fiction
A better definition would be Space Opera. We have the good guy, the bad guy, the girl in distress and it all takes place in space. These stories focus more on the individual characters, their interactions, responses and personal development. These stories contain science and use technology to forward the plot, say planet jumping or teleportation, but the science is not essential to the story.

Social Science Fiction
This genre of Science fiction deals with the science found in the humanities. It focuses on the science of culture, psychology, sociology, linguistics, politics or any of the humanities that use theory and prediction to forward the plot. These social issues and the science of how people interact with them are the driving force of the plot. Like Hard Science Fiction, the author has to balance the story, characters and use the science to further the plot. Although it doesn't have to happen on a different planet or in space, it should be in the future.

Science Fantasy
Here we have a mixture of science and fantasy.  The author here chooses what genre their world is going to fall into. If the world falls into a medieval setting then you use advanced technology to move the plot and characters forward. If the setting is a science setting then the technology used would be more along the realm of medieval to move the plot further. This genre also includes the use of aspects of Social Science fiction to move through the story.

Young Readers
Young Readers genre is defined more by sentence structure, vocabulary and the process in which the writers works through the plot. Subject matter is so varied and it can happen in so many different places, but it focuses on situations that a young adult that age would deal with. The main characters are the age of the reading group the author is trying to sell to. There should be no graphic violence or sex. The sentence structure and vocabulary should be on the grade level that you are writing for.

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