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writercises Original Posting May 30, 2018
Writer's Digest, pages 72, 70, 71 (yeah, they got fancy with the order) has an article by Ray Faraday Nelson with the title The Science Fiction Attitude: The Only Thing You Need to Write Futuristic Fiction. Oh, that sounds interesting.
Ray starts out with a little math problem! Let me quote it to you. It's not a hard one.
How many years have you been alive? Write down the number. Label it Figure A. (hint: small number, less than 100)
Before that, how many years were you not alive? Write down that number. Label it Figure B. (hint: big number, pushing eternity)
Then he suggests that you look at the numbers and think about them. Play with them a little, subtracting one from the other, get a feeling for how they compare. "You're looking at what I call the Cosmic Ratio." That comparison, that feeling for how much one individual human life is in perspective is the Long View. And then Ray tells us, "I think about the Cosmic Ratio often, particularly when I am writing science fiction, because that Cosmic Ratio is what science fiction is all about, what science fiction's basic message is."
Wow.
Then he points out that literary critics often criticize science fiction for the lack of characterization, the lack of memorable three-dimensional characters. Ray says that's not important. Think about the Cosmic Ratio.
Science Fiction can be funny, adventurous, romantic, sentimental, can include literally anything that has ever been or might be, and even things that never were and never could be, but it's always in the shadow of the Cosmic Ratio. That understanding is what Ray calls The Science Fiction Attitude.
Next, Ray says that to write Science Fiction, you don't need to know anything at all about science. Ray Bradbury doesn't know science, but NASA invites him to watch, and the media interviews him. Isaac Asimov knows a lot about science, but when he's writing science fiction, he goes ahead and has FTL spaceships and telepathic robots…
Ray even mentions that Marion Zimmer Bradley writes Science Fiction, but is actively opposed to science. She prefers magic. She actually is opposed to space travel.
Many science fiction authors don't even know much about mainstream fiction.
So, you don't need science, you don't need fiction, what do you need? You need the attitude. Look at The Cosmic Ratio and let it sink deep into your brain. "Then, even when you write autobiography, sticking strictly to the facts, the result will have the flavor, the color, the perspective of science fiction."
WOW!
So, if characterization is not so important in Science Fiction, what is? The background! That's right, world building, setting, all that good stuff. Except… Don't sweat the small stuff, the actual physical characteristics. Mostly?
"Actual practicing science fiction writers build planets by analogy." Ignore the boring facts, and give us something exciting!
Technology, gadgets, the 3Rs of Science Fiction: Rockets, Robots, and Rayguns? Again, use analogy. Star Wars spaceships are really World War II mustangs, spitfires, and so forth.
"Analogy makes things easier for the writer. More important, analogy makes things easier for the viewer or the reader. When I write for you, I have to draw my images out of the store of things you already know about or you won't understand a word I say.… I have to tell you about it in terms you already know. That is, I have to use analogy.
Now, Ray talks about trying to explain all the bits and pieces. Basically, he recommends against it. The practice now is not so much explanation, just go ahead and say the sun comes up a different color every day, or whatever you need to, and go on from there.
"My practice is to decide, at the beginning of each story, just how far I'm going to allow myself to stray from the path of current science." Set the level of unreality that you want to use.
"So, if you want to write science fiction, don't worry about science, don't worry about fiction as defined by literature professors; just think about where you fit into eternity, where you fit in relation to the distance between galaxies, how you shape up in the Cosmic Equation. Then look around you. And write."
Huh. Almost as bad as "Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed." Still, it does provide a kind of perspective on just what makes science fiction different.
So. How long have you been alive? How long weren't you alive? What's that ratio? How do you fit between the galaxies? Now... WRITE!
Writer's Digest, pages 72, 70, 71 (yeah, they got fancy with the order) has an article by Ray Faraday Nelson with the title The Science Fiction Attitude: The Only Thing You Need to Write Futuristic Fiction. Oh, that sounds interesting.
Ray starts out with a little math problem! Let me quote it to you. It's not a hard one.
How many years have you been alive? Write down the number. Label it Figure A. (hint: small number, less than 100)
Before that, how many years were you not alive? Write down that number. Label it Figure B. (hint: big number, pushing eternity)
Then he suggests that you look at the numbers and think about them. Play with them a little, subtracting one from the other, get a feeling for how they compare. "You're looking at what I call the Cosmic Ratio." That comparison, that feeling for how much one individual human life is in perspective is the Long View. And then Ray tells us, "I think about the Cosmic Ratio often, particularly when I am writing science fiction, because that Cosmic Ratio is what science fiction is all about, what science fiction's basic message is."
Wow.
Then he points out that literary critics often criticize science fiction for the lack of characterization, the lack of memorable three-dimensional characters. Ray says that's not important. Think about the Cosmic Ratio.
Science Fiction can be funny, adventurous, romantic, sentimental, can include literally anything that has ever been or might be, and even things that never were and never could be, but it's always in the shadow of the Cosmic Ratio. That understanding is what Ray calls The Science Fiction Attitude.
Next, Ray says that to write Science Fiction, you don't need to know anything at all about science. Ray Bradbury doesn't know science, but NASA invites him to watch, and the media interviews him. Isaac Asimov knows a lot about science, but when he's writing science fiction, he goes ahead and has FTL spaceships and telepathic robots…
Ray even mentions that Marion Zimmer Bradley writes Science Fiction, but is actively opposed to science. She prefers magic. She actually is opposed to space travel.
Many science fiction authors don't even know much about mainstream fiction.
So, you don't need science, you don't need fiction, what do you need? You need the attitude. Look at The Cosmic Ratio and let it sink deep into your brain. "Then, even when you write autobiography, sticking strictly to the facts, the result will have the flavor, the color, the perspective of science fiction."
WOW!
So, if characterization is not so important in Science Fiction, what is? The background! That's right, world building, setting, all that good stuff. Except… Don't sweat the small stuff, the actual physical characteristics. Mostly?
"Actual practicing science fiction writers build planets by analogy." Ignore the boring facts, and give us something exciting!
Technology, gadgets, the 3Rs of Science Fiction: Rockets, Robots, and Rayguns? Again, use analogy. Star Wars spaceships are really World War II mustangs, spitfires, and so forth.
"Analogy makes things easier for the writer. More important, analogy makes things easier for the viewer or the reader. When I write for you, I have to draw my images out of the store of things you already know about or you won't understand a word I say.… I have to tell you about it in terms you already know. That is, I have to use analogy.
Now, Ray talks about trying to explain all the bits and pieces. Basically, he recommends against it. The practice now is not so much explanation, just go ahead and say the sun comes up a different color every day, or whatever you need to, and go on from there.
"My practice is to decide, at the beginning of each story, just how far I'm going to allow myself to stray from the path of current science." Set the level of unreality that you want to use.
"So, if you want to write science fiction, don't worry about science, don't worry about fiction as defined by literature professors; just think about where you fit into eternity, where you fit in relation to the distance between galaxies, how you shape up in the Cosmic Equation. Then look around you. And write."
Huh. Almost as bad as "Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed." Still, it does provide a kind of perspective on just what makes science fiction different.
So. How long have you been alive? How long weren't you alive? What's that ratio? How do you fit between the galaxies? Now... WRITE!