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Q&A

Posts tagged science

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Q&A How to integrate letters, in-universe book Snippets and the like into a story

So, let's say the main characters enter a building, a really big laboratory of sorts. They don't know what was being worked on here, because no one is still there, it's been abandoned recently. But...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Pharguin‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Baker‭

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Q&A Can I conceal an antihero's insanity - and should I?

I have an idea for an anti-heroic sci-fi character whose character arc runs from spoilt rich girl, to a refugee in the rubble of human civilisation after an alien invasion, to crewmember and then c...

6 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Monty Wild‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Baker‭

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Q&A What are the top most important key elements for a computer game story?

I am a programmer and in the middle of developing a TBS (turn based strategy) computer video game. Those kind of games have a flow of what is commonly known to gamer as 4X, that is, explore, expand...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Stefanos Zilellis‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Secespitus‭

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Q&A What's "fair use" for borrowing someone else's invented term?

Let's say I'm writing a sci-fi novel. I want to use a word which another writer has coined, which has become well-recognized outside the original book, for the name of an alien species in my story....

4 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Amadeus‭

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Q&A Is anything like the propulsion systems (warp/impulse drives) copyrighted from being use in other sci-fi novels?

I'm currently writing a sci-fi/fantasy novel that mostly takes place on a star/space-ship but I'm stuck on if i'm available to use names of the propulsion drives, such as Warp or even Impulse drive...

4 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by SKKennell‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by celtschk‭

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Q&A How do you show, through your narration, a hard and uncaring world?

As I've already mentioned, I'm working on a sci-fi novel. One of the main feelings that I wanted to represent when I started is the sense of a vast, empty, artificial world, mostly cold and uncar...

8 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Worth writing, if end is obvious

I am currently sketching a novel about people at the end of time, some months or years before the Big Crunch: There is a space station full of people who can only sit and watch as their final momen...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Alexander von Wernherr‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to deal with nameless characters?

In the novel I'm planning the human characters that inhabit the world are all clones of each other. Man and woman. They aren't given names when born, instead they are given serial numbers that also...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Victor Matheus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Use of past tense in a book about the future

I'm writing a sci-fi novella about a scientist named Steves living in the 24th century. I'm mostly using the typical past tense to narrate the incidents happening to the protagonist. Whenever I'm t...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Soha Farhin Pine‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How much science/medical detail is too much?

I am a former Molecular Biologist and also worked for years as an ICU nurse. I personally liked Crichton's style of writing about science/medical mishaps but found his presentation of science/medic...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Richard Stanzak‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write a utopia?

I have always been an avid reader of utopian novels. Not necessarily those that advertised themselves as such, but the small utopias, of people doing good, of relationships going right, of a happin...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to expand beyond a single series?

I am currently writing a science fiction/fantasy quadrology and would like to eventually expand on it. I have an entire world built around it and I would like to know the best way to introduce it. ...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by Ferus Olin‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Looking for informed people to evaluate a creative writing project about psychiatry

I am a beginning writer. I would like to write a science fiction / fantasy book that is critical of psychiatry, including diagnosis inflation, the influence of Big Pharma, and the field's de-empha...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by user9885‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to find the balance between research and the obvious

I'm embarking on writing my first popular science book on a controversial subject. For sure the writing must be rational, coherent with a clear train of thought and littered with references to be c...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Jonas Byström‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Writing from a hive mind POV

The story: Centuries ago, humanity have been incorporated into an alien hive mind, spread by a bacterial-like infection. The "bacteria" infects the blood and brain and allows the infected to join ...

3 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Babika Babaka‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write realistic injury scenes?

I'm currently writing an apocalypse themed story. As with the territory, death and/or injuries happen. I'm wondering how other writers write these scenes realistically as far as science, medicine,...

2 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by KaguraRap‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to introduce a world that's alien to the reader

I'm writing sort of a space-opera and I was wondering what would the best way to explain everything about the world to my readers. The story is kind of a political intrigue, and it would be very ea...

2 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Burnlan‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A My first comedy plot draft is very bland - how far can I go on calling this out?

I'm currently working on my first book, a sci-fi comedy set on an alternate history Earth which has progressed at twice the rate of our own planet (they were at our current tech when William the Co...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Nzall‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can we enable readers to connect to far future humanity, without pretending they wouldn’t be different?

Everything about our culture has changed so dramatically over the course of the last hundred years that it’s very hard to believe that we’d be the same as we are now in five hundred years. This is...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by CLockeWork‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A When do I explain my created world scenario in a prologue vs. letting it unfold in the story?

Let's say I'm creating a unique world for my book. New planet, maybe new species, complex society with complex rules, history, government, and so on. Some of these details are absolutely necessary ...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can Readers Relate to a Book without Humans?

I've been working on a story idea for a few years now, during which I designed a world (fantasy-based) in which it would take place. The thing is that because this is a different planet, I thought ...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Bullfrog‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I dig conflict out of an optimistic SF-nal premise?

I frequently have ideas for what could be called "optimistic" science-fiction premises - imaginary technological or social changes which I think would create an unusual and interesting setting, and...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How should I introduce new and complex technologies or tools?

I'm writing a Science Fiction book. While this book doesn't push reality very far, there are some new technologies and tools that I have added. One tool is used more frequently than all the others,...

4 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by JMcAfreak‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How can I convey dates (with ordering) for events happening under different dating systems, e.g. a Sci-Fi story spread over the galaxy?

So I want to write a Sci-Fi where humans have spread across the solar system and into the galaxy. There are multiple stories going across at several different times. E.g.: Aliens attack Pluto 3 w...

2 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by Shantnu Tiwari‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A A cross-[What] kind of romance?

In the scientific taxonomy of Living Things, you have: Life Domain Kingdom Phylum Class etc. down to Species, and maybe thence to Breed. If I were talking about my neighbor's dog who is half ...

3 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A My story portrays a process, not a conflict - how do I make the process my focus?

My current WiP is a science-fiction piece which is less about characters coping with a particular problem, and more about the process they go through in reaction to the SF-nal catalyst. My story is...

3 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should I prefer long or short sentences in scientific writing?

Currently, I am writing papers with rather short sentences: About half of them contain around 20 words, about 10% to 20% even less. I am doing this for three reasons: I find short sentences easi...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by DaveBall‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do you connect a non sequitur hook to a novel?

A pineapple is walking down a street, but here’s the kicker: he’s completely naked. That was a non sequitur hook I thought of. I figured that it would raise a bunch of really interesting ques...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by m4tt‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it okay to attempt to write in the style of another person, and how is that done well?

I want to write like Neal Stephenson- I read Snow Crash and absolutely fell in love with the style. I'm trying to write a cyberpunk style book myself, and I have a good plot (I think), but I want ...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by m4tt‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Does this beginning hook the reader? [closed]

Guide lines Q no. 4: This is supposed to be the opening part, but certainly not the whole of the first chapter or page for that matter... I'm not exactly sure anyone would take 30 seconds to read t...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Mussri‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Interesting and easier-to-read alternatives to the scientific academic article

Short version: What is an equally informative, but more interesting alternative to typical academic-article-style scientific writing? Longer version: I love writing, I do a lot of it – fiction an...

2 answers  ·  posted 12y ago by Amichai‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Portraying life in a current milieu for science fiction that wants to be timeless

Should a science fiction that wants to stand the test of time go into detailed daily life of the city it is set on, with all it's modern references that might become outdated? An example would be ...

1 answer  ·  posted 12y ago by Vic Goldfeld‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A World Building critique: Building an SF society off a tangent of "Adaptation"

I'm writing a short story for my english final - I'm a junior in high school; we've already taken our AP exam, but our teacher wanted to finish the year with something meaningful. Anyway, I have b...

2 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Qcom‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Vision/dream as an effective opening?

I'm looking for opinions on the effectiveness of this opening scene. It's a vision, not that he knows that at first. He thinks it a dream and won't quite act on it straight away. The vision was giv...

4 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Nick Bedford‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A The unknown and unexplained in science fiction

Science fiction has been defined as a genre where the "incredible" elements are "recognizable as not-true, but also as not-unlike-true, not-flatly- (and in the current state of knowledge) impossibl...

7 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A English words in a non-english sci-fi novel

In the modern world, english is a well-estabilished technical and scientific language. Some terms have become so commonly used that they are accepted in my native tongue (words like "computer", "PC...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Future battlegrounds

What makes a battle scene tense and visceral is the immediate danger and the fast-paced action and reaction. For that, the human soldier needs to be on the battlefield, in the action. Here's the p...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Characterizing a sentient robot: inhuman PoV

Following the previous question: Characterizing a sentient robot: sensory data I'm writing a robot character with a particular PoV. In the previous question I wanted to talk about sensory data;...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Characterizing a sentient robot: sensory data

I have a sentient robot in my novel. Truth to be told, I have many. Sentience is somewhat cheap to achieve, meaning that there are multiple artificial beings that can be considered sentient by our...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Using substitution ciphers to generate new alphabets in a novel

A substitution cipher is a method used in cryptography to encrypt the meaning of a text. In the most common form, a substitution cipher changes every letter in the target text with another, making...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it time to start closing up my novel?

I realize this may be a duplicate question. I've seen, for reference [ How long can a first novel be? ] yet I think my situation is a little more specific. I find myself in a similar situation. M...

4 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Liquid‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What is a good way to foreshadow that magic is actually very advanced technology?

In a story I'm working on, humanity had sometime in the past reached a very advanced technological level (far higher than ours), but then had a devastating global war, and afterwards technology had...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by celtschk‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to explain the main plot with science based concepts, without the non-sci-fi fans getting bored?

Let me explain: I'm writing a game where the Earth gets a massive biological attack from an alien race in the close future, and only a small part of the planet's life survived (few dozens of humans...

5 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Guilherme‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to "defy" physics on a sci-fi?

I am an amateur at worldbuilding and I am already building a sci-fi themed world with fantasy elements. In my world there will be different kinds of new elements to the periodic table and some fant...

3 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by Victor Matheus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Alien checking, by making questions [closed]

I'm writing a story with a character from another planet, but also human. At the beginning, people will not believe he comes from another planet, so they will check it out, by asking questions or ...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by greuze‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can I bring back Planetary Romance as a genre?

This question is about genre and reader expectations. I'm not trying to change my story to fit a mainstream genre. I have already taken steps to broaden it's appeal, but it's too late to create an ...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by wetcircuit‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do I really need to have a scientific explanation for my premise?

So, in my post-apocalyptic novel, the world was caught up in an international war (basically WWIII), and all the world's nuclear superpowers launched their warheads and killed much of the global po...

6 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by weakdna says reinstate monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Would publishing my book like the "Stacks Project" increase the readership of my book?

I have written a book about my math discoveries. The book is available as a PDF file and as LaTeX files published in a Git hosting under Creative Commons license. Will it increase readership of my...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by porton‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Sci-fi change: Too much or Not enough

I am in the process of editing a short story. It is science fiction of the "if this goes on" kind: I take a social trend I see, and paint its event horizon - a troubling future. 1984 and Fahrenheit...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is a lack of character descriptions a problem?

I have written a novel in which none of the characters are ever described. It started out by accident (3 chapters in when I realized). Question: Is this a good/unique approach or shot myself in ...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by Igor‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭