How to Write Science Fiction

Constructing Your Story

Are We There Yet?

Well, no, not really: this is where it all starts. By now, you should have a massive pile of wonderful characters, history, ‘scapes, and scenery, and be bursting at the seams to start hammering away at your keyboard. You may even have a strong idea of which genre, or subgenre, you want to write in.

But what’s actually going to happen in the story? What’s it all about?

You may already know this of course. You may have a very definite idea of where things are going to go, and how your main character will drive the creation of your world. But, and there is a but, the mere act of creating your world may well have changed your original concept, idea, or character so much that it’s morphed into something else entirely. This is not a bad thing at all, and it’s all very much part of the development of the story, but you need to take that into account prior to writing.

For example, in the Military SciFi idea noted earlier, I had our protagonist as a slave. But how did he become a slave? What happens if the history of the universe you’ve invented since the original concept has actually given him a long lost father, who happens to be head of the Rebel forces? If he becomes disenfranchised with the Rebels, does that mean he has to battle his own father now? Conflicting emotions and loyalties make for a great story, so let’s do it.

So, building on the original simple idea, you now have a very angry and bitter young ex-slave, one who’s battling against his own history, sense of injustice, and sense of loss at finding, and then falling out, with his father. At this point you have a strong character, a driver for the plot line of the story, and conflict. And conflict of some sort always makes for a great storyline.

So Who’s Driving This Story?

And do they know where the headlights are?

When does your idea achieve escape velocity and burst into the storytelling universe?

Often, the man or woman driving is the ‘hero’, or main character. For the sake of argument I’ll use ‘he’ from now on, as it’s one letter less than she, and I need the spare ‘s’ for plurals later on.

It is useful to note however that the ‘hero’ and main character do not have to be the same person, and the antihero can also be the protagonist (more on that in a bit).

The hero is generally the person we as readers want to see succeed, or win. This is the character we’re meant to care about and for whom we really start to cheer. But the supporting cast are as important as the hero himself. Some of the best antiheroes are absolutely fascinating (such as Harrison Ford’s hardboiled and bitter cop in Blade Runner), and we as readers follow their dubious exploits with an almost morbid curiosity, usually to see just how far down the line they’ll get before our version of Flash Gordon charges out of the mist to stop them crossing the line, or losing themselves in the darkness.

If your main character is an antihero, you need to carefully consider your cast of remaining characters, and work out who will be the foil(s) to his evil doings. That said, some stories simply do not have a hero at all.

It’s often the case that the main character, if he’s a hero, will be drawn from the ranks of those who’re suffering most under the influence of an oppressive force or regime. Contented citizens don’t tend to rise up and try to overthrow people after all. Find the discontent, find the pain, and therein find the conflict leading to the story.

The Beginning, The Middle and The End

The End: the last two words. That bit’s easy. But the beginning, and the middle are the difficult bits as they have to carry your reader to those two final little words. Sure, we all know the end has to tie things up in such a way that it leaves your reader wanting more, but not too much more, or enough that they’ll want to read the next book in the series if there is one. And yet the beginning and the middle have to be right, or your readers won’t bother getting to those final two words.

This is where the history, world building section, or the myth has to be separated from the text of the story itself. The myth starts before the story, and continues on afterwards. But we’re focusing our efforts on telling the story within the myth.

You as writer of the story have to choose where the story begins, and where it ends. Then you have to fill in the middle. And the middle is important.

If we didn’t have a middle we’d just be a head on a pair of shoes.

 

MICE Rule the Universe

Although I’d love to say this is another idea coined by Douglas Adams (his mice were pan-dimensional beings that only appeared as mice in our universe), the MICE acronym is actually from Orson Scott Card. MICE is his determination that all stories come down to four pillars which are essential to set up the structure of a story: Milieu*, Idea, Character, and Event. (*Milieu - a person's social environment.)

Milieu

This is the world you have created. It comprises the universal setting, the societies and peoples (or aliens), the history, and all the other wonderful bits of stuff that came about during the initial creation phase (See Chapter 4 - Creating Your Universe). A story heavily reliant on Milieu such as Star Wars is very dependent on setting, as well as character, whereas the idea in some ways is relatively simplistic, in that good defeats evil (and yes, I know there’s more to it than that).

Some stories, such as George R Stewart’s story Storm (which has a storm as the main protagonist), are set up simply to show the reader the world rather than paying too much attention to character. Many exist simply to compare all these strange worlds or places with what we know in our day to day existence. Very few stories rely solely on Milieau instead having greater or lesser amounts dependant on writing style or even subgenre.

Idea

This slightly different from the initial ‘idea’ that you get for your story. Idea in MICE represents the bits of information the characters have to discover in the process of the story. So, an Idea story is about finding information: it starts by asking a question, and ends when the question is answered.

A story heavily dependent on the Idea model, often mysteries, or heavily scientifically-based stories such as Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, raise a question (or questions), and the story ends when the key question is answered. For example one well known SciFi writer starts the story with “why is this great black monolith here on the moon?” Clarke was a master at this sort or Science Fiction.

Character

Many stories tend to be about one or two main characters, or even a group of characters, and indeed all stories need characters of some sort. Generally though, the story is not about who the character is, but what the character becomes, and the transformation or journey of that character through the story. Strong, interesting, and compelling characters will draw in your readers, keep them engaged, and have them cheering on the hero (or villain) throughout the story. ‘Real’ characters with all the flaws, foibles and traits given to them by their Milieu will stand up much better to reader scrutiny than the Mary Sue type character who is there simply as padding, or the guy in the Red Shirt who you know is going to get zapped before Captain Kirk saves the day.

It’s a misconception that all stories need ‘full characters’. Good characters are always useful, but in a Character story, they are essential, and the Character story follows the journey of that Character to its conclusion.

Event

This type of story is driven by something being wrong, or out-of-kilter in the order of the universe. Often, a world order has been disrupted or derailed, and the world has become a dangerous place in need of a hero (hint hint). The Event story tends to end at the point where everything has been put right, and where the old order has been restored in some form. Or, if we’re taking the darker routes of SciFi, where the world has descended into complete chaos, everything is destroyed, or the hero’s about to die.  

All of the elements that make up MICE will vary in your story, and are dependent on what you’re writing, how you’re writing it, and even the subgenre you’re writing in. But, as long as you’re aware of what drives your story, you’ll be far more likely to avoid the pitfalls when you start actually writing. And writing is what I’ll explore in the next Chapter.