... another day another rejection ...
May 12, 1999
4:332 a.m.
One of the reasons that it feels harder to write "science" fiction these days is that we know so danged much as a people. In other words, the golden age guys had it a lot better!  I've heard a few folks around here complaining about how the IT world is so hectic--and it is, of course. But I think it pales in regard to what you need to know to write real "science" fiction. Yeah, yeah yeah. I know. Science fiction has traditionally been the realm of the dreamers and the stretchers-of-the-truth. Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury . . . all the big guns . . . all twisted the facts or extrapolated about future finds and other worlds, and people are still doing it today. These little forays into our realistic fantasies are why SF is often derided for being, well, somewhat infantile by the mainstream world. But in the old says, the big guns and their fans could always point to the fact that we just didn't know what we would find when we looked in various places. And the could be right. Take, for example, Venus. Over the past several days, I've been reading about Venus. It's really a fascinating place, with a very active sulfur cycle, a volitle atmosphere, a shifting landscape, and a really intricate chemistry all of its own. Kind of like where I work! In the past, Bradbury could put a swampland on Venus and make it work, because to the best of our ability to know, Venus was constantly wet with lots of clouds. Now we know only half of that statement is true--and that half (the clouds) doesn't help us much as writers because those clouds are made of chemicals that would kill any organic creature that we might decide to put there. See, the old guys had it pretty good. Of course, there are a lot of ways to skin a cat. While not taking in its entirety, I'm using the planet as the basis for the story I'm writing now--taking liberties where I need them, but trying to keep everything pretty close to the vest. I'm "getting away" with the changes by making the planet be part of the Alpha Centauri system, which, of course, requires a totally different kind of leap of faith from the reader. Scientists are finding planets in all sorts of places these days--encroaching on another safety net of science fiction writers. So I've got this Venus-like planet orbiting Alpha Centauri, and I'm changing it as I need to to make things work. But the goal is to remain as faithful to known chemistry and known science as possible. And that is the thing that makes "science" fiction today harder than it was in the golden age. There's so much to pay attention to, and we know more than we used to. True hard science, complete with hardware, software, biology, culture, history, etc. requires a moderately deep feel for every science in existence. When I wrote a story set on Europa, I needed to know about Europa. When I write about Venus, I need to know about Venus. I recently stopped working on a story set on Miranda (a moon of Uranus) because I couldn't make the story work in that setting. I'm not saying you have to do this to sell stories. I read stories in the major magazines all the time that don't get the science right--Analog specifically included. And they are perfectly fine stories. But when you read a story by someone who knows what they're talking about, it rings with authenticity. When you read something by Geoff Landis, or G. David Nordley, or Stephen Baxter, or Kim Stanley Robinson, you can feel scientific depth. Those guys know, you know? I swear Nordley set me down smack dab in the middle of Mercury once. And Landis is maybe the only guy that I know that wrote me into a black hole in a way that felt reasonable. That's something I'm looking to do with this story. I'm looking to be right. Or at least so right that I can slip the maguffin right past the reader while they're busy seeing the methane crystals on Pluto or the water ice on Europa. Or even the lava flows on a Venus-like planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri.   I've noticed that the last two idea generators haven't been as popular as the first two (both in accesses as well as in comments). I don't know if this is because of the week delay, or just because the novelty wore off. But, unless I hear a great outcry, I think I'll archive what I've got somewhere on the site--either off the main page, or off the main journal page--then leave them at that. Have a good one.  So now you're trying to be Bill Nye the Science Guy? Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"As Dorothy learned through her travels over the rainbow and we have learned through ours across the interplanetary void, there is no place like home." David Harry Grinspoon in Venus Revealed |
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