How to Write a Science Fiction Novel
In this post, learn how to write a science fiction novel from beginning to end, including 4 approaches for the first chapter of your novel, tips for writing about fictional technology, writing dystopian fiction, writing a science fiction series, and more.
In this post, learn how to write a science fiction novel from beginning to end, including 4 approaches for the first chapter of your novel, tips for writing about fictional technology, writing dystopian fiction, writing a science fiction series, and more.
Whether you want to write about peace-loving aliens or a heartbreaking dystopian future, there are a number of practical strategies for starting your novel, building your world, and landing a satisfying finish. In this post, learn how to write a science fiction novel using some of the best advice on WritersDigest.com.
Starting Your Science Fiction Novel
While a great opening will not guarantee a successful novel, a bad opening will usually guarantee a failed novel. That's because writers have a limited amount of time to hook their audience before they abandon a story and move on to something better. Fair or not, this reality places a great deal of emphasis on a compelling beginning.
As such, here are a few posts related to starting your novel:
- 4 Approaches for the First Chapter of Your Novel, by Jeff Gerke. In this article, Gerke shares the four primary approaches for beginning a successful novel: The prologue beginning, the hero action beginning, the in medias res beginning, and the frame device. Of course, there are other approaches, but these are the most common that tend to work time and time again.
- 5 Great Tips for Starting a Novel Right, by Jessica Strawser. In this post, Strawser shares five great tips for starting your novel from bestselling novelists, including James Scott Bell, Karen Dionne, and Lee Child. For instance, Bell advises novelists create a "doorway of no return" for their protagonist in the first 1/5 of the book.
- Famous First Lines of Novels and 7 Tips for Getting Started, by Zachary Petit and Jacob M. Appel. The first half of this post shares excellent opening lines from novels to use as inspiration and reference for your own. Then, the second half shares seven strategies for starting your novel on a sentence level.
If you need to start at an even earlier step in the process, check out Cheryl Pon's 5 Ways to Start Writing Your Novel Today, which is focused on the sometimes stifling step of just getting started.
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How to Write Your Science Fiction Novel
Once you've blasted through those first pages, most novelists find there's a lot more to the process of novel writing than an excellent opening scene and compelling protagonist. For science fiction, this is just as true as any other genre, because there's a chance you're dealing with building a new world, introducing new technology, and possibly new creatures (from this galaxy or another one).
Here are a few posts to help you through that process:
- 5 Tips for Writing About Fictional Technology, by Julie Hyzy. In this post, Hyzy shares five principles for writing about fictional technology, including going light on details but sticking to the rules you've established in your novel.
- How to Build Fantastic Worlds, by Kameron Hurley. One of the trickiest things in writing science fiction (and fantasy, for that matter) is world building. For some writers, world building can overwhelm the entire writing process, which may be why Hurley says, "I've discovered that I create my best work when I begin building my fantastic worlds by starting not with magic systems or geography, but with a single character."
- 7 Ways to Add Subplots to Your Novel, by Elizabeth Sims. While not specifically science fiction, this post is applicable to all novel genres and the need for seamless subplots. Sims shares tactics, such as the isolated chunk, the swallowtail, the bridge character, and others.
- How to Write Flawed Characters & Antiheroes, by David Corbett. While a great novel (in any genre) doesn't need to have a flawed protagonist, they can often make for a fun read and more convincing and endearing character. In this article, Corbett shares his advice on creating these characters in fiction.
- Putting the Heart in Science Fiction, by Dustin Grinnell. In this post, Grinnell analyzes a recent trend of science fiction putting heart over technology and world building, which includes putting characters over ideas, emphasizing internal struggles over external struggles, and more.
- Writing Dystopian Fiction: 7 Tips, by Roderick Vincent. Vincent looks at what works in other dystopian works to help give a sort of checklist of things to consider and possibly include in your own dystopian fiction.
- The Dos and Don'ts of Novel Endings, by James V. Smith. In this piece, Smith shares very practical advice on how to successfully finish a novel (regardless of genre). These includes dos like "resolve the central conflict" and "enmesh your reader deeply in outcome," as well as don'ts like "introduce any new characters or subplots" and "resort to gimmicks."
- The Five Types of Novel Endings, by Scott Francis. In this brief post, Francis shares the five common novel endings available to writers, including "the lead sacrifices his objective for a greater good" and "the lead gains his objective but loses something more valuable."
How to Finish Your Science Fiction Novel (and Beyond)
Since I included the "The Dos and Don'ts of Novel Endings" above, you may have guessed that by finishing your science fiction novel, I'm thinking more in the sense of finishing the writing process, which includes typing "The End" (even if not literally) and revising the manuscript. Plus, there's the whole possibility of turning your one science fiction novel into a series of novels.
Here are a few posts on finishing and beyond:
- 4 Tips for Staying Motivated and Finishing Your Writing Projects, by Sara Wigal. For some writers, starting is the hardest part of the writing process; for others, the difficulty comes with finishing what they started. This post is about that.
- 4 Things to Avoid When Finishing Your Novel, by Emily Adrian. Adrian shares some things to avoid as you near the end of the revision, edits, and submission process. This includes avoiding Googling yourself or haphazardly deleting sections of your manuscript at the last moment.
- How to Write a Science Fiction Novel Series: 6 Tips, by K. Eason. This post shares six things novelists should keep in mind as they develop a series of books.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
