A Sci-Fi Writer’s Manifesto: Detail #5
Finally, part 5 of my sci-fi writer’s manifesto: five simple statements intended to guide my writing. This is the full set.
- Write only about what is real, or about what can reasonably be foreseen based on what is real.
- Be honest about what is real and what is not real.
- Do not write if you have nothing important to say.
- Write in a clear, simple style, so as to be understood.
- Look forward and outward from where we are to where we might one day be.
As before, please remember, I’m not saying these statements should apply to anyone except myself.
5. Look forward and outward from where we are to where we might one day be.
This precept is a bit different from the others. It is here because I am saddened by how much modern science fiction is inward-looking and even backward-looking. It is as if some sci-fi writers have given up on the science – even on the technology. They can’t understand it, they no longer have a vision of where it is taking us, and the complexities have become too much for them. They write ‘steampunk’ or other types of tale where technologies are simpler and more magical. They write for ‘young adult’ readers instead of grown-ups. They blur the lines between sci-fi and fantasy, or they write the same kinds of stories that were being written 30 or 50 years ago, barely updating the technology at all.
As a boy, when I read science fiction, it filled me with awe and wonder. I wanted to stand on the bridge of a starship and see the Milky Way spread out before me. I wanted to talk to intelligent robots. I wanted to meet alien explorers, find mysterious artefacts on the Moon, visit a ring world, or stand inside a Dyson sphere. I wanted, in short, to boldly go where no boy had gone before.
And I still want that!
Exploring ideas is fun. Exploring ideas at the same time as speculating about the future is a huge adventure. Science fiction should look towards the future, where our beliefs and our humanity will be challenged, but it should also look forward to the future, anticipating the magic of discovery and revelation with courage and an open mind.
Good sci-fi often engages with today’s issues, moving them into future or alternative scenarios so that they can be examined and laid bare. I really would like to think that readers today could get the stimulation of confronting tricky ethical, philosophical, personal and social problems in a genre where nothing is taboo and everything is fair game. Yet I also want people to share my sheer, bloody wonder at the Universe in all its magnificence and complexity. Only science fiction can take us into the heart of the breathtaking miracle of this world we inhabit, dazzling us with its enormity and splendour, while telling us marvellous tales about our own remarkable species and its struggles for existence, understanding, and a meaningful place in the cosmos.
Science fiction did all this and more for me and I feel bound to pay this precious gift forward.
Amen. I miss those books, I miss them so much. I am yet to find a modern writer who satisfies that need for wonder. If anyone knows a writer like that, then you need to tell me.
I remember that ‘standing on the bridge of a starship” moment. Yeah, you’re right – where did they go? I want them back.
Dammit, you made me think…there goes the week-end.
terry