Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy

[Ireth]

I was just referred to an interesting and potentially very useful website devoted to pointing out common things people get wrong in sci-fi/fantasy writing, and ho to make them right. Haven't gone through the whole thing yet, as there's a lot there, but I think it's worth a look.

Science in Sci-Fi, Fact in Fantasy - Dan Koboldt

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Fascinating. But for those of us who write space opera and want our ships to travel between the stars in a reasonable amount of time there is no getting it right. Not if you accept relativity. All the ways around the light speed barrier are really just fudge factors. At some point we just have to accept it and move on.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[arbiter117]

Also there's a billion things we don't know about light speed and we're still debating on it being a barrier and if light has a constant speed or not

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Penpilot]

Many stories fudge stuff to make the story work. If Michael Crichton didn't fudge the fact that DNA degrades over time, we wouldn't have gotten Jurassic Park.

That's one of the choices we have to make as writers. Do I fudge this or that? If I don't there's no story.

There's nothing wrong with fudging a thing or two, but the trick is knowing when to do it and when not to.

 

[psychotick]

Hi Pen,

Michael C didn't fudge stuff at all. He completely ignored the fact that fossils contain no organic material. But it was still a good story - which is sort of my point. Sometimes good science fiction has to be based on well known science falsehoods.

Cheer, Greg.

 

[Gurkhal]

Its certainly the kind of page I'm interested in. Thanks for sharing!

 

[thedarknessrising]

You never know how much you need something until it's staring you right in the face. Thanks for this resource, Ireth! I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this!