Written Well

You should consider writing alien invasion if…

You love reading them.

You've watched X-Files more than once.

You think the show Ancient Aliens is idiotic ... and you haven't missed an episode.

You should consider writing hard science fiction if…

You love reading them

You have enough scientific knowledge to make it believable. Writing hard science fiction opens you up to attacks of failed realism like few other genres do. Having the chops to back up your writing is of vital importance.

You have a provable connection to the sciences i.e. a degree or occupation in the sciences. As in nonfiction, having provable expertise helps in marketing this genre.

This is where things get a little weird. (-er)

The category of so-called “Hard Science Fiction” (HSF) is a difficult beast to nail down accurately. Some folks consider that any story containing any possible element suggesting FTL travel in any mechanism automatically makes a story fantasy. (I know prominent editors who expressly state such things in their publication requirements, for instance.) For them, anything that cannot be immediately explained by our current understanding of science is unacceptable.

Big. Enormous. HUGE!!!

That is the key to things classified as Space Opera. Enormously huge. Empires with thousands or even millions of member systems. Trillions of citizens. Gloriously advanced technology that leans heavily into the hand-waving magic of such things, like a device that lets you talk instantly to anyone, anywhere in the galaxy. Warp drives or hyperspace that lets you get to the far end of the galaxy in weeks or months, instead of generations or centuries.

This subgenre is, more or less, the inversion of the alien invasion genre. Or, to quote the old saw, the other side of literature, because “A man goes on a journey…” and “A stranger comes to town…” are the same story from flipped POV.

Depending on your theme and story, your exploration can be quiet and gentle, or it can be loud. Star Trek: The Next Generation (far more than the original show) emphasized the Prime Directive in ways that explorers and sociologists slipped in quietly to learn about any given culture, hopefully without revealing themselves and

If you want to write dystopian books, you must read them. Experts in the industry are consistent with their advice that you must be an avid reader of a genre to write well in it. The books listed below will teach you about the genre and help you get a feel for all the different things you can do with it. 

We can’t really do it today, but every morning the technology gets a little closer to reality. And generally, such things will likely need to be done in vitro, anyway, rather than being a treatment that could be applied to an adult. Reality, however, should never get in the way of a cracking good story idea. (Daniel Keys Moran used transform viruses in his work, starting with Emerald Eyes. Plus designing better humans and dealing with the problems when you actually succeed.)

The world has ended (apocalypse thriller is for when the world is ending); this is the world that comes after. This is often similar to the dystopian theme, but pushed forward in time and involving a world that has fallen by whatever caused it, but so long ago that everything has finally stabilized. Imploded. Turned into a junkyard.

Maybe the zombie apocalypse hit, and these are your survivors

The future that appears to be coming instead, after we have thrown away all of those fantastic possibilities that the 1970s promised. The corporations are in control of your life. Of everything. If you don’t have (Lots and Lots of) money, you are little people. A victim of circumstances. Think Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for the sorts of world where the rich have won and everyone else has lost and must often dance for their supper. Or otherwise overcome a deck that has been stacked against them. Where life is cheap and ugly, except for the pretty people with a lot of money.