How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy: Top 5 Tips

[ossian]

This was actually sensible advice. No BS and straightforward. Thanks for posting it.

[hannahschuessler]

I personally thought that this was some really great advice.

[BBGirlSamus]

"Darth Vader does nothing for 3 movies"

Except Command the empire,
Blow up Alderaan
Choke a dude
Have his daughter tortured
Chokes another dude
chase after Luke in a tie fighter
Send troops to, and take out rebels on Hoth
make a deal with Lando
Block lazers with his hand
Arrest the rebel
Freeze Han Solo in carbonate
Battle Luke
Cut off Lukes hand
Tell Luke he is his father, setting up the story for the next movie
Chokes a third dude
Arrest Luke on Endor,
Fight Luke on the deathstar
Kill palpatine

[skinerror]

ive been going through the process of writing a novel and sometimes i get writers block so i watch videos like these to kinda give me the next sentence in my story. and it felt really good hearing him talk about having a broken world, an imperfect hero, and an outrageous villain. because i have those elements and that honestly sparked a proud moment for me to hear that.

[krouroboros]

I can't believe this doesn't have more comments! Thank you so much for your wise words. I love this; I will keep watching it over and over when I need writing inspiration!

[the_film_scene]

The basic platform of a story is the dilemma the main character struggles to conquer, due to some sort of personal conflict. In the end, the hero resolves the personal conflict which "magically" fixes the issue caused by the dilemma.

Great information -- hope you didn't mind my elaboration.

[JRichard]

Well made video and some pretty solid advice.
And as for some of the others saying "this isn't for sci-fi writers", all of the tips listed could just as easily apply to science fiction as they could to fantasy.

*WARNING LONG WINDED RANT AHEAD, SKIP IF EASILY BORED*

1: Know your awesomeness, pretty straightforward. If you're writing to tell an exciting story about young recruits who become fighter pilots for the Galactic Dominion.
Then write about youths encountering the trials of adulthood and engaging in dangerous space battles where they lose friends and loved ones to war.
Also, giving context for why and if they share the views of this "Galactic Dominion" wouldn't hurt either.
For example are they volunteers, or are they draftees?

2: Take a broken world, this is what may sound more like fantasy than sci-fi, but its not.
First, if you take a setting where a war has torn the galaxy/solar system apart and use that as the backdrop for your story that fits the description pretty well.
Similarly you could also use a post-apocalyptic setting where a natural event or man-made disaster has ravaged the world, or you could have a dystopian society in which a powerful and oppressive authority is controlling the lives of your main characters and they must rebel to free themselves or continue living as slaves.

3: Have an imperfect hero, every story needs this but many people have their own definitions of what imperfect means.
You could tell a story about a morally flawed character who has lost their way and either seeks redemption or is finally forced to choose between becoming a monster to survive or staying true to themselves to be able to live with their actions.
You could apply this to any character in sci-fi, such as a corrupt detective who sees the error of their ways, a mercenary who discovers their conscious, or a soldier who refuse to follow orders they can no longer justify.
But those are only some examples, you could for instance have a hero who is simply too inexperienced to handle the situation and must learn (and fail) along their way to overcoming the obstacle.
You could also have a "dark hero" who is self-serving and interested only in obtaining more power, sort of like a villain who saves the day only because they killed the other villains that were in their way.

4: Make your villain great, you gave the example of Darth Vader, but there can be many different flavors of villains.
Though I'm biased here.
Personally, I prefer stories where the villains are competent and frightening, but they ARE EVIL and the hero (in whatever imperfect form they may take) IS GOOD.
Though many other people prefer to have villains that have "valid" reasons for their actions.
 Obviously you want the villains to have reasons that make sense (to the villains) but you don't have to try and make those reasons sound valid to you, or the reader.
Then again, maybe in your own preferences that's exactly what you want to do.
Just make sure the villain or villains you write are not stupid people, that they have plans that are logical in fulfilling what they want to achieve and that their reasons for doing so are logical, at least to them and their followers.
Another handy trick is making the villain attempt to style themselves as being the hero and brand your main characters as being the villains.

5: Find the exiting journey, I don't believe this one is about your story, your characters or your world.
Its about you.
You have to make sure that whatever you're writing is FUN to YOU, the exciting journey has to be your journey, because if you aren't having an exciting journey while writing your story (and realistically sometimes it will seem more like the mildly interesting journey to you, but that's writing.) than your reader most definitely will not find it exciting enough to follow you on.
So, if you're feeling that your space opera isn't exciting enough or your fantasy epic just isn't doing it for you.
The problem isn't with the story.
The problem is you haven't written characters in situations that you find exciting enough.
So you need try out different characters, put them in different situations, and always remember that you--being an awesome writer--have the power to skip past the "boring bits", like your hero actually walking to the bridge of their ship or your villain cooking some dinner for himself/herself.
Because as Alfred Hitchcock once said: "Drama is life, with the boring bits cut out."

*WARNING, FEEL FREE TO LEAVE YOUR OWN LONG WINDED RANTS, ANGRY, POSITIVE OR NEUTRAL IN ATTITUDE*

[ArborealOreo]

Nice! I think he brings up Superman and Star Wars because everybody knows about them, though they aren't the best examples, but I get what he is saying. I like how he starts off with "selling the awesome, " and I find that to be so true a lot. You can't filter what you think is great about your story, you gotta enhance it! That'll be what gets people interested. Also, thank you for giving advice to the young. I am 22, and I am past the age to have lots of time to write, but I still have some, and I wish I had gotten these words earlier, it would've been much better. But still, I am optimistic, I haven't given up.

[Procrastinatingwriter]

Instant smile when this video started and kept going throughout. LOVED watching this video, real great advice!

[Takahashiiiii]

4 years ago i watched this video and now I have written my book and now I'm working on the sequel thank you sir 😁

[carrotking]

In my scifi there's a guy in a magical galaxies trying to kill all beasts of apeanka(his Galaxy) and he finds a buddy that helps him on his story then they fly on a spaceship fight beasts and befriend a magical wizard. They all have to go through asteroids and fight a giant dragon! :)

[bibliophile]

Thank you for this. It gives me more motivation to compose on my personal novel and the novel for exters

[ahmedbajwa]

Such a good and informative piece of content, you've created Sir.

[StoryWorldEarth]

This is pure gold advice ! Thank you !❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[tetrapharmakos]

I'm so happy to have seen Fritz Leiber's guest appearance in this video!

[pangeria]

Hi, my name is Evelisa and I thought of this video very useful as I'm a begginer writer in sci fiction genre. I wrote my first book by hand on a composition notebook, and many sheets of blank paper. Now I'm just proofreading it and trying to find a  laptop with word program on it to print it out and send it out. Im researching the process the past month. Its confusing a bit, but I understand sort of the process. This story been in my head part of it since teenager, that i just had to write about it but what I did was rip it apart and start over as every morning I dreamt and ideas came from inside that it took over my soul for five months.

[staceyharries]

This is great advice, thank you so much! I'm 23, 000 words in to my new fantasy/sci-fi novel and I've got writer's block. I know it's because the subject matter won't have happened to anyone on this Earth so I'm imagining how my protagonist would feel and guessing what she would do - it's definitely my biggest challenge yet!

[josephcusumano]

That was awesome advice! Thank you so much!

[jdvald]

I can't hear half of what is being said because the background music is too loud.

[gravargen]

Tip #6, take inspiration from existing epic artworks.