5 Reasons to Write Science Fiction

5 Reasons to Write Science Fiction
by Jacob Malewitz

by Dark Alliances and Abercrombie and Finch

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Why write science fiction? That is a thought many have, looking at the classics of Isaac Asimov or Heinlein perhaps, or the thousands of other writers in the past century and beyond. How do they write science fiction? And why, with rates of sales going down and rates per word falling as well—are they still writing them? First comes the joy of massive world building, then you’ve got the grand big epic, then the massive science fiction community, the interest from Hollywood, and the idea that science fiction writers are somehow different from the rest of us.

What? Let me explain.

1 – The purpose of science fiction, rather than fantasy, is to show “What could happen.” This is world building down to a minute science, because often these worlds could be real. In fact, with only a few billion galaxies out there with infinitely more worlds, there is a better chance of the world existing than you might guess. Back to the point, world building is a core reason to create science fiction, because it shines a light on things we will likely be doing at some point in the next millennia or two: finding new homes. It happens in Star Trek and Star Wars, Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. Then you’ve got the …

2 – Big Epic is often the reason to entice writers to the pages of speculative fiction. It also might scare writers away; the idea of writing ten books in a row. It happened with the classic “Dune” series of novels, and many others. You get to create an entire galaxy! What’s more enjoyable than that?

3 – The science fiction community takes in lots of science fiction, making it a prime market for writers not just of novels but with new ideas on films and comics. However, this isn’t to say science fiction is the field to make the big bucks. How many millionaire science fiction novelists do you know? Even the greats, like Philip K. Dick, had to work for decades before big money came their way. But, the point is there is a large enough community of fans to make it far more than a waste of time. The community is across the world, buying not only books but films and TV series. Speaking of films …

4 – Some of the best films were in some way influenced by science fiction, and sometimes directly related. For example, many Top 100 film llsts include “Blade Runner,” based on a Philip K. Dick story, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Dick was successful in his lifetime, but his work has been turned into a gold mine by Hollywood after his death, with countless other films. Don’t forget TV either, where we have Star Trek and one of the better TV series of the past decade, Battlestar Galactica. This all means writing science fiction is still quite in vogue for all forms of writers.

5 – You’re different if you write science fiction. You may not care much about money. You may like creating entirely original aliens, or alien worlds, or alien killers. There is quite a collection of science fiction writers out there. If you write science fiction and continue to write it, you likely know you’re not only different, but you can come up with 100 reasons to write science fiction.

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