It was time for me to put away the dilithium crystals and bring back the old-fashioned gasoline. Recently, I started a new project. It’ made me take a look at my writing and forced me to realize that what I thought was science fiction was really just fantasy magic with a veneer of technobabble on top of it. The best example of this style may be the classic Star Trek episodes, where the scriptwriters waived their hands broadly and explained faster-than-light travel with a simple new energy source: dilithium crystals. These handy rocks were easy to transport, held seemingly endless power, and were rarely a threat to anyone. However, plot requirements made sure that the ships rarely brought extra supplies or that Star Fleet established a logistics chain. No attempt was made by the writers to adhere to the laws of physics, the laws of economics, or a myriad of other basic rules of the universe. They just had to wave their hands as needed, give the creation a scientific-sounding name, and they were good to go.
I found that I was guilty of that too. I found that characters zoomed around my stories without heeding the technical realities that accompany such movement like politics, economics, and any other area of life. Now, I enjoy watching Captain Kirk zip around the universe fighting Klingons as much as anyone, but there is a time for stories in which every detail needs to work in the real world. That is where I find myself today, writing a story where the science has to work, the economics have to work, and, in order for the story to work, the reader has to be able to feel without hesitation that it could happen for real.
Some questions I had for myself included the following: To what level do I bring the science? Where do I find the good sources of information? How do I explain the science in my story so that the readers can understand it without doing their own research? How do I make sure that the scientific descriptions I find in my research are true and not some cockeyed idea someone put out as truth?
Obviously, the first step was a Google search, but that can yield hundreds of results. I found that I had good results by going to the government websites of agencies that dealt with the subject area I was researching. I needed to know about plants and grain trade, so the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce helped out greatly. These are professional people with usually a lot of experience who run the programs for the government, and they are routinely held accountable. Other good sources would be university websites or corporations. They are usually happy to brag about their accomplishments and research.
The next step is to winnow down the mass of data you find into a manageable quantity. You aren’t going for a degree. You just need to have a clear understanding of the principles that affect your story. Read the background information, and resist getting sucked down a side path that may be only distantly related to your story. If your story depends heavily on the technical aspects of an area, however, you may need to become a low-level expert in that area.
The next step is managing and organizing the data. If you cannot find that crucial piece of information your hero needs amid your cluttered files, notes, or documents, then you have wasted your time. Break the research results down into broad areas, then break those broad areas into specific disciplines or groups. Then break those groups down into smaller areas as needed. For example, I might have broad areas on commerce, botany, international communication, et cetera. Commerce may break down into regulations, major trade products, established trade treaties, and so on.
Finally, you need to incorporate your data into your story. Having done all of the research, sorting, and organizing, you will have a basic knowledge in your brain that hopefully comes out without effort. Read through your piece slowly, and see if it follows the rules and laws you found in your studies. When you share the piece that you’ve written with your critique pod-mates, it should come across as accurate and realistic. As you build on what you’ve written, you will become increasingly comfortable with the material, and it will show. Making the effort to understand the technical aspects of your story will make your story richer and more enjoyable.
Good luck, and start your Google search. Who knows? You may learn a thing or two along the way.
Wendy Thornton
Great article – thank you for this!