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Creating a narrative scene

Or: Why our future is worth a few thousand (carefully selected) words.
Whenever possible, all stories should be written as narrative scenes.  While this is more difficult than simply describing a scenario, it also creates a more intimate setting and greater ability for the reader to connect with what you are attempting to communicate through your writing.  The primary focus should always be to bring your reader into your writing, far enough to help suspend disbelief and internalize what you are depicting.  What we are trying to avoid is a simple telling of your vision as something flat and uninteresting. 

What type of stories are we sharing?  Is this science fiction or something else?  Here are a few quick points to understand what we’re looking to share:

  • Stories should be offered as narrative scenes, avoiding long sections of narrative introspection in favor of dialogue, emotion, action and conflict.
  • Don’t explain future advances, build a scene around them and involve the characters to provide their viewpoints.
  • Focus on ‘hard science’ advances and corresponding social/environmental changes.
  • Most scenes will be relatively short but they can really be of any length that works for your story.  A really well written paragraph might stand on its own, while some ideas might require much longer pieces or even chapters (you might consider rolling them out as a serial).
  • For a better understanding, you might read John August's post How to write a scene.
  • Then check out Terry Bisson's 60 Rules for Short SF (and Fantasy).
  • These will give you a good overview of what you're getting yourself into.
  • Then read through the rest of the tutorials, linked below.