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You read science fiction. You love science fiction. And now you want to try your hand at creating a sci-fi story of your own. Maybe you even have some story ideas marinating right now, but you need help getting them out of your head and onto the page.
In short, you want to know how to write a science fiction short story.
Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for writing a good sci-fi story. But there are some best practices and lessons learned that can help you get to where you want to go.
Here are eight of them…
1. Recognize the difference between short stories and novels.
The differences between short stories and novels go far beyond their length. But let’s start with the length before exploring the bigger differences.
While there’s no standardized length for science fiction short stories and novels, you can use the following as a general guide:
- Science fiction short stories typically range from 2,000 to 7,000 words.
- Science fiction novels usually range from 70,000 and 120,000 words.
A science fiction novella, like Martha Wells’s All Systems Red, falls somewhere in between these ranges. It’s longer than a traditional short story, but shorter than a full-length novel.
The length of a science fiction short story affects everything we’re going to discuss next. For instance, it forces you to start the story closer to the inciting incident (i.e., the thing that sets the story in motion). With a sci-fi novel, on the other hand, you might write several chapters before you get to the inciting incident.
Short stories tend to end more abruptly as well, when compared to novels. In a short story, you don’t have the space to “wind down” after the climax. You can’t tie up all of the loose ends with a long denouement or a concluding chapter. For this reason, a lot of short stories have open or ambiguous endings that force the reader to fill in the rest.
Some readers prefer science fiction novels over short stories for this very reason. They might prefer a more comprehensive, unambiguous ending that resolves all of the problems and answers all of the questions. Other readers enjoy short stories because the quick ending allows them to speculate on its meaning and aftermath.
Other readers, including me, like to go back and forth between sci-fi short stories and novels, appreciating the merits of each form.
Different strokes for different strokes.
But if you want to write a science fiction short story, you have to understand how the length and other constraints affect your ability to tell the story—and adapt accordingly.
2. Limit your story to one point of view (POV).
Most sci-fi short stories stick to just one point of view (POV), revealing the story through the eyes and perspective of one primary character.
In a science fiction novel, on the other hand, you have more choices when it comes to POV. You could alternate between multiple characters, dedicating different chapters to different characters. Many sci-fi novels use multiple points of view, and they’re often better for it.
But when writing a science fiction short story, you have a lot less space to work with. So it’s (usually) best to focus on a single character’s perspective. This allows you to develop the character in more depth.
You would have a harder time developing multiple characters within the length constraints of a short story.
3. Choose a unique, fresh and engaging concept.
It can take months or even years to write a good science fiction novel. But most authors can create the first draft of a short story in a week to ten days.
Because of their brevity, short stories allow you explore more ideas and avenues. This is partly what draws writers to the short form in the first place. It never gets stale.
As a writer, you should take full advantage of this. Choose a unique and engaging concept for each of your stories. Choose a topic, idea or angle people haven’t seen before. Explore and examine.
After all, we’re not talking about a major time commitment here. If you pursue a “great idea” in story form but it doesn’t work out, move on to the next story. Just be sure you’re doing something fresh and unique each time you sit down to write.
Sure, you can revisit science fiction themes that others have written about before you. You could even write a story that’s similar to something another author has done, if the style or subject matter speaks to you. Writers do this all the time.
Just be sure to put your unique stamp on it. Write the story as only you can write it.
4. Identify the “shattering moment.”
Every short story should have a defining moment that changes everything for the main character. This applies to sci-fi stories, mainstream literary fiction, mysteries—you name it. You can think of it as the short story equivalent of a novel’s climax.
The difference is that, in a short story, this key moment or event happens more quickly and closer to the beginning. There’s less build up, when compared to a sci-fi novel.
In his book How to Write Short Stories, author and writing coach James Scott Bell explains: “A great story is about the fallout from one, shattering moment.”
He compares this key moment to shattering glass, in the sense that you can never put all the pieces back together: “It’s a moment that changes someone’s life, or at least their perspective on life. And afterwards, there is no going back to things as usual.”
The shattering moment might occur near the story’s beginning, middle or end. So you have full creative freedom as to where you want to place it. When it occurs at the end, it creates a surprise twist kind of ending.
The most important thing is that you (A) clearly identify the shattering moment for your character, and (B) structure the rest of the story around it. This strategy will help you write a well-structured and more effective science fiction short story.
5. Identify and explore the main source of conflict.
Remember the “shattering moment” we just talked about, the point where everything changes for the main character? Do you want to know what it’s made of?
Conflict.
Conflict can make the difference between a dull read and a gripping tale. Conflict is the energy created by two opposing forces. Conflict leads to drama, and drama is what pulls readers into a story and keeps them there until the very end.
Or not.
If a science fiction story lacks conflict, it gives the reader little reason to keep reading. If the characters are having a good time, the reader is not.
A science fiction novel might have multiple layers of conflict arising from different characters with different agendas. But in a sci-fi short story, writers usually focus on one main character … one primary source of conflict … and one shattering moment.
My advice is to identify the main conflict before you start writing your sci-fi story. Within the vast realm of science fiction, we can find many different types of conflict:
- A vigilante hacker goes up against an AI-supported totalitarian regime.
- A stranded astronaut grapples with the crushing weight of isolation.
- Human guerrillas launch a desperate assault against a robot army.
- A Martian colony struggles to survive in an unforgiving environment.
- A telepath is persecuted by a government fearful of such powers.
You have limited space with the story format. So you might only have room for one major conflict. And that’s okay. That’s actually the ideal scenario.
You’re taking this conflict—and the shattering moment it produces—and putting it under the microscope to see how it affects the main character.
6. Start your story in the middle of the action.
Science fiction novels often begin long before the “main action” takes place. Sci-fi stories, on the other hand, tend to begin closer to the main action, or even right in the middle of it.
The literary term for this is in media res, which means “in the midst of things.” With this commonly used story model, you’re dropping the reader right into the middle of the action. You’re skipping the appetizers and getting straight to the main course.
The “action” itself could be a heated discussion or a violent battle, depending on the kind of story you’re writing. But the goal is the same. When you start a sci-fi story in this manner, you’re capturing the reader’s attention right from the start, by putting them front and center within the fray.
Readers often crave this kind of format. Readers turn to science fiction short stories (as opposed to novels) for a specific reason. Among other things, they expect something interesting or dramatic to start happening within the first few pages. They want to get right to the “good stuff,” without extensive character development and world building.
Sure, you want to develop interesting characters and build a unique world. But when writing a short story, you have to do this within the confines of a compressed storytelling model. And the best way to do that is by starting your sci-fi story in the middle of things.
7. Choose a central theme for your story.
What’s the point of your science fiction story? What’s the message or the “big idea” you’re trying to deliver? In other words, what’s the theme?
“Theme” is a hard thing to pin down. If you Google “what is the theme of a short story,” you’ll find hundreds of different definitions and interpretations.
Here’s an easy way to think about it. In fiction, the theme is simply the central idea the author is trying to convey. It’s the underlying meaning of the story. It’s the invisible thread that connects all of the story’s elements.
The dangers of powerful technology. The loss of youth. The nature of humanity. The search for meaning or purpose. The future of our planet. The power of love. These are just a few of the themes science fiction writers address.
Ask yourself: What is my story really about? What do I want my readers to think about after they finish reading it? Once you know your theme, you can start to build a story around it.
8. End the story by focusing on change.
Ending a short story can be tricky. Because of their length, stories can’t “wind down” gradually the way novels often do. The ending comes on quick, sometimes even catching the reader (and the writer) off guard. That’s part of the formula when writing a science fiction short story.
There are many ways to end a short story, and I’ll be dedicating a future article to that subject alone. For now, just know that something has to change during the course of the story.
You might choose to wrap it up with a clear, fully resolved ending, or something more ambiguous. Many short stories have a kind of “open ending” that invites the reader to continue thinking about the story after the last sentence. Other stories might end with a twist or a surprise that changes the meaning of everything that came before.
Whatever path you choose, just make sure that something has changed by the end of the story. Recall the shattering moment from earlier. At the end of your sci-fi story, try to give the reader some sense of how things will be different in the post-shatter world. Then let them fill in the rest.