Sci-Fi how-to?

Orson Scott Card wrote a whole book, titled How to Write Sci-Fi and Fantasy.

Really though, the best way to get better is to simply practise. All the how-to manuals in the world are no substitute for practise. Approach like you would most other genres. Don't use purple prose, but don't go beige prose either, careful with infodumping, and don't overpower your characters.

If your characters have special powers, remember them, because your readers will as well. For example, if your character can turn into a mouse, well you can't really trap them in a convential cell, otherwise they could change and leave at their own will. Don't have a flying character die from a fall, unless you did something specific to disable their power (such as hurt their wings, or something mystical if they just float).

This thread has a big list of them. You can also find more in the SFF forum table of contents.

Some others I like:

Turkey City Lexicon (mostly things NOT to do)

writeSF by Jeffrey Carver (a sort of how-to. basic but very cool.)

and Robert J Sawyer's sfwriter.com (more interesting articles on writing SF)

Bukarella said:

I'll take all the advice I can get.

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Best piece of advice I can give is: one thing at a time.

You might get hit with a lot of "Don't do this/Make sure you do this" and it'll be a lot to take in at once. Take in as much as you can, and work on those. As you feel you are able to, take on new things. Bit by bit, until you're tackling it all

Best thing that ever hit the shelves in favor of budding SF writers is, as mentioned, Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. But there is another that I find to be as valuable, having strengths where the Card book has weaknesses: Worlds of Wonder by David Gerrold.

Modesty forbids...

Bukarella said:

Is there an on-line resource that helps those who are starting out sci-fi writers?

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Oh, well, maybe it doesn't.

Ahem. Cough, cough.

Bukarella said:

Wow... Thank you so much. It helps. I might not be able to read everything on the list, but it makes me feel good when I realize I read more sci-fi and fantasy than I thought I did.

I worry that my premise has been done before, and that I'm simply unaware of it just yet. Who wants to reinvent the wheel? I would feel foolish submitting something that's already out there, you know? At the same time, for what it's worth, I don't see what I have in mind on the list you provided, which makes me feel good and hopeful.

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I'm glad I could help.

But please remember - and this is vital - your premise doesn't have to be unique; only your treatment of that premise.

Robert Heinlein doesn't have a monopoly on the idea of a colony ship. Isaac Asimov doesn't have a lock on the notion of benevolent robots.

Know what's gone before, but don't be limited by it, or turned away from an idea you love because someone else has used it. If you truly love it, find a way to make it your own, unique to you.

Except for vampires, of course.

And while it's maybe not a "how-to" source (others have already advised you on those) ...
the "Writers Of The Future" contest (Orson Scott Card approves of it) is a nice target to aim for (big money, flashy anthology) where you get to hone your skillz (quarterly, for those of us needing Inspiration's boot-on-the-bum of a looming deadline) and compete against other amateurs (before dueling it out with pros)

http://www.writersofthefuture.com/

There's a thread about it here at AW too in the SF forum