Real life - Weird life

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Jenny

I just picked up a science book, The Collapse of Chaos by Cohen and Stewart, and read the preface (yes, I know that's weird in itself) and found the authors thanking people like Terry Pratchett and Anne McCaffrey. It was kind of exciting to see the closeness between science and science fiction (each informing the other) in action.

So how many sci fi writers out there are science grads? Is it necessary, or does it actually confine the imagination? Are you always going, "nah, wouldn't work cos of Farringold's Law."

Jenny
 

triceretops

Jenny,

There are scads of top-gun sci-fi writers out there who have degrees in one or more of the disciplines. Poul Anderson
was one, and there are hundreds more. They benefit by marrying their field of study to a certain type of book that exemplifies their theories and work. I think Robert Heinlein, was an ex navy officer and used his experience in creating
some very realistic space ships, that resembled battleships.
It doesn't hurt to have a science degree, but it certainly is not necessary!

Good, solid technical research is the key to providing believable technologies and societies. Make it plausible and you can get away with just about anything--big and medium sci-fi book labels generally have someone on staff to proof read and approve of science in the text.

I'm the dinosaur nut in this group, and I have no degrees in paleontology but my writing shows great care and accuracy when dealing with the subject, only because I take the time to study the material. Of course, research is really the key. I'm writing a book about the ice age animals out here in my city. It's tough, but if I need an accredited pro to share title with me, I'll solicit one, I'm sure. Of course, mine is non-fiction, a true account of the subject. If it's fiction,
do your homework and let it rip!

Triceratops Past member SFWA
 

Ravenlocks01

I have a foreign language degree (a very stupid field to pick, btw), and I'm always conscious of language/cultural details and nuances when I'm writing fantasy (I don't write scifi).
 

ChunkyC

I have no formal education past high school, but spent nearly two decades travelling in a rock 'n roll bar band back and forth across Canada and the northeast USA. During this time I met just about every kind of person you could imagine. When I draw on this experience, my writing is at its best.

I've always had an interest in Science itself (I was the techie in the band who handled the equipment). However, due to my lack of education in the sciences, I really need to hunker down and do the research to make sure the tech side of my writing is up to snuff.

Other well known scientist fiction writers:

Arthur C. Clarke - B.Sc., honours in physics & mathematics

Isaac Asimov - PhD in Chemistry, taught biochemistry at Columbia University

David Brin - bachelors degree in astronomy, masters in applied physics, doctorate in astrophysics

Hal Clement - degree in astronomy, masters degrees in education and chemistry

The list goes on and on....
 

Dhewco

experience

Hello,

While I don't have any degrees in the sciences, I am an avid scifi reader as well as a devotee of the Discovery channels and The Learning Channel. I've read chemistry books and physics books (although it has been awhile). I subscribed to cloning newsletters when I researched a book I attempted to write. I stopped after a computer mishap destroyed the book a third of the way through it. I was too heart-broken to try again.

David
 

Nyki27

Re: experience

I'm not a scientist, and my few tentative forays into SF have been on the philosophical more than the hard science side. But certain aspects of science have always fascinated me. The first thing I remember wanting to be was an astronomer, but I simply wasn't good enough at maths for that to be an option. But I did do a subsidiary course (I think you call it a minor in the US) in astronomy at university, and I'm fascinated in all the weird cosmological & particle theories around. I love string theory. Don't understand a single one of the equations, but it's aesthetically beautiful.

I try and work odd bits of these things into my fantasy, treating them in a mystical/magical way, rather than scientific.

On the other hand, I write about pre-technological societies and I have a classics degree, so I suppose that's roughly eqyivalent.
 

Jenny

Re: experience

Sorry about the book, David. Maybe you'll recapture the enthusiam one day. I hate it when hard work goes to waste - though I guess it's not wasted (just not shared) if you learned a lot.

Ok, so there are a lot of science background sci fi writers out there. Some were immediately obvious to me, but others rang no bells.

I'm glad to hear, though, that research, research, research can take the place of qualifications for "ignorant" BAs like me. I envy you, Chunky, the people experience. I'm having real trouble with the dictum of creating characters who are people but larger than life. Exaggerate, I tell myself, but I fear my people remain wimps.

Back to the salt mines,

Jenny
 

Cyyschn

Re: experience

Lots of scientists are more concerned with the science aspects of their stories than the writing aspects. For me, this makes their novels usually unreadable because there is lots of descriptive information that detracts from the reading experience. I say this is a general sense, and haven't read all that much sci-fi, but from my experience, the aforementioned is true. I got to page 30 of a David Brin novel, for instance. Lots of ideas, surely, but the writing is secondary for the most part, and it shows.
 

Nateskate

how to...

I think you need at least an awareness of science, but not a degree in science. In my mind, you are skipping steps, and one of them is the actual mechanics. Otherwise, you lose the audience.

So, you might have a character say, "I don't want to bore you with the mundane details, in essence, this gadget...

The best way to accomplish this is to introduce an ignorant character who doesn't have a scientific background, and explain the "uncomplicated form", "...a gadget that makes people invisible..."

"You what? But how did you..."

"Do, you have a degree in biophysiology?"

"No, I wasn't good in science..."

"Well, then I can't explain it too you. However, I can demonstrate how it works..."

I don't have a degree in biophysiology. I just know what biophysiology is. This allows the reader to assume that someone in the process already knows what they are doing.

And most of the readers are actually relieved because they don't need all of the mumbo jumbo chemistry/physics that they never really liked all that much anyway.
 

DaveKuzminski

Re: how to...

It doesn't hurt to use some of the buzz words for that area of scientific knowledge, either. Just be certain that you use those correctly.
 
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