Cenonn's How to Holofic and Writing in General

Science in fiction. May Matsuri help us

In my time reading Hololive fanfictions, I only saw one Sci-Fi Hololive fic and it's called Airani Iofifteen's Lore Fanfiction (by:Salju_Nativa).

It's sort of understandable since most Hololive girls have lores that are fitting for the Fantasy genre. Heck. We even have an entire generation of Hololive girls called Hololive Fantasy. Writing a sci-fi about them is difficult especially if they are either fantasy creatures like elves and demons or regular girls.

However, there is still a possibility to write a sci-fi about the Hololive girls. I mean... We got Roboco who is a high-spec robot, Airani Iofifteen who is an alien, and even Amelia Watson who is a time traveler. And like I said before, you can write the Hololive girls in OOC and that's totally fine.

Anyways... In case you want to be unique and decide to write sci-fi, I'll help ya out. So let's first ask ourselves, "What is sci-fi?"

Sci-fi or Science Fiction is a genre that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

What's the difference between sci-fi and fantasy? Fantasy typically has no basis in scientific fact or speculation. I mean... There's no scientific explanation as to why a mage could shoot a fireball out of their hands. Sci-fi, on the other hand, has technology and natural or technological scenarios that are currently possible or may be realistically possible in the future.

Now then... Sci-fi is a bit trickier than fantasy cause you'll be using my favorite word a lot. What's my favorite word? It's "RESEARCH."

Because it's sci-fi, you have to make sure you have a good understanding of physics and science. Actually, there are two types of sci-fi which are hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi.

Hard sci-fi is a well-defined sci-fi. That means everything has a realistic scientific explanation to which the author spent countless hours researching.

Soft sci-fi is that the explanation for the technology used is vague so it almost looks as if it was magic.

However, even if you're writing a soft sci-fi, you have to make sure it's still realistic. I cannot stress how important being "scientifically possible" is in writing a sci-fi world.

Now then... Sci-fi would often deal with advanced technology. Maybe your world has flying cars. Maybe robots have emotions. Maybe humans can live forever since they can just replace their dying organs with artificial ones. Who knows? As long as your concepts are "scientifically possible", then you can go wild.

Sci-fi also dealt with space exploration and other planets. In order to be realistic, you can't have every single planet to be inhabitable by one race. After all, not all planets have the appropriate concentration of oxygen in the air that humans would be able to survive there. You shouldn't just focus on the atmosphere but the gravity, plant life, and whatever details should be taken into account.

Of course... Language is also an issue. The universe is infinite and it would be pretty weird if all races speak the same language. Thankfully, you can play it off by having a device called "Universal Translator" for your characters.

Now then... Writing sci-fi is almost the same as writing a fantasy world. So we're going to run through them again!

First, take note of the world. Each planet is different from each other like landforms, gravity, number of moons, and etc. Make sure to place differences in each planet to make it seem realistic.

Second, the sentient races. Of course... We have aliens. Are they humanoid in shape? What is the color of their skins? Do they have tentacles? Can they speak using their voices or do they speak with telepathy? What is their culture?

Third, the government system of each planet. It could be a democracy, a dictatorship, a monarchy or whatever. Also, you can have one empire taking control of multiple planets. But the nitty gritty is still the same. The details of an empire controlling multiple planets is more or less the same as one government controlling a country.

Fourth, the relationships of the planets. Are some planets in conflict with others? Do some empires have alliances? What are the cultural differences between each planet?

Fifth, the history of the universe. When was space travel possible? Are there any wars between planets? Is there an important person in history that affects the status of the current characters?

Sixth, the technology of each and every planet. How advanced is it compared to our current technology? How different is the technology from one race to another? Be very careful though. You have to make sure that each and every technology you introduce would be "scientifically possible."

Seventh, the standard of living of every race on each planet. How educated is the average human? What is the daily cost of living on every planet? Figure that one out and you'll add more depth to your sci-fi world.

Eighth, religion. Of course... Religion is always part of world building. There could be a race of aliens praising one god. They could have religious wars. Go wild.

Ninth, the social hierarchy. Are some aliens racist to one another? Who is at the top of the social hierarchy and who is at the bottom? Are there any hated races?

Once you deal with those nine things, your sci-fi world is ready.

Now then... I talked about advanced technology and space travel. However, there's one type of sci-fi that I should tell you about. It's called "Time Travel."

In Hololive, we got one time traveler who is Amelia Watson. Of course, there will be someone who will write about her traveling through time. And if you're that person, I got a tip for ya: "RESEARCH!!!"

Now then... Let's talk about the tip which is "Research." Time traveling is a heavy debate. There are many nerds out there who will tell you how time traveling should work and satisfying all of them is impossible. We don't even know which one is the correct one since we haven't achieved time traveling yet.

However, I want you to research time traveling before writing about it. Whatever conclusions you can come up after your research, stick with it.

For example, I know two approaches to time traveling which are Causal Loops and Alternate Timelines.

In Causal Loops, you can't change the past no matter how hard you try. Let's say you went back in time to kill a baby who will grow up to be the world's worst villain. You will always fail in your mission no matter how hard you try. That's because the past already happened and the baby will safely grow up to be the world's worst villain. It already happened in "your past." So it can no longer be changed.

Why is it called Causal Loops? Here's an explanation. Imagine Ball A rolling peacefully. Suddenly, "future" Ball A hits it causing it to change direction. Ball A ends up entering a time portal and gets sent to the past. It then hits the "past" Ball A causing the "past" Ball A to enter the time portal and hit its past self. See? A loop.

Same goes for traveling to the past. Whatever you did in the past won't change the future because it already happened.

The second approach to time traveling is called Alternate Timelines. In this one, it's possible to change the future by messing around in the past. For example, you would go back in time to kill your father. Once you kill him, you'll be creating a timeline where you don't exist. However, "you" still exist because you came from a different timeline.

There are many other approaches to time traveling and it's your job to research them. Just make sure to research it properly or you'll have nerds calling you out in your poorly-planned time travel rules.

Now then, I talked about building sci-fi worlds and said my piece about time traveling. We'll be focusing on "Modern Worlds but with a twist" in the next chapter!