SciFi books are notorious for being set in galactic, out-of-this-world places and its your job as a writer to think where you book will be set.
If its set in modern day, on earth, then writing about your environment or place shouldn't be so hard. But if your changing the location of your story to somewhere new, somewhere never heard of you need to be extra DESCRIPTIVE.
The reader has to know up front that the world your protagonist lives in is NOT modern day earth, and a way to do this is describe the area around where your protagonist is based.
When I say describe I don't mean:
The grass is blue and the sky is purple, there are monsters that walk around and there is this war going on.
That will get you nowhere. Now I'm about to say something you've probably read before when reading 'how to' guides- you need to SHOW not tell. Let me show you how I would write that description
As I sit in the meadow, I tug a strand of blue grass between my fingers as I gaze up at violet sky which is full of ominous clouds. I can vaguely hear the gun shots ricochet from miles away, the sound carrying through the bitterly cold air. My heart stops as I see a (insert name of monster type) lurking in the nearby trees. My short lived relaxation is over, it is time to fight yet again.
Alright well that wasn't the greatest description (I did it off the top of my head) however it does give you some sense of how to introduce your setting.
Be imaginative, be unique and hopefully you will have the perfect setting to be the backdrop for your amazing idea!
- E
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How To: Write SciFi
Non-FictionScience Fiction is that genre that is full of mystifying, magical, sometimes terrifying stories. It allows you to enter a new world, one which is almost unrecognizable to the one you live in. We all know which books have encaptured our imagination...
