World Building

[Daddydavek]

Writing science fiction requires a bit of research for anything off-world or more particularly off Earth.  While you don't have to have a degree in physics or astronomy, many readers of the genre do have more than some basic knowledge and if your story violates fundamental rules of the universe, the suspension of belief is called into question.  Science Fiction is different than fantasy but while it is closely related, your world building must be rational.  In fantasy, you have more leeway in building a whole new universe, but even then you have to be consistent with the parameters you establish.  

 

Several good articles about world building are available online and here are some links:

 

http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/07/21/writers-are-world-creators/

 

https://www.nownovel.com/blog/world-building-tips-engaging-settings/

 

http://scifi.fictionfactor.com/articles/worldbuildingsf.html

 

There are other resources out there, but I found the above to be among the most helpful when I was writing Abel III.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Daddydavek

[Brayon]

On the subject of Worldbuilding, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has an interesting blog post, I've used. A ton of questions to ask yourself, but you don't have to answer them all.

http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/

[MrM]

I haven't done a Sci-Fi story for a long time, but I've been pondering something wanting it to be seated in as much hard science as I can find.

 

In world building I like to start here: https://infogalactic.com/info/Circumstellar_habitable_zone

 

The 'Goldilocks Zone', as it is called, is the region in a standard solar type star orbit that is considered the region of space life would most likely develop. Basically, it is that distance away from a star of sol type energy output that water can liquify but not evaporate and oxygen and nitrogen can stay as a gas bindable by a gravity well.

 

I think my favorite fictional planet is Pandora from Avatar. A lot of thought was put into it as an alien world similar enough to earth to support organic life yet alien enough to make it, actually, TOO alive to live in to humans. http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Pandora

 

Avatar also makes the supposition that the odds of finding a true habitable world could mean finding a moon as opposed to a world by itself. A moon would have the benefits of the parent planet's EM field and gravity deflection of solar winds and could create a stabalizing influence on a planet's biosphere that even our world does not have. This world, for instance, would have no winter because its parent world provides reflected radiation that prevents ice forming in most parts of the world.

 

Edited October 14, 2017 by MrM

[William King]

I am writing my first SciFi Fantasy novel, the two genres crossover. I take the time to check things out, for example the plot includes cloud seeding and space travel to find a new habitable planet. However, being a crossover into Fantasy it contains some ideas that are not, cannot be explained because they are far fetched, possible perhaps? A lot is about creating atmosphere and a scenario that can be believed even if the science is not all there to support it.

[MrM]

4 hours ago, William King said:

I am writing my first SciFi Fantasy novel, the two genres crossover. I take the time to check things out, for example the plot includes cloud seeding and space travel to find a new habitable planet. However, being a crossover into Fantasy it contains some ideas that are not, cannot be explained because they are far fetched, possible perhaps? A lot is about creating atmosphere and a scenario that can be believed even if the science is not all there to support it.

 

Actually, if you want some interesting ideas on terraforming and re-oxygenation, you might look up some theories being bandied about regarding Mars colonization.

 

It is believed that Martian oxygen was not vaporized off the planet but that it somehow froze into the soil. The same with water.

 

The application of heat in a pressurized environment would be all that was needed to release oxygen as a gas from the soil. The problem there is would it become 'air' or not. Other gasses might also release from the soil that are deadly to human life like sulfur dioxide as opposed to nitrogen. But, the development of filtration systems could purify the oxygen/nitrogen out of the vaporated gasses to form breatheable air.

 

Likewise, water can be extracted from the soil by the application of pressurized heat.

 

Pressure and heat are the two factors Mars lacks to form a terran environment for us to live.

Edited October 15, 2017 by MrM