Jump to content

Why Do Scifi Writers Write?


Spacescifi

Recommended Posts

 

I think for the same reasons humans do anything, although it varies based on priority.

1. Attempts to find answers or solutions to difficult or impossible challenges or problems.

2. To be well liked by other humans.

3. To profit in some tangible way.

 

Why do I write scifi? Primarily number 1, followed by 2 I suppose, even though I won't sacrifice my ideals for it, and last of all profit, since writing is hardly the best way to make a profit.

What about you?

 

Why do you write?

Which of the 3 reasons mostly?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i like to think of it more as an exploration of ideas, and that probably applies to any kind of fiction. of course where fantasy deals in the improbable, scifi, for the most part deals with the possible, the consequences of progress or the way people deal with new and unexpected situations. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Basically this (from Star Trek: TNG)

Quote

Exactly. For that one fraction of a second, you were open to options you had never considered. *That* is the exploration that awaits you. Not mapping stars and studying nebulae, but charting the unknown possibilities of existence.

Specifically the last part - "charting the unknown possibilities of existence."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been thinking about this one a lot... and I'm not sure if I wrote Emiko Station for any of those reasons.
Maybe 1 & 2 a little... but not 3... I was never interested in a profit.

Mostly I wrote it because I just like writing... a lot. There is no other driving motivation. I just enjoy thinking up stories, and once I have a good one, I like passing them on. I suppose that falls into the second a reason a little. I can't deny I love that people enjoy reading it. But I think I would have done it whether anyone payed attention or not. It's a little hard to really put into words, but I suppose the bottom line I wrote Emiko just because it was fun for me... plain and simple. The rest just happened.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel the same as @Just Jim. I don't write to get paid, I write to tell the stories my characters tell me to write. 

I've made some mistakes in Kerny's Journal by listening to some well-intended fans. And between my changing job responsibilities, working on a book, and a few other things, I've drifted away. But now, I'm writing again and tidying up the many lose ends created. 

Kerny lives!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

I write to tell the stories my characters tell me to write

That's a good way to put it. I found after a while I wasn't even trying to think up anything... I would sit and watch an old campy sci-fi movie or something, and next thing I know, my mind starts wandering into my next chapter, and it just kind of happens on it's own. Weird as this may sound, a lot of times it felt like I was just along for the ride, and then wrote about it after... does that make any sense?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Just Jim

I've been thinking about this one a lot... and I'm not sure if I wrote Emiko Station for any of those reasons.
Maybe 1 & 2 a little... but not 3... I was never interested in a profit.

Mostly I wrote it because I just like writing... a lot. There is no other driving motivation. I just enjoy thinking up stories, and once I have a good one, I like passing them on. I suppose that falls into the second a reason a little. I can't deny I love that people enjoy reading it. But I think I would have done it whether anyone payed attention or not. It's a little hard to really put into words, but I suppose the bottom line I wrote Emiko just because it was fun for me... plain and simple. The rest just happened.
 

In a way writing is part of the arts, just like music.

Like musicians, we enjoy our craft more the better we get, and we also derive pleasure from sharing our work with others and having them also enjoy it.

It can be a win-win if balanced with other necessary responsibilities of life

I say that because there was a time years ago where jumped into writing with little research pn the craft at all, and found it endless and frustrating... yet also fascinating. Even addictive to the exclusion of other necessary things.

Ironically, it is possible to write too much and tire of it even if we enjoy it immensely.

Just like tasty food. 

 

All things in moderation, too much of anything ruins everything else.

Edited by Spacescifi
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoiler

The writers just have overstimulated Wernicke's area which makes their brain itching when they don't write.
When they sleep on their right-hand side, so their right (artistic) hemisphere also gets overblooded and needs writing to discharge.

Wel,, I think so.

 

Spoiler

  

11 hours ago, Just Jim said:

But I think I would have done it whether anyone payed attention or not.

Btw, that's what I mean.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like imagining new worlds and scenarios. Like what if we were right about Mars, Venus, and the Moon having life? (Actual idea I'm tossing around) How would we go about colonizing another solar system? What would happen if an entire species was isolated from the rest of the galaxy? Things like that are really interesting for me, and I like thinking about them. Now I just need to write, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to continue writing out the plan for my novel :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

What would happen if an entire species was isolated from the rest of the galaxy?

Sooner or later they would emerge from their isolation from the Universe, and then casually, whimsically decide that "It has to go."

Something to do with cricket...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why does anyone write Sci-fi?

Because they can.

 

To be fair, the name given to the genre has been stretched and pushed so far and hard since it came up that it makes less sense every year to stick to such arbitrary categories...

I mean, where would you place the world of Crimson Skies?  Is it fantasy? Alt-History? (is that even a genre? shouldn't it be?) There are inventors and newfangled contraptions in it, so why not Sci-Fi? Because it's not in space? Jurassic Park isn't in space, and it's definitely Sci-Fi... Is it the presence of things like robots and Higher-than-presently-available tech? If so, then what of the myriad post-apocalyptic dystopies that tell of whole civilizations built on scrap metal? Is Star-Wars  Sci-fi?(pre-Disney, when it was you know, good) It probably isn't, actually, as it apparently takes place in a whole alternative universe with quite different laws of physics - But then again, the fact that it makes you think of a new set of physics laws to account for it, isn't that what Sci-Fi is all about, Yeah - good point! 

It goes on and on...

 

Anyways, my point is:   All this labeling leads to basically nowhere, and ultimately adds very little or even detract from the creative impulses that cause people to write Sci-Fi....

 

The real question is really:  Why are there people out there who do not read Sci-Fi, and how can we get them the help they need?

 

Me personally, I don't write much at all (except in forum posts, where I blabber non-stop) - But that's mostly because I find narrative storytelling to be a much too finite media for the concepts I enjoy coming up with.  So instead, I make computer games, and these are mostly made up of worlds in which each player's experience allows him to tell his own story.

 

Case in point: 

When I was about 15 years old, me and my brother were playing with a model rocket set we had, and I fashioned a little tin-foil man and taped him to one of the boosters.  I called up to my brother and said:  "Hey, look! He's a um... 'Kerbo'! He's gonna try to get to space, and yeah, he's gonna die!" - We then proceeded to make more of them and started giving them names.

In a whimsical nonsense moment, I decided that all of them should have the surname "Kerman" - because, Why not? - And where do they live? Uh, "Kerbin", I spurted, in a semi-conscious contraction of "Kerbo" and "Bespin".(Star Wars Episode I was in full hype at that time) This name proved very satisfying as it also brought to mind the picture of a bin full of the creatures, thus drawing a creative connection to those little green guys in Toy Story who worship "The Crane". That may or not have had some effect on their cultural personality as the idea developed, who knows (or cares?).... 

My brother started naming their ships "Kerbal I, II, III" and so on, and he drew a mission log to celebrate the heroic attempts at spacefare.   

Some 10 years later, we both became game developers, my brother moved to Mexico and somehow talked his boss into taking a chance on making a game. He told me what game he was gonna make, to which I replied: "Hey! I was gonna make that one!" - But this kinda thing happens all the time when you're a twin.... And anyways, Now I'm working on another idea that he had first kinda called dibs on - But more on that later.... 

Yet curiously enough - besides the observation-based mission logs from our historic cardboard space program, neither of us ever really wrote down a single line of any tales whatsoever that happened to individual characters. We just came up with the universe in which any such stories could take place and left it at that.  

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Moach
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sometimes I get an idea in my head that's just too good to stop existing, and I need to write it down. Same for all the art I make. Often it comes from dreams. I make a drawing or a song or a paragraph, and I remember.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Moach said:

Why does anyone write Sci-fi?

Because they can.

 

To be fair, the name given to the genre has been stretched and pushed so far and hard since it came up that it makes less sense every year to stick to such arbitrary categories...

I mean, where would you place the world of Crimson Skies?  Is it fantasy? Alt-History? (is that even a genre? shouldn't it be?) There are inventors and newfangled contraptions in it, so why not Sci-Fi? Because it's not in space? Jurassic Park isn't in space, and it's definitely Sci-Fi... Is it the presence of things like robots and Higher-than-presently-available tech? If so, then what of the myriad post-apocalyptic dystopies that tell of whole civilizations built on scrap metal? Is Star-Wars  Sci-fi?(pre-Disney, when it was you know, good) It probably isn't, actually, as it apparently takes place in a whole alternative universe with quite different laws of physics - But then again, the fact that it makes you think of a new set of physics laws to account for it, isn't that what Sci-Fi is all about, Yeah - good point! 

It goes on and on...

 

Anyways, my point is:   All this labeling leads to basically nowhere, and ultimately adds very little or even detract from the creative impulses that cause people to write Sci-Fi....

 

The real question is really:  Why are there people out there who do not read Sci-Fi, and how can we get them the help they need?

 

Me personally, I don't write much at all (except in forum posts, where I blabber non-stop) - But that's mostly because I find narrative storytelling to be a much too finite media for the concepts I enjoy coming up with.  So instead, I make computer games, and these are mostly made up of worlds in which each player's experience allows him to tell his own story.

 

Case in point: 

When I was about 15 years old, me and my brother were playing with a model rocket set we had, and I fashioned a little tin-foil man and taped him to one of the boosters.  I called up to my brother and said:  "Hey, look! He's a um... 'Kerbo'! He's gonna try to get to space, and yeah, he's gonna die!" - We then proceeded to make more of them and started giving them names.

In a whimsical nonsense moment, I decided that all of them should have the surname "Kerman" - because, Why not? - And where do they live? Uh, "Kerbin", I spurted, in a semi-conscious contraction of "Kerbo" and "Bespin".(Star Wars Episode I was in full hype at that time) This name proved very satisfying as it also brought to mind the picture of a bin full of the creatures, thus drawing a creative connection to those little green guys in Toy Story who worship "The Crane". That may or not have had some effect on their cultural personality as the idea developed, who knows (or cares?).... 

My brother started naming their ships "Kerbal I, II, III" and so on, and he drew a mission log to celebrate the heroic attempts at spacefare.   

Some 10 years later, we both became game developers, my brother moved to Mexico and somehow talked his boss into taking a chance on making a game. He told me what game he was gonna make, to which I replied: "Hey! I was gonna make that one!" - But this kinda thing happens all the time when you're a twin.... And anyways, Now I'm working on another idea that he had first kinda called dibs on - But more on that later.... 

Yet curiously enough - besides the observation-based mission logs from our historic cardboard space program, neither of us ever really wrote down a single line of any tales whatsoever that happened to individual characters. We just came up with the universe in which any such stories could take place and left it at that.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you saying that you helped inspire KSP?

 

Awesome! I think the ultimate goal of some scifi writers is to make a dream reality... either with a tangible book or a tangible game that can be enjoyed.

Since that is easier to become than a billionare with the funds and permission to try for reals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Writing, among others, is my art. And for me, my art is something of a compulsion. If I don't write for too long—don't draw, don't model—I get an itch in my brain, one that doesn't go away until I get my hands on some paper or a keyboard and fulfill the imperative.

Do I write to answer questions and explore unreality? Of course—what else would I write about? Do I write to be social? Certainly I am proud of what I do and want to show it to others, and my work is much improved by discussion with others. But ultimately, if it wasn't for the impulse to do art, I just wouldn't do it. Without that impulse, I would only consume the art of others, without creating any of my own.

I haven't made a cent from my art, so obviously tangible profit isn't a motivator. Actually forgot that was even on the list until I was about to post.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...