On Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writing: a Prologue

Introduction

    When someone says they like fantasy fiction, what normally comes to your mind: dragons, magic, elves, dungeons, castles, knights, witches? Well, you do have the right to think about such broad topics since they are included in numerous stories in many different forms. Now, how about Sci-Fi? What normally comes to your mind: futuristic, spaceships, aliens, guns, spacesuits, robots, time travelling, intergalatical connection? Of course, you have the right to think of such things because numerous stories include these as well. 

    Both fantasy and science-fiction not only involve what I have listed above, but they also include tremendous amounts of research in various fields, hence why I enjoy and respect the two genres (aside me being a huge fan myself).

Perception

    I normally think of fantasy and science fiction both as a nebula of stars: countless ideas, beautiful ideas, and it all blends together. Along with these "ideas" (think of them as stars), some have solar systems (in which can be classified as a number of separate sub-ideas that blend with the larger idea). Say you have a story idea, these sub-ideas can be as small as characters, culture, weapons, magic, and the like. 

What to Include

    With these genres, it is very important to include: culture, weapons, supernatural powers, monsters, costume, and species along with characters, story, etc. All of these things include many different ideas that you, the writer/reader, can draw from to relate to the story. For culture, you can discover what kind of culture the stories are based off of and find them very relative to history. For example, if you take George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones" series, there are numerous cultures to draw from: castles and an anarchy can be drawn from medieval Europe while the Dothraki people can be traced to Mongolian culture: highly revolves around horses, very militant, etc. With weapons, well, every culture has their own weaponry (i.e. Sci-Fi cultures usually have futuristic guns and those very guns can be cultured as well [as seen in the Halo game series or in the Mass Effect game series]). 

    Supernatural powers are all over these two genres. Take the Star Ocean game series, they use powers called symbology, in other fantasy stories, they use a wide array of magics (such as elemental, healing, summoning, ritualistic, etc.), and alchemy is even included. The Mass Effect game series even highlighted how some characters with supernatural powers were genetically enhanced with something called "biotics", in which is something very interesting to consider when working with such a topic. For stories, like Full Metal Alchemist, alchemy plays a heavy role and correlates greatly to culture and weaponry used throughout the story and even builds character.

    Every science-fiction and fantasy story includes some form of a monster, if not numerous forms. Take the game Final Fantasy X, they have these beings called "fiends" that are collections of unsent souls and becomes monsters to feast upon the living. With these "fiends", the creators of the series came up with numerous monsters that range up to 300 or more. Definitely something to look for when working with a fantasy/science-fiction story.

Conclusion

As said in the title of this blog, this is generally just a prologue of what aspects are included in the two genres. I hope this was very useful to you, as the reader, and I hope you will be able to apply this to your readings and writings!