How to Write Space Adventure (SF Sisters)

There's a lesson with this name in both courses, but the lessons themselves are different, and mutually complementary. They deal with the sometimes thorny issue of what makes some science fiction harder and some softer.

This lesson is almost identical to the lesson of the same name in the sister course. In it you'll learn about Science Fiction's uncertain relationship with the future and with futurology.

There are some fundamental differences in the approach to world building between Space Opera and Space adventure. The Adventure genre has its own archetypal settings. Developing your story universe requires a more detailed understanding of both your story and your characters.

Just as in Space Opera there are key decisions to take about your story world – but whereas in Space Opera, you can think about them in isolation, in Space Adventure it’s essential to know what effect your science and technology will have on the story and on the characters.

A narrow character focus means starting from one character – or a very small number of characters – and working outwards from there.

There are differences in character dynamics in Space Adventure that are much less about drama and much more about practicality. This lesson and its assignment also focus on the way character choice influences, and is influenced by, the story itself.

Many of the elements are drawn together to provide a five part plan for one of the most common archetypal Space Adventure plot structures.

This lesson is in the form of a summary of the main points. The summary, along with the assignments, will help you to solidify the lessons of this course, as well as providing a sort of prompt-sheet, for when you go back to your SF WIP to apply the lessons you will learn here. The full script of the summary is available as a handout. Feel free to print it out and use it as a wall chart!

This is an opportunity to deepen a little your knowledge of the genre looking at it’s history, and reasons why the Fantastic Voyage gained so much traction as the first kind of Science fiction. There's also some additional information on my other services as a writing coach for authors.