Sci-Fi Question

[InnerRebellion]

As a summer project, I'm writing a Sci-Fi story (which is a first for me, since I normally write fantasy, especially involving the Medieval times).

I don't want the story to have too many "done-to-death" Sci-Fi cliches. Are there any I should completely avoid?

If it helps at all, the story is set in the 29th century, and Mars, the Moon and a few space stations have been colonized. As of now, there are no "hostile" aliens in the galaxy. All the countries we know were destroyed during the Nuclear World War of the 22nd century. Survivors on each continent banded together to form new nations.

With that, which cliches should I avoid? (Or include?)

 

[ethan22122]

Try to avoid an ancient civilisation rising back up.

 

[Galaktia]

Well you already trod in a massive great cliche, "Nuclear war wiped out all nations..." thats a major cliche right there.

Other cliches like... "security officers are cannon fodder", can be found by watching pretty much any scifi movie.


To be honest I prefer writing fantasy, but also, don't be afriad of cliches, sometimes they aren't a bad thing, infact pretty much every idea and pattern of ideas has already been done, it's your individual flare that will show through, and it's important to focus on writing your best rather than avoiding cliches.

 

[Grounogeos]

Cliches aren't bad if you can pull them off well or do some kind of twist that still makes it feel like a new idea.

Instead of nuclear war destroying the nations, what about something like a spike in volcanic activity so intense that all the debris and gasses spewed into the atmosphere makes life in most places nearly impossible, leading to a need for offworld colonies?

 

[Keava]

Cliches are present for a reason. Cliches make things familiar, it just matter of not over-using them in single story. If it all fits within logical barriers its fine, the actual plot can fix it, so can writing style and proper pacing.
Another important thing is character development, they need to feel real, they need actual flaws, avoid creating Mary Sue.

 

[philosophicalbastard]

As a summer project, I'm writing a Sci-Fi story (which is a first for me, since I normally write fantasy, especially involving the Medieval times).

I don't want the story to have too many "done-to-death" Sci-Fi cliches. Are there any I should completely avoid?

If it helps at all, the story is set in the 29th century, and Mars, the Moon and a few space stations have been colonized. As of now, there are no "hostile" aliens in the galaxy. All the countries we know were destroyed during the Nuclear World War of the 22nd century. Survivors on each continent banded together to form new nations.

With that, which cliches should I avoid? (Or include?)

How does the plot go so far? What are you're ideas for characters? How advanced is the technology?

One cliche you shouldn't do (no matter the finer details) is the "Aliens built light speed travel/big artifact but they're extinct now" plot device, its really overused.

 

[Kiefer13]

This [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheGrandListOfOverusedScienceFictionCliches] may help.

What you have so far sounds interesting though, and fairly plausible sounding.

 

[Klumpfot]

A thought: while the story may be written in English, it does not necessarily need to be the biggest language in the future. Another thought: avoid contemporary slang like dead baby jokes.

 

[Guffe]

You could also try to write a story only including cliches!! ^^
Nah, I have no good ideas for you but I will wish you the best of luck!

 

[Guffe]

A thought: while the story may be written in English, it does not necessarily need to be the biggest language in the future.

English is not the biggest language now (Chinese and Spanish are bigger) and I don't know if it ever has been? I don't know if I misunderstood you with the meaning of being the biggest language or if you mean that he should write into the story that the main survivors were speaking this language and everyone else had to adapt?

 

[y1fella]

Terrorist cells are a bad idea. End statement

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Space marines. Faster than light travel. Artificial Intelligence. Humanoid Aliens. Laser Weapons.

Avoid using all of those and you might be off to a start. Using one or two of them in a very clever and self aware way could be good.

 

[Frybird]

The biggest and worst cliche probably would be having an "evil" nation.
Of course you probably need to have an antagonist, but avoid having one nation full of goody-two-shoes and another one that celebrates bi-annual-child-eating contests.

Also, if you have a fight within a spacecraft or spacestation, avoid artificial gravity. Zero-G Battles are so much cooler.

Also, if you plan to have a war between those colonies and nations, it's probably more interesting if you have them actually WANTING a peaceful solution that is hindered by mutual mistrust and unfortunate events.

 

[YouShouldDeleteThisAccount]

Most people here have already contributed major ones, and you can find giant sci-fi cliche and trope lists all over the internet. I'd like to post suggesting you also keep in mind that you shouldn't write in a way to avoid cliches but rather write in a way to explore ideas you want to talk about in your text. What themes and concepts do you want to express that would work well in a sci-fi setting? I know this doesn't exactly answer your question but consider this post the required contrast of ideas to keep things open.

 

[crotalidian]

Ground Everything you possibly can in some form of science, dont spend too long explaining any sci-fi tech but at least make sure that there are plausible reasons and if you can find evidence of early research NOW then you are really on to a winner.

not a writer or even much of a sci-fi reader but as a science geek if thescience is too soft then I get annoyed

 

[Klumpfot]

A thought: while the story may be written in English, it does not necessarily need to be the biggest language in the future.

English is not the biggest language now (Chinese and Spanish are bigger) and I don't know if it ever has been? I don't know if I misunderstood you with the meaning of being the biggest language or if you mean that he should write into the story that the main survivors were speaking this language and everyone else had to adapt?

What I meant was that I wished for the author to keep in mind that English need not be the dominant language spoken in the future. I am well aware of the fact that there are bigger languages than English (though perhaps not necessarily more geographically widespread) which is why it infuriates me that a lot of sci-fi in a futuristic setting has the characters speaking in modern-day North American English.

I am sorry for not elaborating further in my original post!

 

[Jaywebbs]

I'd try to avoid the whole, unified world government, I really find that an annoying cliche.

 

[Fire Daemon]

Here's the thing, write the story you want to write. When you set out looking to avoid cliches and things like that the writing stops being the story that you want to tell and becomes a bunch of words pretending to be original. The fact is that there is nothing new under the sun and almost everything will be a cliche to someone. Asking for what to avoid in writing a story and then taking that advice will hurt your writing.

Theres nothing wrong with avoiding cliches but they should be the cliches that you want to avoid, if you hate the chliched Space Marine don't have them, if you want them include them, make the choice yourself depending on what you like. Don't let other people write your story for you.

But listen to criticism as that will help improve your writing. Generally however the criticism should occur after you have written the story.

In contrast to what Rak said earlier, feel free to choose your own level of hardness. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness?from=Main.MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness] I guess if you have a story set 50 years in the future you are required to be quite hard otherwise the reader will probably have a hard time taking it seriously, but having one set in the 29th century gives you a much larger free reign in regards to how realistic it is, not everyone goes into Sci-fi for the realism. I'm sure if you want to have ships tens of miles long turning in a few seconds without any problems or managing to land on a planet and then leave safetly people will read it without having a problem. I would have a problem but don't care about me, write the book that you want.