Why My Mentor Told Me to Write a Sci-Fi Scene Even though I’m a Romance Writer
Last week, My mentor told me to write a Sci-Fi Scene. I failed spectacularly.
Sci-Fi writers have this wonderful ability to create a world that’s entirely incomprehensible in a way that’s believable.
Which is why my mentor made me write this scene. Even if you never plan to write a story in the fantasy or sci-fi genre, learning to write this type of scene is still useful to you as a romance writer because it teaches you a valuable skill: the ability to describe context and setting to the reader while keeping the story moving forward.
In contemporary fiction, the context is typically the same—the Starbucks down the street that everyone can picture because we’ve all been to one, the grungy hotel lobby we’ve all visited at one time or the other, the hospital ward you stayed at that time you broke your leg.
When writing sci-fi or fantasy, you’re forced to explain more of the context, because the readers aren’t familiar with the world. The challenge is that every time you stop to explain, you are risking losing the reader by info dumping. And this is where the growth lies.
Even when writing romance, you’ll eventually write a scene with a setting that your reader isn’t familiar with. A biochemistry lab. A jungle in Costa Rica. An ancient temple in Peru.
In these situations you’ll be called to give enough relevant detail that the reader understands the context while keeping the narrative drive high.
By writing sci-fi or fantasy, you as the writer are being forced into learning this exact skill—by coming up with a setting that the reader isn’t familiar with and showing it to them in a way that keeps the story moving forward.
