Happy Fourth of July

And always remember that if you put a country like the United States of America in your fantasy or science fiction novel, people would say it's unrealistic. People to whom you should not listen. They don't want your story to be interesting.

Social Commentary Opportunity

It's almost the Fourth of July, and that means it's time to write about a dystopian future or alternative timeline in which fireworks are banned. Could you imagine such a thing?

Generating New Ideas

When you're stuck as to what kind of story to write, start by thinking of nonsensical genres you could put on the cover somewhere. Catalectic Fantasia. Quasi-Experiential Scientific Opera. Dark Internalization. Shamelessly Speculative Narrativa. With your senses of reasonable storytelling accordingly jarred, true creativity will be possible.

Addendum

People living in space colonies will of course use a little star for the same purpose. Far from being a harbinger of intra-solar war, tensions will be relieved by the existence of these points around which local pride can coalesce harmlessly.

Truly Visionary Science Fiction

When you think about it, there's no real reason people in the future shouldn't replace the period on their keyboards with a little heart. As for the apostrophe, nobody will know what that does fifty years from now, speaking optimistically.

Nintendo Direct Reflection

When one is reminded that Nintendo is making Splatoon, one is compelled to consider where today's popular fantasy and science fiction ideas originate. Do books have any influence, or are they just like TV shows that have lower viewership than mid-tier Youtube channels?

Addendum

Now in games it's different so long as you still get XP, which is why Dragon Quest XII can stride confidently.

The Core Problem With Dream Sequences

Many dislike dreams in fantasy and science fiction. Who, and how many exactly? Shut up. Anyway, in a modern materialistic setting, dreams are comparatively fanciful. In fantasy or science fiction, the stuff in them can simply happen, perhaps in the holodeck or fairy world. If anything, fantasy/scifi dreams often seem mundane, and who wants a mundane interruption in the middle of his thrilling and thought-provoking speculative fiction narrative? Many, but possibly fewer than the many mentioned earlier.

Addendum

Also, definitely be working on a children's book.

Fake Swearing and Such

To check if your invented words and phrases of an impolite nature have real bite, post them in forums, Twitch chat, etc. and see how often you get banned. Never? Save that one for your children's book.

Science Fiction Weaponry

If you just call it a death ray, you don't have to go into the details. Don't worry, the audience will believe that weapons kill people.

The Strange Sources of Xenopaleontological Knowledge

I chased the space pirate all the way to Heraclius, one of those worlds that's nothing but grains and farm drones. I expected him to have some goons, a hideout, or at least a cache with a few guns there, but when I tracked him down, he was doing nothing but staring at a rock stuck on a couple other rocks.
"I remember," he said without turning around. "They argue whether a member of one species can be reborn as another, but it has to be true because I remember. I was a great magus once (for by that name we called those with the strongest psychic talents) and kings bowed to me even in their own palaces of brown-purple marble. They put before me the rich flesh of the uyilla, the delicate hobtgui roots, and I undid their difficulties. But even my wisdom failed when . . . Oh, I see the towers, how they crumble! The dead fill the streets and the wails of the living form inescapable clouds! Iauvne, where have you gone? Plellol ecsa, plellol monsa!"
"Fine, but I'm still going to arrest you."
"Yeah. Yeah, I suppose I should have waited for a convenient time to come here, but you sort of get these ideas in your head, you know?"
I wasn't interested in conversation with scum, so I didn't answer, but I knew all right.
Finis

Addendum

A few of those entries will need to be altered in certain settings. For instance, in a far-future interplanetary milieu, the judge may have invented the space piano.

Addendum

I thought about having it be a status symbol, but the problem with that is soon people with unquestionably high status would write poorly on purpose to show off. We' be back where we are now within a few generations. Here's another suggestion though: Genetic engineering.

Science Fiction Worldbuilding Challenge

Come up with a reason for future people to have generally good handwriting. All I can come up with right now is that it helps with getting through capchas.

Undersea Kingdom Categorization.

1. Formerly a land kingdom but just look what happened.
2. Currently operates like land because of magic, divine providence, supertechnology, etc.
3. Sea creatures.

Those are the categories I can think of. Do they cover everything? Watery aliens are three, ghosts and undead are one, the future is two. Atlantis one, Jabberjaw two, Snorks three. Yeah, I think that just about does it, but I'm open to correction.

Summary of the Blastopolitan Saga

For his crimes—saying what he thought and living how he liked—he was given a harsh sentence. He was . . .

EXILED TO BLASTOPOLIS

"I still can't believe I was exiled to Blastopolis, but I'm settling in," said Gilliam Axhagen as he potshotted another astro-mutant with his tri-fission blaster. "Say, what's that building over there, the one they're staying away from? It looks abandoned—just the sort of place they usually like. Could that be the location of one of the . . ."

SECRETS OF BLASTOPOLIS

"We've uncovered some of the secrets of Blastopolis." Fred Wendell laid a paternal hand on Gilliam's shoulder. "But we won't be able to understand much more unless you become . . ."

RULER OF BLASTOPOLIS

"Now that there's a true ruler of Blastopolis, we can hope for some order," said Fender Bivins as he vaporized one of the last four remaining sludge-trudgers. "But who knows what could be out there, out . . ."

BEYOND BLASTOPOLIS

"It turns out readers don't much care what's beyond Blastopolis." The publisher laid a paternal hand on the writer's shoulder. "We really think it would be better to take things . . ."

BACK TO BLASTOPOLIS
TRIUMPH IN BLASTOPOLIS
WAR IN BLASTOPOLIS
SURVIVORS OF BLASTOPOLIS
EXCURSION BEYOND BLASTOPOLIS
RETURN TO BLASTOPOLIS
GENESIS OF BLASTOPOLIS
CANCELLATION OF BLASTOPOLIS
REVIVAL OF BLASTOPOLIS
Finis

The Last Spoiled Frontier

Now that we know there isn't an ancient city hiding on the moon, where am I supposed to have my bold adventurers go? Wait a minute, did I just write "on the moon?" I just checked, and I did. Sublunarian expeditions await! Until we do that too, at which point I dunno. Maybe something in Montana. Nobody checks anything that's claimed to happen there.

Addendum

Readers with no fear choose fanfiction, naturally.

This Is to This as Those Is to Thems

If magical realism is fantasy for cowards, and it is, what's science fiction for cowards? Articles about comets? True crime? Moneyball? Probably all of those. One of the reasons science fiction struggles is the abundance of substitutes.