Science Fiction Is Not a Literature of Ideas

A common mistake among new writers is that SF is a literature of ideas. This is not true, strictly speaking. This mistaken belief is why the most commonly asked questions of SF authors is "where do you get your ideas?" I think the reason that many people believe this is due to outdated teaching in literature classes, based on a view of the genre established in the 1950s or earlier.

There has always been a focus on the ideas in science fiction. But when you come to the field as a writer, you learn an ugly truth. The ugly truth is, ideas and concepts are cheap. Any writer worth her salt has more than they can use in a lifetime. Ideas are useful starting points. They are important and integral to a good story. But they are only a portion of the whole. If you have great ideas, and I would argue that some ideas make for better stories than others, you are only part of the way towards becoming a published SF author.

I made this mistake early on. I was sometimes complimented on the ideas and concepts in my stories. I do think I have a minor ability to find new ideas. It used to infuriate me when I would see different stories around the same idea getting published in F&SF or Asimov's. "Jesus, I just read a story about Alzheimer's last month!" I would cry. I would bang my head against the wall, wondering why these established pros could sell a story around the same idea as someone else, while my "fresh" ideas were getting form rejections.

If science fiction were truly all about the idea, then I would have "broken in" (if my sales could be said to constitute breaking in) faster, and I would have published a lot of garbage. Because what I didn't understand then, and what I still don't understand very well, is that SF is really now about the human condition as much as any other form of literature, and if you can't show how your ideas impact the lives of people, then you've failed as a writer. You're still telling a story, and stories are almost all about people. Sure, they might look like talking animals or aliens or robots, but they're still people. Where many beginning writers fail is by forgetting about the people.

How Ted Chiang Set me Straight

I coined a theory early in my writing career that I called the tripod theory, based on reading Ted Chiang's work. Ted is a master of the science fiction short story, and if you haven't read everything he has written, you should buy his collection today and spend the night reading it. Ted's collection literally changed my life, in the way that it changed my perception of the science fiction short story.

What I thought I had realized was a pattern in his collection. Each story seemed to be an idea story, only he had two ideas that he had connected at an interesting intersection. But what he was doing that I had not yet learned how to do was taking a character's life and figuring out where that idea intersection impacted them most. I need to reread his collection again to see if I still think I am right, but developing the tripod theory was what allowed me to make the jump from thinking SF was just about the ideas to realizing that SF is really about how ideas impact people.

Some of you are probably rolling your eyes and saying "duh!" at this, but I do think some readers and new writers will benefit from being reminded of this.