It’s All Right To Lie In A Speculative Fiction Story
How can you find a good idea for a speculative fiction story? Well the big problem with that question is that you really don’t know what was a good idea until after it’s done and been criticized. So a better question might be “How do you come up with a compelling idea for a speculative fiction story that makes sense?”
In answer to that I’ll turn to an idea put forth by Bob Ingersoll in his web column “The Law is a Ass” (which is all about how the law is handled in comic books and other popular media). He explains that since most comics take place in the real world, but with super heroes and villains, getting the real world stuff right is critical. A speculative fiction story may have only one Big Lie to support the readers’ suspension of disbelief. Once you have a Big Lie, you have to follow its rules, but beyond that you can do anything you want. If your story does not otherwise conform to the real world, it will not be a believable story.
For speculative fiction writers, the Big Lie is important, and generally is the center of the story. Magic is part of the Big Lie in most fantasy stories, and what it can do needs to be consistent within the story. Technological advancement is a key part of the Big Lie in many science fiction stories, and their uses and limitations are critical to the stories. In a Magic Realism story, the Big Lie will be a magical effect in the real world; usually a more subtle magic than we see in fantasy stories. Any Big Lie must fit in the story, and the author must never change the rules in the middle.
Let’s take a fairly well known (I hope) example. The movie series (and comic book series before and since) Blade (owned by Marvel Comics) is about a man that hunts vampires, and he was in the womb when his mother was bitten by a vampire.Due to the attack, Blade possesses many vampire strengths, but lacks many of the weaknesses.Like the other vampires, he does drink blood to survive. The Vampires are the Big Lie and the story revolves around what they do, and what they are capable of. To make the Big Lie make sense, the writers have to define what vampires can and cannot do in a consistent manner. As an example, one scene in the movie features a vampire walking around in broad daylight, which most fans of vampire fiction (barring those stories where the Big Lie is slightly different) will say is impossible because sunlight kills vampires. One group of vampires created a powerful sunblock that allows them to temproarily walk under the sun, which is reasonable since it is the UV rays in sunlight that hurts them.The use of sunblock only works because of the Big Lie of what vampires are vulnerable to, it would not work in many other vampire stories with different Big Lies.Later on, Blade attacks a vampire with a UV lamp, which, as now expected, hurts the vampire.
So, probably the most important step in writing a compelling speculative fiction story is coming up with an interested Big Lie to build a story around, and then work out all the details of the Big Lie to make a logical consistent narrative.
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