As a reminder to those who need reminding (see how that works?) Speculative Fiction is that overarching genre label that draws Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural fiction, etc. under its very broad wings. Below these distinctions, one finds romantic fantasies, hard versus soft science fiction, urban/modern fantasy…and the list goes on forever more. Usually the easiest way to tell whether you are reading science fiction or fantasy (aside from spaceships versus dragons showing up in the plot, which doesn’t actually guarantee one or the other, nowadays) is whether some form of magic is central to the story, or some form of technology. You get magic- that’s fantasy. You get technology- that’s science fiction. You get both…that’s another subgenre altogether. Anyways, that is a very distilled argument for the forms, and you will find people who draw more genre lines than a charcoal sketch of a spider web.
All this yammering on my part is to showcase the following link, which is a wonderful gathering of articles and essays discussing the various elements of writing speculative fiction, world-building, the use of technology or magical realism, a basic guide to horror, and so on.
http://www.writing-world.com/sf/
Don’t know some of those terms? Haven’t built a world yet? Then this is a great starting point, plus a good reminder link to come back to every now and then, just so the ideas and wisdom found here stays fresh in the brain. I hope you find it as useful and advice-filled as I did.
I see that smile.
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