Two interesting stories presented at the critique today and some very interesting discussion. One of the stories explored ‘future-tech’ in a war situation. Really, the possibilities it presented are quite plausible (can’t mention details as it’s not my story) and it made me think about Science Fiction writing in general.

There are lots of types of science fiction stories. I could clump them though into the distant-future stories, some of which a fantastical. Then, there are near-future stories, which explore possibilities that aren’t that far removed from what we know, and present questions that prompt contemplation. I like the latter. I think there’s certainly a role in some types of science fiction stories to help us all think about what the future may hold, what type of dilemmas we could all be forced into (as characters of our own stories) and how we may be able to solve them.

I hit a road block with the middle section of my new story, ‘Workers’. I needed the villain to create a device with destructive potential. So, this afternoon I’ve been researching anti-matter weapons. The best source was WikiPedia and CERN. Hard to believe there’s so much info at your finger tips. I wonder how Philip K Dick would have found ‘idea generation’ in this day and age. So what was that about not exploring fantastical plots?

We’re all out tonight to Robert Hood’s reading. Should be fun. Hopefully we’ll fit in a curry afterwards, before I come back and finish my last crit.