50 Science Fiction Plot Ideas and Writing Prompts – Written By Bryn Donovan

July 20, 2018June 5, 2018 ~ aurorajeanalexander ~ 2 Comments

Bryn Donovan provides us with 50 Science Fiction plot ideas and writing prompts. We never know when they come in handy, right? Thank you very much for your support, Bryn Donovan.

One of my most popular blog posts is my 50 Fantasy Plot Ideas and Writing Prompts, so I thought I’d share a companion post for writers of scifi and futuristic short stories and novels.

Some of these may be more along the lines of “speculative fiction” than science fiction. They include prompts about the environment, artificial intelligence, genetics, medicine, time travel, space exploration, alien races, and alternative histories. The real value of any science fiction premise or concept, of course, is the way the author uses it to explore questions about society, humanity, and relationships.

If you’re interested in publishing science fiction and you don’t have an agent, you might want to take a look at my roundup of fantasy and science fiction publishers who accept unsolicited (or unagented) manuscripts.

If you’re not writing scifi right now, but you might be in the future, you might want to pin or bookmark the post for future reference!

1. All citizens are temporarily neutered at birth. Would-be parents must prove to the government that they’ll be suitable caretakers and providers before they are allowed to procreate.

2. All marriages must be approved by a department of the government, which analyzes massive amounts of data to predict the success of the union, its economic and social impact on society, the health and welfare of any children, and so on. It’s such a hassle that many people opt for government-arranged marriages instead.

3. Global warming prompts rapid mutations in the human species.

To read all 50 ideas and prompts, go to:

http://www.bryndonovan.com/2018/05/31/50-science-fiction-plot-ideas-and-writing-prompts/

Language Generator for Fantasy and Sci-Fi

June 8, 2017June 8, 2017 ~ aurorajeanalexander ~ 6 Comments

Kristen Twardowski informs us with an exciting blog post about “Vulgar”, a language generator for Sci-Fi and Fantasy writers. Thanks so much Kristen.

Kristen Twardowski

I’ve talked about my fascination with language before, but sometimes writers need a little help creating words that make sense in their nascent worlds. I recently found something that streamlines that process.

Vulgar (pardon the terrible name) is a constructed language generator. The generator creates fully realized languages; if you were truly ambitious you could learn some of them. The program attempts to mimic real languages, so there are patterns to the words that develop. For instance, in 50% of generated languages, the word for “tongue” is the same as the word for “language”, and words often share roots as is the case for:

pson /pʂon/ n. paint; v. paint
psopru /ˈpʂopru/ n. painter

I’ve played around with the generator quite a bit and am highlighting a few sample languages below.

Vulgar Zulia.JPG via Vulgar

Vulgar Nahis.JPG via Vulgar

The above screenshots simply capture the summaries for the languages. The full pages, however…

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Fashion For Characters III

May 21, 2017 ~ aurorajeanalexander ~ 3 Comments

This is the third time I venture to lay hands on fashion for our characters. In my first blog post I dared to talk about the difference between some Historical Romance book covers and the truth; in my second post I showed some past and maybe current and future fashion in the Science Fiction genre.

Right now I decided to peek into ‘my own’ genre, Paranormal Romance. It took me a while to find out what genre I write in. According to Wikipedia, Paranormal Romance means, I write about “Supernatural behavior, abilities, and creatures in our current existing world’. I think this covers it pretty much. I’m sure there are similar or other explanations, telling us more or less the same thing. But this is right. At least that’s what I do.

Let’s take the existing world, mixed with ‘supernatural abilities and creatures.’ These creatures might be all kinds of characters, from trolls to orcs, to fairies, ghosts or even, as I introduced you to: shadows like Rapha Golden, demons, like Ethel, or even this one, unique and mysterious humanoid beautiful ‘Simin Arnatt.’

Let me pick Simin as an example. Simin is mysterious. She holds many secrets, and I am not the one to reveal them, except one: Simin is no spoiled princess. She’s a warrior, a fighter, even a hunter, and exceptionally good at what she does. That’s why, during her work, I dress her into something like this:

Picture courtesy of http://www.google.com

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Of course, Simin is a business woman as well, after all, she’s a freelancer in… – never mind. But occasionally she meets clients, agencies or her lawyer. In such a case she has been seen wearing similar outfits like the ones here:

Picture courtesy of: http://www.pinterest.com

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Simin has the right to be on vacation like other people as well. For these occasions, she has outfits for summer…

… and winter.

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Simin is a unique person, in more than one way. Her life is adventurous and at times dangerous. And still… she’s everywhere and nowhere. She hasn’t known a home for a long, very long time. Her wardrobe is limited. But this doesn’t mean she has no taste or is not fashionable. But I promise, one day, you will find out more about her.

What would you dress your paranormal romance characters in? Do you have published a book in this genre already or are writing one? What are your characters wearing? Please let us know in the comments below.

Fashion For Characters II

May 9, 2017March 28, 2019 ~ aurorajeanalexander ~ 4 Comments

In my blog post ‘Fashion For Characters I’ I showed the difference between certain book covers of ‘Historical Romance’ books and the ‘reality.’

This time I decided to talk about how to dress ‘Science Fiction’ characters.

I have to admit; I can only talk about what I would dress them into, rather than what I do make them wear because Science Fiction is not my genre. Science Fiction is probably the perfect genre to read for technics and computer lovers, Star Trek, Star Wars and Star-whatever’ fans, which I’m deeply ashamed to admit I’m not.

But let’s see if I still can endeavor to find something decent to wear for these characters. At this moment I depend on what I remember. When I was little my Dad loved to watch the old Star Trek show, and I find their ladies fashion irresistible and I cannot and will not deprive you of seeing what people back then considered decent fashion for female Science Fiction characters:

Picture courtesy of: http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Harry_Mudd

Picture courtesy of: http://bit.ly/2ovFAQt

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Nowadays I figure our imagination of a Science Fiction Princess on a formal event might more be dressed in something like this:

Picture courtesy of: http://bit.ly/2oyXMI9

Or if there is a technical computer war in some space ship, we could dress her in this?

Or do we like it a little sexier? Maybe this would be more (in)appropriate for our story?

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Right here, I preferred dressing ladies in my imagination of Science Fiction characters. I would be very curious what kind of ideas you would come up with. I’m a woman “dressing” women. But what would a male writer do in such a case? Aren’t mainly men writing Science Fiction after all, or am I very wrong with this guess?

Let me hear what you think.