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First Published: August 3, 2025 by Paul W. Romero
Preface: This was originally written on March 1, 2023 for my MFA Creative Writing Program.
One common theme among my peers and myself is that speculative fiction is all about questions and “what ifs.” The “what if” is one of Stephen King’s hallmark themes and he even explores the concept further in some of his online interviews. Speculative fiction is about asking questions and giving our own voice as to how we would answer those questions. If no one really knows the answers, then there can really be no right or wrong answers because we don’t know what the actually answers are. That’s what makes it more exciting and that’s how stories forms. It’s all about the “what ifs.” What if a young boy became a powerful wizard? What if an evil clown lived in our sinks? What if a deadly alien came onboard a cargo ship in the middle of space?
Speculative fiction is about asking questions.
Speculative fiction books that I have read that are among my favorites include The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, Dracula by Bram Stoker, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Neuromancer by William Gibson and of course anything by Stephen King. More recent speculative novels I have read include Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
[Note: For this class I had to read “The Man Who Lost the Sea” by Theodore Sturgeon and discuss it with the rest of my peers.] Sturgeon paints a vivid picture of the environment and inhabitants of his world which allows the reader to visualize the world as something out of science fiction. Sturgeon writes, “Stretched across the sky is old mourning-cloth, with starlight burning holes in it, and between the holes the black is absolute-wintertime, mountaintop sky-black” (Sturgeon, “The Man Who Lost the Sea”). Sturgeon also writes, “To his left is only starlit sea, windless. In front of him across the valley, rounded hills with dim white epaulettes of light. To his right, the jutting corner of the black wall against which his helmet rests” (Sturgeon, “The Man Who Lost the Sea”).
We can tell that this is something of a cosmic setting, later verified by the last line of the narrator dying on Mars. This ties into the essentials of what makes a speculative fiction story; it follows the rules or traits of speculative fiction as depicted by Malinda Lo. Lo states, “If you have magic in your world, or if you have any kind of science that is more advanced than what we have in our real world, you need to establish logical rules for how that magic or science works, and stick to them” (Lo, “Five Foundations of World-Building”). Lo continues to list the other foundations of world-building including rituals, power (hierarchies), place (setting), and food (Lo, “Five Foundations of World-Building”).
“If you have magic in your world, or if you have any kind of science that is more advanced than what we have in our real world, you need to establish logical rules for how that magic or science works, and stick to them.” – Malinda Lo
For me in any speculative fiction story, there has to be rules. The story can have fantastic elements but any story must still have a set of rules. Readers can accept a suspension of disbelief up to a certain point. That point being where the rules of the story are no longer followed which leads to confusion and frustration as the reader feels cheated; as in any game, when rules are broken, the game is broken. As an obscure example, The Fast and The Furious Series began with the concept of fast cars which was easy to understand and had an established formula. Nine sequels later, this series has cars flying into space which for me is beyond the suspension of disbelief and becomes ridiculous to me because not only is it illogical but it also broke the rules of why I watched the series to begin with, and thus I don’t even want to finish the movie or see the next one.
In any game, when the rules are broken, the game is broken. Create rules for your fantasy or science fiction world and stick to them.
McArdle states, “Science fiction has its roots in the 19th-century works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and a host of other writers who looked around them at the changes their society was undergoing due to scientific and technological advances…” (McArdle 139). McArdle continues, “But there are also blends of adrenaline and SF in which the author takes a purely science fiction premise and adds the pacing, peril, and rush of thrillers and suspense” (McArdle 142). Lastly, McArdle states, “When the technology or setting is so different that the reader will stop and think “What would that be like?” I think you have crossed into SF” (McArdle 142).
McArdle states, “Although cyberpunk as a subgenre has faded and evolved, Neuromancer was highly influential for a generation of SF writers and is still a great look at the possible gritty plugged-in future” (McArdle 143). Neuromancer by William Gibson and The Running Man by Stephen King were the inspirations behind my story idea of a female contestant who enters a futurist death match contest. I love the world building that can be created with all the endless possibilities of the advancement of technology. Being a computer nerd, this is also part of what ties me to speculative fictions. It’s not the aliens or spaceships or other worlds, it’s the technology and all the good and bad “what ifs” that come along with it.
Fantasy and science fiction are about all the endless possibilities, the “what ifs,” and all the goods and bads that come with it.
McArdle states, “Where they fall can be determined by what caused the apocalypse (disease, zombies, alien invasion), but it is usually the style of storytelling that determines whether a post-apocalypse book falls in or out of the genre. The Stand is one of the classic stories of the end of the world, combining an SF premise of a runaway virus with a supernatural evil force from horror” (McArdle 152). McArdle adds, “Hugely important to the canon of postapocalyptic fiction, not to mention just plain huge, The Stand is nevertheless a page-turner whose horror comes not only from the supernatural evil of Flagg’s Walkin’ Dude, but also the horror of regular people swayed to evil acts” (McArdle 152).
On the flip side of my fasciation with technology is my fascination with post apocalyptic settings that put us in the “what if” scenarios of being alone and having to fight for our survival. How does human nature react to life or death situations when there is essentially no escape and no happy endings? This human nature also ties into the concept that characters matter, dare I say they matter even more than the plot.
We can get away with a few things as writers, but bad character development isn’t necessarily one of them. To end this discussion, I think McArdle summed it up best with these two citations: “But it’s not enough to throw around “what ifs”; the important part of science fiction is to look at how ideas affect real people. High-concept stories without truthful characters give you a book that has no heart” (McArdle 139); “The key appeal of the genre carries through no matter what other genre is added to the mix: wonder and possibility” (McArdle 160).
“High-concept stories without truthful characters give you a book that has no heart.” – Megan McArdle
Works Cited
Lo, Malinda. “Five Foundations of World-Building.” Malinda Lo, https://www.malindalo.com/blog/2012/10/five-foundations-of-world-building. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023.
McArdle, Megan M. The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Genre Blends. ALA Editions, 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=847011&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Sturgeon, Theodore. “The Man Who Lost the Sea.” Strange Horizons, http://strangehorizons.com/fiction/the-man-who-lost-the-sea. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023.
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