Where to go for inspiration? Fall TV shows, of course!

There are a million places to go for inspiration, and one of the most fun is other media, like television shows! We asked Leaguers what Fall TV shows they are most looking to watching and why. Take a look-- you just might find a great new show, or a incredible source of your own inspiration.

Meagan Spooner:

I'm looking forward to Galavant, the musical comedy fairy tale show coming out this fall from ABC. It looks like a crazy mix of Spamalot and Once Upon a Time, and I am super okay with that! The writing team behind it is fabulous, plus the composing talents of Alan Menken, who composed some of my all time favorite Disney musicals (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, etc.). The trailer's hilarious, and while I can't really tell if it's going to be absolutely amazing or absolutely awful, I'm not even really sure I care. I'm a fan of anything fairy tales, and fairy tales while singing and dancing? I'm in.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNVhGbw_Sg

Lissa Price:

I'm interested in a new Fox show: Gotham, which is Commissioner Gordon before Batman. So it could include Bruce Wayne as a boy and maybe some favs like Catwoman. And of course I am waiting for the return of Walking Dead.

Mindy McGinnis:

I'm awaiting the return of The Walking Dead, because I like to make noises like an angry cat jumping out from behind a dark corner during tense scenes. I'm fun to watch TV with.

I'm also completely invested in Cinemax's new series The Knick. Victorian-era surgery and gaping flesh wounds? I'm in.

Beth Revis:

The new season of Doctor Who has just started, and I've loved seeing the new direction with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. I'm a bit nervous to see where it's going, honestly, but it's one of my weekly highlights of anticipation.

I've also been watching the reboot of Sailor Moon online and LOVE it. And, finally, I'm totally digging this season of Project Runway and Face Off. Something about reality shows that show the creation of something unique really resonates with me.

Lydia Kang:

I'm also going to be watching The Knick too--so curious about turn of the century medicine! The gore doesn't bother me at all. Half the time, I'm wondering "what is that THINGY they're using in surgery?"

Also, I'm a little obsessed over American Ninja Warrior, but not for writing purposes. It's fun to theorize over which types of bodies do best for different human tasks--like conquering the Warped Wall!

Amie Kaufman: 

Dude, I saw my first episode of American Ninja Warrior recently and I am oddly hooked as well. Though I spend a lot of time yelling 'No, you'll hurt yourself!'

 I'm psyched for the new season of Haven -- I love everything about these series. It's a show about a small American town beset by 'troubles' -- curses and gifts that manifest in individuals, causing all kinds of havoc. It has fantastic storylines each week, super intense season-long arcs, and long, slow, smart character development to die for.

Bethany Hagen:

I'm excited for the new Constantine show on NBC.  I don't know if any mainstream production will be able to channel the sexy, violent atmosphere of the comics, but with a Shakespearean-trained actor at the lead and my old friend Harold Perrineau from Lost, I'm willing to give it a try.

Eugene Myers:

I'm already way behind on most of the shows I watch, so I don't take on new ones easily — plus, I don't like to get too attached in case they' get cancelled. But I'm excited to check out The Flash, even though I haven't yet seen any Arrow. The trailer was stunning and it just looks like fun, and I'm a fan of the 90's live action show. I'll probably also try Gotham and Constantine.

Peggy Eddleman:

As for me? I can't wait for Marvel's Agents of Shield. It kind of got off to a slow start last year, but then it picked up steam and by the end, my family and I were in love and completely addicted. I love all the action & adventure, and can't wait for more!

What shows are you excited for this fall?

Little Things That Make World Building Work

Today’s guest is R.C. Lewis, who has taught math to teenagers for over ten years, including several where she found calculus is just as fun in American Sign Language. After a lifetime of thinking she didn’t have an ounce of creativity, she realized she just needed to switch to metric. Turns out whole liters were waiting to pour out, and she now writes geeky-chic sci-fi when she escapes the classroom. Her debut novel Stitching Snow releases October 14, 2014 from Hyperion. You can find R.C. on Twitter (@RC_Lewis) and at her website.

When you’re writing science fiction, world-building is a major consideration. For some writers, it’s the first consideration. Government structure, social hierarchy, clothes and customs and more.

Language is another aspect, and what I want to focus on. Not the global level—how many languages, who speaks each one, levels of formality. No, what I get caught up in are the tiny details. The individual words.

Sure, we can pretend we’re reading a translation of the “real” language, so anything in English is fair game. Sometimes that works just fine, but if we use certain words without thinking them over, we might kill the immersive nature of the reading experience.

Here are a couple of vocabulary areas I try to keep in mind:

Slang

Every society seems to have some form of slang. Personally, I’m rarely in favor of completely making up words for this purpose. If you think about the slang we have in our own society, it all has a root in something. Those roots can often tell you something about the values or focus of the society in question.

On a related note, this is especially true of swear words, which is why I’m especially not into purely made-up words for cussing. It’s a missed opportunity to show something about your world. Do they have puritanical roots similar to ours? Has a focus on technology taken over everything? Do they have long-standing superstitions that are so ingrained, people no longer actively think about the original meaning?

Units of Measure

Wait, measurement? Like, math and science class “don’t forget the units” measurement?

Yes. Exactly.

Let’s start with time. If we’re on a planet, it’s likely enough that it rotates, so “days” are pretty safe. So are “years,” since that planet is probably revolves around a star. But what about “months”? Only if the planet has a moon—and just one. (Can you imagine the complexity of months with more than one moon?) That is, if your months are going to be anything like ours.

And “weeks”? Forget about it. So arbitrary. Easy enough for a world to have them, but there’s no real reason for them to be seven days long.

There are other measurements to consider, too. Say the world is a dimension parallel to ours, with some common history but a divergence at some point where they became even more scientifically focused. Might be a good idea to go metric. Inches and feet and gallons and ounces? Maybe not as likely.

Another problem is that many of our units are named after people. Personally, if I’m reading a story set in a world that has nothing to do with Earth, it jars me to see someone mention watts or volts or megahertz.

(I might just be picky. And a math teacher.)

We have to draw the line somewhere (or risk cluttering up the narrative), so I often let “hours” stand and pretend they’re roughly the length we know them to be, along with other terms. Sometimes it may best serve the story to stick with the familiar, even if it means miles and pounds.

But it’s a decision that should be actively made. Sometimes thinking up alternatives makes us think more deeply about our world … and can be a lot of fun, too.

Real Science and Science Fiction

So I was listening to Literature Lab, which is one of my favorite podcasts (and if you haven't checked it out before, please do.  It's a marvelous resource for thinking critically about literature.)  Anyway, I was listening to the podcast about Mars and Mars-based fiction, and how it has changed over time.  The Martian fiction expert, Professor Crossley, talks about how Mars goes from being a viable planet with breathable air (Unveiling a Parallel and  The Martian Chronicles) to being an inhospitable wasteland (Mars Crossing and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy.)  This shift was informed by scientific expeditions, namely the Mariner and Viking missions, which revealed the true nature of the Martian environment.  Science informing fiction, fact informing art, that seems to be the natural order of things, right?

Well, it gets more complicated than that.  It seems that art has a reciprocal effect on science, or rather, on the people who research, create and design new advances in science.  Consider these ten now-indispensable technologies inspired by science fiction.  Or that the John Carter of Mars series inspired a young Carl Sagan.  Art inspires dreaming and imagination, and it's that kind of outside-the-box thinking that is so critical for moving progress forward.  And that's more crucial than ever given how wacky the universe is proving to be.

Elana lets Peggy test out the tech from ABANDON. And it is awesome.

From the moment I read Elana Johnson's POSSESSION to picking up the final book in the trilogy-- ABANDON, I have been in love with the tech in this series. So much so that when I discovered that Elana actually has the tech, I hopped in my own boring piece of traveling tech (my car) and begged her to let me play with it for an afternoon. Yes, it was every bit as awesome as it sounds. Check it out:

Peggy: Can we start with the hoverboards? I have been dying to ride one of these for two years. TWO YEARS, I tell you!

Elana: Let's do it! 

Peggy: Look what I can do! I'm almost as good as Jag! I can--- Oh, oh. I think I'm going to fall!

Elana: Dude, knock it off! You're nowhere near as good as Jag. He played ball with his brothers waaay more than we've practiced on these things! Now just put your arms out like this, and try to stand more straight.

Peggy: Check me out! I can do tricks!

Elana: Cut it out, Eddleman! You're going to knock me off!

Peggy: Okay, maybe it's time to go on to the next thing. Ooo! I know! Let's check out the transporter ring!

Elana: Oh, this old thing? [puts it on] It takes me anywhere I want.

 

Elana: Ba-bam! Once I went to England just for fish & chips! I bet Jag would've really loved that.  Ha!

Peggy: You wouldn't mind if I borrowed that for a week or two, right?

Elana: [slips ring into pocket] Hey! Check out this distraction!

Peggy: [in reverenced awe] Oooh, is that a food generator?! We can make anything we want with that, right? What should we make?

Elana: What Zenn would order -- toast! In SURRENDER and ABANDON, all Zenn eats is toast. He loves being on the traveling team simply so he can use the food generating cube.

Peggy: Dude, I would join the Resistance and be on the traveling team just so I could use this, too.

Elana and Peggy: Mmmm. Tooooast.

Peggy: After all that toast, I think I'm ready for a mission of my own.

Elana: Come on. I think it's right around this corner... Wait. Enforcement Officers ahead.

Peggy: Are you sure we're at the right Rise?

Elana: Yes, this is Twelve. The Resistance is expecting us.

Peggy: And after a mission, the Resistance always heads back to their cave, right?

Elana: Yep! But this cave is way better than the one the Resistance has to hole up in.

Peggy: Heck yeah it is! I think we should live here. Unless those stalactites stab us in the night... That wouldn't be so cool.

Elana: I can feel the energy in this just like Vi can! Just a little further... Peggy, a little further. Peggy?

Peggy: Zzzzhhhhttt!!

Peggy: I'm feeling a little dazed. I think I may have had enough tech for one day. I'm not quite sure I can make it home anymore. Oh, hey-- how about I borrow that transporter ring?

No? Sigh.

I'll take an awesome book that just hit shelves a week ago instead.

Think the tech in this post is awesome? The book is a million times more so. Elana has an incredible imagination, and she poured it into ABANDON. Trust me: you really want to read this. It's beyond awesome.

A special thanks to Erin Summerill Photography for the fun pictures and SamuraiCatJB (via photopin cc) for the cave image.

How much SCI in your FI?

I love that YA sci-fi encompasses such a diversity of books, and a diversity of the science within them. Some possess more intense science, some are more soft sci-fi.

CONTROL was written with a very purposeful hand when it came to making the science accurate, or at least believable. Even the world building--things like transportation or growing crops--was carefully thought out. There had to be a reason behind the design, even if I never explain it in the actual book. I spent countless hours refreshing my understanding of genetics, neurobiology, photosynthesis, olfactory physiology...

But at the same time, I also knew I didn't want the science to take over the story.

In the end, CONTROL is simply about a 17 year old girl who's trying to get back what she's lost. And though the science is not a quiet bystander, it's there. Waving its hand, like a total spaz, from a few rows behind my main characters.

So I'm curious. For you sci-fi readers--how much sci do you like in your fi?

Why Sci-fi?

Sometimes when I'm trying to muddle through A Brief History of Time, I ask myself why I chose sci-fi over fantasy.  It's moments when I'm reading multiverse and string theory that I question why I didn't go with magic.  In these dark times I imagine somewhere Stephen Hawking is having a good chuckle at my expense.

I love magic after all.  I can say with no shame that the Harry Potter series tops my list of favorite books ever, and I've read quite a few books.  Crewel even has some fantastical elements to it, but in the end, it's grounded in very theoretical, pseudo-science.  One day while I was decrying the whole choosing sci-fi thing to my husband and how hard it was and how I didn't understand anything I was reading but still felt compelled to grasp these theories, he said something insightful.  I know, dear readers, you are dying to know.  After all, my husband is amazingly profound.  No really, he is.  Also he understands said complex scientific theories and explains them to me with small words and pictures.

He said, "Sci-fi isn't about the science, it's about taking a possibility and exploring its implications."  He pointed out a favorite book of his Kiln People by David Brin (which I have not read, because he lost his copy!).  In it, people have the ability to make clones of themselves, called kiln people.  These clones can be used for various purposes and have varying life spans.  The main character is a private detective who uses his kiln people to do his dirty work, which sometimes gets them killed in the process.  It's mystery, complete with all the Sam Spade tropes and Chinatownesque settings, you'd expected of a P.I. novel, but really it's a novel that explores the possibility of duplicating oneself and the implications.  It isn't bogged down in the science.  It just makes use of the idea.  Since we're all familiar with genetic engineering, it's not terribly hard to buy into and it addresses a subject that's certainly fascinating and controversial in an exciting way.

And it's discussions like these with my husband and other writers which remind me that the Crewel World series is sci-fi because it had to be in order to play with the effects weaving the world would have.

But maybe also cause I'm a giant J.J. Abrams fan.  That could be it, too.

So tell me, why do you read or write sci-fi?