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Space opera is characterized by a number of conventions:

n Good guys - The two-fisted hero, the brilliant but eccentric scientist and his beautiful daughter all inhabit this genre.

n Bad guys - Our good guys invariably must confront invaders from space, space pirates, interplanetary smugglers, space dictator and his henchmen or other evil-doers.

n Dazzling new invention - To resolve conflict, good guys usually have to devise a dazzling new invention and then fight the bad guy in hand-to-hand or ship-to-ship battle with the dazzling new invention playing a key role in the victory.

n Heaps of non-explained technology - Space opera isn’t about science. It’s about good guys defeating bad guys and the neat gizmos they use to do it. How the gizmos work is irrelevant.

Given these characteristics, space opera isn’t concerned about internal conflicts among the characters, or at least none of worth. As there are no incompatible desires and aims to drive the story, the story typically becomes no more than mindless, pointless violence. It’s the kind of story we love as kids – and really only love as adults either because we fall in a nostalgic mood or because we haven’t quite yet grown up.

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(c) 2008 Rob Bignell

Tags: genre, plot, space opera, space western

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When the general public thinks of science fiction, they most often think of one kind of SF – space opera. In such a story, action forms the plot, usually in a space battle or on another planet. It’s the Buck Rogers of 1930s and 1940s radio and Saturday matinee dramas.

This type of science fiction also is known as a “space western” because it largely adapts the conventions of the Western genre to space: horses become spaceships and Indians become aliens. To a large degree, it utilizes “used furniture” and in part because of it is rarely critically acclaimed.

This is not say that all space operas are bad. “A Mote in God’s Eye” by Larry Niven and James Pournelle, for example, stands out as a worthy work in this genre.

Tags: getting started, plot, space opera, space western, used furniture

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One of the most common mistakes novice science fiction writers make is failing to be creative enough with their new universe. Many have developed a great plot and intriguing characters, but their setting is uninteresting – despite that they’ve taken great pains to describe the alien landscape and appeal to multiple senses.

The problem is that haven’t really created a unique universe. Instead, they’ve set the story in an all ready established universe have merely changed the names to give it semblance of originality. For example, the story boasts a spacecraft, armed with quantum torpedoes, representing a great interstellar alliance that is exploring the galaxy. The crew is largely human, except the alien first officer, who hails from Alpha Centauri. If the universe sounds like the USS Enterprise of “Star Trek” fame, it is, albeit with a couple of not so subtle variations.

When writers set a story in another author’s universe and then changes the names to conceal it, they are guilty of using “used furniture.” It’s a term from screenwriting in which furniture and props from other productions are reused in a new episode or show.

Readers generally feel cheated when a writer borrows another universe. Think of it this way: Science fiction can take the reader to utterly new worlds and vistas; it’s one of the appeals to readers of the genre. Reading a story set a universe one has already experienced often is like getting the same meal for dinner that you had for lunch. Sometimes a sequel works, but more often than not it’s a lot like eating leftovers.

Tags: setting, space opera, space western, used furniture

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