Inventing Reality: A Guide to Writing Science Fiction
Novums
One common understanding of what makes a story “science fiction” is it involves the intrusion of some new invention, discovery or alien being into a world not unlike our own. How this intrusion modifies the “real world” forms the thrust of the story. After all, what is Martians existed? Of course, they’d leave their dying world and invade ours. Or what if we could travel faster than the speed of light? Of course, we’d travel to strange new worlds.
The invention, discovery or alien being that intrudes upon our world sometimes is referred to as a “novum”, which literally means “new thing”. SF author Brian Stableford coined the term.
The idea of a novum being key to science fiction existed long before Stableford established the term, however. In 1972, Darko Suvin after examining several decades of science fiction defined it as "a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment.” If the “author’s empirical environment” is literally the “real world”, then the introduction of something new is needed to create an alternative “imaginative framework.”
A novum alone doesn’t mean we have a science fictions story, however. After all, magic doesn’t exist in the real world, but infusing it in a story doesn’t mean we have a science fiction tale. Instead, the novum must be a possible extrapolation of today’s science. Quantum computers, for example, don’t exist but are possible given our current understanding of science. With a few advances and discoveries, quantum computing could be a very real part of our near future. Exploring how the introduction of the quantum computer alters the world gives us a science fiction story.
Rules for introducing novumsMost science fiction readers don’t think like an academician when reading a story set in space or the near future. They don’t say “Aha! There’s the novum!” when you mention the “time sled”. They do have very real expectations, however, about how you use the “time sled” in your story. Every literary genre follows various conventions and rules, and in science fiction how the author handles the novum is among them, even if the reader can’t list what they may be.
As a writer, however, you need to be cognitive of what those rules are:
n The reader should be able to understand what a novum can and cannot do – Warp drive allows a spaceship to travel faster than the speed of light. Simply using it as a vague propulsion system without explaining its actual purpose (FTL travel) can leave the reader wondering if warp drive really is up to the task of taking characters between star systems and serve as a distraction to your story.
n The novum must be plausible – It must be based on the laws of science as we now know them. For example, with continued research and a few breakthroughs, widespread use of nanotechnology is a very real possibility for our civilization. Humanoid invaders from the planet Venus, given our understanding of that world as a dry and superhot, isn’t plausible.
n The novum must be fascinating – A room in which holographic images are so real that they can deceive a person into thinking he’s actually in the location projected is interesting as it opens a number of dramatic possibilities and possibilities for philosophical introspection. After all, what if the faux worlds created on the holodeck are far more intriguing to people than the real world? What would happen?
n Borrowed novums should be improved upon - It’s okay to borrow novums used in other science fiction works. But the novum should be treated in a new way or the story runs the risk of lacking originality. Indeed, one of the ways our genre grows and remains vibrant is that authors further explore and play off other authors’ ideas and novums. So if a phaser -like weapon is the centerpiece of your story, have it do more than incinerate objects or knock a person unconscious. Have it burn a person from the inside for hours so that the victim dies painfully, creating an ethical dilemma for one of your merciful main character.
Creating a technological novum
Creating a novum for your science fiction story isn’t as simple as making up a cool name and then giving the device some interesting function. As a writer, you should understand the device inside and out. This will allow you to more fully incorporate it into your plot and to more fully explore its implications for the world.
There are several questions you should ask and answer when creating a new invention, sometimes referred to as a technological novum (We’ll discuss the aliens and extrasolar landscapes in future entries):
n Why did this change occur? No technological advancement occurs without reason. Cars were faster than horses, the atomic bomb allowed a country to win a war, computers improved office productivity. Any technological novum should address some need that exists in the world you’ve created.
n What are some uses for the novum beyond its intended one? Often people find unintended uses for new devices. The computer, for example, originally was thought of as an enormous calculator for scientists and the military. Video games, Internet-based businesses and chat rooms are all unintended uses of the computer.
n What are some ways this technology can be abused? There’s always a scam artist or someone with designs on power out there. The inventors of the Internet didn’t envision phishing or spam.
n Who benefits from this change? Nanotechnology obviously will make some corporations rich. But will it allow firefighters to wear suits that mend themselves when burned or to remain cool when placed in flames, saving lives?
n Who suffers from/disapproves of this change? For every winner there are dozens of losers. If fusion technology became a reality in personal transportation, for example, the fossil fuel industry would collapse. That would plunge parts of Texas and Louisiana into economic ruin. Refineries and gas stations across the United States would close, leaving many out of work.
n What are some professions this novum will alter? How would the medical profession change if nanomeds became widespread? Would there be new specialists in the field or could a family doctor now replace the cardiologist and urologist? Would lab techs and nurses at hospitals need to learn new skills so they could monitor the progress of the nanobots?
n How does this change affect “official” public life? If we become a spacefaring civilization, will the regulating of spacecraft be left to each nation or will an international body oversee it? If the latter, how do people of once powerful nations feel about an outside government establishing rules that govern them? Or would the powerful nations establish standards that ultimately exclude poorer nations from participating in space industries?
n How does this change affect the average person’s daily life? Video games result in obese children and many of us now take telephone calls in the park, on the street or at restaurants, a world quite different from one that existed before the 1980s. Each new invention subtly affects our lives so that several new inventions leaves in a world greatly different than one lived in by our grandparents (or even parents).
n How does this change affect personal behavior? In the 1980s, you’d get strange looks if you walked down the street talking to no one there with an electronic device stuck in your ear. Today, it’s normal. Each new invention can alter our sense of etiquette and relationships with others.
Limit your stories to one novum
There’s a cardinal rule for all science fiction authors to follow: Limit your story to one novum. This better allows you to maximize reader interest in it while helping maintain a sense of believability about the new world you’ve created. The more you ask writers to suspend their disbelief by accepting new concepts/ideas that stretch their imagination, their greater the risk you run that you’ll lose them.
Of course, asking many long-time SF readers to accept more than one novum isn’t necessarily bad – some readers expect it or they believe you’re not fully describing the universe you’ve created. But often writers borrow and reuse novums from other stories. After all, how many times have we read science fiction stories involving faster than light travel, ray guns, multiple star systems of varying kinds (trinaries, binaries, etc.), transporter-like devices and holodecks? Many of these concepts aren’t truly novums at all but simply science fiction conventions that make your universe seem like a truly interstellar society.
Should I avoid reading stories with my novum?
Should you avoid reading science fiction stories that involve the novum you’re fascinated by, so as to ensure originality?
There is some benefit to this, especially if you want to avoid unwanted influences and used furniture. But ultimately you’ll probably end up reinventing the fixed pulley. You won’t advance discussion about the novum at all but instead unknowingly hash over what’s already been said.