I started writing a few stories some years ago now, I won’t call them novels, because they never got near the end of the first chapter. I’ve spent so little time on them during those years that I’m now bored with them.
I’d like to start writing a sci-fi novel, but I have no clue about a storyline. I fear anything I think up will have been written already. Sci-fi has been around (I suspect) since the dawn of storytelling so it’s difficult to find an original idea.
For this new story, I’ll need to plan it. Planning has been non existent in my previous work, and it made it much harder to progress. Things like…well, anything that constitutes a structural part of the novel, like plot lines, character traits etc.
I’m not looking for feedback in the form of story ideas, I want everything to come from my own mind, but where do you start when you’ve never written sci-fi before?
Me? I start with my core idea. Then I flesh out my world to support that idea. Then I usually spin my wheels for a while while I try to find the repercussions of that idea and a character for them to happen to. Character and core idea first work too. Sometimes I have a punchline and work backwards. Sometimes I have an idea and find a character to go swim in the idea, and then keep making it up as the character does things.
Where do your instincts want you to start?
I think I’d like it to be based around a space station, something along the lines of DS9 or Babylon 5. There would be a bunch of regular characters with others popping into the mix now & again
That sounds epic. It gives you a steady cast of characters who can take part in regular adventures. Go for it.
If you are still designing, I’d start with the station and then ask, “Who would work here?” which would get my mind running overtime with ideas.