I immersed myself in some Heinlein, Bova and Asimov and I'd also like to pen the occasional hard SF story.
The thing is, the more I read the more I learn, but I saw a nice run down of SF terms and tropes in OSC's book about writing SF/F (things like the ansible, hyperspace, etc.) and I wonder if you guys know a site which could serve as a reference for scientific facts formulas... Nuts and bolts stuff.
Help would be appreciated (I googled for a while to no avail)
[This message has been edited by Foste (edited October 12, 2010).]
Not much help with sci fi here, not my best area..
I didn't have much time to enjoy it with all the work that had been piling up... Later I got reassigned to England and I worked at Kosovo for a few weeks in the final stretch... I returned to Bosnia 2 days ago or so...
My old msn is buggered up so I'll add you to my new account.
Also, many SFF writers will tell you that your science doesn't necessarily need to be 100% accurate, but it does need to be presented in a way that makes it believable.
I am reading the "Complete Guide to Writing Science Fiction" by Park, Darin and Law which covers some of what you are asking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_genetics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight
etc.
[This message has been edited by aspirit (edited October 14, 2010).]
As for resources, I would point you to:
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/
a very addictive site I found when someone else referenced it on Hatrack...
Another trick is to study virtually any science topic or news story and figure out how it could be used to make a story. For instance, say you read a news article about some science guy at MIT finding a new explanation for Dark Matter. You think, "I'm not so sure what dark matter is..." so you do a little research (usually nothing beyond Wikipedia depth is required, because you can surf to any cross-links they have to go deeper into a topic) and you realize a cool story would be about a guy who is a dark matter harvester in a future space faring civilization.
Now with that prompt, you can start inventing. What is dark matter really? Why is it useful? And so forth.
Most of your ideas may fizzle out, but its a good way to keep the juices turning...
Just remember that science of sci fi is a part of the setting not a story. Unless you're aiming for it.
Good luck.
Great links guys, I really appreciate your help!