How long should a SHORT story be roughly?
Yun, the length of a short story can vary wildly. Most short stories published in anthologies and magazines are between 2,500 words and 5,000 words, although some publications go longer, as high as 10,000. Because Times New Roman is a proportional font (the letters are not all the same width), the number of pages you get for the number of words isn't accurate, but word processing programs can all count words. If I were you, I'd be satisfied with anything between 2,500 and 6,000, unless you are writing it for a specific paying market, in which case I'd consult their guidelines for the preferred length.
What are great introductory sci-fi films/books that could ease me into this genre?
What are great introductory sci-fi films/books that could ease me into this genre?I'd highly recommend The Expanse series by James S.A. Cory. The book series has been made into a TV series (of the same name as the book series) by Alcon Entertainment. Initially aired by the Si-Fi Channel, but now an Amazon series.It deals with politics, realistic physics, a solar system cold war (between Earth and Mars), with a third faction of humanity - The Belters - caught inbetween.There's also a high degree of intrigue, a search for a.missing person, unethical experiments, genocide and some seriously well done space combat.The first book in the series is Leviathan Wakes.For a kind of off kilter investigation of what it means to be human, Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan. There are two further books in the series - Woken Furies and Broken Angels.There's also a series of books that focus of space based fleet combat called The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell. The first book in the series is The Lost Fleet: Dauntless
What are the best sci-fi or fantasy short stories?
Try some Asimov for classic SF short stories, I wish I could quote you titles, but it's been a long while since I've read any, but one that comes to mind was a particularly stirring short story about mankind in the far future creating a computer to calculate how to renew stars that are dying. Millenia later, all is dark and mankind is long gone and a voice said, "Let there be light." Excellent, though with that little paragraph reading it may be unnecessary now...Also, Neil Gaiman shorts are awesome. I particularly enjoy "Nicholas Was..." which was originally a personal Christmas card Gaiman wrote for friends and family. "We Can Get Them For You Wholesale" and " Murder Mysteries" all from his collection Smoke and Mirrors. His second collection is also excellent, but I don't have it in front of me to pull stories from.
Advice on writing a short story?
I have to write a short story. Problem is, I've never written one before, I don't write fiction, I'm not a great writer of any kind, and I really don't have much of an idea on what to write. I don't even read short stories that often. But write one I must. The good news is, it's not due until May 1st, so I have some time to work with, although it won't all be devoted to writing and rewriting said story. Now, to the writers and short story aficionados, what should I know beforehand? About brainstorming, planning, plotting, writing, editing, anything and everything? Do I need to eat special waffles, or inject myself with creative juices each morning? Will wearing my lucky rocket ship underwear help me get good ideas, or will I have to do handstands for that? Thank you.
Who are the best science fiction short story writers, and why?
Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison. Tho both writers published books, few of them were actual novels. Instead, they were collections of stories, often closely related. Ellison’s collections were valued almost as much for his intros and commentaries as for his superb stories. Bradbury, with his exquisitely cadenced, sometimes rhapsodic voice, could achieve such intensity that it was good that his stories drew to a conclusion so quickly, because it can be hard to bear too much beauty all at once.Other sci-fi and fantasy writers have done brilliant short works — Tolkien’s best work may be Smith of Wooton Major, and “The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C. Clarke” by Carter Scholz is the perfect work of metafiction even as it ridicules metafiction. Terry Bisson’s “Bears Discover Fire” is so haunting that I still find myself looking for bears in the median strips of US29 driving to and from Northern VA.It has been in the short stories that sci-fi and fantasy writers often introduce and explore their most compelling milieux and story ideas, so if you check out old and new best-of-the-year and Hall of Fame and Hugo Winners anthology, you can recover very nearly the whole history of the genre told in briefer works. For instance, if you want to know who George RR Martin is as a writer, you can find out out quickly by reading his unforgettable Sand Kings.But perhaps because that's almost all they wrote, Ellison and Bradbury will always top my list of great short story writers.
Can you name one great science fiction short story writer?
Well since Misty already nabbed Ted Sturgeon.. :)My list is pretty long, with Annie McCaffrey and Charlie Stross and Cory Doctorow and so on, but if I have to narow it to one name I will go with:Andre Norton.Andre was a Wondrous Lady in all senses. She gave up the approval of her very wealthy family and was essentially written out of the inheritance because she wrote “that trashy scientifiction.” Andre brought a mix of verve, accessibility, and sophistication to what was often simply pulp among her peers of the time. Her stories read today like the simplest of YA fiction, but there’s a good reason—-everyone learned from her.Without Andre, we’d have had no Hunger Games, no Hunter, no Maze Runner, no … well, let’s say a lot would be different now if Andre Norton hadn’t stuck to her guns seventy years ago.She used a gender-neutral name because SF simply was not written by dames then, but she had stories to tell. She sufferred for her work, she risked so much, and she stayed cheerful and classy. She wrote timeless work that resonates even today. She was brave, kind, helpful, and strong even in the worst of times.Since the question was about a “great” SF short story writer, I name Andre Norton because not only was she a great writer, she was a great person.
Is it okay to write a prologue for a short story?
I have a short story published and readers are asking for a sequel. I wanted to write a short prologue. Would that be okay for a short story? Thanks a million.
What is a good sci-fi book on artificial intelligence?
The other answers are good but let me add two more, not just novels but series of novels, that offer unique worlds in which AIs are central characters:First, Willam Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. While not the first cyberpunk novel, Neuromancer kickstarted the genre and is considered perhaps the premier work by many readers and critics. I don’t want to ruin the suspense with spoilers, but you’ll find the AIs quite . . . thought-provoking. (By the way, another Gibson work, Idoru, explores a very different perspective on AI, equally intriguing.)A totally different universe with AI is Iain M. Banks’s Culture series. In that post-scarcity galactic utopia drones and “Minds” live in harmony (most of the time) with humans as citizens with equal rights and abilities. The Minds are actually much more than equal— they run the place. But it’s okay!FYI, in all these worlds, AIs are way, way beyond what we call AI these days. They actually are conscious, with real personalities and self-actualized goals, not just clever algorithms run on fancy hardware. Any one of them would crush AlphaZero.