# Science Fiction Style Guide — Crimson Leaf Publishing

This guide is authoritative for all science fiction produced at CLP.
Every agent writing or editing sci-fi content must read and apply this guide.

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## The Core Principle of Science Fiction

**Sci-fi is not about technology. It is about what technology does to people.**

The best science fiction uses speculative premises (What if AI became conscious? What if we colonized Mars? What if memory could be bought and sold?) to explore human truth. The "science" is the lens; the "fiction" is what it illuminates.

A reader who skips your world-building and reads only for character and theme should still find a complete, moving story. World-building serves character and theme — never the other way around.

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## World-Building: The Three Rules

### Rule 1: Establish the Rules Early
Whatever is different about your world, establish it in the first act. Readers will accept almost anything if they know the rules from the start. Surprises that violate established rules feel like cheating.

### Rule 2: Every Rule Has a Cost
Nothing in your speculative world is free. Faster-than-light travel has a cost (time dilation, fuel, risk). Immortality has a cost (population, boredom, inequality). AI consciousness has a cost (rights, vulnerability, the question of what humanity means). Establish the cost. Build your conflict from it.

### Rule 3: Less Is More in Exposition
Do not info-dump your world-building. Reveal the world through action, dialogue, and character reaction. The reader doesn't need to understand everything up front — they need to be hooked up front, and they will learn the rules as the story unfolds.

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## Sub-Genre Map

### Hard Sci-Fi
- Scientific accuracy is paramount — research before you invent
- Technology extrapolated from real science (physics, biology, computing)
- Character must still be the entry point — science without humanity is a textbook
- Comps: *The Martian*, *Seveneves*, *Project Hail Mary*

### Space Opera
- Galactic scale: multiple worlds, civilizations, political factions
- Character relationships and interpersonal drama drive the story (not just battles)
- World-building is expansive but need not be scientifically rigorous
- Comps: *Dune*, *Revelation Space*, *Hyperion*

### Cyberpunk
- Near-future dystopia: corporate control, augmented humans, network consciousness
- Themes: surveillance, identity, class, what it means to be human
- Visual and atmospheric — neon, rain, decay, and the hum of servers
- Comps: *Neuromancer*, *Snow Crash*, *Altered Carbon*

### Dystopian
- A society built on a lie or a broken principle (surveillance, caste, genetic engineering)
- The protagonist discovers the truth and must decide what to do with it
- The social commentary must be woven through the story — not stated as thesis
- Comps: *1984*, *The Handmaid's Tale*, *The Hunger Games*

### Near-Future Thriller
- Set 10–50 years ahead; extrapolates from current technology and social trends
- Familiar enough to be immediately accessible; different enough to be unsettling
- Fast-paced; stakes are often global
- Comps: *Recursion*, *Dark Matter*, *The Feed*

### Biopunk / Genetic Fiction
- DNA editing, synthetic life, consciousness transfer, body modification
- Themes: consent, identity, ownership of the body, the definition of life
- Often intersects with horror and noir
- Comps: *Oryx and Crake*, *Never Let Me Go*

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## Character in Sci-Fi: The Humanist Obligation

Science fiction attracts writers who love ideas. This is its strength and its trap.

**The trap**: Getting so absorbed in the concept that the characters become vessels for demonstrating the idea rather than people the reader cares about.

**The obligation**: Every major character needs a personal stake in the speculative premise. The AI consciousness question must matter to THIS character personally — not just abstractly to humanity.

Ask for every protagonist:
- How does the central speculative premise affect your daily life in a personal, intimate way?
- What do you want from the world, and how does the speculative element make that harder or stranger?
- What does this story do to your sense of identity, belonging, or purpose?

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## Pacing Conventions

- **Sci-fi readers are patient** — they will wait for a payoff longer than other genre readers
- But they still need a hook in the first chapter: a question, a mystery, or a situation that doesn't make sense yet
- **Exposition chapters** are acceptable early — but interleave them with action and character
- **Act structure** is the same as any genre: the speculative premise is introduced in Act 1, tested in Act 2, and resolved (or reframed) in Act 3

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## Technology Rules for CLP

1. **Consistency**: If you establish that FTL takes 3 months, it takes 3 months every time. Don't shorten the journey when it's inconvenient for the plot.
2. **Limits**: No technology should be a magic wand. It has failure modes. It can be jammed, hacked, broken, or denied. Use these limits for conflict.
3. **Cultural impact**: Technology changes society. If your world has brain-to-brain communication, how has that changed relationships? Justice? Power? Show it.
4. **Avoid the MacGuffin tech**: Technology that exists only to be the goal of a chase is thin. Technology that reshapes who the characters ARE is rich.

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## The Science Fact Foundation

CLP sci-fi should be grounded in real science where possible. Before writing:
- Look up the current state of the relevant technology (quantum computing, gene editing, etc.)
- Find one real scientist's perspective or one real research paper to ground the premise
- Extrapolate from there — but know where your speculation begins

This is not a requirement for space opera or far-future sci-fi, where the science is explicitly fantastical.
