Vriter Notes. Writing Science Fiction for VR TV. Extending the Life Span of your Story.

One of the things I’ve said to science fiction writers just starting out is that you need a future proof game plan for your stories. You don’t want your stories to date too quickly. If you plan to stay a writer and not move into script editing, you might find these tips useful. If you have any other suggestions as to how to make sure a story doesn’t get dated, besides constantly reediting it, please leave a comment below.

Make your story as disconnected from the present as possible

Generally, if you write it well, it’ll have about a fifty year life span. If you write it with only limited reference to the present, it might even have 100 years. If you use science that has no possibility of being replicated in the near future, you might even get your story to 200 years. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, also known as The Modern Prometheus, is 200 years old this year. First published 1st January 1818. And humans still haven’t been able to put together a pseudo human from multiple parts from a variety of bodies, and resurrect it. Though, there is a lot more to this story than just that, but it’s a good example of a story that can withstand the march of time.

Choose your characters’ words carefully

Unfortunately, sometimes, the mere fact of being a certain age will date your writing, purely due to the kinds of words you use. In 2018 what words should characters use to show appreciation? ‘Incredible’ in their 70s, ‘Cool’ or ‘Sick’ in their 50s, ‘Awesome’ or ‘Winning’ in their 30s… But when someone reads that story in 2038 they’re going to feel all the characters sound weird. Cool, huh?! Best avoided. Choose a generic exclamation for your characters so that it becomes background. Battlestar Galactica did this with ‘frak’ , Red Dwarf with ‘smeg’.

Avoid common items from the past

Awhile ago I read a great science fiction story that was written in the 90s. Set hundreds of years in the future, after the Earth had been enslaved by giant space whale like entities, a government representative (?) took a long journey (?) to meet one and while waiting, opened his briefcase (???) After reading that, it took me awhile to get back into it again. A lot more effort was needed to suspend disbelief at that point, but the story got a lot better as it progressed. Most writers struggle with that first chapter and write and rewrite it over and over after writing the rest of the story, so most readers are forgiving. But I thought I’d point it out as, if you happen to include audio cassettes, old music, briefcases, even CDs, in the far future, you’ve already dated it. Best to avoid these things and create new things eg mindview system (instead of audio tapes) space fold storage systems keyed to a thought (instead of briefcases), sounds of the solar winds of Archetan 5 (instead of music) I’m sure you can come up with anything. Basically look at absolutely every item any of your characters use, and make sure none of them have ever existed.

Include aliens, even if it is just a reference

I’ve always loved writing about aliens, and expect that most stories in the future will have them. In the future, when we are working with the millions of alien races in the galaxy, most humans will find any story without an alien in it to be a bit anachronistic, if people are even still reading then. It would be like watching Alien Nation or Buffy and not seeing a mobile phone.

So, I encourage anyone writing science fiction to always include some alien races, even if it is just a reference. You could write a whole story about human habitats if that is your passion, or human-only colonies, without ever having an alien in it, but if you don’t refer to the ‘trade with alien x in the nearby star system’ it’s just going to get dated really quickly once aliens land.

Scientists speculate that we’ll make contact within the next ten years. Some believe we’ll even have an official landing before 2033. Others believe it already happened in the 60s and there is film somewhere to prove it. And even the series Ancient Aliens suggests we’ve always been in contact with them, for at least 500,000 years. Don’t leave out the aliens!

Write (vrite) your scenes with VR TV in mind

If you want to make it easier for a future script writer to discover your story and create an immersive experience from it, think about all your scenes as though there is space in the middle for a constantly moving camera.

I call this ‘vriting.’ (Oh, look, he’s replaced the ‘w’ with a ‘v’ so that the word has VR in it. LOL.)

When you vrite, you should have three things happening in the scene. The camera should be able to be placed in the center of three characters, or two characters and a screen, so that if you were there, with a VR screen, you could turn around and see the characters talking to each other, or turn to see the screen and hear the characters behind you.

As more and more people get immersed in VR, normal writing will seem a bit staid and boring. A character walks down the street? Two characters side by side talking? No, these are less immersive scenes. Not much is going on. New readers will see old stories like this as endless padding. Make sure you have a lot of things going on at once, and you’ll be able to grab the attention of younger readers.

If you’re unsure what I mean, just check out a Marvel movie. The camera rarely stops moving. It is continually tracking moving characters and screens, turning back and forth. Scenes rarely last more than 3 seconds. If you want to write for future generations, take on the vriting style where possible.

There has been a steady decline in reading over the past hundred years, only propped up with the increase in babies being born. Eventually, if we don’t change our writing styles for future generations, readers will continue to disappear. I doubt anyone will be reading books or ebooks in 200 years anyway, so make the most of those remaining upcoming years by writing with VR in mind.