Fantasy requires an "inner consistency" to the rules and postulates of its magic, whether in our world or in a "secondary world," but the writer is free to design any kind of magic that can accomplish anything.
So you want to design a planet? Not so fast...let's get closer to how sf writers do their thing....
Fantasy requires an "inner consistency" to the rules and postulates of its magic, whether in our world or in a "secondary world," but the writer is free to design any kind of magic that can accomplish anything. In Science Fiction, its different...writers have to appear to follow the rules of "what we know," or extrapolate what we might know soon or...when they bend rules, its with a knowledge that a rule is being bent for story purposes (faster-than-light travel is one of those things: so many stories need us to be able to go easily from planet to planet; or look up LeGuin's invention of the "ansible," instantaneous communication across the stars, which became something other writers borrowed because it is so useful to telling sf stories). Many "sci fi" stories disregard the plausible altogether, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the real thing. Still, even when inventing "real sf," it gets too fuzzy in there to say "you must follow the rules of science!" But if you're going to do it right, sf writers do need to think about their settings carefully, extrapolating their futures with intelligence...or designing planets that might really exist....
So, your charge from me is to design a planet, and to try to be real to the science a bit, in order to understand some of the constraints sf writers should work under if they are good at what they do. The basics of planet building aren't that hard. There is a simple equation or two in the reading, but don't let that stop you: each reading is short and clear...four blog posts and a short article, is all. Then come two websites with games for you to play about the science of planet building.
Here's the assignment from the syllabus:
"You will play a number of these games, learn a little science along the way, and write up a planet for a story using some of the rules you glean. You can abandon your creation at that point, or use it for a story. What makes a planet habitable? Habitable for whom? What makes a planet useful in a story? You only have to explain your creation in 300-500 words, so it’s just a sketch; but we’ll see what everyone came up with, and what you learned about writing sf!"
Reading:
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