KEEPING THE MEANING CLEAR
Both the science fiction and fantasy genres use new and made up words to cover different concepts and types of worlds/societies. The crucial thing is to make sure the readers understand the concepts behind the new words, so you should introduce them gradually and not overwhelm people with your made-up words. I’ve stopped reading SF/F novels because I kept getting confused about what was going on.
I’ve always believed that the first principle of a writer is to communicate clearly to the reader, so you need to keep words and concepts reasonably simple when they’re first introduced into the story. And if a made-up word is introduced and not used again for several chapters, make sure it’s somehow explained or shown by the context when you use it a second time. On their subsequent appearances you can use such words more easily.
Remember that although you know intimately the world you’ve created, your reader doesn’t – and even as the book progresses, you’ll still know much more than the readers.
BELIEF SYSTEMS AND CULTURE
When you’re writing dialogue for your characters, you’ll need to bear in mind the belief systems and culture ‘behind’ the words they’re using and not have them say things they couldn’t even think. If it’s a culture where women are subservient, then women won’t speak out freely in public and it might not even occur to them that it's possible to do so if they’ve never seen it happen before. The same applies to men, aliens, whoever the underdogs are. So you should get inside the characters’ heads and cultural framework before you start using their voices.
VERBAL STYLES
You can use verbal styles to underpin your story. In my SF thriller/romance ENVOY I had peace robots doing guard duty in helping defuse a war, so I made them very courteous indeed with the envoys from the warring planet, because on that planet, robots were ‘abominations’. However, since they were machines, I made their speech slightly stilted and formal, as well. The first speech by a peace robot is:
“Honoured humans, it is my task to introduce you to each other. Identities have been checked and fully verified, this being guaranteed by myself, in the name of my makers, the Sirian Tranquility.”
Go To Page: 1 2
