Although I tend to write Sci-Fi fairly easy, one of the biggest challenges I faced with writing ‘Aftermath’ was the vocabulary and terminology. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had to go back and do a little studying on ‘space’ to give the book and story a sense of authenticity. As with every other aspect of the book, I had to re-vamp the vocabulary and terminology used by both, the characters in the story, as well as myself.
Character dialogue is something else that comes naturally for me, but it gets a little difficult when you’re trying to create something that sounds original, conceivable, and somewhat politically/scientifically-correct. I had to know what a ‘Wormhole‘ was, as well as it’s ‘Event Horizon‘; I couldn’t just describe it as a circle with a hole in it; nor could I have any of the characters describe it as that either. You’ll also hear the characters say things like; ‘Hail Monitor‘, ‘CommsLink’, or ‘Link’. The word ‘Species’ is also used quite a bit.
In the past few years, I’ve gotten much better with my narratives. This is a good thing because you tend to use a lot of narratives when you write a book that takes place in space. Once again, to be able to properly describe things and places, I had to do a little studying. You’ll see that I commonly refer to different regions of space that the story occurs in, or the characters travel to, as ‘Quadrants’, ‘Systems’, and ‘Galaxies’. ‘Moon’ is another frequently used word, but its not necessarily used in the same context as you and I talking about–The Moon.
Other commonly used words and phrases you’ll see are; ‘Starfighter’, ‘Interplanetary’, ’Space-Station‘, ‘Capital’, ’Alien Race‘, in addition to words that describe royalty, and political and military rank such as; ‘High Palace‘, ‘Queen’, ‘Ambassador’, ‘Elite’, ‘Captain’, ‘Commander’, ‘Squadron’, ‘Wing’, and so forth. These words used in the right way with a sci-fi setting, can work wonders for a story such as ’Aftermath: A Saga Begins’. Finally, I let my imagination kick back in, and created some of my own terminology, lol! Afterall, what’s a sci-fi story without the use of your imagination!? Thanks again for reading!
Aftermath: A Saga Begins on sale now!
– F. Kenneth Taylor
