Science Fiction Writing - Ten Cliches to Avoid

By: William Meikle


Science Fiction has become so much part of our culture that icons from it are all around us, in film, TV, computer games and music. Adoption into the mainstream makes science fiction both easy to sell, and hard to write without seeming tired and cliched. Here are ten situations you should steer away from, and some variations to consider if you're determined to proceed.

The Never-Ending Spacecraft Flying Overhead

It starts with just a small piece of hardware coming into view. Then it expands as the ship fills the whole screen, gun ports bristling. Still it comes, sound building all the time, until the tail engines, glowing yellow, pass overhead. Star Wars started this one, and it's been used ad-nauseam ever since, giving the model makers a chance to show off. Try a new approach. Why not have the spaceship roll overhead then pan back to find its only inches long? Or how about an alien that can travel through space without a ship?

Saucers Over the White House

The silver saucer hovers overhead while various military types run around saying things like "Now we know we are not alone." and "Hit them with everything you've got." The aliens say things like "Klaatu Barada Nicto." This approach was overdone in the 1950's in Earth vs The Flying Saucers and The Day The Earth Stood Still long before Independence Day came along. The aliens always speak English, supposedly having watched our TV. If that were the case, why aren't they already brain dead? Just for a change, how about having the aliens ignore the major powers altogether? After all, are they really stupid enough to attack the strongest military powers first?

The Multi-Race Bar Room

The barman says "We don't serve your kind in here" There's an evil looking being standing in the corner and a silly- looking alien singing a silly sounding song. Writers love this situation. It gives them a chance to come up with outlandish aliens with equally outlandish names. There are fine examples in Star Wars, and any episode of Babylon 5. If you want to subvert this cliche, how about having an alien town with segregated bars, or even segregated areas inside bars, thus creating plenty of opportunities for tension?

The Meeting of the Galactic Council

Groups of different aliens shout at each other a lot, saying things like "I withdraw my voting block" and "We do not recognize this council" By far the most boring example is in The Phantom Menace, which tried to substitute spectacle for tension and failed abysmally. at least Babylon 5 showed imagination and a modicum of originality, and in Star Trek you can always rely on the Klingons to do something violent.

The meeting is often little more than a chance for the writer to play with metaphors for contemporary politics. And if they're not doing that, they're rehashing King Arthur And The Round Table. Thee is a whole genre of books devoted to galactic councils, empires and federations. If you're going to try it, it's best not to have a recognizable antecedent. Never use thinly disguised Roman Senates or British Style upper and lower houses ... and definitely no round tables. Find a new way of having an intergalactic empire make decisions. Then you'll be getting somewhere.

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