By Kahina Necaise Convincing fiction is about cause and effect. That’s why, in my work as an editor, the two questions I ask most often while diagnosing an issue with a client’s story are: Does this come out of nowhere? Does anything ever come of this? Does this come out of nowhere? is about unclear […]
By Rebecca Hardy I love systems. I think most worldbuilders do, at least to some extent. Systems of magic. Systems of currency. Systems of governance and geopolitical conflict in underwater cities, postapocalyptic wastelands, and galactic civilizations. And . . . systems in the real world, which can sometimes be the most challenging of all. I’ve […]
by Yilin Wang Note: This article first appeared in The Bulletin #216 in October 2021. When I tell other writers who are not familiar with Sinophone literature that I am writing short stories and a novel that play with the wuxia fiction genre in English, I am often met with one or more of the […]
by Karlyn Meyer Note: This article first appeared in The Bulletin #216 in October 2021. I started making my first video game the week I found out I was pregnant. Games featured heavily in my relationship with my partner; we had played video games together in college, and even got engaged while doing so, and […]
by Valerie Valdes Note: This article previously appeared in The Bulletin #216 in October 2021. You open the SFWA Bulletin to start reading an article about second person point of view (POV), and immediately you’re put off. You didn’t expect the article itself to use this POV, since most articles don’t. What a cheap gimmick, […]
We’re pleased to announce that the second season of Narrative Worlds will debut on Sunday, November 21, at 1:00pm Pacific Time! Part of the ongoing 2021 Nebula Conference Online, this worldbuilding webinar series is hosted by best-selling author and SFWA member Kate Elliott. Her guest for the first episode of Season 2 will be award-winning […]
by Nick Wood (NW) & Isiah Lavender III (IL) After finishing a working stint as a psychologist in Aotearoa, New Zealand, I (NW) visited the signing site for the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). This was a bilateral treaty between the colonising British Empire and the tangata whenua (or “People of the Land”, a.k.a. “Maori”), signed […]
by Michael J. Moore You write speculative fiction for the same reason you’ve read or watched it your entire life. There’s something inside of you that craves tales of relatable characters overcoming adversity. It’s your inner hero, and it manifests on that illuminated screen when you sit alone, clicking away on the keyboard. That something […]
by Eleanor Konik Often, speculative fiction relies on common government types, like monarchies and republics, because they’re familiar to readers. History, however, offers other examples of sociopolitical systems. They can be a gold mine for worldbuilding ideas that stretch beyond the mainstream. Informal Governments Many societies worked just fine without strict hierarchical leadership. Power […]
by Naomi Norbez With the release of Cyberpunk 2077 a few months back, there has been some debate about what it means to be cyberpunk, and how that genre should be executed. As someone making a response game called Eyewear Cleaner 2077, I thought I’d throw in my two cents. In a world of free data […]
Her whole life, she’s been warned to stay away from the Glass City, gleaming on the horizon. Her destiny, written in the stars, is to find out why. This environmental fantasy novella releases September 20, 2024 from University of Tampa Press.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam is the author of the novel Grim Root and the collection Where You Linger. Her short fiction has appeared in over 90 publications and has been nominated twice for the Nebula Award. By day, she writes for a mobile game.
