Hey everyone, I'm looking for a little advice.

I've got issues when it comes to original writing. Fanfiction stuff is more than simple for me to create, because it's set in a predetermined world and I can simply build off what was established as a sturdy foundation of rules for how the world works, characters, all that. But when it comes to my own stuff? I flounder.

I just started another attempt at a science fiction story I've been poking at for several years. It falls flat and dies after a few pages each time and I've reworked the material so much it's almost an entirely different story from what I first came up with. My current hang-up with it is suspension of disbelief in the abilities of an alien race. I'm so rooted in true-to-fact science that when I write the extraterrestrials and their abilities - in this case, the ability to psychically influence the minds of others - I find myself doubting its validity and try to find an accurate, realistic way to explain it.

Needless to say it's driving me nuts.

Does anyone else ever have problems like this? How do you get around it?

As someone who has spent hours and hours watching the Science channel, sci-fi movies, and sci-fi shows, I feel compelled to include science plausibility into the world-building of all my *non-realistic stories. I don't stick to science fact because I'd never get anywhere if I did.

(*Non-realistic as in not our reality... I've got stories based in fantasy, supernatural, and the one I have been working on for the past month features aliens.)

As much as I love science, I have no desire to delve into the "Hard Science fiction" genre. It takes a lot of research. Don't understand something? Look it up. Still don't understand it? Keep digging. Yeah, I'm not going to do that for every single new element I am introducing. So, I dub my work as Speculative or Science Fantasy. The upside? (Well, besides saving myself from going crazy...) Admitting from the onset that I don't know for a fact if what I am presenting is correct means I don't have to worry about thoroughly proving my theories so I can focus on the actual telling of the story.

In other words, picking a sub-genre helps, because each sub-genre asks something different from the story. The focus of Hard Science is facts, everything else is more forgiving.

Some free resources: This article called How to Write Science Fiction url=http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Vision39/writesf.htm[/url] has several good points, I think. The site url=https://www.worldswithoutend.com/resources_sub-genres.asp[/url] gives definitions for the sub-genres. The multiple part World Creation Guide on deviantART url=http://charanty.deviantart.com/art/WorldCreationGuide-p-1-178733419[/url] has general information but you might find some of it useful.

And then there is this article, also on deviantART, url=http://www.deviantart.com/art/10-Tips-for-Writing-Science-Fiction-533286513[/url] which I haven't read yet but it looked pretty interesting when I skimmed over it. -bookmarks it to read later-

oh wow, thank you so much for these resources! I've bookmarked everything for future reference.

That's exactly my issue, instinctively going for hard science fiction when all I want is the broader, definitely more forgiving speculative genre. Thank you so much for your advice; I appreciate it <3

As someone who writes fantasy with some realistic elements (i.e. "yeah you could teleport to the moon, but you'd want a suit, and air supply, when you get there....") I find it easiest to think of how it would work for a species to practically develop this ability and how could it be used. Only with those they are really close to? Does it simply require a physical touch, or even just being in the same room? If you can ask yourself questions about what is necessary to pull it off, you can sort of push aside some of the questions about "how."

Alan Dean Foster wrote the Pip and Flinx series. [Spoiler alert] Flinx is a young man who was genetically tinkered with and gained several abilities, one of which being an empath (read emotions in those around him).[/end spoiler alert.]

If you can accept the fact that some sort of genetic tinkering happened in the species, or if it was simply how their kind evolved to avoid being eaten by predators at the time ("I will make you feel nauseous when you think about trying to eat my kind!") then further explanation is unnecessary because there is a reason or a purpose for it being an element.