Hackers Behind the Virtual World

Make it yours

Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.

1. Let the hero's plan work, and make that the problem.
2. Tell it from the point of view of someone who thinks this world is perfectly normal.
3. Shrink the stakes to one family, one street, one night.

Writing science fiction

Change one thing about the world. Follow it all the way.

Science fiction asks what happens to people when science, technology or contact with something new changes the rules. The spaceships are optional; the question is the point. The best of it says as much about today as it does about the future.

What readers expect

• An idea that drives the plot
• Technology or science with consequences
• Futures, other worlds or alternate presents
• Big questions about being human

A tip before you start

Show how your big change reshapes ordinary life: what people eat, fear and joke about. Scenery alone isn't world-building.

More about science fiction in our book genres guide