I can't claim a deep level of experience yet, but I would say that one key difference lies in the approach to research. Research for present-day or historical fiction relies on extant sources. When one approaches speculative fiction, one's "research" typically involves making up the world - races, maps, cultures, politics, economics, perhaps even languages. Perhaps this is why Fantasy authors seem to indulge in serial fiction that never ends. (They got heavily vested in making up their world and need to explore its far corners.)
Also, it seems to me that Sci-fi often spins out the implications of a particular technology, more than what I see in most dramatic present-day fiction. In my post-cyberpunk writing, I was inspired by an imaginary future society which had attained immortality before I thought up any characters.
posted 1 year ago. ( reply )