Sci-Fi Net

1. Have impossible “science” in your fiction. Really BAD science fiction (RBSF) relies on the reader or viewer not having a working knowledge of astrophysics or xenobiology. Your RBSF aliens are damaged by contact with water? Seventy percent of Earth’s surface covered with water? Awesome. No motive or logic need apply.

2. RBSF is often recognized by a cliched ending, usually conceived of as being a horrifying twist. The planet is really Earth, the first/last man and woman on the planet are Adam and Eve. These tired plots worked well in the 60s, so why not now?

3. Be completely character driven. Science and technology are just window dressing, after all. Stories are about people and they never change over the centuries. For an added fillip, destroy all technology and higher education in an apocalypse. That’ll show ‘em.

4. If you have an agenda, pursue it! RBSF is great for letting your audience know you feel global warming is the next greatest threat to mankind or that eating meat is morally unacceptable. If you can have a Native American shaman, an Asian woman, or an alien pontificate on why these things are so, so much the better.
Still bored? Click to continue: Genre in the Mainstream:The New Yorker’s Science Fiction Issue