Before you submit your “science fiction” short story to a magazine that publishes science fiction, it’s wise for you to know what the science fiction genre is. And what it isn’t. Richard Treitel provides us with a pretty good definition of science fiction: fiction set in a world that differs from our everyday world in a way that importantly involves science or technology. http://www.treitel.org/Richard/sf/sf.html . The following 5 points describe the genre of science fiction. Does your story embrace them?

1. Science fiction is the literature of change according to Hugo- and Nebula-award winning SF author Robert J. Sawyer. Usually something significant happens or is discovered that is science-based and has profound effects on the world.  John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids and Greg Bear’s Darwin’s Children are good examples of this.
2. SF literature is about ideas.  “What if” is a frequent premise that sets an often largely character-driven story toward resolving some deeper question about humanity, social behavior and evolution. “Good SF,” says Sawyer, “is usually about something very profound, such as whether or not God exists”—see Sawyer’s Calculating God, for instance.
3. SF is about something large. In keeping with “what ifs” and the deeper questions, science fiction— whether set on Earth, outer space or some other planet, dimension or universe—is usually multilayered and metaphorically portrays a large concept through a whole world.  World-building (and setting too), when done well, not only follows good science (see point number 4) but also encompasses theme and provides plot-issues to convey your theme.  In other words, the “world” you build is a main character. Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed provides an excellent example of this. So does Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris.
4. Science Fiction and Fantasy  are very different, antithetical genres, says Sawyer. SF stories are often created from a scientific premise; you can usually get there from here by following a premise based on some current scientific thought (albeit imaginatively). Fantasy is based not on science but on the fantastical (usually magic). It’s important to know what you’re writing.
5. SF literature must portray science accurately. Most science fiction readers expect that you will have done your research on how that gizmo works or that you carried out a logical extrapolation of the theory of relativity when using it in your SF story.

Okay, now go out and write!

Recommended Reading:

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. “Alien Architecture: Building from Scenes to Worlds” In: The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate. Louisville, KY. 5-18pp

Munteanu, Nina. 2009. “House or Home…Creating Memorable Settings” In: The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! Starfire World Syndicate. Louisville, KY. 71-79pp

Sawyer, Robert J. 2003. “Breaking into the Science-Fiction Marketplace”. In: The Canadian Writer’s Guide. Official Handbook of the Canadian Authors Association, 13^th Edition. 2003.