You must study the past to understand the future.
Whether you're doing a lot of "soft science" hand-waving, or you're obsessed with consistent "hard science" numbers, you need to know what you're doing. You need to have a plan in mind for what lies ahead. A good way to begin is to look backward. Where did you come from? How? Why?
These are incredibly daunting questions. Whether you hold multiple degrees in biophysics, engineering, and predictive political science, or if you're just a kid with a keyboard and a big imagination, you can't possible keep everything straight in your head. That's where I find this site very helpful.
http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/ and detailed timeline.
I know it covers a lot of ground, so take it a bit at a time. Read one chapter every few days and mull it over between readings. I promise, you won't get bored.
Let's say you don't want to build in the aspect of creationism versus evolution. Fine, skip that. If it's not essential to the story you want to tell, don't stress about it. Maybe the clash of science versus religion is your bread and butter, the cornerstone of what drives your tale. Or maybe science and religion live in complete harmony. Either way, you need to know what you're talking about. Study up.
But if you're not so concerned with what came before and you just want a basic breakdown of where we are now, well then, the last few chapters are enough to get you going.
I'd like to take this opportunity to advertise H. Beam Piper. His Sci Fi is based ont he asusmption that history constantly repeats itself - just the details vary. And since his works are available under Public Domain from Gutenberg, you really have no excuse not to read them.
ReplyDelete"The Edge of the Knife" is pretty much a blueprint for his body of work.
And yeah, it's late 50s/early 60s Sci Fi, so a little dated to modern sensibilities; don't let that put you off.