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Writers of science fiction can manipulate settings to fit narratives or make up out-of-this-world settings altogether. Sci-fi writers rely on the utter suspension of disbelief, which is a fancy way of saying that you have to believe what you read, no matter how implausible it may seem. If the writer of science fiction does their job well, they set up the story and characters in such a way that they seem to be describing something that seems familiar enough to the reader because the author bases their fictional time frame on things that already exist today. Science fiction takes existing scientific principles and theories and uses them in the plot. The author wants the reader to take this unreal setting literally, not metaphorically, and you need to make your sci-fi characters believable.

Subgenres of sci-fi include apocalypse, space travel, utopia/dystopia, cyberpunk, first contact, high tech, space exploration, space opera, speculative, steampunk, messianic works, and more. One of my (Peter’s) favorite books when I was in first grade (although it’s hard to find today) was Louis Slobodkin’s The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree (Aladdin).

Writers usually write science fiction for older children, so the formats that work best for it include middle-grade books, young adult books, and graphic novels.