My Sci-Fi Era: Vikings, Aliens, and Explanatory Rabbit Holes

I’ve always loved science fiction.

The original Star Trek and Star Trek: Next Generation are my absolute favorites. Jean-Luc Picard was one of my major youth crushes, which might explain why I’m so attracted to bald men today. And yes, my husband is bald, just FYI.

Science fiction is fun to read or watch because in a nerdy way, it says, “Hey, this could actually be real.” And if it isn't? Well, we’ll just invent a random gene or an alien meteorite to make it passable.

Boom!

Now it all makes sense, and no one questions a thing. Because . . . Sci-Fi stories. In my novel, The Princess of Neoheim, I have a futuristic Viking princess and an alien prince from a dying race who marry for political reasons and end up falling in love and saving the world from a higher alien threat.

I wanted my explanation of the legitimacy of this alien-and-human union to be convincing and grounded for my readers. Let me tell you, I went down a deep rabbit hole researching cross-species viability. I spent hours obsessing over how close two species need to be to reproduce, what matters genetically, and how evolution plays into it. Down, down, down I went.

Then I tried to write it all out. I got everything down to proteins and genotypes. After two full pages of explanation, I came to the monumental realization that no matter how accurate this was, no one wants to read about all that. Well, maybe someone, but not most readers who just want to get a move on with the plot. So, I cut it down. Then I cut it again. Then again. Eventually, I had a few paragraphs that felt concise, clear, and still wonderfully sci-fi.

I entered the first chapter of this manuscript into a contest. Out of three judges, I got one perfect score, one where I missed two points, and one where I missed four. All great scores! I was over the moon. But one of the comments from a judge who docked me those sacred points said I was too over-explanatory about how the human-alien union would work.

If only they knew how much I had already chopped out.

What’s interesting is that one of the other judges said she loved the explanation because it made the story feel more sci-fi.

Fantastic.

Maybe the judge who docked me hadn’t had lunch yet. Maybe the judge who loved it had just enjoyed an incredible lunch, complete with a chocolate chip cookie. I don’t know why I’m basing this entirely on food, but being hangry is a real thing.

But that’s the artistic world for you. What speaks to one person can be totally disregarded by another.

So as writers, we have to judge for ourselves. What do we change? What do we keep? Beta readers help so much with this. If you hear the same critique multiple times, it’s something that needs addressing. If you hear it once out of eight people, you take it into consideration, but you don’t rewrite your entire book for that one suggestion unless it really resonates with you. Their insight is always appreciated, but writers are the ones creating the story.

I’ve now written three historical novels and have two more outlined to continue my interconnected Regency series. But this sci-fi romantasy is calling to me like a siren from the deep.

And I am feeling like it’s time to jump right in and finish it.