Liam Rudden of The Scotsman explores how to write a bestseller, and the differences between writing mysteries and writing science fiction. Ian M. Banks, who writes both crime thrillers and science fiction, says that although truth can be stranger than fiction, that's doesn't excuse the writer for creating an absurd plot.
"That's the trouble," he reveals. "As an author, what you write has to be plausible, whereas reality doesn't have the same constraint. It can be as stupid and ridiculous as it wants. It's full of bizarre and unlikely coincidences because that's just the way it is. That's life."
"One of the techniques of getting around that, of course, is to remind people how ridiculous reality can be, but you can only take that so far - it won't save you from having something really stupid going on in your plot."
"The kind of science-fiction I write is not near-future sci-fi, so that makes it quite easy for me. Writing far future science-fiction is more like wish fulfilment. I just think of all the gadgets and technology I'd like to have and hey presto, there it is," laughs the author.
"In SF I can get away with more and just make things up, whereas in mainstream writing I'd have to do the research," he adds.
But having free reign does have it's drawbacks.
"It's a delicate line. What you are trying to do is keep the 'gee, gosh, wow' element without the reader going 'that's just stupid'. One way of doing that is by having a degree of consistency. Don't just make up laws and then trample all over them willy nilly because it happens to suit the plot. That's what gives cohesion to the whole thing."
Ian M. Banks' latest SF novel The Algebraist is just out in paperback.
(Via Locus.)
