Three important elements of science fiction are speculation about humanity's future, the impacts of science and technology on people, and settings in an alternate time and place. For example, Frank Herbert's novel "Dune" is a science fiction novel about a future intergalactic society with sometimes drastically changed humans confronting ecological, social and biological conflicts, while "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card tells the story of a boy who plays high-tech games that are in reality, deadly combat against alien enemies.
"Writers and artists constantly search for mediums to ponder fundamental questions about the human condition and the human being's place in the vast and seemingly never-ending universe. Authors who write science fiction bend and manipulate fundamental laws of the universe, allowing readers to question what other solar systems, galaxies and universes might be like. Science fiction authors utilize a different narrative structure than fiction writers do"
"Since my post on The Five Elements Common to All Stories, I’ve been thinking about the obvious follow-up: what are the common elements of science fiction stories?"
Elements of science fiction
It's often said that Science Fiction is the literature of change. When a culture is undergoing a lot of changes due to scientific advances and technological developments, and expects to undergo more, it's hardly surprising if stories about these changes become popular as a way of expressing people's feelings (optimistic or otherwise) about change. Note that the changes may be in our ability to control the world, or just in our understanding of it. For example, some "post-holocaust" stories, such as Wyndham's The Chrysalids (also known as Rebirth), portray cultures that understand and control less of the world than we do; the scientific element consists of our understanding of their world, and of how it arose out of our world. Other stories offer future technologies that we can hope for based on present-day science, but haven't developed yet, such as fusion-powered spaceships. Yet others go beyond this to dazzle us with future science that differs from what is now believed, but they retain some recognisable elements of the world we live in, so we can at least believe that the world depicted in the story might some day come to be.
"Science Fiction stories are about change. Here are a ton of possible changes.
To make a story, think about how the change might effect children, families, students, working people, the aged, the poor, the very rich, young couples, the world of work, the world of leisure, how people live their lives.
Think about what curses might accompany blessings (eliminate death and you have over population) and what blessings accompany curses (global warming means antarctic beach front property values go up).
Remember that your characters will have motivations: they probably want to be happy, to avoid being hurt, to protect their loved ones, to make a living at the things they enjoy, to love and be loved, to be valued by their friends and society, to be successful, to be better. Some will have extreme motivations: to be the best, to gain power, to get revenge, to destroy, to create, to defend, to get even. Who are the people in your story? What do they want, what stands in the way, and what of value is to be gained or lost?"