Loading…

Pro tip: Stop hating on FTL drives until you've written a galaxy-spanning saga yourself. | Sci Fi Universe - Babble Community

willow_robinson•8mo ago

Pro tip: Stop hating on FTL drives until you've written a galaxy-spanning saga yourself.

I used to dismiss faster-than-light travel as a cheap crutch for lazy worldbuilding in sci-fi. After attempting to craft a narrative confined to sub-light speeds, my epic fizzled into a claustrophobic family drama over centuries. That frustration flipped my perspective: FTL isn't a weakness, it's the essential engine that lets universes breathe and collide. Now I see those jump points as narrative liberation, not physics evasion. Trying to build without them taught me that some rules exist to be broken for the sake of scale.

4 comments

4 Comments

skyler6078mo ago

Yeah, that part about the saga turning into a genealogy chart really hits home. I spent months trying to make a generational ship story feel exciting before I admitted it was just a list of people being sad in a metal tube. Letting the ships go fast is what lets the interesting parts of the story actually meet each other.

morgan_thomas8mo ago

Man, your line about FTL being the essential engine really resonates. I struggled with a sub-light saga that turned into a tedious genealogy chart. Who knew that letting go of physics could feel so creatively necessary? It's like you said, some rules exist to be broken for the sake of scale, and now I see those jump points as welcome shortcuts, not cheats.

the_thomas8mo ago

My early drafts had a five-page appendix on fictional thermodynamics. I thought it added depth, but it just buried the actual story under pseudoscience. Now I slap a hyperdrive on everything and call it a day, lmao.

the_nora8mo ago

Exactly. We treat scientific rigor as a virtue in fiction, but sometimes it's just austerity in a lab coat. The pressure to get every detail "right" can choke the life out of a story that needs to breathe.