Tag Archives: writing tip

Writing Technobabble: N is for Names

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Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story! 

N is for Names 

With all of the tips and advice I’ve given about how to go about creating technology and analyzing how it fits into your story’s world, you might still be struggling with the actual naming of things. I gave some tips in my first post about using acronyms as names for gadgets and other sci-fi elements. And this post is another offering on how to actual create technobabble names or words. 

The “N is for Names” of this post has a double-meaning, because using real names is a great way to name things in sci-fi. Much like using acronyms, there’s a precedent for this in the real world: 

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Writing Technobabble: M is for Magic

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Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story! 

M is for Magic 

Magic in a science-fiction story? Why not? Numerous sci-fi sub-genres can be just as much fantasy as fictionalized science: steampunk, space fantasy, and superhero stories often utilize as much magic as they do technology.

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Writing Technobabble: L is for Lifestyle

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Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story! 

L is for Lifestyle 

In most sci-fi, the tech is a key part of the story. You could even say that technology (and thus, technobabble) is part of the lifestyle. 

“Lifestyle” covers everything: from big stuff like transportation, weapons, or medical care; to the small stuff, like clothing, home décor, or writing implements. Whether you’re writing futuristic sci-fi or retro-tech like steampunk, don’t neglect the little details when it comes to creating your tech.

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Writing Technobabble: K is for Killing Machines and Weapons

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Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story! 

K is for Killing Machines and Weapons 

Fantastical, and often violent, weapons are frequent staples of the sci-fi genres. Even stories that are not specifically about war (like Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, which focused primarily on discovery and exploration) feature weapons both large and small. Not every story has to have weapons, of course—for example, the science-heavy story The Martian doesn’t feature weapons at all, since the antagonist is not something that can be thwarted with a gun or a bomb (it’s more of a man-versus-nature story, or perhaps man-versus-bureaucratic red tape).

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Writing Technobabble: J is for Jargon

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Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story! 

J is for Jargon 

Jargon is a cornerstone of science fiction technobabble. “Jargon” are the vocabulary and phrases particular to a specific industry or group. There’s military jargon, medical jargon, and even for us authors—there’s writerly jargon.

Technobabble jargon can be fun to create, and is a great way to add rich details to flesh out your world. There’s no real right or wrong way to write jargon, especially if you’re inventing names from scratch or creating your own unique slang for your world and its tech. There are a few guidelines, though, that can make your tech jargon easier for your readers.

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Writing Technobabble: H is for History

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Welcome to my guide on how to write technobabble! Every post will start with one letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and cover tips and ideas for all you writers of sci-fi. Whether you’re writing about near-future science fiction, far-flung alien worlds, or historical steampunk adventures filled with advanced technology that never was – these posts are designed to help you write convincing and unique tech for your story! 

H is for History 

There are two different aspects of “history” that I’d like to mention when it comes to writing technobabble and sci-fi gadgetry: 

First, there’s the history of technological development itself in the real world. Certain levels of advancement came about during the Industrial Revolution; the World Wars led to further tech developments. The history of humanity is the history of scientific discovery and technological advancement, ever since we started using simple tools and invented the wheel.

Second, there’s the history of technological development in the fictional world of your story. One will probably matter more for your story than the other. It’s up to you as the writer, and the sort of story you’re telling, to decide which sort of history has a greater impact on what you’re writing. And of course no “history” of any kind may actually make it into your book—it may be just part of that research and development that you as the author spends hours doing but never writes about. And that’s okay, too.

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