Tropes: Science Fiction Tropes Workbook

Description

Tropes are tools—not formulas.

First Contact. Artificial Intelligence. Generation Ships. Genetic Engineering. Alternate Realities. Alien Civilizations. Cyberpunk. Time Travel. Terraforming. Surveillance States. Human Augmentation. Dystopian Futures.

Science fiction begins with possibility—but a compelling science fiction story doesn’t stop at What if?

It asks: Then what?

The StoryMetric™ Science Fiction Tropes Workbook gives you 596 defined science fiction tropes, patterns, and speculative story possibilities to explore—and a system for deciding what those possibilities actually do to your story.

• What becomes possible?
• Who benefits from it?
• Who loses power?
• What does it change about society, relationships, identity, survival, or everyday life?
• What new problem does the solution create?
• What happens when your characters must live with the consequences?

StoryMetric™ helps you move from an interesting science fiction idea to a speculative story with consequences.

POSSIBILITY. CONSEQUENCE. CHANGE.

A speculative idea can start a science fiction story.

Its consequences can make that story compelling.

Start with the possibility:

What if this existed, happened, changed, or became possible?

Then keep going.

• What changes first?
• What changes because of that?
• Who gains power?
• Who loses it?
• What new choices become possible?
• What old assumptions stop working?
• What unintended consequences emerge?
• How are your characters forced to respond?

The StoryMetric™ approach helps you move beyond the initial What If? to examine the chain of consequences that turns speculation into story.

Inside the Science Fiction Tropes Workbook

• Explore 596 defined science fiction tropes, patterns, and speculative story possibilities
• Discover possibilities involving space and colonization, first contact, artificial intelligence, robots, cyberpunk, surveillance, genetics, cloning, personhood, time, reality, dystopia, utopia, apocalypse, empire, warfare, corporations, climate futures, cyborgs, crime, espionage, relationships, family, and more
• Examine tropes and speculative ideas by story function, not simply as a giant list
• Brainstorm possibilities involving science and technology, societies and political systems, AI and nonhuman intelligence, bodies and genetics, space and environment, time and reality, relationships, and ethical tradeoffs
• Explore the consequences created by your speculative choices
• Rank the ideas and tropes with the greatest potential for your story
• Combine, twist, challenge, or subvert familiar science fiction patterns
• Return to your choices during planning, drafting, and revision

The workbook moves beyond identifying tropes by asking you to combine possibilities, consider what new conflicts they create, determine what changes and what resists change, and connect those choices to character decisions and consequences.

Built for Science Fiction Writers

Whether you’re brainstorming a new idea, planning a novel, already drafting, or revising a story that needs stronger conflict or consequences, this workbook gives you a structured way to explore possibilities.

Use it to develop stories involving Science Fiction • Space Opera • First Contact • Cyberpunk • Dystopian Fiction • Climate Fiction • Time Travel • Alternate Reality • AI & Robot Fiction • Genetic & Biotech Fiction • Military Science Fiction • Post-Apocalyptic Fiction • Social Science Fiction • Speculative Thrillers • Science Fiction Mystery • Science Fiction Romance

USE IT YOUR WAY

TYPE directly into the fillable workbook.

PRINT the pages and complete them by hand.

RETURN to your trope choices and speculative ideas during planning, drafting, and revision.

What You Receive

One StoryMetric™ Science Fiction Tropes Workbook PDF

596 defined science fiction tropes, patterns, and speculative story possibilities

FILLABLE — Type directly into applicable worksheet fields and use included dropdowns.

PRINTABLE — Print the workbook and complete it by hand.

Instant digital download. No physical product will be shipped.

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Download Information

Your purchase includes access to the digital workbook for 30 days, with up to 5 downloads. Please save the PDF to your device after downloading for continued personal use.

Personal Use Only

Your purchase is for your personal writing use. An editable source or Word/DOCX file is not included.

The workbook may not be copied, shared, redistributed, resold, publicly uploaded, or reproduced for students, clients, classes, workshops, or groups.

READY TO TURN “WHAT IF?” INTO “WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?”

You don’t need another list of science fiction ideas.

You need to know which possibilities belong in your story, what they change, and what happens because they exist.

Explore 596 defined science fiction tropes, patterns, and speculative story possibilities. Discover unexpected combinations. Follow consequences beyond the first obvious result. Use the StoryMetric™ process to transform fascinating possibilities into science fiction stories with conflict, pressure, choice, and change.

StoryMetric™ Science Fiction Tropes Workbook

596 Tropes & Speculative Story Possibilities

Printable + Fillable PDF | $16.99