One of the most interesting ways to find story ideas is to ask the question “What if…?” And when writing sci-fi romance, the number of “what ifs” multiplies. Once you leave the contemporary world and planet earth behind, there’s no end to the “what ifs” that can happen. The who, when, where, why options become infinite and it’s hard not to be overwhelmed. Unless you make it a fun game.
Where…
In sci-fi, there are two main options for setting: spaceship or alien planet. If it’s on an alien world, what kind?
So, what if there was a planet so hot that it made you burn with desire just to land on it? It would be called a sex planet, of course, where the air is so full of an aphrodisiac just breathing it makes the characters burn to do it. (Yes, this became my new series, and it turned out to be erotic sci-fi once I realized they were on a sex planet. Whoops!) Add to that, what if the burn for desire was so hot, you’d die of a fever if you didn’t quench it? So, the stakes have increased, not only is it a sex planet, it’s a do-it-or-die world.
Who…
Now who would live on such a planet? What kind of aliens would there be in such a place? What if…what if they were a society of free-loving aliens whose way of life was based on polyamory rather than monogamy? *gasp* The Fellamana aliens were born, who turned out to be the most peaceful loving society I could ever imagine. And what sort of hero would come from such a society? Why, a Sex God, naturally! And so Koviye with fancy sexy powers (you’ll have to read Stolen Desire to find out about) came to be.
When…
Sci-fi takes place in the future of course, but what sort of future? We’re all familiar with the rebels going against the empire trope, but what if the rebels were all women? What if they’d been forced into military service, forced to dress in armor, and hide they were female (alla storm troopers), but they rebelled, escaped, and crash landed on the sex planet? A heroine, Jenie, a leader in the rebellion against the Ten Systems empire is now in need of help to fix her broken ship. Who best to help her but the Sex God himself?
Why…
But why would a Sex God and a rebellion leader get into a romance together? Why would they be attracted to each other? What if Jenie is super uptight about her sex life because she’s under so much pressure leading a rebellion? What if the Sex God finds Jenie and how uptight she is super attractive and he’s desperate to help her take a break from all her responsibilities with all his super sexy skills? Aaaaand, what if the Sex God can dream walk so Jenie’s sex dreams about him are actually real? (Oooo! I got so excited about that last one.)
The final piece of the puzzle in Stolen Desire, since I love a good forced proximity, road trip romance, what if Jenie needed to go on a mission in a spaceship and Koviye was the only one with a ship to take her? Boom! Roadtrip with a Sex God in a spaceship!
Now the question is: if you played the “what if” game, what kind of sci-fi romance would you write?
