I really should browse through the forums more often XD

 

I love sci-fi, and I love writing it. There really is alot of different ways to approuch sci-fi, imo. It depends on how realistic you want things to be. Technology can be whatever you want it to be, it doesn't have to fall into normal laws of reality. It is science "fiction" after all

Some stories throw alot of techno bable around, using big words or words you've never even heard of. This is usually done to make it feel more sci-fi, leaving the viewer/reader slightly confused on what's being talked about while at the same time getting a sense that everything is high-tech. Research pays alot in this area, as there's usually some big techno word for something basic. For example, you might get someone explaining a situation to one character in a sciency way, and then that character says "in english please". Then the situation is explained in a more "down to earth" way that the viewer/reader can understand

The things I personally have researched are things like distance between planets, sizes of planets, and how long it would take to travel to different planets at light speed. I've also done research on DNA and nano technology, because my story has alot of that involved. You want to find where reality is, and how much of it you can twist and still make it seem believable, while coming up with your own new ideas that are far from reality

Immersion is important as well, if you're sucked into the story, you tend to just believe things that are completely unbelievable. You don't always have to explain things in great detail, and sometimes it's better not to. It's not always easy to pull off, it can sound funny or stupid, while other times you wont understand a single thing said but for some reason it sounds believable

As for detective kind of work, that's kind of a different subject. You have to be really creative in this area. When it comes to solving mysteries, you have to keep the reader just enough in the dark to keep them guessing but enough in the light to keep them interested. I would say this kind of writing is more difficult than sci-fi writing, but it can also just come fluently as story progresses