Science fiction worldbuilding requires more logical rigor than fantasy. When you establish faster-than-light travel, readers expect you to consider all implications. Plot holes emerge when authors ignore consequences of their own technological premises. This checklist helps you think through second and third-order effects of your sci-fi concepts before those holes undermine your story.
Why Does Sci-Fi World-Building Require Extra Attention?
Fantasy readers accept "a wizard did it" as explanation for impossible events. Science fiction readers expect plausible mechanisms rooted in scientific principles, even if speculative. The genre promises extrapolation from known science, not pure invention.
According to SFWA craft articles, the most common rejection reason for sci-fi manuscripts is internal logical inconsistency. Authors introduce technology that should revolutionize their world but only apply it to solve protagonist's problems. Readers notice these gaps.
The checklist approach systematically examines each worldbuilding decision and traces its implications. You might decide your society has perfect lie detection technology. This checklist forces you to consider: how does that affect legal systems, politics, personal relationships, and warfare? Work through impacts before writing prevents having to explain away holes later.
Technology: What Does Your Key Tech Enable and Prevent?
List your story's 3 to 5 most important technologies. For each, answer these questions:
What problem was this tech designed to solve? Technologies emerge from needs. FTL travel solves isolation between star systems. Genetic engineering addresses disease and enhancement. Understanding original purpose reveals logical applications and limits.
What are the unintended consequences? Every technology creates unpredicted effects. Social media connected people but also enabled misinformation spread. What social, economic, or political problems does your tech create? These consequences drive conflict.
Why does not everyone have access? If tech provides significant advantage, what prevents universal adoption? Cost, political control, technical complexity, moral objections, or resource scarcity? Unequal access creates social stratification and tension.
How does this tech interact with other technologies? Technologies combine in unexpected ways. AI plus genetic engineering enables different possibilities than either alone. Map these interactions to find story opportunities and avoid contradictions.
What prevents this tech from solving all problems? If your technology is powerful, establish limits. FTL might cause radiation exposure. AI might lack creativity. Nanotech might require rare elements. Limitations create stakes and prevent deus ex machina endings.
Society: How Has Technology Shaped Culture and Politics?
Work through these questions for each major society in your universe:
What sparked the current government structure? Political systems emerge from historical needs and technological capabilities. Post-scarcity societies develop different governance than resource-scarce ones. Societies with perfect surveillance might embrace authoritarianism or reject it completely.
How do people earn status and respect? In worlds where AI handles most work, what gives life meaning? In societies where genetic engineering is common, what traits are valued? Status systems reflect technological and cultural priorities.
What social movements exist? Technology creates both beneficiaries and victims. Some groups resist change. Others push for more rapid adoption. These tensions provide character motivations and political intrigue.
How has family structure evolved? Technologies like artificial wombs, life extension, or consciousness uploading fundamentally alter family and relationships. Think through how people form bonds and raise children in your technological context.
- What replaced religion, or how has it adapted?
- How do people spend leisure time in your society?
- What education and training do people receive?
- How does your society handle crime and justice?
- What counts as offensive or taboo behavior?
Economics: How Does Money and Trade Work?
Economic systems ground science fiction in practical reality. Answer these questions:
What resources are scarce and why? Even post-scarcity societies have something people compete for: time, attention, status, or unique experiences. Identify your universe's limiting resources. They drive economic and political conflict.
How is wealth generated and distributed? If robots do all work, how do humans earn living? If anyone can replicate objects, what has value? New economic models emerge from new technologies. Think through implications honestly.
What do people trade across planets or societies? Interstellar trade must account for vast distances and time. What goods are valuable enough to transport across light-years? Information, genetic material, art, and unique resources work better than bulk commodities.
How does currency work? Do societies use physical money, digital credits, cryptocurrency, or post-monetary resource allocation? Each system enables different story possibilities and creates different vulnerabilities.
Physics: What Rules Constrain Your Universe?
Even soft sci-fi needs internal physics consistency. Establish these parameters:
How does FTL travel work, if it exists? Jumping instantly creates different implications than slow FTL. Can you communicate FTL or only travel? Can you see where you are going? Each choice cascades into world design. Be specific about capabilities and limits.
What energy sources power your civilization? Fusion, antimatter, zero-point energy, or something exotic? Energy availability determines what is possible. Cheap unlimited energy creates different worlds than expensive scarce energy.
How do weapons and warfare work? In space, combat looks nothing like Earth battles. Establish ranges, speeds, defenses, and tactics that follow from your technology and physics. Avoid Star Trek-style naval battles unless you have in-universe reason for that style.
What are the constraints on AI and computing? Can AI be conscious? What prevents AI from recursively improving and becoming godlike? If strong AI exists, why do humans still matter? These questions prevent AI from becoming magic problem-solver.
Biology: How Have Humans or Aliens Adapted?
Think through biological implications of your setting:
How has genetic engineering changed humanity? If people can modify themselves or children, what becomes normal? Designer traits create new inequalities and ethical dilemmas. Some modifications might be universal, others marks of class or culture.
What does aging and death look like? Life extension technology fundamentally alters society. People who expect to live 200 years make different choices than those facing 80-year lifespans. Death might become optional or still inevitable.
How do humans survive in different environments? Space habitats, underwater cities, or alien planets require adaptation. Biological modification, cybernetic enhancement, or enclosed habitats each create different living experiences and social structures.
If aliens exist, how are they truly alien? Avoid creating humans with funny foreheads. Think through how different evolutionary pressures create genuinely different psychology, communication, and values. Real aliens might be incomprehensible or barely recognize humans as intelligent.
Information: How Do People Communicate and Learn?
Information technology shapes everything in modern and future societies:
How fast does information travel? Instant FTL communication enables centralized empire. Slower-than-light communication forces local autonomy. This decision dramatically affects political structures and plot possibilities.
What information is public versus private? Societies with brain-computer interfaces might share thoughts directly. Societies with perfect encryption might guarantee privacy. These choices affect character relationships and political intrigue.
How is information stored and accessed? External hard drives, neural implants, or cloud consciousness? How people remember and forget affects identity and storytelling options. Perfect memory changes what it means to be human.
What role does AI play in information processing? Do people interact with AI assistants constantly? Has AI replaced teachers, advisors, or therapists? Human-AI relationships create new story possibilities and ethical questions.
History: What Path Led to Your Present?
Create timeline of major events that shaped your universe:
When were key technologies developed? Map technological progress over centuries. Breakthroughs cluster or space out based on scientific and social factors. Some technologies enable others, creating advancement cascades.
What conflicts shaped current political landscape? Wars over resources, ideologies, or independence create lasting grudges and alliances. Characters remember these events or inherit their consequences.
Were there collapse periods or dark ages? Technology can regress through disaster, war, or deliberate rejection. Societies rediscovering lost tech creates different dynamics than societies steadily advancing.
How did humanity spread across space? Colony ships, teleportation, generation ships, or uploaded consciousness? The method of expansion affects culture. Isolated colonies diverge from Earth culture. Connected colonies maintain unified identity.
Internal Logic: Does Everything Fit Together?
After answering category questions, check for consistency:
Do your technologies enable the society you described? If you have perfect surveillance, can open democracy exist? If you have post-scarcity economics, why do people fight over resources? Ensure tech and society align logically.
Could your villain's plan actually work? Use your world's rules to test antagonist schemes. If the plan relies on something your technology prevents or enables too easily, revise the plot or the technology.
Can your protagonist's victories happen within your rules? Heroes must win through clever use of established technology and capabilities, not suddenly convenient new abilities. Test your climax against your worldbuilding limits.
What about your world might readers question? Identify the most speculative or hand-wavy elements. Add extra detail and explanation for those aspects. Show you have thought through implications, even if not all details appear in the story.
How Do You Use This Checklist Effectively?
Work through all questions during outlining, before writing. Document answers in worldbuilding bible. Reference this document during drafting to maintain consistency across chapters and books.
Share your worldbuilding document with beta readers who love hard sci-fi. They will catch logical holes you miss. Their questions reveal where you need additional explanation or constraint.
Use tools like River's writing assistants to check your manuscript for contradictions. Search for key technical terms and verify you use them consistently. Ensure your novel honors the rules you established.
Remember that readers will think of implications you missed. That is fine. You cannot predict everything. But working through this checklist catches 90% of obvious plot holes before they undermine your story. The remaining 10% can be fixed in revision if readers point them out.
Rigorous worldbuilding separates forgettable science fiction from classics that readers discuss and analyze for decades. Invest the time to think through your universe's logic. Your story will be stronger, your writing will be faster, and your readers will trust you to deliver satisfying science fiction that respects their intelligence.