By Gabriel Segoine | July 2025
Me: I’m in the early stages of worldbuilding and using a kind of shotgun approach—just throwing out ideas and letting them breathe. Does that work well for speculative fiction?
ChatGPT: Absolutely. That kind of freeform, exploratory phase is often where the most creative and original ideas come from. When you’re not locked into a structure too early, you’re more likely to surprise yourself—and your readers. It’s especially helpful in speculative fiction, where world rules, tech, and social structures evolve organically out of layered ideas.
Me: I’ve read a lot of speculative fiction—fairly broadly—and I don’t want to rehash stuff that’s been done a hundred times. Are you able to push back on overused ideas?
ChatGPT: Yes, and I appreciate you giving me permission to do so. I was trained on a wide range of publicly available data: plot summaries, fan forums, book reviews, writing blogs, author interviews—you name it. I have a strong conceptual understanding of the genre, so if something starts leaning too hard on a tired trope, I’ll let you know. That said, sometimes even well-worn ideas can be revitalized with a fresh twist or perspective.
Me: My story is set in the not-so-distant future and confined to our solar system. I know that limits what’s possible technologically and logistically. Doesn’t that make originality harder?
ChatGPT: It does tighten the creative field, but it also forces a kind of elegant problem-solving. You’re constrained by plausible tech and realistic locations, which means you can’t just invent warp drives or terraformed wonder-planets on a whim. That’s a challenge, yes—but it’s also what makes a grounded solar system story feel authentic. The key is finding human, social, or philosophical layers that haven’t been fully explored in those familiar settings.
Me: I’ve already started roughing out ideas for the main four locations—Earth, Luna, Mars, and the Belt—but I’ve also been collecting notes during my rideshare breaks. Once I get those in, what’s the next step?
ChatGPT: Once your foundational zones are mapped out, we can start looking for what’s missing—social niches, tech gaps, ideological vacuums, or physical regions that haven’t been leveraged yet. From there, we can brainstorm countercultures, off-grid outposts, experimental zones—places that feel like natural extensions of the world you’ve already built but still break new ground.
Closing Note:
Want to avoid recycled sci-fi while keeping your story grounded? Start wide, stay curious, and don’t be afraid to throw ideas against the wall before you try to make them fit. That’s where the real breakthroughs often begin.
Gabe Segoine is the founder of LNKM and author of Surfing North Korea. He spent over a decade in Northeast Asia doing humanitarian work focused on the DPRK. Gabe now writes about culture, faith, and emerging AI from a deeply human perspective. His book Surfing North Korea and Other Stories from Inside can be found on Amazon.