If ever there was a time to read books to help with creative writing, it is when you want to write science fiction.

This is because what you need to produce work that is original in a crowded genre, being able to develop new and different ideas is essential for your work to stand out.

Once upon a time, this was not the case. When HG Wells started writing in the late 19th century, he was producing the first works we now know as Science Fiction. Books like the Time Machine, which introduced the concept of time travel long before Doctor Who, or War of the Worlds, which pioneered the idea of alien invasions, were entirely new in their day.

While science fiction proliferated, some still came up with great ideas. John Wyndham introduced killer plants in Day of the Triffids, while Douglas Adams popularised the idea of combining sci-fi with comedy in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

In film, Neill Blomkamp broke new ground in District 9, with the concept of aliens not as invaders but as helpless, stranded travellers in South Africa, who were isolated and maltreated in an allegory of Apartheid.

To be a pioneer now may require similar inventiveness. Good reading can help, but beware of recycling old ideas. It is originality that stands out.

This is important to note because some will use devices like story prompts to kick-start their writing. However, it is worth noting that everyone who does that will be starting with the same idea as somebody else, often using a concept you may have encountered in a sci-fi novel already.

For this reason, you need to find books that encourage you to develop originality, while your reading should familiarise you with some very common ideas in science fiction - concepts that you should then try to dodge if you wish to write something genuinely new and different.

This way, you may add your own name to the pantheon of writers who have broken new ground in the realm of science fiction.