People/creatures/cities are so much easier to envision, because you can at least base them on things you've actually seen in person. Spaceships...those things are intimidatingly foreign to try and wrap your mind around,

Very true. I envy people who can design spaceships and commit the image to paper (canvas, computer, what have you).

Yeah, I suck at sciency and technical stuff as well, which makes me a tad nervous about writing sci-fi. I love science fiction but am crap at science and math. I have an original story that deals a lot with genetics. I love the concept, but I'm not looking forward to having to write the genetics bits (I will try to be vague about such things, I will admit it).