On writing

Well as promised I am here to post on what I am going to be writing about and how these ideas occured to me. I hope it may be of use to fellow aspiring writers or at least of some intrest to you.

Last year at the end of Nanowrimo I was wandering the boards and talking with other writers when an idea came to me for a new story. It was based on the movie disney made Treasure Planet, which in turn was based on treasure island. The art style in particular appealed to me greatly. So I began to thinkk about wooden sailing ships in space with crew on an open deck. It's pure fantasy, and there is nothing wrong with that; but my brain likes to be able to explain things (like how do they breathe in space, how can they walk the deck if there is no down ect...) and the challenge of making it not only work but also adding to the story by useing limits was irresistable.

I talked it over in my head for a while and came to some ideas. Air in space could come form a few things, a good example is larry Nivens Integral Trees, which is the first book of his that I ever read and one that made him one of my favorite authors.

Changes in gravity would have to come into effect to allow for space thrvel and a sense of down in space, both of which I sort of found a solution for in an article about frictionless bearings on molecular levels to be used in Nanotech. They suppose they can make a sort of prism that can alter the dirction and effect of attraction between uncharged particles. It's hard to explain and I can't remember the specific names involved. But at any rate the idea of altering the directions and effects of atomic forces lead me to thinking of something similar on the effects of gravity.

Well I know that seems all technical and rather dry, and that's why stories are great for telling these things.

So now I have a way for wooden ships to take off and sail in space. I have space that is habbitable for the people. What does that mean? If there is air in space then planets like mars which float in space have air too, and ships can get there.

Okay now the basics of my universe are being made. I get to ask questions about the meaning of the interconnections.

Then I find out what points are most important to illustrate.
Like the fact that the tech level is preindustrial, they may be able to alter gravity and sail in space and colonise mars but they don't have computers and even the refridgerator is a ways away for them (though there re sections of space where the wind from the sun is weak and colder). I've got to find a way to explain how the air got into space without just saying it. You, the reader has to discover it.

That brings us to the characters. The best way to have the reader discover something in your setting is to have a character discover it in the story. So naturally I have to design a character that doesn't know anything about the things and ideas I want to convey. Building a character up to fit those needs leads you to see a person with gaps of knowledge and flaws that have reasons and value.

Characters overcome some problems and grow in knowledge and ... well character during a story. So soon I find myself with a character whose personal story becomes more important than all that stuff I thought up before.

My story is now about the character and those they associate with. Makeing them real and making myself feel something about or for them during the course of the story.

That really sums up how far I have gotten into this setting yet. I will be talking about my three other settings in my next few posts. They don't all get discovered in the same way, and yes discovered is the right word. But more on that next time.

I've got to get out of the labs now.
Until tomorrow, Take care of yourselves,
Roving jack.