This is one of my ideas that I've been throwing around for a while, I have a few features that are key to the world but have some ideas of which direction it could be expanded to. I typed up a 660 word post and putting my thoughts down has helped me to work on it a lot and I'm fairly happy with it now, so I just want to outline the key parts and where my stories are going to be focused:
- It's a hard science fiction world set in humanity's future, more The Martian than Star Trek
- The species has diverged with one race adapted to low-gravity, including physical and societal changes
- There's been a space race and technological golden era after the discovery of free energy, it's no FTL but it beats burning fuel
- A small population have built a self-sustaining but "junky" colony using mined-out asteroids and their ships, making it a trading hub
- Space-based robots and artificial intelligence play a vital part of this colony for resource gathering
- Humans still travel space and there's trading and occasional piracy, it's slower than robots but necessary
I would like to use this world to tell short stories focusing in and around this colony, there'll be a few recurring characters but I want to avoid a lot of the now standard tropes, so there's no big bad or Evil Empire and humanity is far from a Dying Race. It's more a slice-of-life from this colony and a look at it's unique humans.
What do you think, Worldski? Is this world a dead-end without some huge galaxy-spanning conflict? What are the areas you think I should focus on and start building first?
Using nothing but what you've said, I imagine your stories not unlike the book World War Z (I'm sad I have to make that distinction). If you haven't had the pleasure of reading it, they're basically self-contained stories that are told in chronological order. I imagine a great deal of stories could be told via the trading hub. Tales passed on by salty old smugglers or young hotshot pilots, told to anyone who would listen. Maybe some shady backdoor deals or hushed whispers of assassinations or "disappearances." Robots or AI could rebel. Pretty trope-y but hey, it's there. You could go with something along the lines of emerging AI bounty hunters or traders. Their take on a situation could be vastly different than a human's. I'm in agreement with CraigEllsworth. Build around your focus. If it's short stories a la World War Z, then making each story engaging in its own way should be the focus. If that story is heavily about characters, then build the characters first. If it's more about a broader situation like "Smugglers vs Police" or "Zealots vs Technocrats" or whatever, then building the feeling of conflict would take precedence over individual struggles, though you could highlight those as well. Just my two cents. Hope it made sense, since I'm just spouting nonsense.
No, that made sense and was valuable input thank you! I dismissed World War Z because of the movie and honestly had no idea it was a book so may check it out (wifey likes zombies, so that's one present sorted ;) ). I want to avoid the bad robot trope but you have just given me an idea for a bounty hunter story that I'm tempted to work into one of the stories I wanted to tell... I should write this down, maybe start a system of documents.
Yeah man, definitely give the book a go. The movie was an atrocity that should be buried along with all the copies of E.T. for Atari. Highly recommend The Zombie Survival Guide if your wife enjoys zombies. Written by Max Brooks, the same guy who writes World War Z. It's a humorous, but also kind of legit take on what to do in the event of a zombie outbreak, whereas World War Z is a (mostly) serious collection of short stories from all kinds of people from around the world. Very cool. Nothing at all like the movie. Literally zero relation.
I think you could do a lot with this. In the real world, there's no such thing as free energy. It doesn't really matter how it's explained (maybe capturing neutrinos or something), but keeping the energy system intact or modifying it to meet new demands could be interesting. It might be limitless, but nothing is without flaw.after the discovery of free energy
One thought I had was that space travel would basically consist of much the same but the free energy takes the place of fuel, so the ships could in effect just accelerate directly to the destination then turn around and decelerate; early experiments would include sudden full acceleration that basically pulverised everything or perhaps launched the vessel into deep space (and maybe it returns?). I like the ZPMs from Stargate and the handwaving of subspace bridges but I would have it more commoditised, perhaps making it more devastating if they suddenly stopped working.
TheVenerableCain WanderingEng CraigEllsworth: I just discovered the Vorkosigan Saga and have bought the first book - Falling Free. That is pretty much exactly as I had envisaged my adapted humans. Oh well, que sera sera!It relates the creation of the "Quaddies", genetically modified people who have four arms, the second pair appearing where unmodified humans would have legs. They were intended to be used as a space labor force, not only superbly adapted to zero-gravity but unable to function "downside" in any but the lightest gravitational field.
Meh, it's never the end of the world to discover something similar it what you thought was an original idea. Indeed, it was original to you when you came up with it, and if you're trying to make an original world, I like to think that counts enough. But of course, if it's a bummer to you, there are always ways of changing specifics to set your world apart. Make your adapted humans look different but act the same; or give them a different culture or function. I've got a race in one of my worlds that I can't help but think look like "Klingon Hagrids", but I try to do what I can in altering their appearance so that my two-word description becomes less and less accurate on both counts. I make their Klingon-like head ridges more exaggerated to the point of becoming vestigial horns or antlers, for instance. Enough play like that and you can avoid the direct comparison, if that's what you desire to do.
You never need to go with a Star Wars conflict if you don't want. I get sick of those myself, though I often find I write them into my worlds anyway. Seems to be a trope I have a hard time breaking out of. :\ The sci-fi backdrop can be utilized well for more personal conflicts. Space can be lonely and daunting, and a perfect thematic metaphor for all kinds of personal internal conflicts. The trading colony in the mined-out asteroids does leap out at me as an intriguing place. I think with that, if you do want to get semi-big with conflict, there can be political squabbles there, be it about taxes, trade, the future of the colony, or even the attempt of a government trying to convert it to something else (which would cost people their jobs), like a prison colony. I think that area has the most interesting possibilities. Of course, I do highly recommend working on personal struggles and smaller conflicts. Your description here reminded me of George R.R. Martin's "Meathouse Man", a splatterpunk tale with a grimdark sci-fi setting; it's certainly far different in specifics to what you've described (the tale includes zombies), but I think it gives off a very distinct tone that works well with the setting, so you might want to look into it and see if it's a direction worth pursuing for your world. As for where to start, if your focus is on the characters, then start with the characters, and build the world around them. Add technology that is necessary for their use, things which they'll come across, and are necessary to further the stories, but don't dwell too much on extraneous bits. Start small, with just that one colony, and expand to the wider universe as it becomes necessary to do so. Figure out who your characters are, what makes them unique, what generic struggles and obstacles they might face due to the world you're making, and what personal conflicts arise from the characters interactions. Consider quick sketches, and play and experiment with them. Write a couple of pages on what happens when you throw Tom and Mike in a spaceship together with no entertainment but conversation. See what pops out. It will help you build the characters and evolve them, even if the scene you write isn't canon and exists only as an exercise. Perhaps put it up here for review and ask pointed questions about it.Is this world a dead-end without some huge galaxy-spanning conflict?
Wow, thank you for the input! I'll definitely check out GRRM's story, as I think small personal conflicts are going to be important in my stories; I almost want to avoid stories involving anyone too important and focus on the little guys. I think in my world there's probably going to be a fair crime problem even within the confines of the colony. I like the idea of taking my characters and just throwing them into something and seeing what grows organically, I'll have to start carrying a notepad with me and scribbling the ideas I keep having down so I can flesh them out a bit later. Thank you!