It’s been a little over a month (43 days) since I posted A Novel Change in the Scafverse.  Here is my first progress report.

Novel:

Update: Iterate plot almost daily (incorporating new ideas and techniques from self-study program).  Have written 8 major story arcs, 6 character studies, and “storyboarded” 22 major scenes through to the climax.  Still not sure how to untangle the worldly mess that gets created– when you upset the balance of power, how do you diffuse WWIII?

Notes on Writing: I was surprised at how the story has evolved from a simple, almost whimsical tale of Leprechauns, to an Alien chasing down a Primordial Black Hole that ultimate gets trapped in Earth to use as an “unlimited” source of energy to power a Spaceship, to that of a story that is much more important than that– one that explores the ethics of survival and the obligations of intelligent life to the whole of intelligent life: what is man’s obligation to mankind?

It was an interesting and twisty road to get there, prompted by Crystal’s question, “Why would [the main character] do that?”

Exploring that line of inquiry further and further, not allowing any character to get off the hook with a flip answer, the actions of each main character depend on how that character defines their “best interest.” That is not as simple a definition as it sounds, and it is not a simple matter of selfish versus selfless tendencies. Consider that not everyone will prioritize their own survival, survival of their family, their community, their nation, a species, all mankind, all life, etc. in the same way, and you start to understand the tensions of this novel– especially when you consider people of various power and imagine how they might prioritize these items (the President of the United States, a US General, a NASA Scientist, a Mother, a young person, an old person, the Supreme Leader of N. Korea, a non-human, etc). Think about how you would prioritize them yourself.

Now let me give you some additional information. On a long enough timescale, life on Earth will end with 100% certainty. Earth has had five major extinction events that wiped out 75%-98% of all species, and an additional 16 events that created lesser extinctions. In addition, over 98% of all species ever identified are now extinct. Consider that these “events” have historically occurred with a periodicity of every 26 to 30 million years, and the last one occurred approximately 65.5 million years ago in a geologically short period of time. If we survive all future extinction events, we will perish with absolute certainty when all water evaporates 1 billion years from now as our Sun marches on in transition to a Red Giant. Even if we make it off the planet, the Universe itself will end in a Big Crunch, Freeze, or Rip. On a shorter timeframe, there is no immediate threat of nature or the universe upon us until 2036 when it is possible that Apophis (an asteroid) impacts Earth, but we’ll know with certainty by 2029 when it passes very close to us. However, it is far more likely that we unleash a nuclear, nanotechnological, or biological (terrorism?) threat upon ourselves in the next 100 years.

So let’s just leave, right? Depending on your definition of “habitable”, the closest planet outside our solar system that we could get to would take between 50,000 and 100,000 years of travel, utilizing the fastest speeds we have today (the record was set in 1968 Apollo missions, btw. Don’t go thinking we continue to make real progress.). To put that in perspective, Humans on Earth only reached full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago. It would take us longer to get somewhere than we’ve been around. Obviously, with the state of our stagnant technology, that is not an option– especially in our next 100 critical years.

Speaking of our time on the planet, we are far less adaptable than when we rose to be the dominant species. Humans have domesticated many species, and only 17 animal and 7000 plant species make up the vast majority of our diet. Seems to be a weak point if adaptability to volatile extinction events is important going forward.

Do any of the facts above change your prioritized rank above for you or any of the people in power that you considered? You yourself are probably not in any immediate danger– life goes on as always. What about the future generations? Is it my problem? Is it their problem? Do you feel any need to try to save intelligent life itself (do we bring any value to the Universe). If not, then party on, and if so, how do we protect us and our future from ourselves??

Final thought, the Universe will end no matter what we do to stay ahead of the disasters: why fight for survival in a meaningless Universe??

And what is the current story line? Try this on for size and see how the themes above could be applied: “A sentient, synthetic explorer unintentionally manifests a flawed parallel world to his own through Quantum Observation, and in a race against extinction, his genetically engineered human daughter must find a path through catastrophe for intelligent life to survive— or die trying.”

Oh, and I mocked up a cover, check it out to the upper right!

 

Exercises:

Wrote 8185 word short-story “Captain Oliver Lost His Drive.”  It’s currently in its fourth version of the 2nd Draft. I think it is a great story, working on making sure that it is a great story well told.

 

Self-Study Program:

See full self-study program below (22 books– ignore the 3 photography books– they are research for a different art!).  If I don’t mention it, assume I have not yet done anything with it.
Looking at all the books that I deemed important to read before I start writing prose in earnest, it appears a bit of a daunting task. Reminds me of looking at the course syllabus on the first day of class in college– the difference is that I can’t fake it in class now– it is important to me to actually understand this body of knowlege. It is no wonder it takes writers years to complete novels! I categorize them below.

 

Progress:

Writing Fiction for Dummies  (On page 228 of 344)
Story (On page 103 of 419)
The Writer’s Journey (On page 222 of 370)
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (Completed)
Characters and Viewpoints (Completed)
Beginnings, Middles, & Ends (Completed)
Scene and Structure (page 17 of 130)

If it is not mentioned in the list above, assume I haven’t started it yet.
 

Story Writing, generic (5):

Story
Techniques of the Selling Writer
The Writer’s Journey
Writing Fiction for Dummies
Zen in the Art of Writing

 

Writing, specialized (10):

Beginnings, Middles, & Ends (c)
Characters and Viewpoints (c)
Conflict and Suspense
Description
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (c)
It was the Best of Sentences, It was the Worst of Sentences
Plot
Revision & Self-Editing
Scene and Structure
Writing Tools

 

Language, Spelling and Grammar (3):

Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Elements of Style
Woe is I

 

Thematic to plot (4):

Darwin’s Devices
Our Final Hour: A Scientists Warning
The Singularity is Near
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

{Note: there are far more influences here, these are just ones I still need to read!}

(c)= completed