nanowrimo_lj | The return of the weekly plot help thread!

Yes, I know you've all been waiting in eager anticipation for this thread to start up, and now you don't have to wait any longer!

So, for the new kids in the community, here's the basic gist:

This post goes up once a week. In here, you can ask for help on your plots. Each week I start a new post. You can keep asking for help each week, but try to ask for something new each time.

Also, if you want to get help, you also have to give it. Which means that you take time when you can to go through the help "requests" and see if there if anything that jumps out at you that you want to toss a suggestion at.

One of the beauties this community has is the willingness to help each other along in our 50k goal. And here is the place to do it.

And of course, that said, here's the BOO part.

With the thread means that these types of posts are no longer allowed to be individual posts in the community. So if you see one go up, feel free to leave them a comment and point them to the current week's help thread and the rules. I'll catch up with them eventually, but that kind of help (which alot of people are already doing for intro posts) is really appreciated!

So that's it. Feel free to start getting plot brainstorming down before NaNo, and help one another out. :)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, so… probably the most messed up plot help ever. As in the “I need a plot” type of plot help. (I have subplot and all that good stuff...)

I’m writing sci-fi and I have my character (which, for me, is the thing I need more than plot to get started). Some notes:

- MC: UUC warship Captain Jesh Fort Strait
- UUC: Like the EU, optional “vote in” government where you get protection, bonuses, trade, etc… but for planets
- Job: Jesh patrols Burnside territory, there’s a rebel planet there that makes a little bit of trouble, not enough to make UUC pay attention
- Little rebel planet has ships and attack Jesh et. al. while in hyperspace, they get knocked off course into supernova/black hole
- ♥ about Jesh: After the “black hole experience,” Jesh can speak to God. (Well, he thinks it’s God at least… his DNA has been fundamentally altered and he’s actually, to a small extent, precognitive. But his abilities don’t expand much farther than his direct self.)

I know this has to do with time. Originally I had Jesh appearing in the future by 103 years, in which UUC is almost in full blown war with ‘little rebel Burnside’ planet that has recruited other planets to “fight the man” and gain “freedom” (war propaganda). I like this idea, but I have no clue what the actual plot would be. I know Jesh would have to return to the UUC eventually. I was thinking:

(a1) Pilots now use a “neural net” to link with their ships. They can’t control them completely, but they that alert them to go to deck. I was thinking rebels could make a virus to disable the network and take down main UUC planet (?) in the process. Jesh doesn't have it, and would save the day. -- But, this is far too epic/super hero-ish and overdone.

(a2) Jesh was transporting good(s) or knowledge when they were all "boom" and "black hole'd" and somehow it's still important this far in the future and he has to get it to UUC - but what I have no clue.

So, I was thinking (b) Jesh goes back in time and tries to stop all of this stuff before it starts to become a problem.

And then I was thinking (c) In which both of the above take place. The black hole messes with him really fucked up badly and he’s switching between past and future, but never manages to get back to the present to directly save his crew and his ship.

Umm….

Any advice?
P.S. – Sorry for the uber long comment….

So, even though the entire ship was knocked into the blackhole, he's the only one who escapes? How about having at least one other crew member survive? Then you can explore how they related to each other during the process.

Now, I don't know how much you know about black holes, but I suggest you do some research, because your time travel idea links directly into some of the relativistic effects of black holes - where time appears to run differently for different observers. So Jesh and his crew might experience an hour of fighting the gravitational forces in the black hole, but, to an outside observer, 100+ years might have passed.

I like the idea that he was transporting something small and insignificant that will make all the difference in the war effort - but are you really sure that these 'rebels' are the ones in the wrong here? I mean, don't get me wrong, but a cliche us-versus-them, rebels-are-bad fic is, IMO, far more cliched and tired than a superhero epic could ever be. I think the war needs to be really morally ambiguous, then Jesh can question which side he wants to help.

Just my opinion - I hope it helps!

First, thanks for the reply. :D

So, even though the entire ship was knocked into the blackhole, he's the only one who escapes? ... -- Actually, everybody who went through (half the ship... probably anywhere from 400 - 800-ish people, appear later in the future (or, I'm playing with past as well), but most of these people appear in open space. You're not guaranteed to land anywhere safe after all. So a majority of these people die instantly, float around, are never found (and maybe a few of them are, maybe it's assumed they're "left over" from the accident. So there will be old crew members around. Very few of them, probably who appeared before Jesh (maybe I'll through in one that appears after he does), and they're the lucky ones who randomly appeared on ships passing. Jesh appeared in an old rescue pod/life capsule whose resident is already dead - and not-so-freakishly gets picked up by a passing ship.

Now, I don't know how much you know about black holes, ... - You're right, I don't know much and I'm going to be doing a lot of reading for this month. But to me, getting my character and plot, is more important than getting ever detail of my black hole correct. I know it's an important aspect of the book, but then again, it's NaNo, and I can go back and fix things - but I was my word count in November (which isn't going to include massive pages of scientific explanation of what happened in the black hole...) :D

I like the idea that he was transporting something small and insignificant that will make all the difference in the war effort - but are you really sure that these 'rebels' are the ones in the wrong here? - The only reason I was saying these people are bad, for the moment, is because I'm thinking they actually are. They're more of "we're pissed of anarchists who want to see the whole of humanity go up in flames and burn in hell where they're suppose to be," than they are "this government is wrong, and we need to do something to fix it." I've also been playing with the idea of having the Burnside problem planet population be what's left over of a former UUC protected planet in which something happened, UUC didn't help, survivors had to relocate, and now they're pissed - which would add you're moral ambiguity. Not sure exactly, but I do think I want UUC to be the good guys, so I'm leaning less toward moral ambiguity (this is because I seem to write "BAD GOVERNMENT" and "moral ambiguous" stories all the time, so this would actually be something really different for me).

Wow, sorry that was so long. ...What do you think?

The return of the weekly plot help thread!

Sci-Fi story... in need of help

Re: Sci-Fi story... in need of help

Re: Sci-Fi story... in need of help