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Post by Tig on Mar 22, 2020 11:52:52 GMT -5
I hear you bro. Thanks. When I retire I'll tell you guys all about what's happened and what I'm doing about it. Our forum is still public so I don't want to publish anything here while I still work for an agency that will fire you over stuff they caused.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Mar 23, 2020 9:47:09 GMT -5
Yeah, same. I think it's pretty much impossible to go through life without running into some psychological/mental issues if you are not emotionally handicapped (I know some people who have almost zero emotional depth so it's easy for them, but I wouldn't want to trade places, everything has a price). So hang in there, these things come and go.
Aside from reaching out to friends/family, I always recommend the usual suspects (if you are not using them already): exercise, meditation, therapy. These things can really help. Exercise releases really good chemicals in the brain, and meditation can ground and center you in the moment, away from all the bullshit of worrying about past or future. And keep writing of course.
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Post by Taibi on Jun 8, 2020 10:02:40 GMT -5
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Post by Tig on Jun 14, 2020 12:45:31 GMT -5
I'm losing faith rapidly with all the recent turmoil. I'm afraid my past as a police officer will block me from getting any publishing. I won't quit but I noticed I'm not even receiving rejection letters lately. Just silence. Funny how prejudice is allowed for some but not for others.
So, in my truest fashion, I've decided to face the reality of not getting published by writing another book. Logic be damned!
I need your help in determining a catalyst for my next plot. I have a giant computer that's been constructed by 1890 and is fully functional. The secret is the processing power is human beings chained together by the brain in a series of tanks where they float in saline and share their thoughts. The collected consciousness is used to break down numbers and algorithms at an astonishing pace. I got the idea when I volunteered my computer for folding.
The problem is: why? In 1890, what would the purpose of a giant computer be? I can't just use it for data gathering on people across the world; that's what William Gibson and Bruce Stirling wrote about in The Difference Engine. My book springs from an earlier idea about a secret base on Mars where rockets are launched to knock asteroids back onto the earth. But why? My first idea in my head is a corporation seeking a global monopoly stands to profit by destroying a whole segment of Europe and the giant computer helps move the rockets to drop the asteroids. My wife feels that is too conventional. I'd like to keep the antagonist based in Texas and have the computer be the focal point rather than have to figure out how people got to Mars in 1890 so, again, the focus is the computer.
Wars are typically fought for financial gain. Whether it's territory, oil, gold, or the Michelin Rubber plantations in Vietnam, wars are rarely fought for an idea except for religious jihads and crusades, and even then they're typically backed by someone who stands to gain from it all (the Vatican, English and Italian banks, Saddam Hussein). So I can definitely see that but what if this power is used to topple a more abstract idea rather than gold? A political movement, religious, something where an entire nation or territory needs to be destroyed or disrupted?
I need to keep the asteroid or some other massive destructive device in mind. The supercomputer in my book is very much an anachronism and the rest of the world isn't wired in like it is today, so a computer would be very limited in what it could manipulate directly outside of its own structure. My setting, a continuation of The Clockwork Cathedral, is more of an alternate history rather than total sci-fi all-up-in-yo-face-with-robots-n-shyte kind of story. The technology is more subtle (probably a little too subtle according to some of the treasured feedback y'all gave me). The computer would be to facilitate the application of the destructive device rather be the destruction.
As an alternative idea, my wife proposed a fringe concept in psychology centering around collective consciousness, where the collected thoughts of one group draw in the individual to conform to their thinking. In reality it's more of a social concept where you spend enough time with one group of people and you eventually succumb to their logic and even adopt their ideology (Stockholm Syndrome, religious indoctrination, voting for Trump). In my book it would have to be more direct control by radio waves or something. I can see this happening where the computer is made to take over an entire city like, say, Houston. That would keep things based in Texas and have a much more intimate setting that is easier to control. But what is the end goal? If you take over an entire city you have to maintain that city, and if the idea was just to destroy it then why bother with something so elaborate?
I dunno. Ideas?
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Post by Mako on Jun 14, 2020 14:55:52 GMT -5
For me, when thinking of Texas I think oil. During this timeframe maybe something along a wannabe oil barron who is blocked out from Rockefeller buying up the industry, so he envisions modern ideas of oil being under the ocean and deeper in the ground that would be impossible back then, maybe even space (wanting to explore the Moon, Mars, and asteroids for oil?), using a supercomputer to find the locations and figure out ways to get the oil out? Also hellbent on revenge. Let your Steampunk mind go wild with how he'd do all that. Even if any ideas we give you don't work they might give you some future plots and ideas. The most important thing is that it makes sense in your mind. Tough to write if it doesn't work for you. Glad you are looking to get back to writing, though. Hopefully it can provide a good outlet for you. I'm sure you can use that about now.
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Post by Tig on Jun 14, 2020 18:56:49 GMT -5
Hmmm...the problem with that is oil is carbon based and there is no reason to believe it would be found on other planets. I had thought originally for a gold mine on Mars but, again, that seems like a very base idea.
The Clockwork Cathedral's crisis was a politician seeking to control an infinite supply of power for his city. I'd like to avoid the same type of of setup for the next. Blah. Been chewing on this all day.
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Post by PegLegPete on Jun 15, 2020 1:54:33 GMT -5
I keep thinking along the lines of the computer influencing the early stock market, you control the mineral rights on Mars/asteroid or whatever and with the computer you are monopolizing the prices to be in your favor.
Computer calculates distances for mining transports to/from and it goes array sending a asteroid plummeting to earth? You are investigating whether this is corporate espionage or on purpose?
I dunno its 3am I cant think haha. Hunt for publishers under a nom de guerre so they don't know you are a fan of Law&Order, Cops, Live PD or Dukes of Hazard as those are now banned in this Orwellian world we are chiseling out for ourselves.
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Post by fantasiawht on Jun 15, 2020 9:04:49 GMT -5
I agree that the evil corporation/businessman is a tired trope. I think even wolves are treated more fairly in literature and entertainment. Some other thoughts: Have the computer controlled by one person/group but selling its power/use off to another person/group, and the second entity doesn't know how it works. The plot is what happens when they discover its secret and the moral quandary they are in. I especially like those themes when the work has already been done and the question is do you use it (e.g., the Nazis conducted horrific experiments but discovered the cure to cancer. Do you use it?) Or it could be a more traditional "how do we stop this horror from continuing" quest. There's a really interesting analogy to slavery there, right? A lot of people in the 1700-1800s who wrote and spoke about slavery being bad and *eventually* needing to be abolished kept slaves and only freed them in their wills. Or believed slavery should be ended but were honestly concerned about how a sudden end to it would cause other, very significant, problems so it needed to be phased in slowly. That could be included here, too. The protagonist needs just a little more computing power to finish something really good for mankind, so do you keep the computer running or stop it now? Do you use what the computer gave you or start from scratch? Could have some really interesting internal debates. You could also turn the tables and cast a traditional antagonist as the protagonist. It's the businessman/corporation faced with the quandary. Maybe a fairly corrupt government that has no problem with graft and handing out favors but this might be a bridge too far. Who to have running the machine? Maybe a utopian society that recruits members with the promise of equality and share-and-share alike, etc. Maybe a cult (giving a new meaning to brainwashing). Maybe a small nation where a once-in-a-generation genius happened to be born. Oooh good suggestion for thematic ideas - get yourself a Timetables of History (or American History) book. www.amazon.com/Timetables-American-History-Technology-Elsewhere/dp/0743202619 (or check a library, especially an academic one). I've got one, and you can turn to any year and see what was going on in the sciences, the arts, politics, war, philosophy, etc. Great way to look for a hook.
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Post by WickedCrustacean on Jun 15, 2020 9:08:36 GMT -5
I think around 1890s was just before Einstein, Bohr, Planck, and others revolutionazied physics with radical new approaches (Relativity and Quantum Mechanics), so it was the twilight of the era where people believed in a mechanical universe, based on Newtonian equations. Young people were advised not to go into the field, if I recall correctly, since "everything interesting has been figured out". So in a setting like that (I might be slightly off on the dates), a massive computer might have been used to compute the mechanical details of the universe? I don't know, would have to read up on the science a bit to see if that actually works.
My 2 cents also: don't make the plot about some evil corporation, I just think that has been used so often now, it will bore people. I think you would be much better off making it about something mysterious.
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Post by Tig on Jun 15, 2020 11:20:28 GMT -5
Excellent stuff guys, thanks. Been at this all day yesterday. Definitely needed more perspectives.
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Post by Tig on Jun 21, 2020 14:37:02 GMT -5
So after a very stressful week I've been sitting this weekend and chewing on story ideas. I was reading over everyone's comments here and something clicked.
Chorus in the Sky (working title) will be revealed soon.
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Post by fantasiawht on Jun 23, 2020 7:43:57 GMT -5
I directed choirs for 15 years, Tig, if you need source material hit me up!! =D
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Post by Tig on Jun 23, 2020 11:09:17 GMT -5
Dude....Steampunk! The Musical
*jaunty-walking fellow with top hat and goggles enters stage left*
Fellow: Ooooooooooooh...my life is but a dream, held aloft by clouds of steam, that propel the gears of our lives to keep them turrrrrrrrrrrrrrning...
*Lady in cobalt blue dress enters stage right*
Lady: My life is but a dream, lost in clouds of steam, the world turns thus but still my heart is filled with yearrrrrrrrrning...
*Vikings raid the stage and kill everyone in sight because I suck at play-writing*
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Post by Taibi on Jul 23, 2021 1:01:51 GMT -5
So after a very stressful week I've been sitting this weekend and chewing on story ideas. I was reading over everyone's comments here and something clicked. Chorus in the Sky (working title) will be revealed soon. So, how is this coming along?
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Post by Tig on Jul 23, 2021 11:39:45 GMT -5
Well...it's moved sideways a bit, then back, then sideways. I'd set aside the idea of launching stuff into space and settled for more of a heist-type adventure that lands a plucky band of mercenaries into a city where the entire population is subject to mind control. I have the working title of Locusta.
I had the prologue written out and was working on chapter one when I came across an article about generational ships. I was hooked. I watched Neil deGrasse Tyson's video on it and started reading other science and literary papers:
I've written the outline for Via Eternum (working title) about a group of some 2000 people on a spaceship headed to Alpha Centauri. It's in the future so I've increased max speed to near lightspeed and cut the trip down considerably (it would currently take Voyager six million years to reach it). After about 50-100 years, people are losing their way. The first generation of people that left Earth are all gone and the people who are "awake" have redefined social hierarchy, culture, economics, and, most damaging, the mission statement of why the hell they left Earth and where they're going. That have on board 100,000 people in stasis pods, the wealthy elites of the world that funded the ship and are not to be awakened until reaching a final destination. One of them wakes up, a gorgeous movie star, and it turns out she is inhabited by an ethereal alien being. The aliens have also left their home behind and are exploring the galaxy. They are entranced by the idea of a physical form and they want to take over several thousands of the bodies in stasis so they can begin a new life as a new species. In trade, they have the ability to fold space, and, what's more, they know of several planets that are earth-like. So the conundrum is this obscene proposition where thousands of unconscious people have become bargaining chips to a population of humans who really don't know where they are or where they're headed, nor do they care about a bunch of rich people who have slept through the entire thing so far.
The more I learn, however, the less I truly know about science this deep. I'm trying to get the basics on near lightspeed travel, space ship design, and cryostasis, as well as the psychology of a group of people isolated from their past as well as their future. This is going to take a good deal of research, which I'm not the best at especially when it's not history stuff. I don't need to go into the finer part of the physics of making all this work but a friend of mine was talking about this the other day and mentioned the "Goldilocks Zone". I'd never heard that phrase, yet I'm pretty sure if I had successfully written a book about people looking for a new inhabitable planet and there is no mention of such a phrase, the book would be little more than farce to anyone that does know of such things.
So...I'm not going to fall into the trap of being the guy that floats from one project to the next because he can create ideas but not text. Via Eternum has taken over my passion for a while but I think Locusta will be MUCH easier to write, so I may push to get it completed while I do my research for Via Eternum, then I can maybe have two books ready sometime next year.
Meanwhile, I'm still editing and changing The Clockwork Cathedral vigorously. I have two publishing agents I'll solicit soon but I've been doing word checks and there are certain words I've used way too many times in the book, so I'm editing that. I think one of y'all pointed that out to me earlier and I'm just now getting to it. I've cut 10,000 words since the last time I sent any copies out so I've made some tremendous changes. We'll see. The only way to be successful is to not stop in this game.
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