🖖 The driving force

You’ll remember that I answered a few questions to bring out the point of my work.

Even the topic of some fiction.

I put together some good ideas.

And left them on the shelf to bubble and fester like ripe sauerkraut.

That’s how creativity works.

You brainstorm. Then you forget about it.

You let your subconscience play with it.

Well it is.

A premise

I’ve been reading more fiction and the lessons of well-known storytellers.

What I’ve started is to create the premise of my stories.

John Truby, a story consultant for the film industry, describes the premise as:

Your story stated in one sentence and in the simplest combination possible.

Because “what you choose to write about is far more important than any decision you make about how to write it.”

He gives a couple examples:

The Godfather: The youngest son of a Mafia family takes revenge on the men who shot his father and becomes the new Godfather.

Star Wars: When a princess falls into mortal danger, a young man uses his skills as a fighter to save her and defeat the evil forces of a galactic empire.

To work on my premise, he suggests writing a wish list- everything I want to see with my work.

He encourages you to write something that will change your life.

That’s what I want to start with you today.

Anything goes.

I’ll weed out the bad ideas later.

Wish list

• a future where humans see ourselves as one people

• humans have lived on the moon for a while

• travelling faster than light is possible

• Earth is lush. We use technology to improve ourselves while maintaining balance with the planet

• Solarpunk. Not a dream, but a practical possibility

• humans have reached Proxima Centauri and her planets- a 4.2 light year trip that would take 6,300 years with today’s technology

• a space epic

• thriving vertical farming systems are everywhere- attempts at monopolising the food supplies were lost

• Earth’s cultures are respected by one another

• history is taught without bias to guide us in future decisions

• it is popularly known that our sun and thus our planet have a limited lifespan so there are global collaborations to get us to new planets

• I think I want the main character to be a lone wolf type

• main character enjoys a peaceful life but gets drawn into conflict because it’s the right thing to do

To be continued…

Not the end

This isn’t going to be a one day exercise. It’ll take a while. This is a short list, but it will grow.

It’s fun imagining our lives in the future.

Thanks for building this with me.