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[Mr_Ham97]

well ok here's my thing so far i just made it in like 5 minutes so yeah

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Nathan is a 16-year-old farmboy who plows a field that was the site of an ancient battle as a present to his grandfather, who is his guardian. His plow hits something hard, and he digs there to find a magical sword, in a leather sheath that was somehow preserved (it’s magic, just roll with it (parodied)). He hooks it onto his belt, and walks into the village proper to ask the local peddler how much it can sell for. While he’s walking by a tavern, he overhears a seer lady talking to someone about a prophecy. It’s something about how a peasant boy will find an object of great power and will become the king of the land. Nathan automatically assumes it’s about him, so he walks back home with the sword, gets his stuff, and heads out to the capitol city. On the way there, he is robbed of everything (including his clothes) and when he tries to protest he’s killed.

That’s basically chapter 1.

20000 years later, the sword is in a shop owned by an older commoner guy. He considers it an ancient artifact and it's practically useless as far as battle equipment goes, what with the power armor and lasers and all that.

[Acanthus117]

Mine's about a salvage crew that goes out and dismantles derelict starships, scavenges anything valuable, and sells it to various second hand dealerships. They pick up two new crew members, after their mechanic and one of their EVA operators was killed by pirates in a raid.

Unfortunately, the mechanic is actually a genetically engineered 'Template' for a new line of cloned supersoldiers, and a lot of people want to get her and make an army of Helghast-esque clones and kill shit.

[fqllve]

Yeah, I know; quantity over quality and all that. I just haven't written anything even remotely near this length before so what I mean is forgetting about foreshadowing and which things can do which things and all that. Although I'm currently writing an outline so that'll probably help a lot with keeping the plot straight.

Yeah, that's what I meant, there are a lot of small details in a novel that unless you keep really thorough notes you're going to mess up.

well ok here's my thing so far i just made it in like 5 minutes so yeah

Made me laugh.

[Mr_Ham97]

Mine's about a salvage crew that goes out and dismantles derelict starships, scavenges anything valuable, and sells it to various second hand dealerships. They pick up two new crew members, after their mechanic and one of their EVA operators was killed by pirates in a raid.

Unfortunately, the mechanic is actually a genetically engineered 'Template' for a new line of cloned supersoldiers, and a lot of people want to get her and make an army of Helghast-esque clones and kill shit.

Well if it's a girl then you should probably make sure you have a reason they want all the supersoldiers to be female, and have it be mentioned in the book of course.

Made me laugh.

The story itself or what I said there? Also if you don't know the beginning is like a big Eragon parody. Also also good night.

[Acanthus117]

Actually, the clones will be modified to be sexless grey freaks with superhuman strength, endurance and other shit.

The girl is needed because her genetic structure makes it a zillion times easier to work with, and she's got the basic structure needed for all the mods they want to add (she's not that much stronger than a person, but has great agility, reaction time and endurance).

Another thing I want to mention: they don't have star fighters, so most combat is either dudes in bulky space suits grappling in slo-mo and using modified work tools to punch holes in the other guy's suit or giant mass drivers firing super-resilient pods full of boarding crews whilst missiles and gauss guns are firing.

[fqllve]

Sorry, the story itself. And I had no idea it was an Eragon parody, just took me by surprise. I figured it was gonna continue on in a Man Who Knew Too Little kind of way.

[Mr_Ham97]

Well it's not necessarily only an Eragon parody, just that Eragon is one of the more recent "chosen one" cliché books out there. I'm also planning on having a lot of time travel between the fantasy and sci-fi time periods, whether by magic or technology. Probably both, honestly. And, I'm also probably going to (try to) have magic be really powerful and mysterious instead of like the D&D utility approach. I don't know, let's see what I come up with with the outline.

Another thing I want to mention: they don't have star fighters, so most combat is either dudes in bulky space suits grappling in slo-mo and using modified work tools to punch holes in the other guy's suit or giant mass drivers firing super-resilient pods full of boarding crews whilst missiles and gauss guns are firing.

Well, why? Are starfighters too expensive for how little they actually do? Remember that in normal space dogfight stuff there are the capitol ships (which fight other capitol ships), the bombers (which try to destroy the capitol ship), the escort fighters (that escort the bombers so they don't get blown up), the attack fighters (that try to destroy the bombers), and the fighters that just try to destroy other fighters. If you do something to change this hierarchy then you should probably have a good reason for it! (Note that I'm not trying to be mean or anything by questioning you so much but rather questions like this can help you build your setting and make it more cohesive and logical.)

[Heron TSG]

Men in space suits punching each other to death IN SPAAAAACE? Sounds like reason enough right there.

[Grakelin]

Ham: That's just space combat trope. We don't have a recorded example or any academic study of how space combat should be. Starfighters probably aren't actually feasible in the first place.

[Acanthus117]

And they're punching each other with the equivalent of rivet guns. IN SPAAACE.

Besides, I never thought that space fighters were viable...

[Mr_Ham97]

Ham: That's just space combat trope. We don't have a recorded example or any academic study of how space combat should be. Starfighters probably aren't actually feasible in the first place.

Yeah, I know. What I mean is that if you have a departure from what your reader is probably expecting then you should have a reason for it (and perhaps even state the reason outright in the story, although you have to be a good writer to not make it seem like blatant setting exposition), even if it's just because it's cool or something.

And they're punching each other with the equivalent of rivet guns. IN SPAAACE.

This seems like it would be good as some sorta really emotional final battle (between just the protagonist and his villainous counterpart) because it's really just an all-out brawl. To set it up right though you'd have to have a few more conventional battles (and probably have at least one of the protagonist's friends killed off), otherwise it wouldn't have the emotional impact it would have otherwise.

[fqllve]

Yeah, I know. What I mean is that if you have a departure from what your reader is probably expecting then you should have a reason for it (and perhaps even state the reason outright in the story, although you have to be a good writer to not make it seem like blatant setting exposition), even if it's just because it's cool or something.

I find the opposite to be true. Fiction, to me, is about subverting the audiences expectations. If you're going to go with the standard model I think you should have a reason for doing it and it should be clear to the reader.

Actually, that is muddled. You should just have a reason for everything in the story.

Another thing I want to mention: they don't have star fighters, so most combat is either dudes in bulky space suits grappling in slo-mo and using modified work tools to punch holes in the other guy's suit or giant mass drivers firing super-resilient pods full of boarding crews whilst missiles and gauss guns are firing.

This is awesome.

Also it reminds me of a story in Again Dangerous Visions, uh With the Bentfin Boomer Boys. I'm not sure if it even had combat that was about that because it was such a difficult read that I don't remember much other than the hilariously over-the-top racism. But if I recall spacewalk combat was mostly about suit punctures, which strikes me as realistic.

[Mr_Ham97]

I find the opposite to be true. Fiction, to me, is about subverting the audiences expectations. If you're going to go with the standard model I think you should have a reason for doing it and it should be clear to the reader.

Actually, that is muddled. You should just have a reason for everything in the story.

Well yeah I love subversions and stuff but for example if your world is the standard high fantasy world (which I personally hate but hey a lot of people are better character writers than setting writers) but you call goblins "greedos" or something like that you should probably have an explanation as to why it's that way, especially if they are exactly like goblins in all other respects. You don't have to point out the explanation in the story specifically, but if you really can't think of a reason why you called them greedos in the first place (even "I think greedos sounds cooler" works) then well why couldn't you just call them goblins?

I guess we agree overall though because as you said everything in the story should have a reason to be there (a good one is preferable, however).


Acanthus, about when is your story set? I mean, there are a few (more than a few, but I'm generalizing) sci-fi eras so I'm just wondering which one yours is set in. For example, there's the "just found out there are aliens, woah space is a big place" era, the "members of the galactic council, hey look we have FTL travel now" era, and the "aw yeah b****es we're a galactic superpower, technology can do anything" era.

[Iituem]

Stating the setting and intent here right now so I have no choice but to follow up on it.

This NaNoWriMo, I will write a fan-fiction story in the Geneforge setting (see the Geneforge series by Jeff Vogel, creator of the Avernum/Exile and Nethergate series).  It will be set in classical Shaper society before the rebellions, and will focus around a Shaper school.

That is all for now.

[Euld]

This shebang starts tomorrow.  50,000 words is 1666.6 words a day.  I'll be doing that Ragnarok Online fanfiction I've posted about elsewhere, after I fool around with it on sunday to fix the bigger problems, then it's first draft craziness the rest of the way.