Please help me out here. I've got a great idea and I'm working on a Science Fiction book, but I've hit Writer's Block.

Here's the primary idea: Suppose that everyone in the universe beleives in the same god and have simular biblical references. Suppose that no other creature looks like humans. There's an interesting series of scriptures that say simular things as this one: Genesis 1:26 "…God said, Let us make man in our image…'"

So it’s my opinion, that under this criteria, that other races would either resent us for looking like god – or flat out worship us as a messiah race. (This is FICTION, I'm not creating new doctrine).

In my book there's a dictatorship that has almost succeeded in killing off the Human race because they don't want to give their power away to humans who are perceived as a messiah race by most other Creatures.

Sound interesting? There's more.

The main Character is an agnostic. He travels with his human sister. She's a Christian.

He's not a man of power and I don't want to make him in charge of an army of believers. (I just want to say that before someone recommends that.)

The Dictatorship has created a bundle of biologically engineered and programmed humans with networked and controlled minds in order to "simulate" the appearance of prophecy having come true to the people. (The prophecy being that Humans will overtake the Dictatorship).

The main Character has to cover his face and most of his body in a cloak so that the Dictatorship that hunts down the humans won't be able to see exactly what race he is.

He's a freelancer/mercinary.

He takes up a job with a massive critter named Dret. He executes the mission and comes back to get paid and winds up being given to out to the authorities by Dret.

(Dret being a little symbolic of Judas).

I have no idea where to move the plot from this point on.

------------------------------------------------------------
(Everything stated below this line is a hypothetical idea that I've had).

I've thought of having the Dictatorship police torture him in Dret's establishment and cause Dret to go insane and kill them all off... but two questions are begged to be answered if I do that: "Why torture him when you could kill him?" and "Why torture him in Dret's establishment?"

I've thought that Dret would possibly attack the Dictatorship police because the government finally executes their plan and presents humans as having taken over the government, fulfilling prophecy (when in reality these humans are just bio-tech programed that are under the control of the Dictatorship). So under that miss understanding Dret kills the guards when they refuse to let the main character go and Dret winds up getting killed off for treason without intention... But I want to have Dret as a secondary character, and I've put such an interesting introduction to him, I'd hate to kill him off.

I've also thought of putting the main character into a cell and having him be questioned by one of those programmed and fake humans... but what would be the purpose? Why not kill the main Character? Why put him in a cell? Why have a programmed human question him? Brain scan research?

The Main character's sister IS NOT fighting material. I don't like clech'e Sci Fi when everyone is a big-time fighter. She's not one of those types of people.

Maybe I could have him being escorted towards a public execution and I could introduce a new character that sets him free -- but that's a little too strong of a Deus Ex Machina for my tastes... besides what would the new Character's motivations be? How would he or she know He's Human? Why would he or she risk death to save the main Character?

Here's another idea, while the Dictatorship police are escourting him to public execution, possibly one of the Police goes renegade and kills off all the other police and sets him free... But why? (Everyone in any position in this Dictatorship are of a specific race -- like nobility). Could some of those creatures in the Dictatorship race be loyal to Humans? Why would he be? ... see -- I have ideas, but terrible reasoning, but if you have any ideas and better reasoning then I'm interested.

(By the way, killing the main Character is out of the question).

If you have any interest to read the first chapter then I have a myspace profile that's dedicated for my writing. Here's the web address: http://www.writingforums.org/showthread.php?t=502

I've taken a look at what another person has been posting. It's called the Snow Flake Meathod. http://www.rsingermanson.com/html/the_snowflake.html

I think it's a rather decent idea. If I saw it before I started writing, it wouldn't have kept me from writing, but it would have gotten me to think ahead.


I'm able to get through step one and partially finish step two but I get stuck and I think the problem rests with Character development in some way.

Step one is to condense your plot into one sentance, so here's mine: "With Humans almost extinc, a human hides from those hunting him to protect family."

Step two is to flesh it out into a paragraph that's as close to five sentances as possible: Gen 1:26 "... God said. Let us make man in our image..." Alien Prophecy tells that Humans, a messiah race, will tear apart the Deton Dictatorship and lead God's Children to Liberty and Justice. But with the appearance of prophecy as a tool for longer durration of power by creating biotech with networked-controled minds to appear as the new Deton public government's face for the people. Human Mercinary, Allen Bade gets turned into the Deton Authorities by his employer.

That's where I'm stuck.

But look at step three and it has you construct your characters.

The character's name: Allen Bade

A one-sentence summary of the character's storyline:

The character's motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?) He doesn't want to die. Motivation by the love of his sister and strangely by some that even worship him (even though he hates the worshiping part).

The character's goal (what does he/she want concretely?): He wants to survive and keep his family safe. He wants to be a leader. He wants to be happy. He strives to have people stop worshipping him. He wishes most people weren't so arrogant.

The character's conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?): He's constantly on the run because of the religion that prophecied things that angered a Dictatorship that hunts him. He's unable to be happy because there's so much stress, there's no room for failure or mistakes, and he doubts himself constantly which makes a bad leader. He fears he'll mess up and they'll all die. He takes all the burdens. He can't keep people from worshiping him because he can't change people's beliefs and choices. He can't educate people because he's only talking to one person at a time, and most of them don't listen to him anyways... or they just get confused. He can't overtake the Deton government that constantly hunts him down and causes most of his burdens in life because Humanity once DID have a millitary or holly war fighters durring a war known as the Humanian Crusades, but most failed and died miserably and is the cause for the near extinction of Humanity. This happened with great numbers, he fears that with small numbers and a strong leader, nothing will change his plight.

The character's epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?)

A one-paragraph summary of the character's storyline
I really should have been thinking ahead.

Could someone pinpoint the points that I can't quite answer very well or not at all and sort of try to help me modify things so that I can actually continue in the storyline?

If anyone's atually LOOKED at this page, I'm constantly editing it (IT being the threat/page/forum) and refining things. I'm really working to try and figure this out. I'm not just sitting here and waiting for someone to give me a cookie.

I've also busted my butt trying to answer peoples question in other threads. Go anywhere on the site and you won't find many places that I haven't made some sort of comment, and most of them have been rather instructive. I've given effort to help you guys and I'm trying to help myself and I'm not getting very far. Come on, PLEASE help me out.

Here is something to think about when writing. Some of the most prolific and successful authors have written books dedicated to the subject of writing. I believe it is a nice jester on their behalf, even if the cash register resounds loudly. And why shouldn’t it. They have put in the time and effort to study the craft of writing. And paid their dues so to speak. So I don’t doubt their sincerity are the information that they provide regarding the craft of writing.

Without citing the numerous post where others are having trouble, just let me say that if many of us, including myself, listened to the common theme of many of these books a multitude of our problems would disappear.

I believe, at least for me, that one of the single important pieces of advice from any of these authors on writing is to finish the story before you begin to edit. I believe problems with writers block and plotting, to mention just a few would disappear, or at least become less bothersome, if we all took this one single piece of advice.

Thanks for posting

For what its worth..your plot sounds interesting and might be something I would read..

I will check out your myspace spot later on when I'm not at work and take a look at what you have so I can get a better understanding of the story.

As for writers block..I dont edit until I am done with the story. If I did edit, I would never finish..
I think one of the reasons that this is so important is for this reason:

As you write your story, your characters tend to take on a life of their own. In the end what happens is the characters end up telling the story instead of the author. Try hashing it out to the end..even if the plot is a tad unclear and your direction is a little unclear..let your characters guide you through it. It really does work. Characters are not just our creations, they are entities of their own and they do a great job of inspiring and guiding us.

... I'm editing the this threat, not the book, so that I can ensure the help I get is constructive, and to show that I'm trying to dig myself out of this hole, and that I'm thinking of solutions. I possibly should have defined what "IT" is reffering to in my last post. In fact, I'll edit it as soon as I'm done with writing this.

The only thing I've edited in the book is the first chapter, which I'm using as a teaser on my myspace page and here on this site.

When I started the project, I had a bench mark which was the inspiration for writing the story in the first place, and like an idiot, I didn't think what goes AFTER that bench mark. So now that I'm THERE, I'm stuck.

It's not a matter of editing. It's a matter of not knowing where to move the plot and possibly there's not enough character sketching.

If it were, then I'd jump in excitement from your advice. I just think this was a misscomunication, because, other than the first chapter, I haven't edited a thing. And the first time the word EDIT was used by me was when I was reffering to editing this thread.

(Press control-F and type in any word and it'll find every use of that word on a webpage and on microsoft word. That's how I know this.)

Here's something I've been debating.

Christianity is called Christianity because it's a beliefe in Christ. In fact the word CHRIST is in the word CHRISTICANITY.

What is a good name for a beleif in Humans? My knee jerk reaction was "Humanitarian" but that word is already taken, and if I use it -- some people might call it a misnomer.

So right now, in the rough draft I'm calling it Humanian, but that's just stupid. So... what do you recomend?

Hey -- I think I've wormed my way out of my writers block. What I did was I just wrote up a bundle of my ideas that I had posted here as potential chapters.

I still had no idea which one I wanted to pick, but at least I had it on paper.

Right as I went to bed, I knew EXACTLY which one I wanted, HOWEVER, I had ideas in my head that were dramatically different than how I'd written it. So I'm going to do a chapter rewrite and then continue.

but I'm still interested in knowing what people think would be a clever name that's simular to the Christian Crusades -- but on regards to a Human religion's Crusad.