I have a story idea that has goups of people who have taken a drug that makes them live 500 times longer than most people. I am wondering if the plot should develop in time to what we would think is normal or in a more like what they would think is normal. If the story moves fast the technology would start off very old and later on it would be very advance. To see technology change like that would be very neat, but I think the story would be easier to follow if it progressed more gradually.
I don't get it. They live longer, OK, and their sense of time is distorted? They see the world in a kind of time lapse effect? How would that work if the rest of the world is moving in normal time?
There sense of time is not distrupted, but the way they think is. They would think more long term I would think. They don't see the world in a time lapse effect, but just like us. My question is should the story spread many years like 50000 (roughly thier lifetime), or a normal lifetime like us. If it went for many years technology would change a lot and so would cultures, because most people are still living the normal 80 years. And sorry for the first explanation I didn't really understand what I was asking either.
It depends how you want to look at society. If you wish to look at it in the life of a person who takes these drugs, then I would suggest you use that person as your main character and see the world through their eyes, so yes, their entire lifetime would be a nice idea. However, you may want to have your world seen through the eyes of a "normal" human, like a police officer or just a standard guy. You could talk about how this drugs affects even the people who don't use it. I think either perspective would be interesting. Just experiment. Try a quick scene with you writing through the eyes of a druggie, and then through a normal person's eyes. Which scene did you prefer? Is there a specific reason why you preferred it? Grab a piece of paper and a pen, and just SPLURGE ideas on it until your mind starts to slow down. You should now have plenty of pathways in which to take your story. Also, if these drug users live 500 times longer than us, then they actually only live to about 40,000 (80 years x 500). Here are a few ideas to consider: 1.) Are these drugs legal? If so, how did they become legal? Why? If they're not legal, how does it get imported? Who imports it? Why do they import it? 2.) Are there any negative side effects to this drug? 3.) Why doesn't everyone use this drug? Is it expensive? Dangerous? Maybe it's because once you try it, you are addicted for life - a negative side effect, like I said in question 2. 4.) Why do people want to live longer? To do more things? To see technological change? To become even richer? To see their great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren grow up? 5.) In this world of yours, are there "taboo" relationships? For example, is it okay for a drug-user to marry someone who doesn't take the drug? Is it morally wrong, or is it illegal? What happens if they have kids? Will the drugs flow into the baby's bloodstream? If it does, what happens? Does it live longer? Shorter? Mutations? Hopefully that should get you started. Have fun!
Naaa...I can't buy that. People live in the moment we call now. And if someone is going to live a decade or a thousand years, that bastard blocking the parking spot the protagonist wants is all that matters in that moment. And stories are in the moment. You're thinking in terms of Story, with that capital S. That's plot and plot lives in overview and synopsis, the kiss of death in something you hope to sell. Readers want story, which lives in the hearts and minds, the striving, the fears, and the "now" of the protagonist. You're thinking in terms of overview, the history of an event or person. Toss that. Focus on a problem. Someone has it and can't solve it. They want something they can't have but must, be that survival or a date for the prom. So take your situation, long life, and tell about someone in that society who has an interesting problem. Entertain. That's what your reader comes for, not history.
The idea is that a group accidently takes the drug and then finds out what it does. They don't release it to the public because they don't think we are ready for the technology, so the majority of people go on living normal lives without ever knowing about it. Later other groups form and they fight over the technology. The end is the technology being given out freely. I think I can do this quite easily in a long time span and a short one, but I think a long time span would be more fun. What do you think the best would be.
Why would their sense of time change? Time is time, the pace of it remains constant. What will happen is the same experience that the four sisters in my novel, who are genetically engineered warriors who are cloned each time they die, go through. How does that tie into this post? Well, it allowed for showing the pitfalls of being nearly immortal. Think about it for second. How many times would they see entire sections of city rise up, decay, be bulldozed and then rise again? How many friends and loved ones would die while they remain? Culture would change, politicians come and go, religions could change...all of that plays a part. See, for them (and your characters) time doesn't speed up or slow down, it continues while the world changes around them. Personally, I couldn't think of anything that would be closer to Hell than that. I couldn't handle watching everyone I love age and die while I either couldn't or didn't. Given that my characters have spent twenty thousand years fighting a losing war, I could see why they're the way they are. In short: don't worry about the "speed of time" because it doesn't change. Focus on the effect of things changing and people dying around them. That's the route that your idea takes you on.
It depends on what you want to achieve, however as a general rule: do not extent a story to longer time than humans live. It will become less interesting. Think of the Twilight: vampires live hundreds, maybe thousands years, but the story itself is packed in one year.
I don't know about that. Dr. Who and other series-especially when time travel is involved-have events that last longer than human life and it's interesting.
I don't know exactly the plot or story you're trying to tell, but my suggestion for a story of someone that lives that long would be to tell it in different segments of time. Although not entirely the same thing, the first thing that came to my mind was the movie The Fountain, in which it takes place in three different time settings (the conquistadors, a modern day scientist, and a future space traveler) and flips back and forth between the three. The movie doesn't say that its the same character in every setting, although played by the same actor, its mildly implied. I would personally do it that way if I were tackling something like that.
