So a while back I started to create a space fantasy type sci-fi setting. Well, actually I was thinking about lightsabers and other energy swords, because I think they're rad as hell, and pondered how I would design my own take on the concept. Then I started figuring out how they work and thought up a reason for why they'd be used, then I began thinking about psychic powers, and a while later I have a half-baked idea for a setting. Thing is, this isn't how I usually work. Normally I come up with the characters first, figure out how they start out and what sort of journey they should have, and then the rest tends to start falling into place. In this case, though, I'm not really sure how the story should start or what it would be about. The basic gist: In the future, psychic powers are quite common among most intelligent species in galaxy, including humanity. The field of psionics has resulted in technology producing effects that are not possibly under conventional science, such as faster than light travel, teleportation, control of gravity, etc. (What I'm basically saying is, I don't intend this to be realistic at all, it's pretty much fantasy in space.) Psychic powers start to manifest once a species manages to discover and access huge mysterious alien structures found all over the galaxy. Nobody really knows who created them or why. Due to some ideological disagreements, some of the most powerful psychic humans left Earth with their followers to form their own independent colonies, with one faction staying behind to be the de facto ruler of Earth. The societies founded by the immigrants developed their own cultures, philosophies and values. Some are rather pleasant places while others can be a bit scary, and conflicts do occur, but in general humanity mostly gets along and has made a few friends among the aliens as well. Over-all, the setting is supposed to be more conductive for relatively lighthearted space adventures than huge interstellar wars and planets blowing up. Now, about the story: The main character would be a young woman with incredible powers she will need to master over the course of the story. Because, well, that's pretty all my MCs - it's kinda what I do. I'm currently imagining the plot as a sort of odyssey where the heroes have to travel from planet to planet, possibly collecting a set of McGuffins or clues or something. That way I can give the readers a tour of the setting while also getting to put my characters in a variety of interesting situations. Beyond that... yeah, I got nothing. Primarily I need a solid reason for my heroine to leave her home planet on an epic journey across the stars. Like, something more concrete than just wanting to do it. A call to adventure, I believe is the term. I've toyed with a few ideas, but ultimately I simply don't know what her quest is supposed to be or how she attains it. So, there you have it. Thoughts and suggestions are welcome. Also, this was a very abridged description of what I've come up with so far, since I didn't want this to drag on too much. If you're wondering about anything specific, go ahead and ask.
maybe she has a disease, and the cure can only be found on a distant planet. Maybe she's framed for a heinous crime and has to go on the lam. Maybe she gets religion and goes on a pilgrimage.
What jumps out as interesting to me in this premise is the mysterious alien structures that grant psychic powers. I'd be interested in seeing an adventure where she travels around visiting these structures trying to find out who built them and how they work.
I think this is too integral a part of your story to leave to other people to be honest. I mean, this is THE reason your story/character exists. It's like writing your perspective about gravity and asking someone else to explain how things fall. But if you are really stuck, you have already mentioned something you could study- "Odyssey". The driving force for Odysseus was his yearning for his home and wife after a long war with Troy. So what do you want your characters motivation to be? I think you'd have to look inside yourself for that. But you'd have to have a very strong driving force for her to go on an odyssey to all these planets (like Odysseus). Or you have a weak driving force and then you slowly grow your character into the person they need to become (think the hobbit where Bilbo doesn't really want to step up but does so anyway due to friendships etc. etc.). But once you find the motivation, then it's just about challenging that motivation through trials at these different planets. For me, I found it easiest to not think about this until I started writing. I haven't completed my story yet, but I just created a scene and a character and a certain theme I wanted to convey and went from there. Eventually his personality just broke through from the page that I was typing. It was like it was a separate being telling me it's wants and aspirations. It's a bit rough still, the exact reason for why things happen the way it happens, but I think it'd come to you if you just let it go on the page. So maybe start with the intention to find the motivation after, get the character moving and some sort of idea usually pops up.
Just brainstorming here: MC: Is a criminal wanted for the theft of something valuable to the government, or maybe is accused of murdering someone, or selling illicit drugs, or all those and more, etc. Received a psychic messages to find a long lost lover. Recruited by some villainous organization to perform a deed that, on the surface, seems heroic or even innocuous. Met a fairy who promised her a true love if she performed a series of silly tasks, each of which turned into a silly adventure. If you haven't read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (highly recommended) or Space Opera (garbage, but might give some insight on how not to do it), consider doing so. Both fall into the SciFi/Fantasy Comedy genre.
What type of society is this? Is travel among the various planets easy or expensive? If most people are psychic, is there a class of people who aren't psychic? What happens to them? For the main character... what does she do for a living? If she is young, is she in school or at work? Are there even schools anymore? Do people read books anymore? For some reason I am thinking of the old proverb, "for want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost, etc." Perhaps the call to adventure could be a 'happy accident' as they say. Best, sarka
https://www.goodreads.com/series/49441-the-talents-universe The Rowan is an extremely powerful psychic, who is bound to her home planet -- or so she thinks. When she receives a contact from an untrained, even more powerful psychic from across the universe, her entire life and world view is upended. In the end, she learns that she can travel through space -- the only reason she thought she couldn't was that her teacher had a vertigo problem that was blamed on space travel, and so she taught all her students that the "couldn't" travel through space. Maybe your MC's planet has a SETI-like program, they receive intelligent communication, and she decides to investigate the source.
When I started plotting out my fantasy WIP, it was going to be "the antags are trying to find a bunch of artifacts that will enable them to power a ritual, and the MCs have to find them first". Even I thought that was lame, but it still took a long time for the story to develop beyond that point - namely, because I didn't have a handle on the antags. Once I did, things started falling into place. That's what your story needs: an antagonist. Also, my MCs don't go travelling the world because they want to - they go because events and forces beyond their control made them.
Your protagonist is consrcipted into military service due to her psychic powers and is placed in a special unit. The unit is sent to a planet to investigate a psychic artifact when an unknown force attacks them. Your character is abducted by the enemy, who appears to be powerful psychics themselves. She spends time with them, learning their language and culture. She ultimately falls in love with one of her captors who have been with her all the way. This captor (male or femalre or non-binary alien) is one of the most powerful psychics in the enemy forces, the captor is also in love with the main character. It is later revealed that the captor's faction also gained their powers from the artifacts. The main character is eventually rescued, and her beloved captor now finds themselves captive by the humans. A reversed situation. Your main character together with her beloved captive manages to create peace between the factions using one of the artifacts to mind control their respective leaders. Then the real threat is revealed. The creators of the artifacts have returned from another dimension. Foes ally themselves to face this new threat. Will they find out why the artifacts were made? Will their love last? Will they repel the threat? Will everyone survive until the end?
she's losing her psychic connection and must find the source of it to recharge. she's getting cross vibes from something scary ... out there ... and decides to investigate. unknown to her her psychic connection is mis-alligned - she's psychic-ly disabled and it's sending her off on a hare-brained journey and maybe she stumbles into a real one.
I agree with @Chromewriter here. You want a story about X doing Y in Z, but you don't know what glues X, Y, and Z together yet. I really think you should dig deep down inside yourself for the meaning and motivation which will drive your MC to accomplish something. Otherwise it's not really your story, and I'm not sure anyone can comfortably write something that is not theirs. Fortunately, this means a lot of space for exploration! (no pun intended) MC wants to die, but found she couldn't due to her powers. In order to successfully die, she must gather pieces of clues from different civilizations, especially related to the gigantic alien structures popping up all over the galaxy. MC simply wants to travel/go on a pilgrimage across the universe, but got caught up in a universal conspiracy involving the eventual collapse of the world order and the eradication of psychic powers. MC is infatuated with a certain mysterious individual (which might be the antagonist), and found herself following his/her track from planets to planets, making friends and enemies along the way.
So, spacefaring psychics that wield energy swords? I mean, no offense, but that's just basically Jedi. Maybe you should focus more on your core concept (extraterrestrial psychics) and develop it into something truly unique. Suggestion: Space is the final frontier, the speed of light is absolute and space cannot be warped no matter how advanced the technology- so interstellar travel is basically impossible for every civilization. The only way to contact other species is via telepathy performed by very strong psychics from different civilizations across the galaxy. Your MC gets ripped out of her normal life when she starts hearing voices in her head that demand strange things of her in exchange for minor psychic powers. Turns out these alien civilizations are locked in an ancient war of annihilation and use "minor species" like humans for proxy wars since they cannot physically fight amongst each other. So your MC will be tossed into a secret war that involves killing the crap out of other humans that just happen to be "possessed" by different factions. She might discover she is actually fighting for the bad guys. She might discover there are actually no good guys. She might try to break free from the alien control and save mankind from the alien menace. Many possibilities where this could go...
