I intend to write a 40 to 50 page book on science fiction. I have a couple ideas that i'd like to endulge upon, however i lack purpose. I want to write about a group of characters, each with their own personal moral struggles, that have somehow bestowed upon an aquatic utopia. My orginal idea was to have the characters crash into an island after taking off from somwehere in florida. From there they would somehow be rescued by the aquatic villagers and taken under and into captivity. But then again i lack purpose. Why would they be captured? Can someone please help me polish/critique my thoughts. This is my first novel and im finding it difficult to find somewhere to even start. Any advice is greatly appriciated. Thanks!
are you looking for a reason why the plane crashes? Or why the villagers would take the other characters into captivity? Or both?
Mainly the latter. I need a purpose for the captives to be there. What good would the story be if they simply found this unknown world and just decided, "hey, maybe i'll just live here instead." Perhaps it could be they need to escape. Or maybe they decide to join the underwater people and attempt to overthrow the people of earth. I could come up with a reason for the plane going down.
There are always tensions between the arriving people and the people that have lived there for a time. Perhaps the aquatic people simply don't like the change of having to deal with outsides, and the new people are hurt by the fact that they can't get the aquatic people to like them. Can you give more specifics. Who are the people that crashed, and who are the people that live there. What kind of society are they from, and what kind of society is the aquatic place?
Here's what i have about my protagonist so far... Trent grew up without any religious background. He was raised in a middle to higher class family. He has always enjoyed reading and learning, but whenever he read anything, it was about some unique uncommon fact. He never enjoyed learning about the usual things most teenagers did, he was into discovery. He was always one of the smartest kids, even in the one AP class he took, but his un-enthusiastic demeanor limited his capabilities. He wanted to learn, but not about algebra or health. He often wondered, as many kids did, when A squared plus B squared equals C squared would ever be useful in a real world situation. He passed with above average grades, yet he never studied. School was too easy for him. He was looking for something that grabbed his interest. Nothing he came across before had lured him into wanting to discover. That was until he discovers an uncharted underwater fantasy land. The world in which Trent lives is our world. It's a modern time piece, although i may decide to set it ten years in the future in order to add validity to some of the new technologies i might decide to bring in(after all i am writing science fiction). The newly discovered city, however, has gone it's own path. Without any communication with life above the waves, the a forced to create new forms of government, abstract living quarters that we would never see here. I still don't know how this place could have come into existence. Pleas help by listing your ideas (as abstract as they may be). I'm trying to create a place that I can concieve; from my own imagination and ideas.
How does he find this magical land? He could: Find a map. Stumble through a gate that most people can't find. Fall overboard. Get magically transported. How is it that he's the only one that's stumbled upon it though? This is sort of an important point, because it's the one that most writers tend to overuse plots on. First, I'd say he just stumbled upon it. Perhaps the gate rusted shut. Perhaps it's just been rediscovered. This is an important point, so do you have any ideas about it?
perhaps they are territorial and, as do most living things, fear what they do not understand, the typical human response to this is to destroy it. is this aquatic society on another planet or here on earth?
The plot should be based on their moral struggles. Perhaps the utopia has a different moral code. Or perhaps the characters fail to live up to their morality and are exposed for it in this utopia. There's a lot of different ways to approach this. What aspect of morality do you find so interesting that you want to write about it?
Well, the most common reason is perhaps "Nobody can find out about us, so since you know about you, you can never leave!" Many stories revolve around this idea. Perhaps they believe the land-dwellers mean them harm or mean to expose them, or have come to kidnap them for research so they decided to kidnap them first. Alternatively, do they think the land-dwellers could give them something they can't get themselves, or at least don't believe they can? Having a land-dweller as a slave sounds very convenient, if that makes sense, since you're stuck in the ocean. What if the land-dwellers have done something that the aquatic people consider a crime, and thus by their law these land-dwellers must be punished? Perhaps the land-dwellers, when they crashed, caused great damage to their underwater village and they're pissed off? (imagine the debris, the fires, the oil pollution in the water)
Random ideas as requested: If you want it to be more about the passenger's choice, maybe they were all on the flight for a particular purpose? ie They could have been headed to a big conference or some kind of symposium/lecture about their unifying interest/connecting issue (morality/spirituality/new technologies/conspiracy theories or whatever). Even if the place you're sending them is a utopia, they would need a reason to stay - so maybe they share a common motivating factor. eg they were all recently bereaved or looking for relief from miserable jobs in the same company, or they are all 'misfits' and are just looking for somewhere to be accepted. Maybe the people living in the utopia have been trying to shoot down planes for quite a while. Do they need a particular source of fuel? Or people to breed with? Maybe they are planning to undermine the world as we know it and are looking for insight? It's cliche, but the bermuda triangle theory could come into play here; are they the ones behind it, are they trying to warn people in the 'modern' world against what's going on there etc? The whole concept seems really interesting so I hope you're able to get started soon, sounds like fun! x
I think the OP has already solved the problem, or moved on, since the post was created over 8 years ago.
