My Story Ideas (late 2017 edition)

[NSEP]

This is like the 3rd story idea thread i made. Anyways, whenever i write a story, it just ends up in failure, because of a lack of motivation and ideas. In this thread, you can discuss, ask questions, answer my questions or maybe even come up with ideas. Here is the list: (might get updates)

RED MOON: The Soviets are the first to land on the Moon. In this alternate timeline, the space race does not end and slow down, but gets amplified and leads to more achievements made by humanity. Universe: Amplified Space Race. Ideas: Lacking

 

STONGER TOGETHER: The Soviets and Americans work together and build a space civilization. Universe: Amplified Space Race. Ideas: Scarce

 

LOWELL'S DIARY: Fictional diary about the rather interesting life of a character named Anne Lowell. Universe: Uknown. Ideas: Enough

 

MARS: BABY STEPS IN SPACE: The story of the first people who go to Mars and their journey. Ideas: Moderate

 

 

JOURNEY OF A INTERSTELLAR TRUCK DRIVER: The life and journey if an interstellar truck driver, who travels the universe and lives a nomadic life. Universe: Iconel (my Sci-Fi universe) Ideas: Starting to pop up

Spoiler

Ideas list: (under maintenace)

@NSEP: 

-The main character could live in a poor farm world and his dream is to earn money.

-His goal is an advanced civilization.

@Just Jim:

-This story needs a universe and a plot!

 

More details will come soon. 

Anyways, here are my Questions:

What is the story that interests you the most? And why?

If you could add something to that story, what would you add?

 

Edited October 18, 2017 by NSEP

[Just Jim]

12 minutes ago, NSEP said:

JOURNEY OF A INTERSTELLAR TRUCK DRIVER: The life and journey if an interstellar truck driver, who travels the universe and lives a nomadic life. Universe: Iconel (my Sci-Fi universe) Ideas: None

I kinda like this idea... but yeah, you need to create a universe for it. And some sort of overall plot... maybe have this driver get caught up in something much bigger than him/her... there are all sorts of avenues.

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

5 hours ago, NSEP said:

 

JOURNEY OF A INTERSTELLAR TRUCK DRIVER: The life and journey if an interstellar truck driver, who travels the universe and lives a nomadic life. Universe: Iconel (my Sci-Fi universe) Ideas: None

 

Brain instantly goes to hitchhikers guide.... Could be good tho, like jim said, universe!

Edited October 18, 2017 by RoadRunnerAerospace

[Bill Phil]

6 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I kinda like this idea... but yeah, you need to create a universe for it. And some sort of overall plot... maybe have this driver get caught up in something much bigger than him/her... there are all sorts of avenues.

Yeah, I'm more interested by the space trucker idea. Someone's got to do it.

Maybe he's hauling something sensitive, and multiple groups are out to get it. Then it becomes a race to some far off place. The fate of the galaxy hangs in the balance! 

[NSEP]

Thanks people for your ideas! i just got some great ideas for the Space Trucker story:

-I might need to change the name of the story, just so it does not sound like a blatant copy of 'A hitchhikers guide to the galaxy'. @RoadRunnerAerospace, thank you for noticing that!

-I think the main character would've had a rather poor farmer life, with not much interaction with space.

-The 'Truck' could be an 'ancient artifact' to others, and would be relevant later in the story.

-The main character could also have a rather rare, but unusual product from his homeplanet that would interest a rich advanced civilization in need. This idea popped up thanks to @Bill Phil, thanks!

-I already have the end goal set up, and the beginning of the story are rich in ideas too. Im not going to spoil too much.

-The Universe @Just Jim reminded me about is also beginning to run. I have a few ideas for interesting and special places in the universe im building. 

-The Plot is popping up too! Thats for later though!

Edited October 18, 2017 by NSEP

[NSEP]

I will probably publish a story when i have one, two or three chapters up, just so im sure the story is going well.

[kerbiloid]

On 17.10.2017 at 11:42 PM, NSEP said:

RED MOON: The Soviets are the first to land on the Moon.

Spacesuits for bears.

On 17.10.2017 at 11:42 PM, NSEP said:

STONGER TOGETHER: The Soviets and Americans work together and build a space civilization. Universe: Amplified Space Race. Ideas: Scarce

Some spacesuited bears are grizzlies.

On 17.10.2017 at 11:42 PM, NSEP said:

In this alternate timeline, the space race does not end and slow down

When the first LK was delivered to the Moon by N-1, Americans have admitted their defeat in the lunar race and cancelled the Apollo/Saturn project right before the first Apollo launch.
No Apollo has ever landed on the Moon.
Being upset, they have put into orbit an orbital station, so-called Skylab, made of the already manufactured Saturn stage. Also they have sent three Apollos to it, just because they were already built.
To redeem their shame they have started a spaceplane program which has later resulted in Space Shuttle Orbiter.
Saturn could never more be rebuilt.

After six LKs had landed on the Moon (and one more had to make a fly-by due to technical problems), Soviets faced the lack of economical reasons of the lunar project continuation.
N-1 program was cancelled, nobody visited the Moon for decades.
Instead of this, Soviets started building orbital stations, so-called Salyuts and Mir.
N-1 could never more be rebuilt.

In late 1990s a so-called ISS was built in LEO by several countries, and used till late 2020s.

 

On 17.10.2017 at 11:42 PM, NSEP said:

LOWELL'S DIARY: Fictional diary about the rather interesting life of a character named Anne Lowell. 

"Make Pluto Planet Again!"

On 17.10.2017 at 11:42 PM, NSEP said:

MARS: BABY STEPS IN SPACE: The story of the first people who go to Mars and their journey.

A huge BFS ship brings to the Mars a hundred of redne colonists, inflatable tents and 50 tonnes 55.115568 tons  49.210322 tons still 55.115568 short tons of seed potatoes.
Pressurized pickup races.
Shooting for the greenhouses possession.
Potato phoboshine and deimoshine bootlegging.
Greenhouse tents full of manure. Grow potato and  gather methane for the coastal steamer shuttle.

On 17.10.2017 at 11:42 PM, NSEP said:

JOURNEY OF A INTERSTELLAR TRUCK DRIVER: The life and journey if an interstellar truck driver, who travels the universe and lives a nomadic life.

Trip sheets.
Waypoints POI checking and time control by the board computer.
Road speed limits.
Goods shipping and inventory.
Return and audit of defective goods, cash and fuel remains.
Technical inspection of the vehicle and penalties for revealed malfunctions.

[NSEP]

Haha! Thanks @kerbiloid! 

[Slam_Jones]

On 10/17/2017 at 1:42 PM, NSEP said:

JOURNEY OF A INTERSTELLAR TRUCK DRIVER: The life and journey if an interstellar truck driver, who travels the universe and lives a nomadic life. Universe: Iconel (my Sci-Fi universe) Ideas: Starting to pop up.

I kinda like this one the most.  I could see a fair bit of humor going into it

[ChrisSpace]

On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:42 AM, NSEP said:

The Soviets are the first to land on the Moon. In this alternate timeline, the space race does not end and slow down, but gets amplified and leads to more achievements made by humanity.

I really like this idea. It's a bit like my alternate solar system timeline, but with the "real" solar system. I have tons of ideas for this kind of thing.

On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:42 AM, NSEP said:

The Soviets and Americans work together and build a space civilization.

...Wat?

On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:42 AM, NSEP said:

The story of the first people who go to Mars and their journey.

I have a ton of good ideas for this. Literally, I have 1000 kilograms of good ideas.

On ‎18‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:42 AM, NSEP said:

The life and journey if an interstellar truck driver, who travels the universe and lives a nomadic life.

"Interstellar turck driver"? Doesn't sound very realistic.

 

[NSEP]

1 hour ago, ChrisSpace said:

...Wat?

"Interstellar turck driver"? Doesn't sound very realistic.

Im not planning to make all my stories realistic, just supercool i stead, or superfunny. 

Oh, and for the stories you have tons of ideas for, you can just tell me some if you are willing to.

Edited October 20, 2017 by NSEP

[KSK]

22 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

*snip*

Trip sheets.
Waypoints POI checking and time control by the board computer.
Road speed limits.
Goods shipping and inventory.
Return and audit of defective goods, cash and fuel remains.
Technical inspection of the vehicle and penalties for revealed malfunctions.

Actually, all of those could be fertile ground for worldbuilding and plot points. Take speed limits for example - we're talking about an interstellar trucker so does @NSEP's universe permit FTL travel? If FTL is a thing, how does it work? Not in a detailed, technical 'reroute the positron feed through the unobtainium matrix' sense but more generally? Are we talking some kind of point-to-point, instant jump capability, or something more like a warp drive where journey times between the stars can still take days or more? The whole tone and pace of the story is likely to be very different depending which option (or other options) you go for.

Or take goods shipping and inventory. You probably wouldn't need (or want) giant slabs of exposition on how this all works but having some idea of how it all works behind the scenes lets you throw in the odd detail here or there and have those details be consistent throughout the story. Both of which help to set the scene of your story, or give it a particular feel. Knowing how your world works behind the scenes can also be helpful for letting you follow a chain of thought and seeing where it leads. As in 'my fictional invoicing system works like this... which means that that has to happen... and wait a minute, that means my protagonist can't do that, so has to do.... this instead. Which means that she's going to be totally borked in about two pages time.

Or at least that's what I've found. Your mileage may, and probably will, vary!

Edit - as a counterexample, I know another writer on this forum who takes almost exactly the opposite approach. He'll fit the worldbuilding around the story as required, rather than using it as a source of story. As I've thoroughly enjoyed his work, I can safely say that either approach works well.  

Edited October 20, 2017 by KSK

[NSEP]

@KSK, thanks a bunch for the advice! Grabs notebook

[KSK]

You're very welcome!

Just as another thought, if you ever end up doing anything with Red Moon, you might want to borrow or buy a copy of Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon. Not for the content - although that might spark some ideas - but the structure. The actual space travel part of Apollo was (obviously), fairly repetitive. Same booster, same spacecraft, very similar flight plans and for the most part, fairly similar mission objectives on the lunar surface, although having a rover added some variety to Apollos 15 through 17.

Chaikin's book is a nice example of how to mix things up and (crucially) miss things out so that  you end up seeing those similar missions from different angles and everything stays fresh. Even with something as dramatic as spaceflight, I found with my own writing that there was only so many times I could describe that awesome thunder of rocket engines or a booster tearing into orbit at insane velocities, or the tranquil beauty of sunrise from orbit, before it started getting a bit repetitive.

Again - your mileage may, and probably will, vary. Your writing - your rules.  

[ChrisSpace]

17 hours ago, NSEP said:

Oh, and for the stories you have tons of ideas for, you can just tell me some if you are willing to.

Well, I can't say everything I want to right now, for 2 reasons:

1. It would take me all day to type it all here.

2. The forum rules still have that thing regarding political discussion.

Now, I guess I'll start with what I consider to be the most important aspect of any modern or near-future story: MacGuffinite. To simplify, MacGuffinite is whatever is driving and encouraging the exploration, colonization and/or industrialization of space. Atomic Rockets lists a few potential forms of MacGiffinite, and I'll briefly give my opinion of each (but you should read the Atomic Rockets page on the subject first):

Reducing transport costs to space*~: Unless the reduction is completely ridiculous this wouldn't be enough in itself. Atomic Rockets lists many interesting ways of reducing launch costs in it's Surface to Orbit page, but none of them are as dirt-cheap as you'd need for a setting involving, say, a large Mars colony.

Reducing support costs for space intfastructure*~: Similar-ish opinion to the above.

Growing high-value products (eg Chocolate)~: Why not just do that in a controlled environment on Earth?

Orbital Propellant/ISRU facilities to reduce Dv requirements*~: You still need a motive to put those there in the first place.

Asteroid mining*~: You can just use unmanned vessels, and even if you need humans on-site, we certainly ain't talkin' about a major colony, more a high-tech spaceified oil rig. Then again, once people realize how profitable it could become, so many organizations and factions would try to get themselves a slice of the quadrillion-dollar cake that who knows what could happen.

"Mining" natural gas from Titan~: Won't be more profitable than getting it on Earth until there's almost none left. But if it does become profitable, you have some real possibilities here. You'd probably need humans on-site, possibly even on the surface, and for that you'd need to either invest in propulsion technology that opens up the rest of the solar system too, or place propellant facilities in deep space En Route to the distant moon.

Phosphorus mining~: Similar opinion to asteroid mining.

Helium-3~: Even if you ignore that the only two ways to get it are by either sifting through 150,000 metric tons of regolith for 1 kilogram of the stuff or diving into a gas giant's atmosphere with enough Dv for a grand tour of the solar system, Helium-3 fusion as a power source is still rather experimental, to say the least.

"Carribean sugar islands" analogy: If you're just making the stuff artifically, why do it in space at all?

Manufacturing/Experimenting with extremely dangerous things*~: No reason to put humans up there, just control everything remotely from the ground.

Icy outer planet's moons as heat sinks~: Anything emitting enough waste heat to be put on a separate world probably has to belong to a setting that has already entered a spacefaring stage.

Lebensraum/Overpopulation: Once Antarctica, the Sahara and the bottom of the ocean have all been colonized, we can give this some serious discussion. In any case, stabilizing Earth's population would require hundreds of thousands of people to be launched into space every day.

Manned space stations filling the role of satelites*: With the advancement of computer technology and undersea cables, that ship sailed decades ago.

Repairing satelites damaged by Kessler Syndrome*~: This idea could work, so long as the random nature of damage control stays out of reach of autonomous vessels.

Tax Haven*~: No reason to put one in space rather than some isolated fortress in, say, the aforementioned bottom of the ocean.

Prolonged lifespan due to lower gravity*~: If you spend too long in an extremely low-gravity environment, returning to Earth becomes extremely dangerous, potentially even impossible. Although there's certainly an overlap between the "prolonged lifespan" zone and the "can still go back" zone, and I stringly suspect Mars' gravity is in that overlap.

Species survival~: Unless you're the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, this really isn't enough of a motive. And anything that could wipe out all human life on Earth would probably either be so rare that we shouldn't bother worrying about it (eg the neutron star collision in Evacuate Earth), or it would be something that would kill everyone on Mars, Titan etc as well (eg the Singularity).

"If you build it, they will come": No. Just... no.

Political reasons*~: I obviously can't say much ragarding this, so I'll just vaguely state that this might work in some settings but not in others.

"Moral equivalent of war": Same answer to "If you build it, they will come".

Preserving culture: Same answer as "Tax Haven".

In addition to those, I've heard of three more potential forms of MacGuffinite:

Tourism*~: I personally can't imagine tourism as being a major driving force behind space industrialization, and in any case, it isn't even realistic as a concept without really cheap orbital launch costs.

"Battlestars"*~: This concept was discussed by George Friedman in his book The next 100 years. TLDR, he thinks that primary command and control facilities in military operations will be moved into space specifically geostationary orbit, because reasons. He actually has some convincing points, but even if he's right, that doesn't provide any driving force for colonization or industrialization further into space.

Space-based solar power~: Sounds good in theory, probably impractical and exceedingly expensive in practice.

 

So, what do I think would make the best MacGuffinite for your two settings I'm interested in? Well, I personally don't think any single potential motive is enough, rather a range of several may be required for each. If I had to pick, the ideas that could work for the extended space race are marked with a * and the ideas for the mars colony setting are marked with a ~.

[ChrisSpace]

I have tons of other stuff to say, but for the aforementioned reasons I can't say much else here. PM me if you want to hear my other ideas.