Story News 1 February 20 by Lorenzo Samuel, author of speculative fiction and science fiction writings. In the last (1 Nov 19 issue) advice blog in the category Story News, I discussed some aspects of a story I'm developing.
Currently, the working title for this story is "Mother Eve." Like the story as it develops, the title could change and most likely will. I feel that getting stuck in (holding on to) my first imaginative postulate is a mistake. I shouldn't restrict myself to any particular idea, theme perhaps, but not story idea. I must communicate to my readers for them to like and understand what I compose, and the initial idea may not flow well into reader minds.
Best stated is the answer to a "what if." I promised at the end of my last 'Story News" advice blog that I had another "what if" idea. To orient, the first idea was that in the Big Bang packets of nothing were created along with material things. The idea I present to you now is what if the packets of nothing so created are only material nothings. The packets of nothing actually contain dreams. So, I've tied in 2 ideas: 1. the Big Bang created packets of nothing as well as space, energy, matter and radiation. 2. although containing nothing physical, the packets of nothing contain, or are made up of, dreams.
Think Dreamtime of the Australian aborigines. In aboriginal belief, this Dreamtime is where creation occurs. Here is how these 2 ideas fit into the story I'm working on, "Mother Eve":
"Mother Eve" poses that in a far off planetary system of binary suns, one of the suns is about to nova. If the inhabitants of the 5 planets of this system are to continue their existence, they must move to another place in the physical universe. However, due to restrictions of physics, particular E=MC2, not enough time exists to make the move.
What do they do?
Enter the dark universe (a combined designation for dark matter and dark energy, yielding the current theory in astrophysics to explain why the physical universe is expanding). If the inhabitants of these doomed planets can travel through the dark field of packets of nothing, they can make the trip. Scientists in this system have recently discovered how to travel through the dark field, but the level of knowledge of the nature of the dark field is only rudimentary.
There is not time to gain objective knowledge about this field. An exploratory trip must be made. The protagonist in the story is the captain of the dark-field vessel. She and her navigator will encounter the nothing and the dreams in this nothing. The 2 crew-mates will become nothing themselves. They will experience the dreams.
Here are the scenes I've laid out so far for this story: 1. The protagonist Fehla and her family are described. The inciting incident occurs, which is news of the impending nova and what that means to the populace. 2. Fehla is put through trials and education for the mission. 3. The mission through the dark field and the experiences of nothing and dreams. 4. The dark field will disgorge the vessel on a planet that is obviously earth of 70,000 years ago. A subplot of earthlings begins. 5. The vessel including Fehla and navigator Xel will come out the dark field and slam into earth's atmosphere. 6. Fehla and Xel will emerge looking like earthlings rather than in their familiar bodies. They will encounter the earthlings and become part of their subplot. 7. Fehla and Xel will argue and fight to the death over what to do about these earthling. Fehla will win and program the vessel to take Xel home with a message re the final destination for the inhabitants of the 5 planets.8. Fehla will settle on earth, be dominated by the leader of an earth tribe, and the crisis of the story will occur followed by the penultimate climax of the main story plot and the climax of the subplot. 9. The climax of the story will occur and involve the Dreamtime and travels of the earth tribe out of eastern Africa.
I will likely add in other scenes or delete 1 or more of the scenes above as the story progresses. In the next story-news advice blog I should be at a point to tell you a fuller story line. At this point, the story length could turned it into a novella rather than a short story.
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