PJ’s Blog

I’m a serial blogger…

I start a blog, write for a month, and then let it fall to the wayside slowly… It’s sad, really, and it means that I have pieces of writing littering the interwebs here and there… I have thus decided to put everything together here, on my own website, where it all should have been to begin with…

So the archive of this blog will slowly be populated by some ancient pieces of writing on art and photography, and also on writing, erotica, music, and, my latest crazy passion: bass building… It’s going to be a little bit of everything, and perhaps sometimes it won’t make sense, but I just want to have everything in one place so that you, faithful reader and friend, can have a glimpse of the mess of things that are going on in my head…

So hopefully my days as a serial blogger are over, and I can start enjoying the single blog life…

Well, that was fun…

I just spent the last month writing each and every day, most days at least the required 1667-word ration, and I got out of it a 50 007 word manuscript. It is a real manuscript, lovingly written by hand in a moleskine diary, 150 pages of illegible script in green ink (I went through two Pilot Hi-techpoint pens…)…

Now what?

I’ve created characters, I’ve created a story that has many gaping holes in it, and an ending that I feel is not quite satisfying. But I’ve written something that could be turned into a novel. A proper, complete novel, and I really look forward to reading whatever comes out of the second round of drafting that will soon begin.

However, I am now faced with a dilemma: do I edit my Nano-novel, called “Login”, or do I continue drafting the Old Earth story that I started after the world-building month?

Options, options, I’ll let you know when I conclude something…

As nanowrimo comes closer around the bend, I’m contemplating the way I’m gonna work to produce those 50 000 words. Typing would seem the logical choice, since it’s anyway something that I’ll need to do at some point in order to get the manuscript at the next level.

However, I’ve taken the habit of having a notebook with me at all times (I’ve actually ditched my wallet and use my moleskine to carry my cash and cards…) in order to jot down notes…

I’ve found that the typing process from written notes produces a better result, because of the editing that goes on when the typing happens. I also find that my ideas flow more easily with pen-to-paper, as it is always the way I’ve written, at least creative writing.

I had started a while ago an erotic novel, in french, and trying to get the story out when typing never worked for that particular story, which is now scattered in my papers at home. Maybe I’ll get a secomd notebook and work on that story as well during November… Or maybe I’ll make December another novel writing month…

I’ve been scratching my head over what to write for the National Novel Writing Month, trying to pick out an idea from my Old Earth world, and I came up with a rather odd idea.

The idea is centered around the network interface I imagined for the 27th century, which is still used three centuries later. The story is called “Login”, and by a cheap play of words I use the “Log” for the timescale, which will be in ten parts, each an extra logarithmic step beyond the departure point.

The story starts in 2010, at the first steps of the mind-computer interface, then in 2011, when the first prototype starts working, then 2020, once the prototype starts production, 2110, when the internet and media market becomes ripe for direct-implant network.

By 3010, once the sun has been blown up in a war, the people of one of the outer world have their whole civilization based around the relationships that it allows between people. In 12 010, humanity has moved beyond the solar system in order to seek out a new star, by 102 010, they have constructed a new earth around a new sun, and are expanding their footprint on the galaxy. By 1 002 010, humanity is turning into something else, something of a hive-mind entity, with individuality being slowly erased.

By 10 002 010, humanity no longer exist. It has become adapted to space travel since time is irrelevant to the hive mind. By 100 002 010, war has broken out between different factions of the ex-humanity and of the Star Spawn, an ancient race that made contact with earth back in 2700 (which is the centerpiece of my “Return to the Old Earth”….), and the new-humans, using a tactic used in an old human war, blow up the galaxy and more on to intergalactic space…

Crazy, eh?

I’m just wondering if it might actually work…

Well my writing has slowed down a bit since the end of World Building Month, although I’ve tried to write a little bit each day, even if it’s just a few lines in my Moleskine… (yeah, I know, I’m a slave to fashion, what are you gonna do?…)

At the rate I’m writing and with the general outline I have, I’ll end up with 40 000 words next spring, which is kind of underwhelming, to say the least. With november approaching I think I’ll follow Eliza Wyatt’slead and jump on the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, which is kind of a misnomer, considering the number of participants from across the globe…) bandwagon and write 50 000 words in a month. I can’t use my original story for the Return to the Old Earth, so I’m thinking spin-off. Something to flesh out the world and which could be a prequel or a sequel to the Return…

This means that I’ll have to get into writing gears on the Return, to get a large enough body of work before November starts, because once I’m in there, I’ll have to work only on that project…

In the meantime I’ll use this space as a idea mixing ground, throw some ideas around, and see what sticks… See you around!

Oh, and if you want to become one of my writing buddies on NaNoWriMo, I’m right here.

Well, that was fun!

All in all a fascinating experience, everyone came up with interesting settings, but now the hard part starts for many of us: writing exciting stories that take place into those worlds…

And that all comes down to storytelling, of course, a skill very different from world building. Building an original world is already hard, but building an original story, that’s a tough one. A quote attributed to Jorge Luis Borges (rightly or not) says that there are only four stories to be told: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power, and a journey. Every story falls within those conveniently wide categories.

Which one will your story be? Mine will definitely be under the “Journey” category, with a dash of power and a slice of love trhouwn in for good measure…

I look forward to read the stories we get from all our worlds…

As I explained before, the settlement on Lalande is composed of 17 distinct copies of the original moon base. Each holds a university and research center which, on the moon, was called simply the Aldrin Academy.

Now the 17 Academies are just called “The Academy” when referring to the local version, or “Academy XII”, for instance, to refer to the one that can be found in moon base XII. All academies are independent and distinct, and have a separate administration. This is a strict requirement that came into force after the troubles caused by the Guild of the Old Earth.

The Academies are in a constant state of friendly competition, on education and research, but also on the sports side, and the Academy Leagues of many sports are closely followed by many citizens of the moon bases. Sometimes friendly competitions flare up, but rarely to the point of violence. Students and professors participate in conferences on various topics and in exchange programs between the academies.

The Academies cover all topics relevant to life on Lalande: engineering, medicine, teaching, law and politics as well as of course a large part of research on the Aliens. Despite almost non-existent success in communicating with the aliens or interfacing with their technology, a general portrait of the biology of the Aliens and of their crop species have been drawn up. Scientists know how the Aliens work, biologically, but are still at a loss to be able to understand their behavior. They still seem highly intelligent, even after 300 years of unsuccessful communication attempts, and humans have managed to tap some of the technology of the aliens to bring some advances in energy use and production, in medicine, and in part in space travel.

Character creation is just as arduous, if not even more, than world creation. Once the walls and the decor are in place, the actors have to be cast, rehersals have to be made, costumes have to be sown, flesh and blood must be conjured out of the words in order to make the characters more than unidimensional caricatures of past clichés.

The main character I have in mind for this story is in part a walking cliché: a somewhat recluse scientist, called by destiny to become the unlikely hero that will save mankind. However, by placing him as the narrator, and having him be painfully aware of the absurdity of his position, I hope to be able to flesh him out a little more, and to connect a bit more to the reader. I am aware that this is in itself somewhat if a gimicky cliché by itself, but I’ll run with it, and see if it goes anywhere…

The two main storylines of the book are separated by three hundred years, so the cast of both storylines has to be distinct and completely separate. This limits the number of characters I can introduce and use in each story, otherwise it’s just going to become a jumble of characters that’s gonna be too confusing for the reader to follow.

So the part of the story set in the 30th century will be told through the eyes of the narrator, who is personally involved in the events. The part of the story set in the 27th century will be told by the same narrator, telling the story of what happened through his expertise as an historian. This means that the 27th century storyline can be a series of short “historical” stories of specific important episodes, but it could also be the story of one character, as told by the narrator.

I’m still not sure which way to go…

Among the colonists of Lalande, once the long trip was over and that they were settled in their Moon base “habitat”, a group formed that was advocating a return to Earth as soon as possible in order to share the technologies they could salvage from the Alien world. The group called themselves the Guild of the Old Earth, and rose to power quickly among the colonists.

As years passed, it became evident that communication with the aliens was all but impossible, and that the technologies they used were very closely linked to their distributed computing biology, and was hardly understandable, and even less applicable, by humans. The Guild held true to it’s aim, however, and became a major driving force behind the university research centers, trying to crack the communication barrier with the aliens and to understand their technologies, in order to stage a return to earth and a transfer of technologies for the benefit of all mankind.

As the colony grew, and new moon bases were built by the aliens, multiplying the university centers, diverging opinions started to form. Some wanted to sever the ties with earth completely, some wanted to use the alien technologies they were deciphering to rule the solar system and a third group wanted to keep true to the original aim of the Guild: using the Alien technologies for the benefit of all.

What stared as diverging academic opinions became bitter disputes, and almost degenerated into civil war as the Guild was split into three factions. Moon base copies were isolated, each under one of the factions of the Guild, and armed conflict was averted when the Council of Mayors dissolved the Guild and reuniting the Moon bases.

To this day the Guild is outlawed, but rumors of secret societies surface once in a while, and the three factions are still reflected in the opinions of populations and academicians.

The human colonists plan a return trip to Earth, three centuries after the departure. After studying the Alien technologies they have managed to reverse-engineer some of the essential systems, mainly the engines. The return ship, called the “Prometheus”, is much smaller than the Alien ship that took to colonists to Lalande. It has room for the 800 members of the expedition who have private or family cabins. The length of the voyage back means that families are expected to form and break during the course of the voyage, and kids will be born on the way.

The ship thus has a full-blown clinic, a daycare and school center, in addition to the space needed to grow the food for the whole crew. The majority of the volume of the ship is occupied at launch by fuel and the engines, but as fuel tanks are emptied, they are to be “reclaimed” for human occupation.

The pride of the Prometheus is the Nova engine. Adapted from Alien technology, it is one step further than simple fusion drives, using extremely high pressures to push the nuclear reaction further, creating Iron from Hydrogen, and simulating the energy release of a supernova explosion, further pushing nucleosynthesis and creating heavier elements, on the one hand, and releasing phenomenal amounts of energy. The technology for this is highly secretive and only a handful of crew members know how to work the engines.

The high tech engine is the inspiration for the name of the ship: just as Prometheus brought fire to humanity, thus the ship is bringing back the Nova engine to mankind.