Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an era where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise from the seeking of acceptance. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on conflicts over abandonment.
Man vs. man
Two people with trusts issues because they’ve been abandoned by others suddenly find themselves in a situation where they must learn to have faith in one another. How do they overcome their internal resistance to trust and the other’s efforts to prevent a connection?
Man vs. society
What happens when a person who leaves his hometown and strikes it rich comes back willing to spend money? Will some people question why he abandoned them in the first place and be distrustful of his motives? Or will his money squelch any suspicions? And why did he return anyway?
Man vs. God(s)
A teenager or young adult whose parents died in a senseless accident now feels that God has abandoned her. How is she able to regain her faith? Or does the abandonment lead to a personal enlightenment about what being human means?
Man vs. himself
A son has not talked to his father in years (or a daughter-mother) after the parent left the son’s mother many years ago. The father, his years rapidly catching up with him, reaches out to his son. Can the son, after years of anger and bitterness, find the ability to forgive his father?
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
• How to build a story from a SF novum
• Prompts 1-5
• Prompts 6-10
• Prompts 11-15
• Prompts 16-20
• Prompts 21-25
• BONUS: “Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” - Terry Pratchett
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.
Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. After all, how many novels have you read that use starships exploring the galaxy for the Earth-based Federation? Barely changing names to appear as if you are not appropriating – a starcraft seeking M-class worlds for the Earth-centered Alliance – still doesn’t cut it as original or fully using the potential that science fiction offers to examine our culture or humanity.
To help SF writers, here are some novums of potential near-future inventions from which stories could be built:
Bag it asteroid retrieval
What if we captured and retrieved small asteroids – say up to 23 feet in diameter – by using a bag-like attachment to a spacecraft? The asteroid then would be pulled to a mineral processing station. How does this affect the space industry and exploration?
Virus-proof cells
What if scientists could create synthetic cells that were entirely resistant to viruses? What if these synthetic cells could be incorporated into the human genome? How would this impact what being human means?
SuperEarth added to solar system
What if a rocky world twice the size of Earth but 10 times as far from the sun as Pluto were found at the edge of our solar system? How would world be explored?
Autonomous city services
What if to reduce street and sidewalk traffic, “smart cities” were constructed so that underground robots did menial chores such as deliver products and mail and go to and from buildings to perform maintenance? How would this alter society?
Designer molecules
What if with new quantum computer technology we could design molecules? This would allow chemists and biologists to create more effective drugs and for engineers to fashion better materials that generate and distribute energy. How would this change civilization?
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
• How to build a story from a SF novum
• Prompts 1-5
• Prompts 6-10
• Prompts 11-15
• Prompts 16-20
• Prompts 21-25
• BONUS: "The very act of writing is a testament that anything is possible."
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
As a long-time book editor, I get the same comments over and over from my clients: “I like to write but don’t have any good ideas for stories”...“I don’t know how to start a story”...“My stories often don’t have any direction.”
The problem often is that the writer didn’t start with conflict, the core of all good fiction, regardless of genre. With no conflict to resolve, there’s simply no story. Unfortunately, many of the writing prompts out there don’t focus on conflict. They instead ask you to write descriptions or to explain what you would do in a situation in which characters don’t clash.
Storystarters: 200+ Writing Prompts That Lead To Stories solves that problem. It gives 50 different topics – such as betrayal, jealousy and revenge –in which your protagonist might confront another person, society, nature, God, or himself. If you wrote a short story a month, there are enough prompts in this book to last you more than 16 years...or if you wrote a novel a year, it would be good for more than two centuries!
Storystarters has topped Amazon.com bestseller lists for writing and is available in both paperback and ebook.
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.
Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. After all, how many novels have you read that use starships exploring the galaxy for the Earth-based Federation? Barely changing names to appear as if you are not appropriating – a starcraft seeking M-class worlds for the Earth-centered Alliance – still doesn’t cut it as original or fully using the potential that science fiction offers to examine our culture or humanity.
To help SF writers, here are some novums of potential near-future inventions from which stories could be built:
Augmented reality
What if we wore glasses and an earpiece that overlaid computer-generated images and audio over what we see and hear in reality? For example, if trying to find a building on a city street, arrows projected onto our field of vision shows which way to go?
Contextual commerce
What if your appliances could make purchases for you based on an analysis of your likes and habits? For example, when your milk is about to expire, your refrigerator orders new milk for you – using the specific brand and fat percentage you prefer.
Epigenetics
What if a class of jobs that turns targeted genes on or off were common? Such drugs could be used to treat cancer and various genetic diseases.
Snagging space junk
What if robotic spacecraft were launched to remove space junk from Earth orbit? What would be the best “capture mechanisms” to pick up the debris – harpoons, nets, robotic arms or tentacles?
Solar surfing
What if a super-reflective material were developed that allowed our spacecraft to get extremely close to the sun’s surface? How would this change our understanding of the sun and allow for colonization of Mercury?
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.
Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. After all, how many novels have you read that use starships exploring the galaxy for the Earth-based Federation? Barely changing names to appear as if you are not appropriating – a starcraft seeking M-class worlds for the Earth-centered Alliance – still doesn’t cut it as original or fully using the potential that science fiction offers to examine our culture or humanity.
To help SF writers, here are some novums of potential near-future inventions from which stories could be built:
Artificial wombs
What if embryos could be brought to term in man-made devices? Infertile women might have an artificial womb transplanted; some mothers might choose to have their pregnancy done outside of their bodies.
Ads while you sleep
What if to pay for information and the cost of an intelligent infrastructure, you could watch ads in your sleep? What opportunities might this offer criminals?
Sling-sat to remove space debris
What if a satellite swung space junk into the atmosphere (where it burns up) and then uses that momentum to move to the next piece of junk? Could this satellite be used to help in a space rescue during an emergency?
Solar gravity lens
What if the sun’s gravity were used as a magnifying lens to image exoworlds? What will we discover if this technique works?
Space debris cleanup
What if to get rid of space junk in low Earth orbit we used electrodynamic tethers that slow the debris’ speed? A lower speed will cause it to fall closer to Earth to eventually burn up in the atmosphere.
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.
Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. After all, how many novels have you read that use starships exploring the galaxy for the Earth-based Federation? Barely changing names to appear as if you are not appropriating – a starcraft seeking M-class worlds for the Earth-centered Alliance – still doesn’t cut it as original or fully using the potential that science fiction offers to examine our culture or humanity.
To help SF writers, here are some novums of potential near-future inventions from which stories could be built:
Asteroid survey mission
What if we launched a trio of cubesats that orbit the sun where they charted and tracked asteroids? Cubesats would be an extremely small payload while the sun provides power.
Artificial skin
What if we could grow artificial skin, that actually could send pressure information to the brain, and that could be transplanted onto humans who suffered severe burns? What other applications might artificial skin have?
Huffing and puffing space debris removal
What if air bursts, sent out of high-altitude balloons or airplanes, could push space debris into the lower atmosphere, where they would burn up?
Soft-bot asteroid mining
What if spacecraft that mined rubble asteroids for water, minerals and other resources were flat, pancake-shaped soft-bots? The soft-bots would launch the extracted rubble into space where it would be collected by an orbiting processing spacecraft.
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.
Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.
Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. After all, how many novels have you read that use starships exploring the galaxy for the Earth-based Federation? Barely changing names to appear as if you are not appropriating – a starcraft seeking M-class worlds for the Earth-centered Alliance – still doesn’t cut it as original or fully using the potential that science fiction offers to examine our culture or humanity.
To help SF writers, here are some novums of potential near-future inventions from which stories could be built:
Disassembling houses
What if when you moved utility clouds of microscopic robots that make up your house simply disassembled, moved with you, and reassembled where you relocated? What if entire buildings – even skyscrapers – do the same?
Electronet space debris remover
What if several nanosatellites, connected by electrically conducting tape were used to knock space debris into the atmosphere for burn up? The conducting tape would become electrically charged as it passed through the Earth’s magnetic field.
Heat shields made from asteroids
What if heat shields for spacecraft re-entry could be manufactured at a low cost from asteroid material while in space? What would be the benefits of having heat shields constructed on their way to a destination, even while in low Earth orbit?
Smart windows
What if windows could self-regulate themselves? That is they adjust as the temperature changes outside or inside to maintain comfort, they close when rain falls, they become soundproof when the teenager next door plays his music loud.
Spray-in power generation
What if we developed nano solar cells so sensitive that they can turn even infrared light into power – and these nano solar cells could be sprayed or painted on to a surface, like a wall? How does this change the way we power our electronic devices and appliances, and what will be the broader effect on society?
Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.