SF book fundraiser

[too-open-minded]

So I go this idea, what if we all banded together, brainstormed, and collaborated on a book? I think we have enough creative minds here to establish a really good scifi novel. I have my own idea for a book with a theme. I mean what if we all worked together and did come up with an awesome book that was a bestseller?

 

Anyways here is my idea for the book.

 

An alien species roaming space trying to find all answers possible in science. The human race is actually a science project being conducted by the aliens. They are at war with another alien species who are only interested in spreading the life of there own species. The species who created the human race go around every planet they find and try to spread life, and help get life going out in space to help find answers to science. The end of the book will focus on them trying to keep the hostile species away from our solar system. While they are trying to help the human race establish life in space and a colony of space-ships and establish biodomes and atmospheres on the rocky planets in our solar system.

 

The theme of this book will be to getting off this planet and sustaining life in space. We will show this theme by how the aliens show humans to get off the planet and by a showing history of both helpful and hostile aliens.

 

Although personally I would like to have the helpfull aliens unsure of there past, only knowing they were cut off from there species eons ago when they were dying out but have come back and flourished. Losing the knowledge of their past in the process. With the aliens being a calm, curious, and helpful species who have evolved past things like fear, anger, and recreational activities.

 

I can write a rough draft of the story and then all of us build off that, or we can brainstorm here?

 

If I can get atleast 10 people to say they will help work on this project, i'll write the rough draft.

 

If this does happen all proceeds will go to the website.

 

Lehgo!

[too-open-minded]

Brainstorm - okay this, if we even put it in there just a small part of the book, like a chapter or 2 at the most. I dont even like the sound of 2 though. The illuminati is actually the people on the planet who know and are in contact with our alien creators. The reason that money is so unevenly distributed and there is widley mass produced food and urbanization in cities is to increase and maximize the amount of people and genes our species can produce with the uneven distribution of wealth as our natural selection to find the best genes. They don't want people to know because of religious differences, shock, etc.

 

Going into the history of how area 51 is when the aliens first let our species know we are a science experiment. Noting our discovery of fission as a sign to initiate speeding up our evolutionary progress.

 

that right there could be drawn out into like atleast half of a chapter.

 

We could put a short instanse in the book about how the universe being so massive that there are more unmanned spacecraft flying around in space than manned spacecraft because of species dying out over long distance space travel.

 

 

 

C'mon nobody else?

Edited December 30, 2012 by too-open-minded

[too-open-minded]

Over twenty views and nobody has anything to say?

You guys suck.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Interesting ideas. But to make a decent novel you'll need to turn that into stories about individual characters and the problems they face in the interesting universe you've created.

 

Unfortunately I have my own very strange story ideas I'd like to pursue. I hope you'll write something regardless. It's always fun.

[randomc]

If it were written in a POV style, like song of ice and fire series, people could take a character each to develop. Maybe also their own individual sub-plots within the master-plot, although that might be cause rows.

[iNow]

Something I did on a forum about 7 years ago... You could start a thread here with the first few paragraphs of a sci-fi novel, then each successive post is from another member who builds on what you've typed... A bit of organic crowd-sourced sci-fi.

 

 

Start thread.

Person A - Intro to story, some stuff about characters

Person B - Carries story forward, introduces themes, elaborates on characters for clarity

Person C - Brings in hijinx

Person A - Continues hijinx and other shenanigans

Person D - Adds new narrative

 

Lather, rinse, repeat. Was fun. Could be fun again.

[Phi for All]

Something I did on a forum about 7 years ago... You could start a thread here with the first few paragraphs of a sci-fi novel, then each successive post is from another member who builds on what you've typed... A bit of organic crowd-sourced sci-fi.

 

 

Start thread.

Person A - Intro to story, some stuff about characters

Person B - Carries story forward, introduces themes, elaborates on characters for clarity

Person C - Brings in hijinx

Person A - Continues hijinx and other shenanigans

Person D - Adds new narrative

 

Lather, rinse, repeat. Was fun. Could be fun again.

This has a much higher probability of producing meaningful results. It fits well with our posting format, and allows people to collaborate as they can.

[too-open-minded]

We could do that.

 

Personally I like the idea of everyone brainstorming for about a week or two and then deciding from what point of view we want to write the story. How we want to express the theme. What elements we want to introduce in the story. ETC.

I think we would best work on this if we contemplated on these things in order giving each one about a week or two to work on.

1. Working together on the introduction

2. establishing a exposition

3. Rising action

4. climax

5. falling action

6. conclusion

 

Then once we have all put our own 2 cents in, together we can mash it into a halfass story. Review it, go over the story one more time to fix anything. Hold a 2 week long waiting period to add, subtract, or work on anything. Then have the mods on our site go over it, fix anything, and try to get this thing published.

[zapatos]

I once heard that all (most) stories follow the same general pattern:

 

We meet the protagonist.

The protagonist gets stuck in a tree.

People throw rocks at the protagonist.

The protagonist gets out of the tree.

 

Funny how well that fits.

Edited December 31, 2012 by zapatos

[too-open-minded]

Wellp, guess i'm gonna write the book myself and then post it on SF and if you guys like it we'll do a fundraiser for the site.

[too-open-minded]

Okay I have been slacking but still working on the book, will start putting forth more effort but so far.

 

The book revolves around an alien species who created the human race as a science project. The species is the most intelligent and oldest known species in the universe. They have encounters with other species such as one trying to take the earths atmosphere for their own mother ship. The theme of the book will be how a species can make it into space and sustaining a majority of its life in space, by showing how all other species got into space. In the book the illuminati is actually people who know about our alien overseers. America being the most watched country, every individuals DNA stored from birth when they check the bloodtype, everything someone does online being stored, and a free market economy with the "American Dream" as a natural selection for people. Our DNA's are being saved and when the time is right people like Steve Jobbs and Michio Kaku's DNA will be used to create a more controlled species. The Science project they are conducting is too see how fast you can get a species into space in their evolutionary history.

 

Now this doesn't even fully encompass the significane of the book, I will concentrate mostly on the theme. Any critics out their? Input and feedback will be greatly appreciated.

[menageriemanor]

I did view, but I don't really like sci fi, unless funny. Douglas Adams, Tom Holt, etc. Felt I had to explain why I felt I couldn't contribute or answer. Read mainly non fiction. Tom Holt started one story with the main character finding himself sitting next to a dead fighter pilot, in the fighter, during WW2, I THINK I recall. I think I read it over a decade ago. I liked that start. Quirky

[Moontanman]

I did view, but I don't really like sci fi, unless funny. Douglas Adams, Tom Holt, etc. Felt I had to explain why I felt I couldn't contribute or answer. Read mainly non fiction. Tom Holt started one story with the main character finding himself sitting next to a dead fighter pilot, in the fighter, during WW2, I THINK I recall. I think I read it over a decade ago. I liked that start. Quirky

 

 

I could suggest a few i bet you would like.

[too-open-minded]

Well i'm doing some finishing touches on the prologue, will have it up shortly.

[menageriemanor]

If I was buying, I'd be more interested in nonfiction, as a fundraiser Everyone telling their favorite, science linked stories of discoveries, observations, etc. Great to inspire teens with a science interest. Great for Xmas presents, if they lean that way.

[Ophiolite]

The book revolves around an alien species who created the human race as a science project. .

At what stage did they intervene to create humans? Some minor manipulation to generate homo sapiens? Slightly more intervention to initiate a split of primates from rodents? Did they take out the dinosaurs to ensure mammals could come to the fore? Or, were they playing around to initiate abiogenesis back in the HAdean era, or something else inbetween?

 

The species is the most intelligent and oldest known species in the universe.

Where and how did they originate? This galaxy? A nearby galaxy? A very distant galaxy? Just how old are they? Is that age and evolutionary pathway consistent with the first appearance of Type I stars? The universe as known to whom?

 

They have encounters with other species such as one trying to take the earths atmosphere for their own mother ship.

That smacks of the worst kind of space opera. Why would an alien spacecraft wish to take the Earth's atmosphere? There would be many more more plausible means of acquiring an atmospher than that. You either need to produce a very solid justification for such a 'B' movie plot device, or abandon it entirely. Guess which I recommend.

 

The theme of the book will be how a species can make it into space and sustaining a majority of its life in space,by showing how all other species got into space

I don't see any connectivity here. Earlier did you not say that the aliens guide species into space? That contradicts the idea of them observing the different ways species may arrive at space travel and space civilisation. More to the point, how do you make that interesting? Where is the dynamism? Where is the excitement? It seems lacking as described. What do you mean by 'maintaining a mjority of life in space'? Colonisation of other planets? Terraforming? O'Neil colonies? Ringworld? Dyson spheres?

 

In the book the illuminati is actually people who know about our alien overseers.

I don't see a book that incorporates the Illuminati as being genuine, appealing to the hard core sci-fi buff. You might get away with there being a powerful and knowledgeable elite who create the myth of the illuminati to distract attention away from themselves. Otherwise I don't see it working.

 

America being the most watched country,

Why? I don't see the plot advantage?

 

every individuals DNA stored from birth when they check the bloodtype, everything someone does online being stored, and a free market economy with the "American Dream" as a natural selection for people.

Naive to the point fo being wrong. You need to mount a powerul argument to achieve a willing suspension of disbelief.

 

 

The Science project they are conducting is too see how fast you can get a species into space in their evolutionary history.

It doesn't gel. They can get a species into space very quickly by telling them how to do it? What are they learning by this manipulative approach? How does it further, in any significant way, their declared goal of learning more about the universe?

Edited March 28, 2013 by Ophiolite

[Moontanman]

Seems to be too much concentration of the details of what happened before the book starts instead of the story line, character development is far more important than details of the Illuminati and such...

[too-open-minded]

Thank you for the feedback guys!

 

I'm still working on the whole at what point did the intervening come into play, i'm wondering if I should have it from the beginning of our planet. With the creation of the moon and such caused by the aliens? (ideas will be greatly appreciated.)

 

The main species in the book doesn't know how old they are, I want to have it kind of mysterious throughout the whole book and at the end or epilogue show how when that species left their home planet after majority of the ships fleet got whiped out by a gamma ray, including the mothership containing most of the species information.

- actually yeah, scratch that. Unless you think we could make it work? Otherwise i'll think on that and get back to you.

 

I'm sure you reccomend dropping the whole "taking the atmosphere idea." I was wanting to have it be an alien species not too far away in the milky way galaxy and not much farther advanced than homosapiens. Just a far enough distance that when they see our planet they realize it would be ideal for their low running air supply.

-Would modern science contradict that to be necessary for another species, to need gasses to restock an air supply?

 

Yes I did say the aliens guide them into space but the homosapien race to them will be a science project to see how fast you can get a species to colonize space, With ships. Colonizing planets as well but mostly for resources. How could I make the theme interesting? Well the theme to me would be showing how a species could make it off their home planet. I will show multiple species in the book and the paths each individual species took into making it off there planet. Give me some time and i'll better be able to articulate this idea. To me this would be the most fascinating part of the book.

 

The illumanit not working? Okay how about getting humans to eat fried and salty foods to get us used to a new diet. We would need our food to be able to stay untainted for long distances eventually so mcdonalds and greasy foods would be getting us ready for that. I mean storing food in grease should keep it preserved for awhile right? Along with making sure America stays on top, so that our military can invest as much money as the rest of the worlds militaries combined into scientific innovation. Track our individual health records to find the best candidates for dealing with medical anomolies to create a more stable homosapien (this would be after we colonize space but still contemplating on how i would implement that into the book)

 

America being the most watched country because here we have such opprotunitey to do anything we want, they will want to find the best genes. With the internet and such they will be allowed to follow people closley and keep track of potential genetic specimens. Such as Steve Jobs or Michio Kaku.

 

Declared goal of learning about the universe... well this is what I was planning on going with the whole them being unaware of their past.

 

Anyways thankyou for the feedback, please keep it coming

 

 

 

 

[too-open-minded]

Oh and this isn't details of what happens before the book starts, this is the book.

 

Is it idiotic to intend on writing a book with little characterization and dialogue?

[too-open-minded]

The beginning of the epilogue -

 

 

Time is an "illusion." A year to Earth is different than a year to Neptune, no year is the same for any planet. They all revolve at different rates around the sun.

As with days, no planets spin the same speed. Time as you and I percieve is relative. Relative to your surroundings, to your perceptions. You perceptions however

can be deceiving. We are one out of 8 planets in our solar system. One solar system out of more than billions in our galaxy. One galaxy out of more than a countable

number of galaxies in the known universe. Many humans believe we are the only living things in the world and the smartest. This as with time is an "illusion."

You see humans are somewhat of a science experiment. Created and isolated for the soul purpose of finding out how fast a species can evolve. From the sun to the

asteroid belt to the moon, our life has been influenced from the start. The ones conducting this experiment are the universes longest living species, the Anunaki.

A species so evolved that for one of them to be on this planet would be like putting a human under water. Their lungs are so used to breathing in a thin air that our

thick atmoshpere would literally suffocate their lungs. Their eyes and skin would literally cook from the sun exposure from just 3 seconds on our planet. The Anunaki

have bread for so long in test tubes using genetic engineering that they are A-sexual. No men and no women, all the sex. Their eyes are huge, capable of seeing with

almost no light. Life is not easy on a space ship, especially for a species that is capable of long distanct space travel. Adapting to life on a vessel has made

this particular species very different from us. No recreational activites. They live for science, knowledge and understanding the world is what strives them to keep

going. Not the fear of death. Death is mandatory for the anunaki, after 15,000 earth years. It stops overpopulation. Genetic engineering has whiped out the possibility

of death from old age. They don't eat, only inject themselves with concentrated nutrients.

(sorry I wrote this on notepad and spent about 10 minutes on it XD)

[Ophiolite]

Epilogue? Did you mean prologue? Either way, it's neither - it's background notes .A prologue should set the scene and raise unanswered questions. An epilogue should wrap things up.

[too-open-minded]

Beginning of the first chapter.

I have the entire story outlined from beginning to finish, I know what I want out of the book. This will be written within months and published within a year (I assume) with 100,000 words being the average length I am aiming for. I have the means to get it published luckily due to a family friend.

Tell me what you guys think

However I'm writing it for myself now, didn't go too well trying to get everyone in on it as a fundraiser for the site. This is probably all I will post from the book until it is written but after I get it published I'll send it to anyone on the forum free. I have my baby and soon to be wife to take care of. I really think this book is gonna be awesome though! If it wasn't for my family though, I would for sure do a fundraiser. However all the ideas/work are mine and gotta take care of the family. I will mention this forum at the end of the book though, maybe do a "about the other" page or something.

Homosapien, success story of the current top prioritized experiment. None have come this far this fast. Falling in the necessary incremental time and technological range. Others either came up short or failed from their psychology not being able to cope with their technology, resulting in total wars and complete resource degradation. Some couldn't meet standards in their evolutionary history to meet criteria fundamental for the experiment to go as planned. Yes, the Homosapien is promising. Once this experiment is finished, cosmological procreation as a whole can begin. The last step is in progress, everything is meeting up to standard. This is the Concile's perception. The Concile is a highly advanced species relatively to all others in intelligence, evolutionary adaptions, and technology. Eons old, they are far different from any other species in the universe. No need for planets, the ability to sustain life onboard vessels while harvesting resources from space is far from alien to them. It is what the Concile has adapted to do. Breeding through artificial insemination and harvesting the fertilized egg in a birth chamber, has pressured this particular species to evolve into an A-sexual one. This is because they wanted to do away with sex and the emotions that come with it. Attachment, jelousy, anger, pleasure, all hindrances when the not-so-life-friendly vacuum empty void of space is looking your species in the face. At-least that is how they saw it. To survive in space the Concile wanted every valuable bit of time they had, along with every resource. To conserve they would continuously use less and less light, food, air, everything. Relatively long periods of time in dim-light and thin air transgressed into evolving huge eyes that can function with little light, huge lungs that can make use of a thin air. Now an individual with these lungs would literally drown in earths thick atmosphere, like a human under water. Eating is something of the past, they now inject nutrients into themselves. Mastering the science of a nutritional intake, it only has to be done once in a lifespan. This was originally done because they considered taste an unnecessary sense that should be done away with. Researching their brains and brainwaves and infusing a biotechnology implant into the spine after birth yields the Consile the ability to telepathically communicate. They no longer have the needs for a mouth, thus they don't have one. Nor ears, much of the senses essential for survival that most species have, the Concile does not. Now their is no individual mind, all one consciousness after adapting to their telepathic cyborg communication. The Concile, compared to a human doesn't have recreational activity nor want any. They live for research, the unknown is what peaks their interest. Making discoveries, what the Concile perceives as "fun" is far different. Fear, anger, anxiety, etc, are not felt by the Concile. A steady unchanging calm demeanor is the best way a human could perceive their psyche. Concile individuals do not age after maturing. They have eliminated the gene to cause cells to cease replication. Although they can and do die, after a certain increment of time an individual is sentenced to death to reduce overpopulation. This is embraced, the body dies but the Concile does not. The individual consciousness non existent, nothing is lost. Adaptations to environmental pressures, that is evolution. These are the major pressures that have evolved a once average planetary species into, the Concile.

Just know their will be lots of sci-fi (the Concile anatomy is only scratching the surface), Lots of conspiracy, Lots of action, and lots of twists and turns leaving you wondering how you should feel about it.

Let me know if this interests you and i'll send you the book for free once its finished and published.

Edited August 22, 2013 by too-open-minded