If you could write any Sci-Fi novel.....

[Lone Wolf]

This is absolutely just for fun, but who or what would your characters be? Would it be set on earth as we know it in past, present, future? Or you catapult us, we, the reader into the deepest realms of space for the Ultimate Adventures?

Let's hear it, guys and gals!

 

[Stevedog]

I've had some basic ideas in my head for several years now, but couldn't quite figure out what to do with them.

One idea was a story called "Derelict". The main character is a medical doctor whose Dad is a famous surgeon on Earth and he is desperate to get out of his father's shadow so he signs up to be the ships doctor on a salvage ship. The Captain knows about the doctors family but most of the salvage workers don't as cutting edge Earth medicine is not much interest to them. The ship sets out and discovers an unknown ship that is floating aimlessly. The ship is fully intact and functional but the entire crew is dead and nobody is sure what happened. The idea was to basically be a Locked Room Mystery in space.

However as I spent time trying to figure out the mystery elements I kept being distracted by the technical elements of how the ships and space travel worked. Basically I created a history of future technology for how the sci-fi world operates but never nailed down the story to fit into it.

For example: Ships would be built using Cold Welding. This is a method where two pieces of similar enough metal can be fused together by pressing them together. However this requires pure metal on metal so any layers of oxidation be removed first. This is a real thing that NASA discovered by mistake decades ago. In my universe there is a special de-ionizing beam that is used to facilitate cold welding. There is similarly an ionizing beam to easily separate cold welded metal. This technology is later adapted into a ion cannon and used as a weapon that literally disassembles the target ship. This effect can be countered by running an electric charge through the hull of a ship which is how ship shields comes into development.

I also came up with a history of an arms race between ballistic and energy weapons. Things like lasers and ion cannons are far superior in terms of damage output and speed as they travel at the speed of light but suffer from needing more powerful energy sources and generating more heat. In the cold vaccum of space, ship sensors would use heat signatures to locate each other. On Earth we use RADAR, underwater we use SONAR and in space we would use THIDAR. By contrast ballistic weapons such as bullets or torpedoes are slow and take up cargo space but tend to be more reliable. Ballistic weapons are also the best choice for small arms. I came up with a system of pistols and rifles that used caseless ammo that was bundled as solid blocks of propellent instead of magazines. I figured that in zero gravity you don't want empty magazines and spent brass floating around. The standard military issue rifle was the Smith & Wesson 4X-M3 and officers were issued the Colt Falcon for a sidearm.

There was a lot more but "Derelict" was too small a story to make use of all these elements and I never came up with a really good story to put into this world. I wondered if it would be better to have a number of smaller, short stories all set within the same fictional world.

 

[7Critter]

My novel would involve time travel. The main character would travel to solve some of the great mysteries in life; how were the great pyramids built; first inhabitants of North America, a typical day in life of [ famous scientist, engineer, philosopher], etc.

Ha! I think I just re-created the Sherman and Peabody cartoon.

 

[garnetsilver]

I have lots of unfinished work lying around because I always get hung up on research, so maybe I should just be a researcher instead of a writer!

 

[Debi]

My novel would involve time travel. The main character would travel to solve some of the great mysteries in life; how were the great pyramids built; first inhabitants of North America, a typical day in life of [ famous scientist, engineer, philosopher], etc.

Ha! I think I just re-created the Sherman and Peabody cartoon.

ROFL!!! YES, you did!

 

[Debi]

I had a dream last week that had me ready to write that book! The world was trying to hide from the Tic Tac UFO's. They had become tiny alien lazer blasters and were hunting us down one by one. At the end of the dream, one had me cornered, and the tic tac opened up to reveal a tiny little saber toothed cat alien with poison antenna! OK, sounds funny now but I'm telling you it was terrifying in dream state.

 

[bluesea]

My story would start with one of my nightmares, just to kick things off. Driving an unknown car across a high bridge, and having some trouble with the accelerator, then with the brakes, then with the steering; and horrified she finds herself airborne with the ocean 400’ below.
To be cont’d.

 

[garnetsilver]

I could probably use nightmare that I had, for a story opening, where I was riding a city bus. In the dream, I fell asleep. When I woke, we were far from any city and there was nothing but fields and grass around. The bus was parked and there were no other passengers on the bus except me. And the driver was approaching me in a menacing fashion.