S
Skyskimmer
Guest
Wouldn't be so much direct pirates instead would be more of covert sabotage. The likely cause of the famine would be a returning mining vessels accidently colliding with the earth. There would be a forensics aspect to the show. A large part of the show would be uncovering the root cause of the sabotage.semiliterate":29bwfvyb said:a_lost_packet_":29bwfvyb said:That's a good point.
Often, one can wander away from a theme. If you're going to craft a story with a definite theme, you have to stick with it. Otherwise, it'll end up as a mess. In this case, it's more of the idea of a specific type of setting that pays rigorous attention to believability and deals with the possible "near future." A hundred years is pretty solidly "near future", but some of the believability and hard-science-fiction theme is getting a bit lost.
That wouldn't be good for a story/novel/film/series. But, that's just fine when brainstorming, IMO. In a free-form mode, you can work out interesting plotlines and then come back to your theme and try to see if you can plug them in without tearing the whole thing to shreds.
If you were going to edit this story, what would you suggest in order to try to wrangle the plotlines under control while staying with that hard-science-ficiton/near-future setting?
My bad. Didn't realize he had already jumped to the second story without flashing out the first one. It just seemed to me that he was jumping all over the place without concentrating on any central theme.
Hmmm ... not sure how much suggestion I could give. Not much of a writer ... don't have that dangerous gift of eloquence.
The thing is he had a good premise for a story to start with. The beginning of man's reach into outer space. His idea that asteroid mining is the driving force behind that is believable. He had me thinking of something like a cross between "Star Cops" and "Outland". Where the tension is between the corporations mining the asteroids and the international police force there to keep the peace. There is enough tension there ... man against the elements, man against man, greed, corporate espionage ... for a story.
And if you really need to have space battles ... you could have space pirates. Cliched, I know, but considering the multi-billion cargo transfers of material back to earth, you could expect someone to try to space-jack one.
Plot-lines are important, but more important are the characters ... well to me at least. It is more interesting to find out why someone does something, then for the character to just react to the "plot".
Guess that is my take on things. Will let you guys get back to brain-storming.
The settlers would be heavily indebted to earth. Each person would be indebted millions of dollars in todays money to earth. Neither side would be evil or bad. The settlers would be born into debt just as it happen in the real world. The conflict would come from economics. People borrowed on the assumption that they'd be able to pay off their debts, this didn't happen therefore their left with no choice but to fight back. this can be found across the 3rd people paying the debts of past governments (russia paying soviet debts etc.) no side can give in as the amounts are far too large to be forgiven.
The leads would be very disinterested in one side or another, would simply be following orders. Their concern is survival.