Post by Lletherial on Mar 11, 2007 0:39:12 GMT -5
New proposal - Basic Plot & Premise
- This is an extended premise, so if I can be so bold as to ask you not to skim... Thank you.
1) SFW is the 4000 year-into-the-future FW (a medieval style civilization named Lletherial, even though that's my avatar's name as well - so don't let that throw you). The title of this post (and book?) will make sense at the end.
2) Due to a closed universe with space & time curving back onto itself, the academics of SFW have discovered time travel - but only at certain "windows of opportunity" or portals and for travel to a limited number of times and locations (in this case, FW, their own past).
This is due to the curvature of space/time. Think of a hair pin curve or an oxbow in a river where you could jump from one point in the road across a short gap and end up at the other side of the hair pin, thus bypassing the oxbow.
3) This discovery is seized upon and exploited and commercialized (a la 'A Sound of Thunder' loosely based on Bradbury's short story or even Chrichton's Timeline') by a group of (_decide upon antagonist _). For the most part they follow "the rules" in FW (prime directive?) so as to not create a butterfly effect and destroy their reality in SFW.
Thus expert "travel guides" are paid to provide excursions to FW for the rich and bored. Expanding this theme, character development, discovering a love interest, introducing the protagonist, etc, can likely serve as Act 1.
Ah, you might be thinking, this is derivative. But wait...
4) Little do they know that they in fact can not change the future no matter what is done in the past. It's not that one can't change the past, it's because all time is "present" - ie, each moment already exists and (stay with me here) due to an infinite number of universes, the travelers to FW aren't changing the past at all, thus they can't affect the future. They are creating, by their excursion to FW a new reality.
Now since the jump across the oxbow is limited in its parameters, there is and seems to be a consistency for each group of travelers. Even for the guides - they assume they are returning to the same locale every trip.
5) The crisis that moves us to Act 2 is that one or more of the guides discovers something or several things amiss. Maybe on one of the trips a SFW vacationer accidentally kills a citizen of FW - Tears for Lletherial? :-) - but upon their return to SFW nothing has changed. And upon a return trip to FW the guides discover this person is still alive although clearly at a later date than before the death. Not committed to the particulars at this point, just a for instance.
6) It dawns on some of the antagonists once they get the report that, since what is done in the past doesn't matter, they no longer have to simply pamper wealthy tourists on unique adventures. They could turn this into ... sport. Organize a hunting expedition - not of animals but of humans. Hunting, killing, maiming (okay you get the idea) - and a brutal chapter ensues. More tears for Lletherial.
7) The protagonist and antagonist come to a head. Here is where we explore themes of right/wrong, Christian morality, utilitarianism and moral relativism. And here is where I'm a bit weak on my plot since I'm thinking as I'm writing at this point. But this should get us to Act 3 - the solving of the dilemma as to what should be done about the SFW trips to FW.
8) Conclusion: I don't know yet. But it could be that Lletherial (FW) is finally lost to us. The jumps across the hairpin curve come to an end. The space/time portal moves on to another time/location. But maybe during all this crossing, a native of FW (Lletherial by name) comes back with a guide (for love?) to SFW. There are tears, of course, for s/he can never again return home.
But our readers shouldn't cry, for these tears sow seeds to something greater than the loss of a civilization ... a sequel.
- This is an extended premise, so if I can be so bold as to ask you not to skim... Thank you.
1) SFW is the 4000 year-into-the-future FW (a medieval style civilization named Lletherial, even though that's my avatar's name as well - so don't let that throw you). The title of this post (and book?) will make sense at the end.
2) Due to a closed universe with space & time curving back onto itself, the academics of SFW have discovered time travel - but only at certain "windows of opportunity" or portals and for travel to a limited number of times and locations (in this case, FW, their own past).
This is due to the curvature of space/time. Think of a hair pin curve or an oxbow in a river where you could jump from one point in the road across a short gap and end up at the other side of the hair pin, thus bypassing the oxbow.
3) This discovery is seized upon and exploited and commercialized (a la 'A Sound of Thunder' loosely based on Bradbury's short story or even Chrichton's Timeline') by a group of (_decide upon antagonist _). For the most part they follow "the rules" in FW (prime directive?) so as to not create a butterfly effect and destroy their reality in SFW.
Thus expert "travel guides" are paid to provide excursions to FW for the rich and bored. Expanding this theme, character development, discovering a love interest, introducing the protagonist, etc, can likely serve as Act 1.
Ah, you might be thinking, this is derivative. But wait...
4) Little do they know that they in fact can not change the future no matter what is done in the past. It's not that one can't change the past, it's because all time is "present" - ie, each moment already exists and (stay with me here) due to an infinite number of universes, the travelers to FW aren't changing the past at all, thus they can't affect the future. They are creating, by their excursion to FW a new reality.
Now since the jump across the oxbow is limited in its parameters, there is and seems to be a consistency for each group of travelers. Even for the guides - they assume they are returning to the same locale every trip.
5) The crisis that moves us to Act 2 is that one or more of the guides discovers something or several things amiss. Maybe on one of the trips a SFW vacationer accidentally kills a citizen of FW - Tears for Lletherial? :-) - but upon their return to SFW nothing has changed. And upon a return trip to FW the guides discover this person is still alive although clearly at a later date than before the death. Not committed to the particulars at this point, just a for instance.
6) It dawns on some of the antagonists once they get the report that, since what is done in the past doesn't matter, they no longer have to simply pamper wealthy tourists on unique adventures. They could turn this into ... sport. Organize a hunting expedition - not of animals but of humans. Hunting, killing, maiming (okay you get the idea) - and a brutal chapter ensues. More tears for Lletherial.
7) The protagonist and antagonist come to a head. Here is where we explore themes of right/wrong, Christian morality, utilitarianism and moral relativism. And here is where I'm a bit weak on my plot since I'm thinking as I'm writing at this point. But this should get us to Act 3 - the solving of the dilemma as to what should be done about the SFW trips to FW.
8) Conclusion: I don't know yet. But it could be that Lletherial (FW) is finally lost to us. The jumps across the hairpin curve come to an end. The space/time portal moves on to another time/location. But maybe during all this crossing, a native of FW (Lletherial by name) comes back with a guide (for love?) to SFW. There are tears, of course, for s/he can never again return home.
But our readers shouldn't cry, for these tears sow seeds to something greater than the loss of a civilization ... a sequel.
