Post by waldenwriter on Apr 10, 2011 22:41:00 GMT -5
I am taking a class called "The Writing Process" and for my third project I proposed I would write a short story, either fantasy or sci-fi (I wasn't sure at the time). I decided sci-fi would be good as I need practice in that if I really want to write it, but got totally blocked trying to do that for the first draft, so I wrote a Walden story instead. I got the impression that the girls I workshopped it with were not so into it, so I decided to do a sci-fi story for Draft 2. Here's the idea of the plot that I wrote up:
A convenience store in a space station [is] located on the border between two parallel universes. One is our own, and one is a version of our own where life in space was discovered by the Ancient Egyptians (perhaps in pre- or proto-dynastic period, or first dynasty) and technology has thus advanced dramatically due to this extremely early first contact.
One day, someone tries to rob the side of the store on our side of the border. However, he trips over a barely visible laser trip wire and lands in the other half, where the clerks are much harder to deal with, since [in] this world genetic enhancements have become as easy to do as plastic surgery.
A space detective, pursuing the robber, also falls over the line, where she discovers that she has no jurisdiction, since all human police has been replaced by androids. She asks only that she be allowed to take the criminal back to the other side. The clerks agree -- the thief was rather annoying anyway -- but warn them that no one must know of this world.
The detective carries the criminal out of our side of the store.
The one clerk (on our side) asks his double on a phone, "What happened?"
"Just another day in paradise."
"No, seriously."
"I'll merge memories with you later."
"All right."
"Just another day in the borderlands," says the other our side clerk.
The End
These are very rough notes; I still have to work out the details. For instance, I figured out after some minor research that it would better for space life in the parallel world to be discovered in the early Third Dynasty, since this is when the first pyramids were built. But since it's a short story and not a novel, I can't be as detailed as I would like.
The concept is mostly original, though the line "Just another day in paradise" is based on something a coworker of mine often says when people ask how his day is going. The memory-merging thing is based on a concept in the W.I.T.C.H. graphic novels, where the main characters have the power to create duplicates of themselves called "Astral Drops" to take their place when they have to go fight evil. When the girls return from battle, they "merge" the Astral Drops back into themselves, and whatever memories the Astral Drop has are merged back as well.
Please provide any feedback you can. I have to turn in my next draft this coming Friday (the 15th).
A convenience store in a space station [is] located on the border between two parallel universes. One is our own, and one is a version of our own where life in space was discovered by the Ancient Egyptians (perhaps in pre- or proto-dynastic period, or first dynasty) and technology has thus advanced dramatically due to this extremely early first contact.
One day, someone tries to rob the side of the store on our side of the border. However, he trips over a barely visible laser trip wire and lands in the other half, where the clerks are much harder to deal with, since [in] this world genetic enhancements have become as easy to do as plastic surgery.
A space detective, pursuing the robber, also falls over the line, where she discovers that she has no jurisdiction, since all human police has been replaced by androids. She asks only that she be allowed to take the criminal back to the other side. The clerks agree -- the thief was rather annoying anyway -- but warn them that no one must know of this world.
The detective carries the criminal out of our side of the store.
The one clerk (on our side) asks his double on a phone, "What happened?"
"Just another day in paradise."
"No, seriously."
"I'll merge memories with you later."
"All right."
"Just another day in the borderlands," says the other our side clerk.
The End
These are very rough notes; I still have to work out the details. For instance, I figured out after some minor research that it would better for space life in the parallel world to be discovered in the early Third Dynasty, since this is when the first pyramids were built. But since it's a short story and not a novel, I can't be as detailed as I would like.
The concept is mostly original, though the line "Just another day in paradise" is based on something a coworker of mine often says when people ask how his day is going. The memory-merging thing is based on a concept in the W.I.T.C.H. graphic novels, where the main characters have the power to create duplicates of themselves called "Astral Drops" to take their place when they have to go fight evil. When the girls return from battle, they "merge" the Astral Drops back into themselves, and whatever memories the Astral Drop has are merged back as well.
Please provide any feedback you can. I have to turn in my next draft this coming Friday (the 15th).
