Notes on how to write a story
AKA – So, you think you have an idea…
.
Part 1 – Foundations Of The World(s)
.
A story doesn’t happen by itself. It needs many things. Characters, a quest of some sort, a world to work in, on and through…
None of this happens by itself.
For any story to work, it needs to be believable. People must look at the world it is set in and think ‘Yes, this makes sense’. There need to be rules, regulations, traditions and at least some overarching type of morality and/or philosophy.
.
Let us look at the society your story is set in first.
.
There are many types of society, each providing different aspects in relation to the story you wish to write.
.
Tribal societies tend to idolise survival skills. Hunting, finding edible fruits, berries, nuts, roots and herbs. Making basic medicine (a role which often overlaps considerably with tribal elder/leader). Tribal societies tend towards relying on oral histories and legends for their education. The ability to actually write is usually absent and often seen as some form of evil magic (imprisoning the thoughts of others, for instance). Although they tend to have a good understanding of how to use the world around them, tribal societies are almost always completely ignorant of the whys and hows of the underlying structure of the world. The sun moves across the sky, that is what they see and thus that is how it is. The idea that the sun stays still and the world turns is foreign to them, verging on the incomprehensible and death is always a serious possibility.
.
Basic Hunter-gatherer/plant-growing societies are similar, but have developed certain understandings about the world. They may know that certain plants flourish best if planted in a certain order over the course of several years, but why this happens is still a mystery. Without the need to roam for food, basic writing skills (such as runes) can be developed. Basic maths is also created as it helps with sharing out food (fractions). The elders can contribute for longer, performing tasks like spinning wool, knitting or teaching children, thus bringing more stability to family life. With more Elders around, reverence of age will usually develop, with the Elders being seen as repositories of wisdom and knowledge. These societies will usually be found in villages equipped with a wooden stockade for security, making them more confident.
.
Agricultural/Animal Husbandry societies tend more towards a hierarchy. Those who can create tools (blacksmiths) are held to be more important. At this stage of society, organised religions tend to arise as farmers will try anything to prevent their crops from failing and praying to a spiritual entity usually just costs little more than time. The more prosperous societies will also be more militaristic as neighboring villages will be envious of their success and will try to stage raids to steal their crops and animals. It is at this level that the formalisation of Barter via tokens tends to occur. Villagers tend to be very suspicious of outsiders as they could be spies sent in to find weak spots for raiding parties.
.
City-states are the smallest type of society that can afford to train and equip standing armies. This allows them to conquer anything smaller than them, thus securing more resouces and allowing for a larger army. Led by either a religious figure or a family descended from a war-leader, city-states generally expand until they hit an insurmountable obstacle, usually another city-state. City-states usually consist of one walled city and as much land as it can control.
.
Coutries are the next evolution, being city-states with multiple cities. By this point, the army has proven to be less than optimal at dealing with internal probles, so a police force (or similar) comes into being. Architects ply their trade, helping to design and built things like Aquaducts, sewers, road nets and the other things required to allow the cities to continue to grow without becoming mired in disease and rot. Large temples are also built for the religious while the study of architectual defence allows for the positioning of fortifications at strategic spots to secure the borders. If the leadership is undermined or overthrown, civil war can easily rend a country in two, or cause it to devolve into a collection of city-states.
.
Empires are a collection of countries that are rules by a single one. Historically, Empires have run the gamut of being anything from tyrannical to benevolent, although the overall trend is to the former. The size of the Empire is dependent primarily on its ability to raise armies and deploy them to meet threats, meaning that communications become very important. Although many Empires practice a caste system and even slavery, others have stood for equality even at the cost of financial and economic instability (The British Empire turned against slavery, even though it was more economically rational to continue promoting it). Although Empires can last several centuries, internal pressures caused by desire for local control often cause them to fall apart. The wiser ones see this coming and voluntarily release all the countries that want independence (Again, the British Empire is a case in point).
.
World Governments are the logical endpoint of the spectrum of Empires. Unlike Empires, the need for an army is a great deal less due to the lack of external threats. Conversely, the need for law-enforcement organisations is greatly increased due to the internal pressures of trying to amalgamate multiple cultures that have often seen each other only as mortal enemies. Due to the reliance on communication to ensure that resources are sent to where they are needed, World Governments must at the very least have access to radio or some other form of message transfer faster than a person on a riding steed. Should there be more than one World Government in a solar system, the development of spaceships and weaponry will be a priority.
.
Solar Governments are the next step, being multiple planets ruled by a single government. Although their reach theoretically extends over the entire system, many malcontents will set up their own small colonies on asteroids and gas giant moons. Piracy may rise in these areas, meaning that a space police-type organisation will emerge, usually with a heavily-armed section for ‘frontier patrols’. Real-time communication being impossible (except via theoretical tech such as Tachyons), each planet will have its own local council or governor to implement the decisions of the central government.
.
Intersteller Empires are multi-system organisations with two models. The first is the Colony model where the originating system is almost always the seat of government, sending out colonists to expand its reach. The second is the Conquest model where the system with the largest spacefleet utilises its control of planetary orbitals to enforce its will under the threat of bombardment. The Colony model is far more stable due to the shared originating culture. However, the Conquest type is more able to protect itself against threats coming in from outside. FTL travel is required for this.
.
Galactic Empires are organisations that span entire galaxies. Non-ship FTL messaging is virtually required to allow for control, although a hierarchical method often works until someone with too much of a lust for power rises to a position where he/she can try to split an entire sector off, thus causing an intersteller civil war.
