Hi, can someone help me wih character selection for my story

[Blue Moon]

Well the name says it all, however bare in mind that it is a sci-fi novel series. still any tips?

[whitehawke]

Blue Moon,
Hi there. I have just moved your thread to the writers lounge because it has to do with writing. It should get more attention here. Have a good day.:)

[Blue Moon]

Hey thanks for writing something the thing I am having trouble with is what type of equipment I should have. any suggestions?

equipment as in guns as opposed to blasters or should I keep it in the realm of swords and knives as I have all three archaic now and futuristic if you want the full list I could write it albeit very long 125 total pieces of equipment.

[DrRita]

Be creative, that's what sci-fi fantasy is all about. Give the reader something new and innovative. It's your world, create it however you want.:D

[whitehawke]

I don't write Si Fi myself, but allow yourself to dream.

What do you feel your characters want?
Sit down with pen and paper and write down everything that comes to mind. Ask questions on paper and write down the answers you get then ask questions based on those.
Who is the good guy?
Who is the bad guy?
What does the good guy want to do?
How does he get to where he needs to go?
What must he overcome?
What does the bad guy want?
How does he try and stop the good guy?
What must he do to try to defeat the good guy?
Who wins? The good guy or the bad?
Do you know where your story starts?
Do you know where or how it ends?
Where does it all take place?
Draw a map if that helps.
Pray about it. Ask the Lord.
Have some fun.

[Blue Moon]

thanks for answering but i've already decided those things i'm wondering how to figure out which equipmen I like he best and I am extremely indesicive. how do you guys know what you like and why? if you don't mind me asking?

which equipment would you choose were you in the story, which by the way you can be I haen't finished production yet but still, any ideas?

[Merry]

Oh, I dunno, I always thought highly-charged, trans-reversible, electro-magnetic coils worked in a pinch. But then sling-shots are also good. If this is an advanced race visiting a not-so advanced planet, you could use both.

I guess the best way to go about it is to look at what the characters need to do and then just supply them. Hope that helps.

By the way, Blue, just wondering, are you a student? College? High School? Or even Jr. High? It might help us figure out how to help you.

[Blue Moon]

trying to go to college but havn't yet. I however have already inented he use of a technology based on Starseed which is a sort of naturally made battery it is the focus of my story hence the name Starseed. The type of equipment I wanted was either the old style such as swords powered by starseed or guns, rifles powered by starseed, or the traditional blasters and phazers. my story contains all of these I hae trouble figuring out so I was wondering whether you thought which was better. I love the character I am trying so far but I would still loce advice, as I don't think he will work out.

I am going to church and will be back to answer the questions you post past now, see you later.

[DrRita]

Starseed---has a nice ring to it. I think the concept would be a good one. As for your main character, why wouldn't he work out?

[AngelAzariah]

_____I have a list here called "The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés (http://www.geocities.com/evilsnack/cliche.htm)" that I think everyone should read at least once. Gump sent me to it a long while back, and I'm still laughing at the stuppidity.
_____As for my own openion. I try to never do anything that any other writer has done. For example, insted of my main characters getting married at the end of the series, they are married in the first book. That gives me plenty of time to do marrital fights, and what have yous. Then I write fantacy, but their is no magic. I came up with my own concept for supernaturl power.
_____Stargate is a great example of stepping away from Startrek/wars... aside from adding the dumb "Star" part to the begining. Starseed even gave me that same feeling. Starship (does it twinkle and glow), starcarriur (it's a big post office), stargazer (you will go blind), starpatrol (yes, we need to make sure they follow the law), starpast (get that radio active glow you've always wanted for your teeth), and ok I'm getting bad now. :p
_____The word "star" is as overused as "X." Oh we added X to the word and it means X-Itment, like an X-Labatome. Dune was really cool and orginal "The spice must flow, the spice has enabled us to live for four hundred years, it is the bases of life for our intire univers!" Then again, we could go back to the good ol' word fun"ner." Anyhuu, I think I've rambled on enough about the superstarXsubject here. :D

[Blue Moon]

well usually I have this sure feeling you know when you think man this is it. But that time I didn't hae anything, howeer while I was at church God showed me the basis for my character. Thanks for saying those nice things and if you like I could write down some of the theories posted if you guys would like to see them. oher than that I would still love to talk about what type of weapons you guys think are cool for sci-fi and so on. Personally I think that if it doesn't have laserguns than it isn't sci-fi, bare in mind that is my opinion. what are yours?

[AngelAzariah]

_____My idea of science fiction is:
_____Works of fiction that use scientific discoveries or advanced technology — either actual or imaginary — as part of their plot. Jules Verne and H. G. Wells were early writers of science fiction. More recent ones are Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury.
_____20,000 legues under the sea has been one of my favorits for a long time. Besides, a PC53 sounds like a much better gun. It's not real to my knowlage, but a partical cannon that has five second bursts that come in three secound intervuls sounds technical and powerful. In Star Wars, everything is a blaster and called thus. How do I get across to someone that I want the big friggen evil blaster on the big round gray object and not the little blaster that the white guys come with?

[Blue Moon]

well I too ran into this problem with my story until I read a book called Startide Rising. in it they had a things you need to know section. I am going to make one myself for Starseed. mostly because there are 25 melee weapons and I want people to know the difference. Also because it saes on needless monotonous storyline that could be avoided anyway. Personally I think that it would help to speed up the story so that your not ready half the book to get ready to start.

I also decided to have different names for stuff, like the normal blaster is a blaster but the big one is an ion blaster. But that's just what I did.

You could also have classes of stuff for size like A is small an B is big and so on.

[paulchernoch]

This won't answer your question, but may help you think things through. When I envision a science fiction or fantasy world, I think about how people take a simple thing and find a million uses for it. Some poor stories have a few good scientific ideas, but they have not been thought through to their implications. For example, we do not just have cars that use an internal combustion engine, we have trucks, minivans, SUVs, earth moving equipment, generators, you name it. And velcro is on shoes, baby diapers, clothes, luggage harnesses, etc.

So if the scientific idea is new, you must show the ripples of change. If it is old (in the world you are writing about) either is has many uses, or there is some political or religious reason why its uses are restricted (like nuclear power in this world.)

In the fantasy series I am writing, I had my hero discover some clever ways of exploiting some natural resources that were plentiful in his world, but no one had paid much attention to before. But after he did this, I had to answer the question - why was no one else doing the things he could now do? I decided that I needed to allow other people to begin to exploit some of his ideas (even his enemies), which changed the story radically! And I had to provide a justification for why some of the things he did could not be done by others.

So choose your weapons carefully. But then decide:
- Do criminals have access to them?
- What kinds of arms control beauracracy and procedures are used by society? (The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. Van Vogt is a good read.)
-etc.

- Paul

[Blue Moon]

Paul, I thannk you for your post. I too had to come up with a way to do this. Yet I had a different perspective, I didn't like in Starwars how Darth Vader could use "Light"sabers too. So when I made Starseed I decided to give the bad guys Darkseed, eentually they came to represent God's power (Starseed) and Satan's (Darkseed).

This is the very reason that I had the entire Soereignty built and supplied and powered using Starseed. I thought this was a good way to represent one of my favorite passages. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" phillipians 4:13

Furhter I love the fact that when I did this I decided to have a well known twist where people that's right humans use Darkseed and just like you it changed the course of my story forever, from 3 books to 7

So what do you guys think and seriously hanks for the adice.

[Blue Moon]

Well I would like to finish this my first thread with the knowledge of telling you God is helping me find my character, so far he's pretty cool. I love that the first time on any site I have ever been able to post something like his it recieves 150 some viewers, and a few poss. Your adice and emcouragement has been terrific, God bless you all, Peace out!