#writing solarpunk

[t-rottengod]

I need someone to talk to/with/about Solarpunk either in English or french bc I feel like I'm going insane and I'm shaking awfully with the urge to talk about it.

[qoyash-punk]

My solarpunk story ideas: Solarpunk VS the Past

I got kind of tired of keeping my ideas in the dark. Silence kills creativity. I want to share my unfinished, imperfect brainstorms and WIPs just to get them out of my system and, perhaps, get some feedback. After all, shouldn't I help fellow creatives by sharing my ideas with them? Why the heck not?

So, here's some things I think about for my solarpunk story/stories and setting. This is probably part one of however many it will become.

Many find it difficult to imagine conflict in a utopia. So why not have the conflict result from a danger to said utopia?

Maybe it's my liking of fantasy or my interest in folklore, but I simply cannot imagine my solarpunk world without mythical creatures. In terms of creating conflict, I imagine ancient monsters returning to give humanity a hard time. These monsters are inspired by the bashqort epic "Ural Batyr" (because of course they are). Though most were defeated by the hero at the dawn of time, they have gained more strength and came back because of human greed and foolish disregard of nature and memory (something closer to modern times, like destroying an ancient mountain for resources and thus freeing the monsters trapped underneath it). These evil creatures resent humans and want to destroy the planet's nature, because a) they know it will destroy humanity and b) reviving and immortalizing nature was the last feat of the aforementioned hero.

The monsters represent the mistakes made by humanity in the current times, which is the past for the solarpunk world, as well as the worst traits a person can have. "Ural Batyr" tells us that the human nature is inherently good. When someone rejects their own kindness in favour of greed or lust for power, they stray from this good nature, and thus, from their humanity. A detail I liked is that bad people like these were poetically described to have black blood. So I imagined that, if a monster takes advantage of a person, influencing them and pushing them to do bad things, the person would slowly gain more monstrous features. Of course, this person could always turn back if they rethink their decisions, apologize and make amends. The process may be long, but it's possible.

So imagine, if you will, a story where a sprouting or even thriving solarpunk utopia is threatened by ancient monsters that were freed by the foolish mistakes of the past.

[starlitesymphony]

Worldbuilding: The Timelost Arks

Hello, and welcome! This is the first post in a series on the worldbuilding behind my sci-fi WIP, Ark of the Timelost. I’m excited to show you my version of the very far future, where humanity has overcome impossible odds and thrived, but few people know the machinations behind their prosperity.

I ended up writing this from Quin’s point of view… it sounded kinda stiff when it was just me.

Links to Blurb and Snippet #1 - Snippet #2 - Moodboards - Everything Else

Please let me know if you’d like on or off the tag list. Thank you so much for reading :) @hklunethewriter, @writerray, @danceny, @loveiseldritch, @kaylewiswrites, @toboldlywrite, @lady-redshield-writes, @katekarl, @pigeonbooks, @ally-thorne

It begins with the end—the end of the Earth. The planet’s crust shattered into vast fragments, each of them programmed to grow and develop into self-sustaining environments, populated by echoes their previous flora and fauna. Including humans.

The arks wandered the stars in search of suitable worlds to terraform. They drifted out of contact with one another. Some even forgot other arks existed. Many arks faced calamities. Their passengers were forced to adapt to the circumstances, including life in total darkness.

Not much is known for certain about those times. We call them the Wandering Age, a time before prehistory, and know only that we were different then.

Everything changed when a leader aboard the ark Gallanthius noticed a planet off in the distance. The reasons for her decision aren’t clear, but it’s thought she couldn’t bear to watch the opportunity pass. She gained control of Gallanthius, and kept it on course until impact. No one knows what her name was. She’s known as the Navigator.

Some say the Mariner was her second-in-command, and that she survived the event and went on to achieve the first journey through warp, which is only partially known to be true. In fact, the Mariner lived thousands of years after the Navigator. By the Mariner’s time, Gallanthius had transformed into a thriving city.

The technology to fly through the heart of one star and emerge from another allowed her to visit and map other solar systems. She could travel from one inhabited planet to another in a few weeks, rather than years or generations. She came into contact with many other human civilizations, and reintroduced them to each other.

Some places, like Ruvey, my homeworld, have elaborate lore surrounding the Mariner. She did inspire the dawn of a new age, after all. She was said to have cured plagues, transformed the most desolate land to green, and driven away marauders. During the height of the Gallanthian empire, huge numbers of people traveled the stars on extended pilgrimage to sites where the Mariner is said to have visited.

The Mariner’s starship was the first of its kind. It used a special fuel, called prisma, to open stable wormholes. A large source of prisma had been discovered, but eventually, after centuries of heavy interstellar travel, it began to run out. Now, it’s the most valuable material in existence.

These days, almost no one travels to other worlds. Only the old wealth. Powerful people. Ones who speak for an entire planet. Sometimes merchants, manufacturers, business people, and their “mercenaries”.

But from what I know, no one travels through warp as often as the Troika.

It’s a word spoken only between us. The name for what we are. What our living armor makes us.

I wouldn’t say I’ve met many others. It’s too risky, Maddox tells me. Most of them don’t know about you. They don’t know I have an apprentice. It’s important that it stays that way.

The Troika work for powerful people. He does, anyway. Someday, I suppose I’ll work for them, too.

[starlitesymphony]

Timelost Worldbuilding #4: The Birth of Keitu

This week, we’re going back in time to thirty years before the beginning of Ark of the Timelost. To switch things up, instead of the usual vignette from Quin, I made a montage of lines from the actual book. The real juicy worldbuilding details.

To save getting really confused I’d recommend checking out this previous post, The Collective’s Troika. No worries, it’s short. If you’ve got questions, I’m happy to answer them!

Other links for my dystopian science fiction (…solarpunk?) WIP - Timelost Worldbuilding series - novel blurb/snippet - long snippet - moodboards - everything else

In the AOTT universe, humans have been profoundly connected to their nanotech-enriched environment for eons. They reproduce by appealing to their city. The primal AIs put potential parents and their genes through an arcane screening process, part of which requires allowing the city to read the entirety of one’s own memories. Kids are then grown in pod-like structures and emerge being able to walk. (Pods have their own requirements, like a constant mental connection to parents, among other things.)

The Troika, though, are barred from ever becoming parents. Because once you’re implanted with an armor seed, you change. You’re no longer human.

Not just anyone can be implanted. Troika rely on the city of Gallanthius to seek out possible candidates to become apprentices. Over the centuries, candidates have become increasingly rare, to the point where Maddox, Quin’s mentor, waited over a hundred years. And still, years ticked by without a peep from Gallanthius.

Keitu, my apprentice, was Ash’s idea. Your family is all gone? he asked me one day. Yes, I told him. They died of old age. Their great-grandchildren think I did, too. He asked what I thought of having children of my own, which prompted me to inquire what brought that on. If you can’t find an apprentice, he said, what if you could do that? Because wouldn’t your armor-altered DNA make the child compatible with your armor? That was a question I really didn’t know the answer to. Twelve years later, I still didn’t have an answer, and I could not get it off my mind.

The Troika keep their own secrets from the Collective. Only we can grow nanoseeds, and they’re microscopic. The Collective can’t spy on us with any sort of efficiency because nanoarmor can sense observers, not just devices. What we are is largely a mystery to them. They know our genetic patterns, of course, and the technical details of the nanotech. But why can’t you hack the building and grow a nanoseed? Why is it that even if the military conscripts a child who’s nearly identical to you, there’s no guarantee they’re compatible?

… By then, Ash and I were fighting nationalists on Taru Luna. He asked if I’d put any more thought into growing an apprentice.  And this time I told the truth. I wanted to do it. But I didn’t want a clone.

We took eighty nine percent of my genes, eleven percent of Ash’s, and submitted the template to the wills of the city. We hacked the building’s settings and grew a gestation pod in my study, and watched Keitu develop there.

Ash made me promise to tell Aneke, our mentor, about her by the time her neurons started firing.

It was a big spectacle of Collective meetings and Troika uproar. My inbox was a warzone.

Frankly, I didn’t care.

…

Keitu had just achieved full Troika status when Aneke’s ship vanished in warp.

With nothing to do but hope for the best, we waited to see if she would come through. Keitu and I left on separate assignments after weeks of nothing. I got a strange message from her while we were gone. She claimed she saw Aneke—while passing through warp. She saw her not in a ship, but standing on a world somewhere out in spacetime, like she’d been blown off course and Keitu managed a passing glimpse of her through layers of reality.

Everyone dreams in warp. Everyone sees things.

I didn’t think anything of it.

Keitu did.

… Since I had a full schedule and couldn’t talk her out of it, I had Ash go in my place.

All data feeds from their ship ceased when they entered warp.

No one knows what happened after that.

I called in every favor, every contact, every name from the Collective I could come up with. I wrote requests for personal travel until they ordered me to stop and informed me they were working on the problem. A Troika and her apprentice had been sent to the coordinates in question.

They did bring Ash back. Delirious, memory in shambles, armor compromised within a hair of his life.

There’s a thing the Collective believes about Troika. They wouldn’t say it to your face, of course, but they like to imply that the Troika are brainwashed, or deadened emotionally, mechanized to the point of unfeeling logic.

No matter how irrational it was, I still wished I’d been there with Keitu.

It was just as they said. I didn’t deserve an apprentice. I’d failed, and it was time for me to accept it. Another century alone.

… From the moment anyone steps inside the city, it reads them, subtly. The weight and pattern of your footsteps, the composition of your exhale. The city itself alerted the Collective to your presence, Quin. You fit a niche in the ecosystem, so to speak.

The Collective came to my door.

There are three of them appointed to interact with us, and while you might receive assignments from any number of individuals, these are the only ones you’ll ever meet face to face. They call themselves the First Three. They stood in the hallway in ridiculous matching suits, like they’d escaped from a marching band.

I never invite them inside. This was no exception.

The First said, You haven’t answered our messages.

The Second said, Is there a chance you would like to withdraw your application for an apprentice?

The Third said, It’s understandable if you’ve changed your mind.

Taking a moment to answer seems to make them uncomfortable, and rather…shifty. Like their features get fuzzy if you stare too long.

You see, the Third continued, you have given us a nanoseed. We presume you have not grown another since your last apprentice. We would be willing to strike a bargain.

We’ll have to talk about interest.

Personal travel.

Priorities.

Favors.

But if you’re unwilling to commit at this time, we must warn you, the candidate will not be available at a later date. She is most valuable as a future Troika but there are other options.

I wanted to step back and shut the door right in their unnatural doll faces. But I asked, What options?

As soon as I said the words, I knew the answer. Before this, it had never occurred to me that the nanoseed I gave them could have remained intact. I assumed they would study it. Not keep it in storage. Perhaps it seems obvious in hindsight that they would implant someone with my nanoseed without my consent, not to mention without official conscription documents.

The First Three said, in their plain, toneless voices, that the candidate would be joining a separate program.

I couldn’t tell what they thought of my silence. I had to play the part of the indifferent Troika. Used to working alone. What would I know about Collective programs?

So, I said, Let’s talk favors. I’ll give you a fully trained Troika in fifteen years. But Ash stays with Aneke. 

Fine. But you will have extra assignments. Some you might not like so very much. No protesting. No spamming inboxes.

I demanded official conscription documents for the candidate in question.

I agreed to a few specific jobs they had in mind, and the donation of a lock of hair.

It grew difficult to remain stoic. With each concession I made, my lungs seemed to shrink. Finally, I said, I’m yours for six years. Whatever you ask, consider it done. At the end of that time, the candidate will be past childhood, and will become my apprentice. Until then, this conversation stays between us.

The First Three sniffed, exchanged looks, and agreed to my terms as if it was what they’d wanted all along.

(Thank you so much for reading!)

[starlitesymphony]

Tagged!

@morriganwrites-0124​ tagged me, thanks <3

1. What is the working title of your book? Ark of the Timelost

2. Where did the idea for your book come from? I abandoned my previous project after 3 drafts. I wasn’t intending to start a new one anytime soon. But I heard this song (Return by Bruderschaft) and I just knew the main relationship in the book, between Quin and her fallen-from-grace mentor, Maddox. The plot came naturally from there.

3. What genre is your current work in progress? Dystopian science fiction. Maybe solarpunk. Can’t decide.

4. Choose the actors for your movie rendition. Quin--Mila Kunis (I like to imagine Quin has her voice), Maddox--Keanu Reeves, Ash--Gackt (...yeah)

5. Give a one-sentence synopsis of your book. Three assassins commandeer a starship and journey to another planet to rescue the youngest’s mother from the midst of a rebel uprising.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent? In a perfect world, I’ll get a good agent…but I’m not opposed to self-publishing. I like options.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft? One Nanowrimo. I ended up with a sparse novella. Like the skeleton of a novel.

8. What other books would you compare your story to? The Left Hand of Darkness, or Dune, maybe…?

9. Who or what inspired you to write the book? Trying to heal from the past. An assortment of media. Deciding not to give up just yet.

10. What else about your book might pique (sic) reader’s interest?

Starships and arks as microcosms of nature

Sprawling galactic empire falling into ruin

Only a handful of characters

Intimate POV

Shapeshifting and other powers

Spy vs spy

Metaphysical connection

Big plot twists

Slow-burn romance

@worldbuildingwren, @nightskywriter, @audreyroseb, @katekarl, @weathershade Only if you’d like to do it, no pressure. (Please just let me know if you’d rather not be tagged.) Hope your projects are going well!

[starlitesymphony]

Cringe Wave

I was tagged by the Queen of the Simverse herself, @firewritten, thank you so much :)

Rules: 1. Post a quote or short excerpt from your early days of writing. (I’m talking old fanfics, slash fics, original fics, etc., that are barely edited and have a ton of technical errors and misspelled words.) This is the cringe part. Don’t edit anything! Let it be horrendous. Don’t Panic. 2. Post a quote or short excerpt from one of your most recent works/WIPs. Something that you’re proud of. Something that you’ve written that makes you smile when you read it. 3. Tag a writer you admire, anyone who you think is amazing, new friends, followers, writeblrs, anyone who you’d like to know more about. If you think someone is a great writer and you want to see how they’ve developed their skills, tag them! Everyone started somewhere.

Cringe wave, it’s called. And cringe I did. This is the opening paragraphs of a fantasy novel I wrote when I was in high school, so circa 2004. The working title was just “Rune Village”.

The warmth of the sun is a welcome guest in the chilly morning air. Jade’s division has been leaving the shutters open all night during the summer, but he lies awake clutching his blankets, reluctant to leave his cozy hammock. It’s been a challenge to get used to the idea of seasons and weather—space stations don’t have day or night.

Jade arrived in early spring, when the grain was beginning to sprout in the fields and the trees were flowering. Clouds gathered on the horizon at midday without fail, a looming portent of the rain soon to drench the entire village, or hail coming to punch neat circular holes in the thatched roofs of the huts. Jade was astonished the first time he opened the door after dinner to find his hammock full of ice balls the size of his fist, but now it’s somewhat normal. So is five feet of snow overnight in the winter accompanied by fog so dense that it hides the surrounding forest, and spontaneous floods in the middle of summer from unreliable hot springs up the river.

Whew, thank goodness that’s over... This next one’s from chapter 26 of my current sci-fi WIP, Ark of the Timelost. I wrote this maybe two months ago.

A loud ricochet rings out. However, the crossrunner doesn’t report a hint of damage, or even the brush of a foreign object. I turn to look, suddenly faced with the towering, pockmarked visage of the cargo carrier—so breathtakingly enormous, I fight the impulse to flatten myself onto the crossrunner and make myself even smaller than I already am. Those bees up on the landing pad? I’ve practically become one of them.

A static touch on my shoulder grabs my attention. Ash is crouched down behind me, holding something in his outstretched hand. He rolls it across his palm, then lifts it between thumb and index finger. At first, it looks like a metallic apple bloom, a little silvery flower, barely the size of his thumbnail.

No, not a flower. A bullet. It wasn’t a ricochet after all. He must have caught it. No average bullet could ever pierce nanoarmor, so the impact bent six perfect petals back from the tip into the shape of a blossom.

He smiles and taps out a message, since the booming traffic and wind is far too loud to hear each other speak. |I’m sorry I called you out. I shouldn’t have said anything. I like how you look at me. I like you. I want to earn your trust. Maddox’s, too, but also yours.|

He reaches for me, tucking the bullet blossom into a coil of hair at my temple.

Somewhere beyond the tips of my fingers, in the depths of my neuro-connection to the crossrunner, I feel the crossrunner take over its own pacing and switch to autopilot. My nanoarmor clings to the sharp symmetrical edges of the blossom’s petals. My eyes lock on to him as he stands back up, seemingly oblivious to the ripping wind—even his trailing hair ignores it. He’s a force of nature all by himself, unaffected by quaint notions of everyday physics. A walking, talking hurricane.

Tagging @ally-thorne, @westywrites, @stirringink, @procrastiwriting, @teacups-and-tealeaves, @learning2beme, @jordisstigander if you want! Happy writing :)

[sprig-story]

Stories based in a solarpunk world lack some sources of conflict other stories rely on, so that can make it a bit more challenging to come up with ideas. I love brainstorming, so in hopes of helping someone, here is a list of ideas you can absolutely use:

The city or village is suddenly attacked by a strange creature/monster. The main character, an ecologist, must find out what caused the typically timid creature to attack.

Someone the main character cares for is framed for a crime they didn't commit. While the justice system in their world might be fair, the main character thinks their special skill set could lead them to the truth.

The primary power source of the city is suddenly dying, and a fix needs to be found. All the great minds get together to find a solution, but the main character is sure the answer can be found in the cities forgotten history.

A new blight is killing crops, and a cure needs to be found. The main character, who helps care for the community-owned farm, heads off into the forests to try and discover why the blight is not harming wild plants.

In a world where people have the power to help plants grow, the main character suddenly loses theirs.

A seemingly innocent stranger shows up, being chased by an evil group. The village uses their farm equipment and assistant robots to help capture the baddies.

A natural disaster hits, and the main character must save themselves and/or their loved ones. Once they get to safety, the community works to rebuild.

An underestimated character with a prosthetic limb wants to join an team dedicated to rescue missions, but will need to train to get there.

The main character hoping to improve on something vital to the city they live in accidentally causes its destruction. Now, they need to quest to get a replacement or figure out how to rebuild it themselves before time runs out.

The main character is working with their robot companion to find a way to save a loved tree that is dying of old age. Instead, they accidentally create a plant-animal hybrid. Scared what will happen if the creature is found, the main character makes plans to sneak the creature out of the city and to their grandparents home, all while using public transportation.

An explorer close to the main character goes missing, and only the robot companion returns. After repairing the robot, they both set out to find the missing person.

The main character sets off to explore somewhere new, creating a digital database of all the creatures they find. It becomes popular online, and so a group approaches the main character with a request.

With humans and nature back at a balance, the supernatural returns to the world. How will people deal with mermaids blocking the major boat-bus route, and brownies fighting robots for the right to clean the house?

Every person gets an elemental-based animal companion when they reach a certain age, but the one the main character gets is giant and refuses to listen. They must learn to get along before his animal companion accidentally hurts someone.

The main character wants to train to become a sky sailor: someone who travels the sky’s and documents the giant flying creatures there. The capital of the ship says he can’t take someone inexperienced. Later, they both find out they live in the same apartment after sitting across from each other in the community dinning hall.

Please feel free to add more ideas for everyone!

[sprig-story]

Prosthetics Tech

Robots and bionics often end up part of horror or dystopian plotlines, but there are many positive ways they are changing lives today.

Due to 3D printing, more advanced prosthetics are becoming affordable to everyday people, but that is only the start. In the past several years, there have been huge leaps in brain-controlled prosthetics that would move just like regular body parts.

They started off pretty bulky (some involving many wires and a headset) at an insanely expensive price, but that has changed. Now, they are lightweight, and some basic models can even be 3D printed(you can sometimes rent the printers in universities and libraries).

This is just the start, too. As the technology improves, bionic prosthetics may soon have touch capability; meaning people can feel what they are touching with a prosthetic limb.

So now we have prosthetic limbs that move and feel similar to what they are replacing, but what if you just want to blend in? If that is the case (even though some of the metal prosthetics look amazingly cool), then you can have your skin 3D printed.

This skin is fully functional, and looks just like real skin, even close up, and doesn't degrade. That is a huge leap for a wide range of medical problems, including burn victims.