Post by I.M.Bored on Jan 11, 2008 23:49:15 GMT -5
OK, here's my situation in a nutshell (or as much of a nutshell as I can put it in):
After many nights of idling in bed before falling asleep, I've come up with a basic plot to an original space opera.
Side question: Is it bad for over half of a space opera story to take place on present-day Earth? Heck, I even planned to have a whole chapter devoted to a Navy SEAL operation in Iraq.
Anyway, back to the main question: I need some feedback on the ever so important Chapter One where I introduce the protagonist and I have to make the reader care for it/her (it/her is explained soon).
Two quick and dirty paragraphs on the protagonist and basic plot of chapter 1:
Protagonist is a humanoid alien part of a subspecies possessing a natural ability that is quite sought after by said alien's military due to the fact that it's wartime. As a result, she has never seen her parents and has been trained from a young age to be a fighting machine. Some point in her life, she also receives numerous cybernetic implants. Her subspecies soon gets a reputation for being very lethal soldiers and she is no different. Present-day protagonist is a cold and efficient soldier on the outside but struggles to retain humanity inside.
So in chapter one, protagonist is tasked with passing important information back to her nation since the ship she's stationed on falls under attack and isn't guaranteed to make it back. I have her sitting in her little ship going through a wormhole with basically nothing to do.
I was thinking she takes a nap and I give more backstory via her dreams. I liked this idea at first, but then I realized I neglected to plan her dream
I have however, narrowed it to two ideas I like.
After a couple hours of thinking, I still don't know how I should tackle the dream. Should I give backstory on:
A.) Training and Implantation
B.) A Mission where she is forced to kill and doesn't like it
C.) Both
D.) A different idea
Any input is greatly appreciated :-D
After many nights of idling in bed before falling asleep, I've come up with a basic plot to an original space opera.
Side question: Is it bad for over half of a space opera story to take place on present-day Earth? Heck, I even planned to have a whole chapter devoted to a Navy SEAL operation in Iraq.
Anyway, back to the main question: I need some feedback on the ever so important Chapter One where I introduce the protagonist and I have to make the reader care for it/her (it/her is explained soon).
Two quick and dirty paragraphs on the protagonist and basic plot of chapter 1:
Protagonist is a humanoid alien part of a subspecies possessing a natural ability that is quite sought after by said alien's military due to the fact that it's wartime. As a result, she has never seen her parents and has been trained from a young age to be a fighting machine. Some point in her life, she also receives numerous cybernetic implants. Her subspecies soon gets a reputation for being very lethal soldiers and she is no different. Present-day protagonist is a cold and efficient soldier on the outside but struggles to retain humanity inside.
So in chapter one, protagonist is tasked with passing important information back to her nation since the ship she's stationed on falls under attack and isn't guaranteed to make it back. I have her sitting in her little ship going through a wormhole with basically nothing to do.
I was thinking she takes a nap and I give more backstory via her dreams. I liked this idea at first, but then I realized I neglected to plan her dream
I have however, narrowed it to two ideas I like.After a couple hours of thinking, I still don't know how I should tackle the dream. Should I give backstory on:
A.) Training and Implantation
B.) A Mission where she is forced to kill and doesn't like it
C.) Both
D.) A different idea
Any input is greatly appreciated :-D
