Randy Dutton's Blog - Posts Tagged "plots"
Where to Get Plot Ideas
From what obscure sources do you get your creative plots? I’m a Crichton fan. For me, story ideas are taken, not from the headlines, but the trade journals, blogs, press releases, and obscure comments to articles. By the time I see an issue in the mainstream headlines, I know a hundred others are writing about it. I like to be cutting edge so avoid the obvious. I’m a member of numerous science newsletters, blogs, and groups. I’m a skeptic and contrarian – I seek out the obscure and I don’t believe all that I read. And it helps that my wife is a freelance science writer specializing in genetic engineering and computer security. She’s always willing to throw ideas around, and a simple comment about an item she ran across can have me scurrying to do more research as happened with a little known computer hacking capability that allows the compromising of smart buildings, vehicles, and medical devices. A sounding board is a valuable asset to any writer. When I read a science article emanating from a press release, I read the reader comments, often from those in the relevant science or even business field. They often are pointing out the articles’ absurdities, weaknesses, and missed opportunities. I presume all articles are flawed, and the writer or magazine has an agenda, or at least a bias. From the data I ask the salient questions – Who stands to gain? What are the good and bad consequences? Who doesn’t want this, and why? What wasn’t mentioned? What assumptions did they make, that are wrong?
I demonstrate the effects of my eclectic data mining in my ecopolitical thriller, The Carbon Trap. Everyone talks about rising atmospheric CO2, but I flip that. What if CO2 were to plunge through mankind’s actions? After all, CO2 used to be 7,000ppm and dropped to 280ppm before the industrial revolution. I presume there are millions of numbers guys like me who can identify trends, but to date have never seen anyone else ask what I would presume is an obvious question. At the rate of decline, how long would it have been before Earth’s atmosphere hit 150ppm? That is the likely CO2 concentration where nearly all plants on Earth suffocate. With a plot premise as such, I then ask how could CO2 be reduced, and is it likely? That set me on a quest to check government research and journals that validate my presumption that it already is in the works – government and industry are feverishly working on genetically modifying life to convert carbon rich biomass into fuels, chemicals, and precursors; and to sequester carbon so it is inaccessible. That then becomes the plot. But it doesn’t end there. As I dig deeper into the research, I run across other obscure technologies, and instead of dismissing them for being a diversion, I create a file for each with a short plot line and file it. This one book series has thus presented me with no less than a dozen different book ideas.
I demonstrate the effects of my eclectic data mining in my ecopolitical thriller, The Carbon Trap. Everyone talks about rising atmospheric CO2, but I flip that. What if CO2 were to plunge through mankind’s actions? After all, CO2 used to be 7,000ppm and dropped to 280ppm before the industrial revolution. I presume there are millions of numbers guys like me who can identify trends, but to date have never seen anyone else ask what I would presume is an obvious question. At the rate of decline, how long would it have been before Earth’s atmosphere hit 150ppm? That is the likely CO2 concentration where nearly all plants on Earth suffocate. With a plot premise as such, I then ask how could CO2 be reduced, and is it likely? That set me on a quest to check government research and journals that validate my presumption that it already is in the works – government and industry are feverishly working on genetically modifying life to convert carbon rich biomass into fuels, chemicals, and precursors; and to sequester carbon so it is inaccessible. That then becomes the plot. But it doesn’t end there. As I dig deeper into the research, I run across other obscure technologies, and instead of dismissing them for being a diversion, I create a file for each with a short plot line and file it. This one book series has thus presented me with no less than a dozen different book ideas.
