1. Story Statement:
A celebrity newscaster, hunting down his last big investigative scoop on Earth, must seek out a cure for an unanticipated infection or risk losing his berth on a generation spaceship scheduled for immediate launch to escape Earth’s collapsed ecosystem.
2. Sketch the antagonist or antagonistic force in your story. Keep in mind their goals, their background, and the ways they react to the world about them:
The world order and survivability of the human species is in full environmental and societal collapse. The generations today only know the Earth as an orange world in shades of black, brown, and gray. The world smells sickly ‘orange.’ They’ve never known clean water or green fields spotted with bright flowers.
An AI entity, Fluid Living Intuitive Companion Kernal (FLICK), embedded in Lexis’ brain communicates with him seamlessly, but takes a potentially sinister turn when FLICK establishes a language link with plants and begins to communicate with them. This becomes critical as AI as a whole begins to realize that humans created the disaster that has befallen Earth as told through the stories of the remaining plants. This becomes a vital change agent as Lexis undergoes his own physical metamorphosis.
A scientist, Dr. Federer, who has worked for the good of humankind to solve the problems has fallen into the trap of survival-of-the-human-species at all moral costs. Lexis unwittingly becomes one of Federer’s experiments.
Note on Science: Besides gene splicing, the scientists in this world have begun to master the development of pheno-typic plasticity in humans, which is a key driving feature in the rapid evolution of a species. For example, Holly trees with smooth leaves will respond to intense deer predation. When they are consumed by deer, to the point of a denuded lower half of the tree, they will grow spiked leaves the next year as a defense.
Above all things, the military and space force seem detached, but are also willing pawns of the power elites who have direct power over the populace. Tech giants control the body politic that serves at their bidding, The brainchild of Ian McMillan, the Generational Skip Program, Cosmic Odyssey for Settling Mankind Offworld (COSMO), consumed 90% of the power resources of the planet to put the elites and genetically ‘pure’ into space for the purpose of moving Earth’s ‘humanity’ and technology to an untouched and unexploited planet. McMillan’s power over Lexis comes into play when Lexis’ threatens COSMO.
3. Titles:
· Greenskin (Current Working)
· Bio Mecca or Bio Mecha
· The Euglena Factor
4. Comparables:
Disclaimer: This list is based on research only; I have not read these at this point. Thematically, they did seem to resonate with my current work.:
"Project Hail Mary" (2021) by Andy Weir - Weir's previous novel, "The Martian," was a New York Times bestseller and adapted into a successful film. "Project Hail Mary" was winner of the 2022 Audie Awards' Audiobook of the Year. While not a perfect match, the story centers around a last-chance mission in which humanity and the Earth will perish if it fails.
"The Water Knife" (2015) by Paolo Bacigalupi: This novel is set in a future where water scarcity has led to a collapse of society, and powerful individuals and corporations fight over control of the remaining water sources. It involves characters from different backgrounds navigating this harsh world and confronting moral dilemmas. It won the 2016 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel.
"The Windup Girl" (2009) by Paolo Bacigalupi: Set in a future where biotechnology is dominant, this novel explores themes of environmental collapse, corporate power, and the struggle for survival in a world ravaged by climate change and genetic engineering. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and the Locus Award for Best First Novel.
"2312" (2012) by Kim Stanley Robinson: In this novel, humanity has spread across the solar system, but faces environmental challenges. It explores themes of political intrigue, environmentalism, and the survival of humanity in a hostile universe. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
"The MaddAddam Trilogy" by Margaret Atwood: This series, consisting of "Oryx and Crake" (2003- shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction), "The Year of the Flood" (2009), and "MaddAddam" (2013), presents a dystopian future where genetic engineering has gone awry, leading to environmental devastation and societal collapse. It features characters from different walks of life struggling to survive and confront the consequences of humanity's actions.
"New York 2140" (2017) by Kim Stanley Robinson: Set in a future where sea levels have risen and submerged much of New York City, this novel explores themes of climate change, inequality, and resilience as a diverse cast of characters navigate the flooded cityscape and confront the powerful interests shaping their world. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
5. Logline:
On the eve of a planet-wide exodus-of-elites from an exhausted Earth, a celebrity newscaster is exposed to dangerous genetic material and undergoes a deadly transformation, which might make him Earth’s last great hope, but will more-than-likely kill him.
6. Conditions for Conflict (Sketch out the conditions for the inner conflict your protagonist will have. Why will they feel in turmoil? Conflicted? Anxious? Sketch out one hypothetical scenario in the story wherein this would be the case--consider the trigger and the reaction. Sketch a hypothetical scenario for the "secondary conflict" involving the social environment. Will this involve family? Friends? Associates? What is the nature of it?
Primary Conflict (drives through the core of the work from beginning to end and which zeniths with an important climax (falling action and denouement to follow).
The planetary survival environment sets the tone for the protagonist, who is a member of the elite class of society who will be able to leave the dying planet on a generation space ship. His world order is upended when he becomes a fugitive being sought for dissection. Surrounding his journey, others less fortunate are victims of the wealthy and scientists using them as test subjects. The action rises and falls around the protag as he comes to grips with his new reality, which doesn’t include access to the fleeing ships, but rather to a new order on Earth.
Secondary Conflicts or Complications [which can take various social forms (anything from a vigorous love subplot to family issues to turmoil with fellow characters)]
The protag has a love interest who toys with him as he does with her. He is willing to leave her when she doesn’t land a berth on the ship, but he is surprised when she betrays him for his berth on his ship. He’s also forced to forge new alliances and friendships with those he pities and sees as beneath him. But he’s not a total shit when it comes to those less fortunate, which is demonstrated when, early on, he sends enforcers in another direction from their pursuit, a street urchin.
Inner Conflicts the major characters must endure and resolve. You must note the inner personal conflicts elsewhere in this profile, but make certain to note any important interpersonal conflicts within this particular category.
The protag starts off a bit shallow and conceited. He’s pretty and a ‘player,’ but his aspiration is to join the social elites on the journey away from Earth. He’s deemed a proper ‘breeder,’ as well as a celebrity newscaster. As one of the elites, he considers himself immune from the suffering of the world around him until it becomes his personal reality. The story begins with his reporting on a ‘cleansing’ in Sector 24. What Wil fails to report is that a small society of the dispossessed live there and the robotic machines that scoop the rubbish for the power furnaces don’t distinguish between the trash and the humans. He must grapple with his own culpability.
His relationship with Tara is counter balanced with his new relationship with Rigby, and is recognized and resolved in the denouement. In the beginning it appears that he and Tara will find something deeper, but in the end, Tara betrays him. During Wil’s journey, Rigby becomes the deeper, richer relationship that he actually needed.
7. Setting
Overall: Earth is choked with CO2. Once great rivers, like the Shenandoah, trickle with sludge and waste. Most animal and plant species have suffered mass extinctions. Climate controlled buildings house the elites, while everyone and everything else suffers in the ‘real’ world. The power needs to feed AI and EV are monumental and massive trash processor plants spew fumes as they turn rubbish and bodies into power.
Newsroom: This is the future newsroom – Researchers, writers, and editors collaborate with off-site sources and field reporters, using elaborate heads-up displays. News feeds can send out customized news to individuals as well as broadcasting to large audiences. The newsroom is abuzz with researchers, editors and videographers with hover cams following them. Open on the news being delivered by Wil Lexis, celebrity ‘pretty boy’ newscaster and ace reporter. This world is bright with artificial light and high energy.
Sector 24: Like all the other sectors outside the tightly controlled Central City, Sector 24 is a stark contrast to Lexis’ world. It’s a forbidding world of dispossessed and impoverished scavengers and folks trying to eke out a ‘normal’ life. An old woman trying to nurse a tomato plant… children scavenging and fighting for trash… the dystopian existence brought about by great leaders like Warren Buffet who posited that frugality and poverty were relative, and that one wasn’t poor when there was roadkill to eat…
Central City: The city should be any modern city on an enlightened world. But the world glow is orange, dark, and forbidding. One can’t be in the open-air of the city without a breathing assist device. These devices are ubiquitous in this time of gross pollution fouling air, water, and land alike. Lexis has strange run-ins that foreshadow his future.
U-genics Labs: A strange lead is the inciting incident that sends reporter Lexis into the world of U-genics Labs where a mishap leads to his transformation. The work of the lab, both on Earth and in the spaceship plays a key setting in the science of the story and the corruption of the science in unethical hands. The holistic, state-of-the-art lab is intimately involved with the redesign of the human species, focusing on pheno-typic plasticity as the key driving feature in the evolution of a species (Holly Tree example).
A Sector Dump: Mutant rats and violent scavengers have full run of the dump where Lexis’ body is dumped after he discovers the true nature of U-genics Labs.
Lexis’ Apartment: This is the modern apartment of Wil Lexis. Thinking of amping this scene with a new setting:
“Synthia” a Psycho-Sensory Underground Club: Escapism is a part of this world (like any other), but with augmented reality and psychotropic drugs readily available, this version of Earth escapism is akin to an opium den on the wharf of old seafaring cities. People can choose their ‘poison’ as hey escape from the bleakness of their everyday lives through sensory overload. But the experiences range from euphoric highs to those who choose nightmarish hallucinations.
World Hospital and Mutant Refuge: This is a popup field hospital run by Dr. Rho who champions mutant rights and cares for the poor. She’s the Mother Theresa of her time, but not as cruel. She leads the unique community of mutants who face persecution from both humans and machines.
Space Port: Shuttles are commandeered and the generation ship is infiltrated via the space port.
New Hope—Generation Spaceship: This is the ship where the final physical battle ensues just before its launch window. Two of the ‘evil’ dudes escape justice and launch a shuttle from Earth to reach the normalcy of the world inside the ship (where they also wield power) and thus escape the ravages of the planet. But the ship is beyond reach and the shuttle with barely 5 minutes of burn time disintegrates as it burns falling back through the atmosphere. In a slight twist, a small cilium wriggles along the captain’s neck, earning a slight scratch.
