Last month, I gave the
tip of Keep track of everything, in regards to the submission and publications
of your stories. I think that idea of
keeping track of things stuck in my mind, and when I had a random memory of something,
the two clicked together and I had a tip for this month.
Many years ago, on the
Discovery Channel, or Science Channel, or some such channel, they would have
these random specials. They would ask
something like, “What if an alien probe showed up at Earth?” and then they
would construct a fictional story about this idea where they could sprinkle in
some actual scientists to explain some specific idea. I would watch these specials, but mostly for
the science. The fictional aspects of
them I usually found … bland or stupid. I
think I just watched them to see what not to do in my own stories.
For example, there was
one where a small black hole was heading towards Earth. We figured out something was up because there
came this huge wave of comets kicked out of the Oort Cloud, and we eventually
figured out it had to be a black hole that would enter the solar system in like,
fifty years. Humanity rushes to build an
ark for some 10,000 survivors or so to escape to another star system. They do escape, just as the black hole eats a
large chunk of the Earth.
I only roughly remember
the plot for this – I believe a subplot is some billionaires didn’t want to
risk being left behind in the lottery for the survivors, so they use their
money to build an anti-matter drive ship which explodes on the launch pad – but
to me it seemed every choice they made was the wrong one. So for the next few weeks, I tried to work
out the “better” way to deal with this random, very specific situation. And then, like most things, I eventually set
it aside and it just became a dim memory rarely remembered. I could explain what I remember of my idea,
but it basically boils down to instead of building one giant ark to escape to
another solar system, they should have built hundreds or thousands of smaller
ships and start sending them out to the outer parts of our solar system as soon
as they were finished. Then, after the
black hole passed through, they could return to the inner solar system to
either recolonize it, or to gather the resources to build the ark.
Anyway, the reason I
bring all this up, is that over the years I’ve tried to look up the original
show to see how accurate my memory of it is.
But I can’t remember the title of it, what channel it aired on, or even
what year it aired. And even when Google
gave you actual results, instead of pointless ads or AI slop, I couldn’t find
it, so I have no idea how to find it now.
So my writing tip is, if you ever come across something that sparks an
idea for you, maybe make a note of it. Because
there’s a chance twenty years later you’ll want to look it up for some reason,
but won’t have any luck.
***
Image from Pixabay.
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