How do science fiction writers get their ideas? It's a question every writer who does a book signing, interview, or question-answer inevitably hears. Today we'll go step by step through the process.
Over the last few posts, I've gone into a lot of detail about environmental responsibility and green cleaning. We've talked global warming, we've talked trash, we've talked about environmental problems now and in the future, and looked at possible solutions.
The science fiction writer researches a topic and gathers as many of these possible solutions around her as possible. Then she examines them, one by one, and tries to think of all the new problems that could come out of those solutions. See, a story isn't a story unless there's a problem.
Let's get more concrete here and talk about coconuts. Yesterday in the segment on green cleaning I mentioned that today's environmentally friendly vegetable based soaps are made out of Copra (oil from the pressed seeds of coconuts). Sounds like a great idea, right? Coconuts are a renewable resource, and the use of soap in place of detergent cuts down on the use of the non-renewable resource, petroleum. An International Herald Tribune article even claims that the oil used to manufacture soaps is also being successfully tested in Samoa as an alternative fuel source for cars and power plants! Hooray for coconuts, they'll save the planet. They grow on trees, for gosh sake. What could possibly go wrong?
Evil giggle of the science fiction writer.
We already know biodiesel fuels have drawbacks. That solvent property that makes coconut oil into great dirt-dissolving soap, actually loosens engine debris which jams filters. Biodiesel breaks down rubber engine components and compromises seals and pumps in automobiles. Lower fuel efficiency, high cost, and sparse availability are also problems. (HowStuffWorks.com ) Can these problems be overcome? Sure. Car manufacturers can design new cars to run on these solvent, lower efficiency fuels. But what about Joe-Bob from Booneville, IA? He's still driving his 1990 Chevy Silverado. The old Silverado's still got life in her, but since everybody in the surrounding cities have switched to new-fangled coconut diesel, Joe-Bob can't find any old-fashioned fuel for his pick-up (biodiesel stalls the Silverado and stops her up good). Joe-Bob's wife is expecting their first son (Joe-Bob knows it's a boy no matter what that crank doctor says in Urbandale). The baby is practically a miracle, since Joe-Bob and his wife have been trying to conceive all seven years of their marriage. Joe-Bob needs the Silverado filled with old-fashioned diesel so he can get Peggy to Urbandale for the delivery without breakdowns. He's going to have to trek all over Dallas County to find the coconut-free diesel he needs- and the fact that his Silverado is out of fuel isn't going to make his journey any easier.
Enough Joe-Bob. Let's go city-chic.
New York goes green. Public transportation runs on coconuts. A heavy tax on petroleum based consumer products makes it cheaper for New Yorkers to buy environmentally responsible cleaning products. It's going to take a lotta coconuts to fuel, bathe, and scrub the city (or the nation!!). So what happens to all the coconut shells? It's not a long-term problem, since the shells will eventually biodegrade. But what if coconut shells became all the environmentally-conscious fashion rage? According to Wikipedia, coconut shells can be used to make buttons, musical instruments, and, my personal favorite, can be used to "theatrical effect" by making an "improvised coconut bra". Can you see it now? Lingerie shops across Manhattan, the dummies in the store front windows are dressed in hula skirts and coconut bras. All the best parties are filled with women who have rigged coconut shells to make a sexy, environmentally-conscious fashion statement. I can hear the jokes about shell size now.
On to more story-centric musing. Wikipedia suggests coconut shells can house small animals or make nifty guitar-esque Asian instruments and drums. The thing that strikes me about the coconut shell is that they can be hollowed. The coconut shell could be made into the perfect drug smuggling scheme. In my future vision, coconut shells, whole or hollowed, are going to be moving across borders for processing and waste disposal. Anything from cocaine to a bio-engineered germ that would kill millions of people (or maybe just wipe out all the cash crop coconut trees) could be smuggled inside a coconut.
My fingers are itching with three or four other more potential problems. Yikes! There's number five. This is how science fiction writers get their ideas. Not all of them make it to the story development phase, but science fiction stories are born as ideas, and this is (more or less) where they come from.
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