WRITING ADVICE: Julie Czerneda’s Writing Workshop! #7 More On “The What if...?” Scenario

In 2005, whilst perusing the shelves at the Hennepin County Public Library, I stumbled across CHANGING VISION by Julie Czerneda (say it: chur-nay-dah), an author I'd never heard of, and was intrigued by the aliens on the cover by artist Luis Royo. It didn’t matter that the book was the second in a series, the cover entranced me and so I read. The book was spectacular, I read others, and fell entirely in love with another series of hers called SPECIES IMPERATIVE for its fascinating aliens and superior characterization. A teacher deeply at heart, Julie Czerneda shares ideas and methodology wherever she goes. On her website, http://www.czerneda.com/classroom/classroom.html she shares ideas for writers. I want to share what kind of impact her ideas have had on my own writing.  They are used with the author’s permission.

“The what if…? Scenario: What more might we be capable of doing or discovering from this starting point? a speculation about another application of this science. Who or what else might be affected? a speculation about a combination of this science with another aspect of science or society. How might this approach or information affect something else? an extrapolation of the impact of this science, if successful, into the future. If this happens/works, what might be the situation in 50 years, in 100 years, and so on.”

I know I did this one earlier (#2), but we’re having HUGE problems with our internet capability and it appears that our connection to the outside world has been severed – literally. Here in Minnesota, we’ve had some of the coldest temperatures in recent memory and they happened all of a sudden. Cars are stalled on side streets, heaters are burning out, water mains breaking, and communication devices are acting strangely. We won’t be back on until Tuesday, so I have no ready access to information.

The direct impact here, is that I’m taking an aspect of Julie Czerneda’s writing advice and tilting it in a different direction and looking at how I’ve applied her methodologies in other ways.

In particular: “The what if…? Scenario – ‘an extrapolation of the impact of this science, if successful, into the future. If this happens/works, what might be the situation in 50...years...”

Several years ago, when the news first came out that matter transmission was possible and everyone leaped from there to STAR TREK transporters (and the franchise itself leaped from transporters to something they called “trans-warp beaming” which allowed Kirk and Scotty to beam from a prison planet into the Enterprise half a gazillion light years away, and allowed Khan Noonian Singh to beam from Earth to Qon’os, the capital of the Klingon Empire, some gazillions of light years from San Francisco (and powered by a suitcase-sized…thing) – instantaneously), I responded more reasonably *smirk*.

In my future, Humans have applied the information they’d discovered regarding quantum entanglement and matter transmission – but have been able to push the practical distance a large physical object could be transmitted to only ten meters.

So what do you do with such a tiny movement? The first step led to a hop. But it seems the technology is stuck at skipping – where space to planet “beaming” is a jump and “trans-warp beaming” is a leap! What possible use could matter transmission over such short distances have?

I can think of a number off-hand (of course, I’ve thought about this, too!). Hostage rescue might be one application. Surgical procedure would be revolutionized. Security would become a moot point both from a “breaking and entering” point of view and a PROTECTIVE point of view as well as placing miniature monitoring devices under the skin of animals, children, cars, TVs, computers, etc. Moving furniture into or out of tight spaces might be accomplished easily, as well.

 How about street-crossing safety? In my world, most major cities have matter transmission crosswalks. How prosaic is THAT?

So I’ve set it up so that poverty is still with us, beggars are on the streets, but “skip-jumping” is commonplace. I stirred in the ingenuity I see in my students at the high school I work in and what they are capable of doing with technology – sometimes outside the parameters of safety as well as the law. (Cory Doctorow’s new book, HOMELAND looks at this phenomenon skillfully and with dry humor as well – he clearly has a deep respect for adolescent intelligence and daring!). My end result was two stories, one published, “Skipping School”, one not, “Skipping With The Dingoes”.

In the first, teenagers have figured out how to alter routes between crosswalk skipgates using their smartphones. Beggars and thieves use the knowledge to do purse snatches and escape.

The methodology is NOT perfect and some forty percent of the time, kids end up materializing in solid objects. My main character Jonterrius, is targeted by a woman with no legs. Targeted for what? Read the story here: http://theworkandworksheetsofguystewart.blogspot.com/ . Let me know what you think. I wrote a second story that was supposed to be the beginning of a novel – but it felt like a novel beginning and while I didn’t sell the story, it’s been sitting in my files for some time. That one is called “Skipping With the Dingoes” and involves an aboriginal boy and an American boy and an experience they share in the Outback. I’m not sure if I want to post it or hold it back for a possible submission somewhere. Not sure – I’ll keep you posted.

As to this Writing Advice, the main point is that the “What if…?” scenario is endlessly useable and used in ways quite frankly, I still am not sure of!

Image: http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/red-white-striped-poles-26609896.jpg