Why has there been a recent surge?

According to Wil Wheaton over on Suicide Girls:

“…a lot of the same fears and geopolitical conflicts that dominated the post-WWII era when apocalyptic fiction really got started are alive and well today. We don’t have the Cold War, but we have terrorism, global warming, and a government that does everything it can to keep us in a constant state of fear and uncertainty. When we feel like this, one way we cope is by creating worlds where the worst of our fear have been realized, worlds where we can walk away if it gets too scary, and maybe it prepares us to deal with that world, should we create it for real.”

Smart guy. I think he’s right. The themes of my post-apoc universe are synthesized out of many of my personal fears, and looking at issues of the day and thinking, “What’s the worst that could happen?” More importantly, “How would we deal with it?”

It’s the essential what-if of all good sci-fi, post-apoc, and dystopian stories.

Thanks to our buddies over at SF Signal for the heads up on that one.

“Incluing is a technique of world building, in which the reader is gradually exposed to background information about the world in which a story is set.”

OR:

“The process of scattering information seamlessly through the text, as opposed to stopping the story to impart the information.”

As a gamer, I’ve always had a natural appreciation for incluing. There are a multitude of examples in my favorite games, such as Half-Life, Fallout, and Oblivion. Because games are an interactive medium, they naturally inclue information to the player by distributing it throughout the world.

Fiction writers don’t have it so easy. The world is not revealed in an interactive manner, and so it is harder to inclue items about the world in a subtle fashion.

I have an odd solution to this, given I’m creating a metaseries media franchise.

For example, a murder occurs in Story A, and a news item about that murder occurs in Story B. Cross-referencing is a great way to inclue while also creating a sense of depth to your franchise as a whole. Long-running TV series such as Stargate SG-1 often reference past events in the form of inclues, although SG-1 does its share of infodumping as well.

How do you inclue? Well I’m not certain what will work for you, but I’ll tell you what works for me. Occasionally in thinking about my sci-fi world details, I’ll think of references I can plant from one story to another. It could be a major event. It could be as simple as a press release by a corporation. No, of course you don’t batter the reader with the entire press release — that would be infodumping. Instead you have it on the TV in the background while the character is moving past an electronics shop. The character catches the snippet in media res.

Better yet, use it in your bar scene. There are always TVs in bars, showing sports, news, or what have you. That is the perfect time to give the reader an inclue. What should it be? Preferably something related to the story at hand, but if not then a quick flash about something from one of your other stories makes a nice cross-reference, and at least an easter-egg.

An easy way to bring inclues into your fiction is to use other media within your fiction. You can use news or radio broadcasts, advertisements, billboards, magazines — any form of media that exists in the real world surely has to exist within yours. These are perfect frames to give the reader more information about your world as a brief inclue nugget.

They might hear it on the radio station, or read it in a book via a Frame Story or even a fictional fictional character.

When you think of a cross-reference or inclue, write it down. You won’t remember it later. Keep a wishlist of possible inclues for your story, and incorporate them into your story once you find the appropriate scene for them.

Incluing is a powerful device, especially for sci-fi, fantasy writers, or anyone who has done a significant amount of world-building. Enjoy!

“That’s what Atlantis did well in that we created a universe wherein multiple storylines could be born and take place and spread and grow. Those are the lessons we learned building SG-1 in the first place. While it started with mythology at its root, very early on, by mid-way through Season Three and [the] beginning of Season Four, we had created enough of our own mythology that wasn’t rooted in the culture of “X.”"

One of the strengths of the series is its ability to remain fresh after so many seasons, and the best I can determine is that their ability to do this relies heavily upon those open threads. You can resolve a thread with a villain being killed… or so it appears. But maybe they are revived, cloned, take a new body, or found a way to escape at the last second that the hero didn’t know about. While this is standard fare, the more interesting type of open thread is when an episode features a new discovery: New technology, ancient artifact, riddles constructed out of alien languages. The characters never truly know the full story. A pillar inscribed with text may lead to certain discoveries in one episode, but the interpretation of that finding may change or evolve in drastic new ways in a later episode.

It is safe to say that the SG-1 writers did not have entire story arcs across multiple seasons planned out in advance. So then how did they make it seem like they did plan it? They left themselves enough open threads, and had confidence in their own abilities to deliver on those open threads when the time came. Making yourself seem like a master story arc planner is just a matter of leaving yourself enough opportunities to create that illusion through future stories.

Outside of that race, there are other alien races and enemies who further expand the pyramid of villains. The result? The heroes never have any shortage of enemies, or conflict. What’s interesting is that all the villains within the pyramid scheme have an explanation for how they got there, their alliances (or lack of) with other members of the pyramid, conflicts between factions, etc. When it’s done well, a pyramid of villains should have a history, a background, and examples within the story of the relationships between different members of the pyramid.

Got a pyramid of villains?

I’ve found myself reading more as well. I’m not sure is just the ebb and flow of things, but it’s been less about output lately and more about input. I need to restock my brain with some memes. At the same time I can’t help but wonder if this ‘research’ is prolonging the inevitable completion of my work.

Do you go through similar cycles? Is research an addiction for you? Procrastination? Or is it merely a refilling of the well?