Need help to finish a story . HEEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!?

Question

I am a budding writer. I started writing about a story idea that seemed very promising then got totally and completely stuck. My story is a satire about a near future academy which –thanks to a revolutionary surveillance technology-is capable of studying sentient civilizations on distant planets. I created 3 interesting characters(religious female scholar, haughty male scientist, creative male pacifist with whole the religious scholar is in love) and I described the academy, the technology, a few interesting lessons gained from studying other civs, and then I'm out of fuel, unable to invent the struggle necessary to keep all stories interesting. Do you have any suggestions to keep my story going on?Some spice, some struggle or problem that needs to be resolved and gets the reader involved?

Answer 1

well u share the money u get by publishing this story??didn't think so

Answer 2

One idea you might try is that the people at the academy discover, through their research on a distant civilzation, that there is a crisis in that civilization. It could be that their planet is undergoing evnironemntal change and will soon be uninhabitable, or that there is a war looming with a civilizaztion from a neighboring planet, or something else

Then the real stroy becomes: how do your heros in the academy help the people from the other planet resolve their crisis even though they are far away? Or do they? Take it from there!!

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

you could take this story in any number of directions: you could have the machine break down, and what people thought they were studying wasn't it at all; you could even have a representative come over and try to 'explain' themselves, and be completely ignored; you could have someone from one of those civilizations come here as a reverse culture-studying program and talk about the problems of communication (Ashna comes to earth simply to ask "does Luke really love Laura, where is this General Hospital, is it open to the public?").

Stories have points to them, a reason for being. What is it you really want this story to say, to explore? Is it about the advance of technology without the advance in human intelligence (duh, wonder what would happen if I pushed THIS button), is it about the more we know, the less we understand, is it about how we are all the same, even if some of us are 12 ft tall and smell of fermenting cheese? When you have that idea, then you begin to understand the conflict that drives the story, the crux or center where the intent revolves around.

Answer 4

develop more than three characters or have someone from a different civilization contact one of these three people directly. have the contact be of a similar nature in form and a romantic interest develop from there. you might also have the pacifist be the person contacted and because of a problem in the other civilization become an aggressive type because of the other civilization female and if the female religious scholar loves the pacifist she has to prove her love by saving him " from a fate worse than death. " good luck.

Answer 5

Aside from the love interest that you suggest and the technical aspects, any successful story-line HAS to have at least one conflict and, preferably two if not three!!
Where are your conflicts? How will they be resolved? Reading between the lines - you have NO conflicts built in to your story yet. THIS IS ESSENTIAL.

Answer 6

Would you mind adding an Atheist to the mix? My character contends that if our existence is improbable so much so that a supreme being had to create us, then I say that the creation of a supreme being is that much more improbable.