**SCENE PROMPTS** - Pick one, Add one, and Write!

[Updated 21 April 2015]

Here is a list of some, but not all, of the scenes we will need in the story. Feel free to add to this list as ideas occur to you. The list is more or less chronological, but they do not necessarily need to be written in order. (We'll fix transition problems and contradictions during the revision stage.)

Pick any scene you want to write. No limits. Once your draft is completed, please publish it as a separate post OR email it to csusmstd@gmail.com. Make sure to include the header line listed below so we know which scene you wrote.

We will link each header line below to the scene drafted for it as they are received. That way we can read each other's work and see what is still left to be written. 

It might be a good idea to earmark the scene you have selected to work on in the comments. That way we don't get multiple people simultaneously writing the same scene. 

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As mentioned above, these are more-or-less chronological, but can certainly change as needed. 

SCENE PROMPTS

STATIS

1. Sarah - Emma's daily life (exposition.)

2. Kendra - Marcus' daily life (exposition.)

TRIGGER

3. Sarah - Loren gifts Emma with the Journal.

4. Sarah and Kendra - Emma shows the Journal to Marcus.

5. Kendra - Marcus tries to look up an excerpt from the Journal. Either it does not come up in the Archives at all OR it comes up as Restricted. 

6. Kendra and Liz - Marcus translates a section of the Journal that raises red flags for them: it contradicts an important commonly held belief. 

QUEST

7. Sarah - Emma contacts somebody in the Social Dark for the answer to some riddle/question/complication in the Journal. There is some risk in making the contact. 

8. Sarah - Life outside the Social Dark. Reveal the close relationship between Emma and her grandfather.

9. Liz - Marcus and Emma learn an important truth from the Journal by venturing further into the Social Dark. 

10. Sarah and Kendra - Tension builds between Marcus and Emma as he becomes more involved in uncovering the truth, and Emma resists these ideas. She doesn't want to believe them. 

11. Sarah - Emma confides some of what she has learned to Loren, who is sympathetic and tells her what she wants to hear. 

12. Liz - Marcus and Emma learn another important truth from the Journal by venturing further into the Social Dark and into danger. 

13. Daydree - Marcus and Emma inadvertently meet Emma's cousin--runner up for Elect Apparent (and also a much better candidate, though Emma won't admit it.) There is some hostility between Emma and Cousin, but there are some sparks between Cousin and Marcus. 

14. Sarah - Emma (alone, or together with Marcus) confronts her grandfather about the truths they have learned so far. 

15. Liz - Sarah - Marcus and Emma learn a final important truth--the most crucial truth--by coming into contact with the Rebellion via the Social Dark. 

16. Daydree - Marcus and Emma are caught fraternizing with the Rebellion and arrested for treason.

17. Sarah - In prison: Loren promises Emma he will do everything he can to help both her and Marcus.

18. Daydree - In prison: Marcus confronts his mother. He learns something he did not know about her, his father, or himself that challenges (but does not necessarily overturn) his preconceived notions. 

19. Sarah - Emma's release - Loren stands up for her as promised

20. Kendra - The verdict/results of the trial: Marcus is banished to the Sublinary (which Marcus believes is actually a death sentence.) Marcus fights but is overpowered. Marcus may or may not believe that Emma is behind his sentence. He finally bursts an emotional damn and lashes out. 

SURPRISE (Marcus)

21. Marcus wakes up to find he is not dead--he is in the Sublinary. He meets people and gets a dose of how things work there. 

22. An exposition scene of the Sublinary through Marcus' eyes. Very challenging/awful time for Marcus. All his worst fears realized. (May be stretched to multiple scenes as needed.)

23. Marcus meets the Rebellion.

24. Marcus discovers a huge library that has been kept in secret for centuries

25. Marcus meets his father (OPT 1: his father is part of the rebellion. OPT 2: his father objects to the rebellion on either ethical or practical grounds and thinks Marcus is a fool for believing in it.)

26. Marcus goes ALL-IN to the Rebellion. This signifies how he is learning to overcome his fears and cope with what has happened to him. In other words, he is starting to become the badass he has always pretended to be.

CRITICAL CHOICE (Marcus)

27. Marcus learns that there is a way to get back, but it will require him to compromise something important. His reasoning/choice must seem questionable/dubious. (Readers begin to question if he is turning to the Dark Side?) 

SURPRISE (Emma)

28. Daydree - Emma figures out that she is pregnant. She does not tell Loren.

29. Daydree - Emma finds that there are other cases of spontaneous natural pregnancy that have been covered up--Marcus' mother is one of them. Emma confronts Marcus' mother about Marcus' true origins.

30. Emma learns about the impending invasion

31. Loren is revealed as the mastermind/instigator behind the attack.



CRITICAL CHOICE (Emma)

32. Emma betrays the Rebellion and warns the Core Council about the invasion.



CLIMAX

33. The invasion begins.

34. Marcus and Emma come face to face on opposite sides of the conflict.



REVERSE

35. Loren sacrifices himself to save Emma. (He may even save her from Marcus.) Idea: Maybe Emma saves Loren first, and then he reciprocates?

36. Marcus' choices lead to his mother's death in a very unexpected way. Perhaps Marcus' father kills her. Marcus must reexamine his motives, his choices, and all his preconceived notions that led him to this point. 

RESOLUTION

37. The invasion is put down. Emma's Cousin may play an instrumental role in this in a way that demonstrates her intelligence and selflessness, and therefore her qualifications for leadership.

38. The aftermath of the invasion. The degree of Loren's treachery is revealed, but the impact is mitigated by recalling his final act of sacrifice. 

39. Emma realizes she lacks essential qualities of leadership and renounces her claim to the Core Council in favor of her Cousin.

40. The Core Council finally makes some progressive changes that drastically improve the quality of life for the Underclasses: remove corrupt officials, redistribute wrongly accrued wealth/resources, opening travel to and from the Sublinary(ies), and at least start talking about lifting restrictions on art/free expression

41. Emma starts a Revisionist History movement and begins correcting archived history based on new knowledge gained from texts on the Earth library. Books will no longer be recycled, but preserved for future reanalysis. This gains recognition for the importance of the Humanities, and social views on this begin to shift. Her parents, at least, approve of her decision.

42. Liz - Emma finds some kind of Postscript written directly by Kori sometime after she came to the Homeworld. This sheds light on some unanswered questions about her motivations

43. Marcus and Cousin seem to be an item now.

44. Emma gives birth to a girl, whom she names Kori.

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Guidelines for Scene Writing: Hopefully these tips will help us all stay in the right mindset for the drafting process

• Remember, these are DRAFTS! Focus on getting the ideas and images posted first. We will worry about the revisions later.
• This is not a writing competition. As these are getting posted in DRAFT format, we all understand that they will be draft quality and not representative of our actual writing skills. 
• Anyone is welcome to leave comments, questions, etc. on any posted draft. We are drafting, not revising at this point, so please keep critiques to a minimum. Questions, things you liked, and ideas for later expansion will be much more constructive at this point. 
• While we all have a certain amount of dramatic license and flexibility, DO try to stick to our established storyline, character descriptions, backstory, and working titles/names as much as possible. 
• IF you have an amazing idea that would cause a very big divergence from our established story, let's discuss it in comments or in a meeting before you invest a lot of time on it. We don't want to inadvertently invalidate someone else's work without having a chance to negotiate first. 

Originally, we talked about making Point of View a mandatory restriction. I am reluctant to regulate everybody like that--with only a couple of weeks left in the semester, I worry it might limit our productivity as a whole if we feel like certain scenes are "off limit" for us to write.

If we're all in agreement, let's leave it up to personal choice which scenes and perspective(s) you want to write. That being said, I think most of us will probably choose to favor one perspective and voice or the other. It's a helpful technique. Also, some scenes may be helpful to have Marcus versions and Emma versions, but let's try to prioritize scenes that have no versions first. 

If you notice that certain scenes or POVs are being neglected, please step up and branch out a little. 

World Building - Past and Present

Present Day Homeworld

The Nation Origin Story

Emilyn Rose I is called the Last Queen of Earth. History tells us that when Aliens arrived on Earth, Emilyn was the queen of all. She embraced the aliens and married one of their captains, thereby uniting their two species forever. Through their combined medicinal knowledge, they were able to conceive the first Alien/Human hybrid and is therefore the mother of their combined, more perfect species. (Earth imagery of the Virgin Mary has been appropriated for this purpose.) 

Social Classes

To this day, citizens tend to be judged (consciously or unconsciously) on the level of their Hybridity. Those who exhibit unbalanced traits (either more alien or more human) experience subtle degrees of prejudice and are therefore much less likely to succeed professionally and socially. This is essentially where the Subordinate/Underclass comes from: those who are not sufficiently hybrid enough to blend in with polite (middle class) society. 

The Alien Home world is broken into three distinct social classes, or castes: Primary, Secondary, and Subordinate. The Primary class is a meritocracy made up of Engineers—those who produce new advances in applied technology. (QUESTION: Are there others who are behind the scenes “pulling the strings”? Does Engineering include training/knowledge in running the government?). 

Mobility IS possible: for example, those born in the Primary class may fall to the Middle Class if they fail to achieve a career in Engineering or Technology. (This is the case for Emma’s father.) Likewise, those born in Middle or Subordinate classes may get to the Primary class IF they can produce radical new technology that launches them into an Engineering career. In practice, however, mobility up or down is infrequent. There is a great deal of nepotism, and those who are born into positions of privilege are far more likely to maintain them because they have greater cultural currency than Subordinates/Underclasses. 

Class divisions are rigidly adhered to—they are deeply ingrained on a social level. Different classes live, work, and attend school apart from one another. There are no “laws” segregating them or forbidding their fraternization, per se. However, it would be considered a severe social faux pas and would elicit heavy censure and social ramifications.

Education

Formal education emphasizes well-rounded curriculums. All students receive the same education and study the same subjects, regardless of class. Subjects include: Fashion, Art, Finance/Business/Economics, History, Math, Engineering, Sports, etc. 

Students select which subject they will study at which time, however it is highly discouraged for them to favor one subject over another. The idea is for them to give each a fair share of their time and attention. Society’s goal is to produce “Renaissance Men/Women.” Formal education lasts for a very long time.

We have not yet discussed how education eventually translates to careers. Do they ultimately decide on a specialization in school? Is training all “on the job”?

Societal Values

Society is completely secular. Their most important value is a holistic approach to Health: Physical, Emotional, and Intellectual. Developing all three of these is the primary prerogative of formal education. Citizens who do NOT meet or exceed minimum Health standards are removed from society and sent instead to (one of?) the Sublinary. Nobody ever returns from this, so ideas are varied as to what it is and what happens there--all are purely theoretical. Representatives from the Sublinary have positions in government, but their reports are unverified--taken at face value. 

The Government

Prime numbers are revered because they are not divisible. There are 7 nation states, each of which have their own local governments and at least one representative as a member of the Core Council. 

The Core Council consists of 13 members who serve for life (until they retire). 12 of these positions are electoral and come from the 7 nation states. The final position is monarchal--reserved for a direct descendent of Emilyn Rose 1st. Emma's grandfather currently holds this position. Both she and her cousin are qualified to replace him once they come of age. Emma, because of her close relationship with her grandfather, is presumed to be the first choice and referred to as the Elect Apparent. 

On the surface, the Alien Home world appears to be a socialist utopia. All citizens, regardless of class, live and benefit from the forced labor that occurs secretly on the colony Earth. Only those in power of the Sublinary system(s) are aware of this fact, though. The government is an autocratic oligarchy made up exclusively of Primary class members. Interstellar colonization is necessary to maintain their status quo. Many secrets exist only at the Primary level (about history, underground government workings, nepotism, techniques to keep the Underclass in line, and the possibility of their species evolving the ability to naturally become impregnated.)

The government’s actions and policies are all carefully defended/justified in their constitution. The majority—but not all—of citizens believes the patriotic rhetoric/propaganda and is blind to deeper problems.

Culture/Underground Movement

In general, both gender roles and sexuality are very fluid in this society. Heterosexuality (vs. homosexuality) is not needed for reproduction and is not required to fit secular values, so is rendered virtually a nonissue. Taboo relationships between members of disparate classes are of far greater social relevance.

There is an underground Social Networking movement that subverts many societal values, especially pertaining to social class (and the emphasis on technology over humanities?) This is a space where people of different classes mingle in secret—safe from the eyes of disapproving family/society members and the government. Our Female Alien and Male Human characters will meet through this network.

The Fall of Earth

(This information may or may not come to bear in the text. We could probably make a whole prequel book with this...)

Alien Arrival and the “Third Enlightenment”

Aliens arrive in the Arctic and make first contact with astrophysicists conducting experiments at a research station there. Initial attempts at communication are accomplished through math. The aliens impress scientists by openly sharing their knowledge and technology. Their arrival is heralded in much of northern Europe (Sweden, Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, etc.) as well as parts of India, China, and Japan. As communication abilities improve, aliens meet with world leaders. They are guests of honor received at the Hadron collider. OTHER countries are more skeptical and recalcitrant.

Alien contributions to technology and society:

• Cold Fusion—Ends world’s energy crisis and reduces dependency on oil by over 75%. (This nearly bankrupts Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other oil-rich nations.)
• Ecosystem Repair—They are able to undo damage to Earth’s ecosystem by removing pollution, regenerating the ozone layer, cleaning up/neutralizing nuclear waste, ending droughts, reversing effects of global warming, bringing back extinct and near-extinct animal populations via refined cloning, etc.
• Advanced Cultivation Techniques and Efficient Methods of Distribution essentially end world hunger. Requires significantly less land, water, nutrients than traditional agriculture. No chemicals. Works everywhere—from the Antarctic to the Sahara Desert. Food is no longer a commodity for purchase—it is something freely given and received to ALL.

Backlash from Alien Interference

The unintended consequence of all of this generosity is that the existing power bases and economic systems are thrown into complete and utter chaos. Money and consumerism lose value and power in the face of the “Third Enlightenment” movement. Underclasses who had always been completely preoccupied with basic survival now have their basic needs met and can focus more attention on self-improvement and awareness. There is no longer justification for countries to go to war since there is no struggle over resources. Equality is suddenly attainable, and the general populations are clamoring for it.

Anti-alien rhetoric and propaganda begin to gain momentum. No longer visitors, they are “invaders” who are only trying to lull humanity into a false sense of security/dependency in order to achieve complete domination without “firing a single shot.”

ADS – Alien Death Syndrome

Roughly two years after aliens first arrived, people and animals begin dying from a never-before-seen disease that comes to be known as ADS (working title). It is believed that this comes from a slow-reproducing and long dormant microbial agent the aliens have unwittingly exposed them to. (NOTE: there may be some debate that ADS was actually a biological weapon unleashed by humans in order to turn the general population against aliens and restore the world to its previous status/power quo.)

Aliens are able to implement a global inoculation, but not before 1/5^th of Earth’s animal (and plant?) life has died. This event strains alien-human relationships. Paranoia, doubt, and fear spread on both sides.

The Fallout

It is not clear who struck first—evidence is scarce and subject to scrutiny. What is known is that the Aliens reacted quickly and decisively. They take down satellite system (either destroy it or convert it to their own purpose so humans can no longer use it.) They barricade off the lands where they had settled (mostly Northern/Eastern Europe) using energy fields that create independent ecosystems they can control. Next, they eradicate human resistance within the domes and leave humans outside to die or survive as they are able.

Humans launch a huge nuclear assault against the domes. This creates huge land masses of nuclear waste zones, but leave the domes and everything inside completely unscathed.

It is not an official prerogative of the Aliens to destroy all human life outside of the domes—BUT they don’t seem to make any effort to help them either. For example, they have the technology to clean up the nuclear wastelands, but choose not to use it except on the areas that they add to their growing colonies. Many feel that if humans are willing to inflict such damage on themselves, then they should be left to deal with the consequences. A minority of the Aliens disagree, and believe that most surviving humans are innocent and ought to be rescued. (NOTE: Perhaps this is where we see Alien “government” or governing bodies begin to shift from democratic/humanitarian to autocratic.)

The Resistance Movement

To the aliens’ surprise, humans prove far more resilient than they had expected. In spite of nuclear wasteland, drought/famine, being cut off from all forms of global/mass communication, and population decimation. Pockets of humans still survive throughout much of the world, though they exist largely as islands and socially evolve/devolve in different ways. Networks of humans and sympathetic aliens on the inside form, and an underground resistance movement is born to ensure the survival of humanity outside the domes and outside of Alien control. Alien technology is smuggled out, which humans use to create and grow their own domes deep inside nuclear wastelands, through which aliens are not likely to venture.

Population Issues

On their Homeworld, Aliens have a naturally long life (perhaps 200-300 years) and slow fertility cycles. They soon discovered that their lifespans were drastically reduced on Earth, which somehow speeds up their aging process so that they do not live much longer than regular humans. Their regular rates of reproduction cannot keep up with this rapid decline, and the population begins to drop to dangerously low levels. (It’s a long trip from Homeworld to Earth, so it will be years before the next wave of colonizers come.)

They believe that the solution to this population crisis will be in mixing their DNA with humans in order to create a hybrid species that can exhibit the best of both traits. The cloning program is kept Top Secret, with years of failures. Humans are kept against their will as test subjects. They are not taken from within the dome (as this would raise suspicion), so the Cloning Program begins raiding human settlements for people under the age of 20. They call this “rescue.” Young children are adopted into barren alien families and raised as part of the community. Humans of childbearing age that prove fertile disappear into the Cloning program.

The Fall of the Resistance - Kori's Story

Kori has an older brother who cares for her in the early years of Alien Occupation. Their parents died from ADS. Brother is older (late teens, early twenties?), sister is about four. There is a news story that comes on TV about a second Alien ship bearing a new population. The girl is frightened by these changes, but the older brother assures her that it is not a bad thing.

The FALL OUT will begin sometime between Kori's childhood and ten-fourteen years in the future. In that time, the brother will join the Resistance and either be killed or disappear and Kori will be left to take over for him/fend for herself.

Kori will be abducted (somewhere around age 17-20) and put into the Cloning program. She will be the first successful impregnation with a cloned hybrid. She will escape and eventually join the Resistance to find her brother (I have a vision of her riding into certain peril with the baby strapped to her back.) Because she has escaped with the first/only hybrid child along with all medical records/indications why hers was successful when so many others had failed, the Aliens are highly motivated to pursue and recapture her.

Eventually, Kori will be faced with a critical choice to betray the Resistance. She is motivated by self interest, interest of her baby, and ethical belief that the Resistance is too extreme/in the wrong. Her actions (or failure to act) will bring about the downfall of the Resistance once and for all. She will become assimilated into alien society and brought to the alien homeworld (like Pocahontas.)