Over a few months I form these nebulous story concepts, occasionally they congeal into actually bits of story, usually only a few paragraphs, but here are a few examples
The History of the Union of Sol:
Spoiler:
"T-5... 4... 3... 2... 1.."
"Liftoff, we have liftoff of the Prometheus test drone, bringing us into a new era of space flight."
Familiar to all in humans these days in every corner of the Union of Sol. The history of the year 2012, from the discovery of how to create and isolate micro singularities, to their rapid development in the fields of power and space flight.
Micro singularities ushered in a new era of peace as waste free power could be maintained the world over cheaply and effectively. Soon the earth was united, the third world war was over as many technological, medical, and social problems were solved by this discovery.
NASA in the United States and CERN, the scientific facility that created and developed micro singularity technology began to work together to develop a new method of space flight. By using the micro singularity itself to bend space time around a vehicle, it was though that it could be propelled at great speeds.
The Prometheus test drone was the fruit of this research. All eyes were on it, not unlike the Apollo or Viking missions of the century before. It's mission was a simple one, propel itself at speeds greater than any solid fuel rocket to the farthest reaches of our solar system, the Kuiper Belt, and transmit images of it's journey.
When the initial thrusters were disengaged, and the final drone section orbited our planet once, all were awed as it engaged it's warp drive and the little blue green planet we all knew and loved shrunk to all but a tiny spot in almost an instant. In more ways then one, the doors of the solar system had swung open to us. Within ten years we had stations orbiting 6 of the eight planets, all was peaceful for a time.
War erupted once again, in space, however. As spaceflight was now cheap and space piracy had taken roots in our system. But the wars forged a new Union, a better Union, the Union of Sol.
In the year 2112, the 100th anniversary of the warp drive and the 42nd anniversary of the formation of the Union of Sol, a new form of transportation was developed in the laboratories under the ice of Europa, the first moon of Jupiter to be colonized, by a large team of German engineers and their families. Now rather than a small lab station, it was a city under the ice, developing the greatest technology in the Union.
The Recherches was developed there, now armed and in service at the USSS-EUF-1 Eisbrecher, it had a revolutionary new propulsion system alongside it's warp drive. Though attempts were made, warp alone had not taken us to the speed of light, the rest of the universe was closed to us.
The Eisbrecher circumvented the Speed of light problem,by diving deeper into spacetime, into a space we call singularity, it made an almost instantaneous jump from it's orbit around Europa, to Tau Ceti, the system where we made first contact.
The meeting of the Union of Sol and the Galactic Federation:
Spoiler:
"This session will come to order!" Ringed the voice of the high chancellor.
"We have gathered the Fith Galactic Federation Senate today to speak on what could be the most pressing matter of our time. Chancellor the III of the sixth sector has the floor."
"Thank you sir." answered the Chancellor "My sector is frightened, terrified even. Of a new race that has risen from the ashes of the wars on the eastern fringe"image captures of various heavily armed vessels and the primate species that built them begin to rotate in the holo display in the center of the room. "These beings have come into contact with only a few warlike primitive races in the 7th sector, and have crushed and seemingly subjugated each of them in turn-"
"We hear these beings have weapons on par with the ancients themselves! And strategies more brutal and ruthless than even the greatest cybeorean warlords!"
"Please calm yourself senator, so far they have only attacked those who strike them first." the chancellor calmly states. "But it is true. If it came down to it, few races represented hear could stand against them. We have in ways, far more advanced technology. But they're weapons and stratagems seem to have been finely tuned over centuries of internal warfare."
"Their ideals however value freedom and deductive reasoning not unlike our own. That is why the 6th sector has taken and passed the vote.. To make first contact with the 'humans' of United Federation of Sol.."
"Wideband frequency opened sir, you may speak to the ship."
"Thank you comm." says the Admiral, clearing his throat and taking the microphone. "Men and women of the USCF, we have the privilege, nay, the honor of making first contact with what intelligence tells me calls themselves the Fifth Galactic Federatio-"
"What happened to the first four?" interrupts the first officer.
"Please do not interrupt, or I will bust you down to mess duty, you hear me? I was about to pas the mic to the Ambassador."
"Thank you, and thank everyone on this ship for being the fine example of USCF officers I was told you would be." says ambassador Thompson taking the microphone. "Today shall truly be a glorious day for humanity, finally contact will be made with peaceful like-minded species, and some of you shall have the honor of escorting me and the president himself aboard the alien station."
A roar rings through the ship as the marines begin chanting the battle cries in unison. "Yes yes, Uh-rah, semper-fi, carry-on and all that. But we will not be seeing battle this evening, as a gesture of trust we will be going armed only with our pistols" Speaks Gunnery Sargent Deacon, out of turn. and the ship is silent.
Tau Ceti 4 Embassy Station was silent, this was the first time it has seen ambassadors from the entire Galactic Federation. The docks were alive with activity as the shuttle from the new USCF flagship the Apophis arrived and the passengers disembarked. stepping lightly but quickly towards the meeting room. As they entered a roar of applause erupts from the 7th sector seating sections and Admiral Dog takes a bow, a war hero renowned for his talent as a fighter pilot. Ambassador Thompson has to activate his mic early to get everyone to settle down.
"Now now, there will be plenty of time for that after this meeting, we are here for business." Rings Thompson's voice "The preliminary hearing for The Union of Sol's acceptance into the Galactic Federation Shall commencer shortly. High Chancellor to the Seat of Admissions please grant us an audience."
In the highest seat of the 1st sector section a small frail grey skinned alien stands and speaks "But of course, you have studied the formalities well ambassador Thompson, but this is but a preliminary Hearing, we shall only require those during the High Senate meeting discussing your entry." His voice is clear and high pitched, and he speaks as though it takes a great effort of his lungs. "Please, take your seats at the center and the meeting shall commence properly."
"You don't have to ask me twice, the air is a little thin in this station." Responds Dog, smiling.
"Please don't insult them Burdron" Thompson frowns and takes his seat
The lighting raises on the earthling's seating section and the High Chancellor speaks again "Union of Sol, my people... are afraid of you." his skin tinges a darker grey, indicating a change in mood from Cheerful to serious. "But the Fifth Galactic Federation respects you, and is willing to discuss terms of entry. We have not heard your side of the great Seventh Sector wars, but that is what we are here to discuss" He pauses.
The earthling leader, President Wheeling finally enters the room with his escorts, according to the great formalities. Four fully armored USSMC space marines, armed with only their pistols. He then takes The floor. "It is an honor to be in the presence of so many great speakers for the Galactic Federation, but I am hear to speak in our behalf on our part in the Great Contact Wars. Or as you know them, the Seventh sector wars."
These are linked, but not really solidly yet, I also have a bit of the contact wars with one of the characters as a fighter pilot, more of an action scene.
Finally a snippet of a story about psychics:
Spoiler:
He finds himself in a modest study opening to a comfortable living room. The walls of the study are lined with books and objects familiar to him, the baseball bat he used for little league on wall, his favorite fantasy novels one one shelf school textbooks on another. He recalls with great detail each as he his internal vision pans around the room. As he moves into the living room a great comfortable feeling takes him and he begins to lose focus, but he feels the need to push on. He moves to the front door.
He turns the knob and a great expanse opens to him, blank and vast. Here he feels a freedom he never has before, like he can do anything. Hesitantly, he takes moves through but doesn't fall into the empty space. He feels a warm surface beneath him, and everything is blinding light.
He is standing on a miniature sun. His eyes adjust and he sees several other stars in the murky distance, though not a bright as his own. They seems to warp slowly into the shape of faces he recognizes.
I also have a bit of a song here somewhere...
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The history of the Union of Sol and the meeting of the union of sol is just that, a history. It's pure exposition. I don't think people enjoy reading that kind of stuff unless they all ready have a concrete and solid connection to the source material. For example, I love Starcraft, so I enjoyed reading all the back story on the instruction manual. It's all exposition but it was exposition I cared about.
You have to make your reader care before they want to read what you wrote, and to make them care you need to give them (your readers) something they can relate to.
That means characters. And once you set your characters, you can't have them all talk in exposition (backstory) no one cares about that until later. Hook your reader in first, and THEN you can tell them about all the cool stuff that happens in the world. Not before.
For example: you want to write about this awesome group of super-duper not-star-wars fighter pilots. Do you a) briefly halt your story and write about their exploits for two and a half pages, most of which concerns logistics and name dropping or b) overhear minor characters discussing them in hushed tones and then in a few pages have them rocket out of the sky and fuck shit up.
If you choose option b, go to page 32.
If you choose option a, go to page 16.
Page 16
The man coughed wetly, not taking his eyes off the page. I could hear him muttering. "Can't... read it..." he said. "Exposition... killing--" he broke off into a bloody hack. The stone floor had left his knees bloody from years chained in place. He rose out of the fit and began to turn the page. His muttering increased. "New page... maybe something exciting...."
The paper lifted so very slowly. His face glowed in anticipation. His emaciated hand dropped the page with visible effort and he began to read. "No... no -- aaaaaaaaaAAAAARRGGH--" and here he raised his face to the sky, still keeping the book glued to his eyes, "AAAAAARGH-SO-MUCH-FUCKING-EXPOSITION-AAAAAAAARGH--" before reaching the limit of his chains and falling back to the floor. Slowly, he moved back to kneeling position and continued reading, tears rolling slowly down his cheeks.
"This one looks particularly tortured," said Virgil. I said nothing. "Come, we still have far to travel this evening." I nodded and followed him, looking over my shoulder at the man in the small globe of stony darkness. His eyes never once left the page.