On parallels and inspiration (Chapter 74 of Long Haul is out!)

Howdy there everypony! I'm back again, and this time, with a brand new chapter of Long Haul for you all to read! Now, I know that the last chapter ended with one hell of a bang (or at least a set of them!) but I did want to talk a bit about the thoughts and research that went into them. Not only that, but how with stories, you can really take something from the past and have it fit into your own crafted worlds. But for those of you who are just here for the story, I do hope you enjoy the chapter, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts all about it! For those who are up for reading another one of my slightly rambly blog posts, well, have at it down below!

Missile Command, one of the old retro games I loved to play as a kid

I should have known I'd grow up to be a Nuclear Weapons 'enthusiast'...

Stories are hard. Really, it's easy to have an idea in your head about one amazing scene for a story, but then you sit down and try to craft it and... blank. How do you fill the rest of the world? What are the small details of it? Who fills out the world the protagonist lives in, and how do you make it realistic or interesting for the reader? These sorts of questions have always weighed heavily on me when I've been doing my writing, and are some big ones that have outright stopped others from finishing their stories at all. But, there is a way to make things much easier on you; and that's to draw inspiration from your own life, or at least draw parallels to something real. Because what's more convincing than relating something you've experienced or seen? Okay, so that's something for sure, but how do you do adapt that for a setting that's post apocalyptic?

For example, I needed the Sky Raiders to blow up parts of the north with a few megaspells, which you know, shouldn't be hard to comprehend. But the problem stems from the fact that really, non-ICBM missiles are quite slow. Even ones that can move at mach 2 can take a good amount of time to move a few hundred miles. Add to that the fact that I've established that Radar is something possessed by some factions in the wasteland, and you've got an early warning system that can take all the surprise out of something. What I needed was something that would have the speed of an ICBM, but not really the range. Well for that, all you have to do is look to the past for some really odd ideas about how they thought things might turn out if the Cold War went hot. Also enter my time playing Missile Command in the mid 90's, and the game's incredibly speedy anti-ballistic missiles.

Facing an onslaught of Soviet MIRV capable missiles, the US needed a defensive system in place to protect it's cities

A Note: this footage isn't sped up at all. The Sprint missile reached it's speed of Mach 10, and a height of 18 miles, in just 15 seconds. In fact, it's moving so fast in this footage that you can watch as the warhead starts to glow white hot just from the atmospheric friction.

Again, inspiration can come from some of the most unlikely places in your life, or hell, even borrowing and tweaking ideas from old media can be fun! Need to picture the inside of a building for a settlement the protagonist arrives in? Use the layout for somewhere you've been in real life, and imagine what it would be like if it had been abandoned for a century or so. Need a macguffin for your characters to seek out to take for themselves or destroy before it ends the world? Well, just open up google and search for Cold War weapon prototypes, or look back at some of the retro-futuristic weapon ideas of the 1950's and 60's! The idea of taking something for inspiration is that you use it as a starting point to get something solid to work with. Once you've got that, then with just a few tweaks or alterations, you've got a fully fleshed out idea for your story.

Another example that didn't have all that much time to shine in the story, Night's jump pack. If any of you were around or a kid in the 90's, I'm pretty sure the design and inspiration for Night's jump pack are fairly obvious. I absolutely loved the Rocketeer when I was a kid, and while I've always been quite afraid of heights, the idea of strapping on a jetpack and becoming a superhero is something most people can relate to. But just thinking about how I wanted Night to have an easier time getting into the air, this design was instantly brought into my mind as something that could 100% be converted for use in the story. Now, some people might say it's lazy to borrow a concept like this, but I'd challenge those people to come up with a better alternative that didn't borrow one too many things from something that's already been thought up. Plus again, I've seen too many stories fall apart and outright stop because someone insisted that everything must be 100% originally their idea. And for me, stopping a story altogether like that isn't maintaining your 'integrity', it's just convincing yourself that you aren't good enough to continue.

While stories are supposed to be fun to read, they're supposed to entertain the author first and foremost. I know I sound like a broken record, but YOU are the only person your story needs to entertain. And if you want to borrow that Buck Rogers rocket pistol, then do it. If you want to base the story in the ruins of your own hometown, then do it! And while you may want to avoid common tropes and ideas in order to keep your story truly unique, just keep in mind that when it comes down to it, if you find yourself stuck there is no shame in something as blatant as even a deus-ex-machina just to get it moving again.

A story should be fun and interesting, and you should always strive to do something that nobody else has done. But that doesn't mean that you can't be inspired by things you've seen, and in my opinion, I think it's actually a good thing if you are! Again, writing a story is hard, and any help to flesh out the world and what's in it should be welcomed. Use what you've seen, what you've enjoyed over the years as a jumping off point, and use it to craft yourself one hell of an adventure that you'll be able to look back on when it's finished and say: "Wow, I fucked that up, and I really could have done better with X concept in Y location with Z plot device. Welp, time to write a new story and do it even better this time around!"

What? Did you think you'll get it right the first time? I've been doing this for six years, and I'm still learning how to do things better with each and every chapter I put out! So go out, get inspired by some wacky, off the wall Cold War concepts and prototypes, and get writing.

Anyway, that's all for this week's extremely long and rambly blog post. I do hope you all enjoy this new chapter in this brand new year, and there's plenty more to come as we get back into the normal swing of things. As always, I'll be back in another two weeks with another blog post and chapter of Long Haul for you all. Until then, take care, and I'll see you all right back here next time.