Is there such a thing?

Some people strongly swear by it and treat it much like a disease in need of a cure.  I have heard plenty of cures, and some are more fantastic than others.  It reminds me of the days of the Bubonic plague in Europe. 

You know, there were people back then who swore the plague was spread by the smell of death.  On the one hand, it encouraged them to dispose of the dead rapidly—which was a good thing.  On the other hand, people doused themselves in perfume and hung strings of fresh picked flowers around their necks so all they could smell was lilac and honeysuckle – or whatever.  I am not sure if the aroma of all that perfume might have been worse.  I am one who avoids those counters at the entrance to department stores.  But I was thinking, the next time you suffer from writer’s block, try hanging a string of fresh cut flowers around your neck.  It might not help, but at least you will smell good for a day or two.

Of course, some people steadfastly deny that writer’s block is real.  You’re just being lazy, they might say.  Buckle down and get back to work.  Sadly, we all know someone who never seems to be bothered by the block disease.  How frustrating!

I can only speak for myself, but what I have discovered is when my work comes to a grinding halt (and all halts should grind) it is because something in my work is not working.  My conscious mind doesn’t know this or see it, but my subconscious will not be fooled.  Somewhere in chapter three (or so) I didn’t set things properly or I started down a different road and left it to dead end.  Maybe one of my characters changed like from worm to butterfly without sufficient time in the cocoon. 

Somewhere, somehow I got off track and occasionally a re-read is all it takes for the mistake to jump out at me.  Sometimes, though, I have to set the work aside and work on something else, or I at least have to sleep on it to grasp the problem.

Now, I am not saying writer’s block is real or illusion.  And I understand how it might be caused by any number of factors from too much stress to too many distractions to too much muchness going on.  But I suggest if like Dorothy you are looking for your heart’s desire, you first try looking no further than your own back yard.  It may well be you missed it or got off somewhere in the work itself and your soul is making your fingers take a time out until it is fixed. 

What is your take on this?

In my last post I spoke about rules – that there are none worth mentioning apart from “is it working?”…………  Does this work?  Is your reader engaged from beginning to end?  Are they hungry for more?

I still believe that is all that ultimately matters, however since writing that post I was reminded of some other kinds of rules that are worth considering.  They come from the Science Fiction master, Robert Heinlein.

Heinlein’s Rules:

1. You must write
2. You must finish what you start
3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order
4. You must put your story on the market
5. You must keep it on the market until it has sold

By my experience, rules 2, 3 and 4 are most difficult for most people, though you may not suffer from failing at all three.

Rule number 2 can be applied to more people than I can count – including some graduates of quality writing programs.  Do you have any idea how many drawers, boxes, attics, basements, garages and closets are filled with half-finished works?

Rule number 3 may be the rule that most writers have the hardest time keeping.  No more rewriting. No more rearranging. Give it one good edit if you must, but then move on 

Rule number 4 also applies to countless people.  Put it out there already! And while you are waiting for an agent, editor or publisher to fall in love with it, go and write your next one.

For me, at the moment, I am having the most trouble with rule 5.  A rejection or two and I drawer the thing.  How about you?

Badges?  We don’t need no stinking badges

So did you Strunk & White today?  Chicago Manual?  Did you King On Writing or the more venerable Zinsser On Writing Well?  Eats Shoots and Leaves?  I know, you logged on to some writing site or maybe reviewed some writing magazines and got a whole new list of dos and don’ts.

Sheesh!

Yes, Virginia, there are grammar police.  Some people cannot read a work without a grammar and punctuation microscope; but I am with Oscar Wilde.  He worked hard one morning, all morning deciding to put in a comma.  He worked hard all afternoon as well deciding to take it out again.

Of course you need to check your spill chucker.  I am not suggesting otherwise.  Yes, you need to “poofread.”  Editing is good.  That is why publishers employ people called editors.  But after you have given it the once (or if you can’t help yourself, the twice) over, you need to just go with it.

The plain truth is there are no rules, he said or exclaimed gleefully!

No, wait.  There is one rule worth remembering.  Rules are meant to be broken.  The bottom line for any writing is: does it work?  Is it working?  Have you grabbed your reader at the beginning and not let them go until the end?

If your ten or so Beta readers or critique partners all tell you it is not working, and especially when their reasons follow the same line of thought, pay attention.  Otherwise, go with the flow.  Ask, does this piece so enchant my readers that they beg for more?  If it does, you’ve got something even if you break all the rules.

Your thoughts?

“’Tis a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done before.”  Dickens understood sacrifice as a plot form, and if you look close, everything in the Tale of Two Cities leads to that point.  How many love stories (love triangles) have ended when one of the three realizes their love is hopeless so they sacrifice themselves in order for the couple to escape and live “happily ever after?”

If you really want to understand sacrifice as a plot, though, you really need to read the gospels. 

If last time, in the Plot of the temptation and fall we explored all the horror to which the human race can fall, this story explores the opposite.  Here, it is love, honor, nobility and goodness that drive the final decision.  Consider the father or mother who would willingly sacrifice their life for the sake of their children.  And it need not be an actual life that is given.  It might be family, a way of life, a long-held dream. 

Consider the sports star, growing older, who gives up his dream to train the talented youngster; or the matron who fakes an injury so the young understudy can take center stage.  Consider the film Holiday Inn where Bing Crosby swallows his love so that young woman can go off to Hollywood with Fred Astaire and become the star she is destined to be.  The fact that she returns to him at the end of the story makes his sacrifice no less endearing.

In the movie High Noon, Gary Cooper has plans to retire and marry and live happily ever after when he finds out the bad guy will be in town on the noon train.  He cannot leave the town at the mercy of the villain.  He straps on his gun even though it may cost him his life.  In Casablanca, which I already used as an example of a love story, consider the sacrifice Rick makes for the sake of the war against the Nazis.  And consider how many war stories have been stories of great sacrifice for freedom, love, honor, and all the highest ideals of the human animal.

The Plot 

When a person already has high ideals, sacrifice may be the obvious choice.  When a person is mixed, though, as most are, like Rick in Casablanca, there is struggle to do the right thing.  All the same, the opening of the story must show both the rock and the hard place that the character gets into. 

In the middle, the character struggles with the dilemma.  There should be times when it looks like they might not do the right thing after all.  Remember that people do things for a reason, so motivation is as important to this plot as it is to a mystery.  Don’t let the sacrifice be an unexpected impulse at the end even as you seek to keep your reader guessing.  Yes, it is a bit like walking a tightrope.  Lean too much toward the end and the story becomes, so what?  Give no indication of the possible end and the story becomes Huh?  Where did that come from?

Also, if the person’s life is not at stake, make sure the stakes are big enough to interest the reader.  When we see a person of questionable backbone make the necessary sacrifice when the trouble comes to a head, the story can be very satisfying.  It can restore faith in people and help us hold on in our own lives and know that there is something essentially right in the human race after all. 

The end, if the plot has been played right, will be very emotional.  In contrast to the sometimes exaggerated emotions in the plot of the fall, here you need to be careful.  If anything, the emotions need to be underplayed in order to avoid sentimentality or melodrama.  Many these days would consider Dicken’s “far, far better thing” as over the top. 

Better not to make a saint out of your character either.  Consider the end of National Treasure II:  The man who was the bad guy the whole time gave up his life so the hero could live – and it worked because there were just enough suggestions throughout, beginning with his consideration of his own family honor versus just wanting the treasure for greedy reasons.

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You can read all of the Plots of Relationships under the tab On Stories above.  There, you will also find ideas for plots of competition and journey plots.  Happy (productive) reading!

The Fall is one relational plot which is not (necessarily) a love story.  Falls to temptation, as the Medieval Church knew, can come in many forms: greed, gluttony, sloth, lust, envy, jealousy.  Think Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth. 

1.         Once again I have combined this plot with temptation because that is where it often begins.  It is not simply pride that goes before a fall, but temptation, when we succumb, that can lead us into despair, paranoia, madness and suicide.  When we give into the temptation to greed, lust or envy, (or lying, cheating or stealing), we risk a fall.  Real life does have consequences.

2.         Then again, the beginning might be simply life circumstances that we can all (potentially) relate to such as the discovery of a spouse’s infidelity or the loss of a job.  Think “going postal.”  Imagine a whiskey bottle dragging a person to perdition, as in the lost weekend.  Imagine being “mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”  The fall can come when life throws that proverbial curve ball and we get beaned. 

3.         A third approach might be beginning the story on the fringes of society (I might say on the edge of respectable society).  Imagine the loner, the loser, the homeless bum that may be…?  Some people are already living a fallen life.  Others revel in excess and extreme living.  There is no telling what is out there in the dark, or maybe just around the corner. 

This storyline considers the exaggeration of emotions we see when they are set free from normal social and moral constraints.  In particular, fear and/or hopelessness or helplessness (if not madness) are often strong in the story.  It considers the extremes human beings are capable of going to and the excesses that can invariably cause us to stumble and fall.  Again, like last time, society does not like to lose so there often is not a happy ending.  Read Poe.  Redemption, though, is possible.

The Plot

Unless you are considering the third approach above, you might want to start by moving your character from as normal, average, common (everyone can relate) a life as possible to going off the deep end.  To do that, I recommend (for the sake of a strong hook at the beginning) that you begin with some hint or foreshadowing of what is to come.  The opening goes to the breaking point, when the **it hits the fan.  Consider the story of King David.  He is happy, successful, everything is going his way until he catches sight of Bathsheba sunning herself on the roof across the way…

In the middle, we watch in horror as the person sinks slowly or rapidly into their obsession – paranoia, schizophrenia, madness.  Perhaps they don’t fall quite that far, but the condition appears hopeless and we wonder how this person is ever going to get out of this bind.  David tries to manipulate Bathsheba’s husband, and fails.  He finally sends the man into the front lines in battle to get him killed.  Suddenly, David is not only guilty of adultery, he is guilty of murder;  and every step takes him deeper into the pit.

In the end, Othello kills his wife and kills himself.  David faces a rebellion by his own son.  He kills his son and yet, somehow he finds redemption.  There is not necessarily a tragic ending here.  But there will be resolution.  Think of it like a sickness.  The cure may require strong medicine so if the disease doesn’t kill you, the cure might.  Still, there is a chance for recovery.

Temptation may be a plot unto itself, but I include it here because presently it is hard to imagine any other motivation that would make a story.  In our multi-cultural, diverse, non-judgmental (anarchistic – anything goes) society, the idea of forbidding love seems old fashioned.  We have room for it all these days: black and white, Christian and Jew, gay relationships, may-December romances.  So the Minister ran off with his secretary or the Governor his South American hottie – yawn.  Heck, there is a television show about Cougars.  So what?

Lolita can still raise some eyebrows.  Incest, pedophilia, sadomasochism might still be “forbidden,” but for the most part, these days “forbidden is in the eye of the beholder.”  For that reason, temptation is a good opening.  If the participants are irresistibly drawn to each other, though they themselves believe it to be wrong, you may have a beginning.

Historically, forbidden love has been a powerful vehicle for exploring love and for exploring tragedy.  Adultery (The Scarlet Letter) and affairs have been standard fare.  Also, when two groups of people oppose each other and a couple find each other in the midst of that opposition, such a love is invariably tragic.  Imagine a young American soldier and the daughter of a Jihadist.  Imagine the Hatfields and McCoys.  Imagine Romeo and Juliet.

Of course, it didn’t work out too well for Romeo and Juliet.  They were in love from the beginning (connected) but all the forces in the world conspired to keep them apart (separated).  They got together in the end (reconnected), almost.  I suppose that is why it is a tragedy, but Romeo and Juliet does follow the basic love story plot pattern.

Another approach to this storyline might be called the impossible love.  Both Casablanca and Cyrano de Bergerac touched on this.  The Hunchback of Notre Dame did a better job because as disfigured as he was, he knew his love for Esmeralda was impossible.  Of course, these days even monsters like vampires are seen as acceptable lovers (though there is some sense of forbidden love there, to be sure). 

Also, keep in mind that social standing cannot be used in “forbidden love” as it might have been in the past.  Yes, it was a scandal when Edward abdicated the British throne to marry that divorced American – and that had a basically happy ending, but these days would people really care?

The Plot

Like the basic love story, the story of forbidden love begins with the chemistry of two people drawn together, irresistibly.  In this case, though, the wrongness of the attraction or the impossible nature of the love must be made clear.  Then comes the trouble.

Unlike the love story, the center of this work often shows the two people together and to some extent shows what is right about the pairing even in the midst of the wrongness.  Often, it is not the world conspiring to keep the lovers apart so much as the fear that the world will find out, find them and force them to part.

Here is where all the plots are hatched, such as the plot to kill the spouse of the one that is married.  Sometimes they work out.  Often they don’t, but even when they do there are always consequences.

In the final act, the tragedy.  Society does not like to lose.  It is like our soldier and jihadist’s daughter.  Even while he is under guard and facing a possible dishonorable discharge, she is being stoned to death.  Sorry.  This plot rarely, very rarely has a happy ending.

The Love story and the Romance, what’s the difference?

Basically, a love story can be about anything: a man and a woman, two men, two women, a young boy and his dog.  Did you ever read Old Yeller?  How about a man and his statue – Pygmalion.  And can a puppet become a real boy?  Relationships stretch the emotional muscles and the love story is the basic relationship story.

On the other hand, Romance has a limited range of relationship options.  Publishers have great lists of dos and don’ts that they will gladly share with any aspiring writer.  And while I am no aficionado of the Romance, all of the basic elements of what I am calling plots of relationship can be found there as easily as in any love story. 

Without carving these words into stone, the basic plot is connection, separation, reconnection.  Hollywood put it this way:  Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.  To be sure, in the romance novel it tends to be girl meets boy and etc.

Scarlet and Rhett sparked the first time they met.  They crossed paths several times during the story.  By the time they finally got together, frankly Scarlet I didn’t give a damn.  I guess Rhett agreed with me.  It didn’t work out.  But I know my Romance reader has been up nights on occasion wondering if these two are EVER going to get together.

As with all plots, there must be more than just following the formula.  This may be especially true of Romance stories, and especially hard since they are the most formulaic of all genres.  Publishers don’t want innovation, and yet the story must be unique enough to make it rise above the rest.  (Romance slush piles are enormous).  Good luck.

With the love story there is more flexibility but you need to keep the relationship in mind or risk devolving the story into sentimental tripe.  Spooning under the Moon can be a hard write because it has been done so many, many times.

It is possible for the lovers never to separate as in African Queen, or for the story to pick up at the second meeting as in Casablanca.  It is also possible to twist the relationship, as in Jane Eyre where Bronte adds an insane first wife, or a story where two strong-willed lovers attempt to control each other through manipulation or violence.  But as for the basics, consider this plot:

The Plot

The connection.  The story begins with the recognition of the chemistry between two people.  One may resist, but the reader knows it is inevitable.  By the end of the opening, there is a committed connection between the two.  That connection may be anything from marriage to the two not realizing it themselves – but it is there.  The opening ends, however, when whatever it is comes between them.

The separation.  It could be almost anything.  A jealous ex-partner, a terrible accident or disease, prison –just or unjust – anything.  It does not always separate the two physically, but there is something between them, a real obstacle that must be overcome.  This is the testing phase that proves the love is real. 

Generally here the story focuses on the point of view of the active seeker while the other person is passive (waiting to be saved).  In the fairy tale days, the damsel was in distress while the prince fought the dragon.  These days, she is just as likely to be the seeker as he.

The reconnection:  To be sure, sometimes it doesn’t work out.  Sometimes one dies as in Segal’s massive money making “Love Story.”  But generally, and especially in the romance novel, as I have said, people prefer happy endings.  Tears of joy are much more satisfying than tears of sorrow.

Next:  Forbidden Love and Temptation.

One way to understand the difference between competitive plots, journey plots and relational plots is to think of body, mind and heart.  Please click on the tab “On Stories” above to read about plots of competition and journeys.  I encourage you to do so. 

The Body:      Plots of competition are physical and active plots, not to be confused with action plots.  Whether the story is external (action oriented) or internal (character oriented) these plots turn on “what happens.”  When you have a strong protagonist and a strong antagonist, the plot will move on what they do, often to each other.  Whether they are in a rivalry, an adversarial relationship or one is an underdog,  whether it is man against man, man against nature or even man against himself, there is a fight going on and it will express itself in some outward form, though what happens.

The Mind:      Journey plots, on the other hand, might better be called plots of thought or learning if you will.  These are the plots that explore life, the universe and everything.  That is not to say nothing happens here.  The quest, escape, the rescue, or thrillers all have lots of action, but at the same time they are journeys of discovery.  Thus in the end the detectives understand something about life and perhaps something about themselves that they did not grasp at first.  This is especially true of plots of exploration, rising or falling, transformation or coming of age – all journey plots where something is learned in the process.

The Heart:     By contrast, plots of relationships are emotive plots, emotional explorations that depend more on what people feel than what they think or do.  Again, a plot where nothing happens will be dull, dull and no story at all; but in relational plots the whole motivation and response to what happens is more emotional than anything else.

Caution:         Competitors think and feel.  People on a journey do things and also feel.  And people in relationships are not mindless, inactive emotional blobs.  We are simply talking the emphasis of the story here.

The essential relational plot is two people in relationship (duh)!  Of course, one of those people might be something other.  Both the Last Samurai and Dances with Wolves might be described as plots of relationship where the person finds themselves in a strange culture with no means of escape.  There is a lot of emotional turmoil and angst in the process of getting adjusted to a new way of life.

Sometimes, the two people might be siblings as in Rich Man, Poor Man, or in some of the work of Jodi Picoult like My Sister’s Keeper.  Generally, though, the story is about a couple and again, generally it is about one man and one woman.  That does not mean it is necessarily a love story.  There is also fear, hate (falling out of love), anger and tears as well as faith, hope, joy and satisfaction.  There is also lust and to be sure, some people make money writing pornography.

The relational plot explores the emotional life that drives our relationships.  Yes, most plots of relationships are written and read by women who understand relationships in a way most men will never comprehend even if you spell it out and hit them on the head with the proverbial sledge hammer.  But don’t discount someone like Nicholas Sparks who in a single love story can encompass most if not all of the above emotions and more.

The Plot:

The basic relational plot starts with a spark between two people: eyes across a crowded room like Rhett and Scarlet in Gone With the Wind or escaping a nebulous enemy like Charlie and Rose in the African Queen.  Notice, neither starts with love at first sight (though that has been done, and often enough), but there is a spark of some sort to start things off.  Perhaps the best word to describe things is what we say in real life:  There must be a certain chemistry between these two people right from the start.

Next comes the obstacles, difficulties and testing of the relationship.  Sometimes there is no antagonist, per se, but simply circumstances that get in the way.  Where would Rhett and Scarlet be without the Civil War?  Sometimes the people are not separated but are still moved through various trials in which their true inner character is revealed, as in the African Queen.

The end may be tragic… or not.  People like a happy ending.  Despite the innumerable women that die in Italian Operas – even while they belt out monstrous arias – a tragedy need not include death.  Rhett reached the point where he no longer gave a damn.  In Casablanca, the lovers separated for the greater good.  Still, people like a happy ending even if Mister and Missus Allnut end up in the drink in the African Queen.  Even when she doesn’t meet him at the top of the Empire State Building – he tracks her down…

Next time, the Love Story versus the Romance.

Shortly after the Corsicarian and Spiders battled it out over Cuba, say 1600 AD, the warring Reichgo and Kargill met over the planet of the Zalanid.  There are stories, legends, almost myths about the Zalanid powers of persuasion.  It was said a Zalanid could sell a mother her own child.  It was said they could make a drowning man beg for water, and so on.  Really, they were a wise and empathetic race who turned their gifts toward the benefit of all peoples.  Though their own world was destroyed and made uninhabitable by the war, the few survivors managed to make a peace, a treaty between the Reichgo and Kargill which held for 400 years.

The Kargill, who generally talked to no one and lived apart to where no one even knew what they or it looked like, would condescend to communicate with the Zalanid.  Part of the treaty was that one Zalanid should be taken aboard every Kargill ship to act as an interpreter and go-between for the races.  The Elenar called the Zalanid the Kargill’s messenger of peace.  The Gott-Druk called him the Kargill’s dog.  In any case, our earth was clearly granted to the Kargill by treaty.  The Reichgo could visit since we were so near the border, but they could not stay.  (whew!)  All the Kargill did was park its ship at the bottom of the Atlantic and watch.  The Kargill was also very protective against any alien intrusion in its territory.

That did not mean the earth remained untouched during those years.

For one, the Kargill established a kind of interstellar police force in their corner of space to take the burden of keeping order.  (Apparently, this was so the Kargill could spend more time pursuing its chief occupation of just watching).  One penal ship refueled in the Pennsylvania mountains during the French and Indian war.  One group of slippery characters manipulated the earth (various governments) and almost turned the War of 1812 into the First World War.

Then a prison ship crashed in the American West not long before the Civil War, and the police came for the prisoners some short time after the war.  In the Victorian era, we were visited by true shape shifters who could masquerade as human well enough to fool even the Kargill.  And then, finally, the inevitable happened.

During the 20^th century and spanning into the early 21^st, (for roughly 100 years) the Reichgo intruded more and more on the earth.  Our unsophisticated border planet in a back corner of Kargill space can hardly be blamed for the second Reichgo-Kargill war, but we did not help.  The more the Reichgo came to earth “just to visit,” the more the Kargill got upset.  Let’s just say the Reichgo really ticked the Kargill off once over Roswell.

Yes, it took little over two hundred years for the Kargill and Reichgo to wipe each other out.  Those races vanished from history around 2250.  Sadly, by then they had dragged a number of other species into the fight including the Vordan, the Orlan and the Bospori—all on the Reichgo side.  In 2278, a space fledgling Earth faced the Orlan (and first became aware of the Bospori) and our time in space was almost over before it began… but now I am speaking of the future.

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Hmmm…  I suppose I could give a brief history of the future, if anyone is interested.

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Every creative writer must be inventive–even in crafting the most mainstream, realistic story.  The setting must be a world in which the characters can live and breathe and interact.  These posts are inventive, yes, but encouragement to think through your own work and flesh out your world.  Your vision will likely be different, but so it should.

I suppose it was to be expected.  The Reichgo (ET) imposed order on one section of our corner of the galaxy, primarily by moving in on certain planetary systems to get what they wanted, even by toying with the genetic code of the locals if that was what it took.  Meanwhile, the Kargill imposed a kind of order of fear on the other portion of our interstellar neighborhood, mostly by not permitting one civilization to impose on another.  Even trade was carried on very carefully, and outright shunned by many.  The races became isolated in Kargill space, each left to develop in its own way and at its own pace.

I suppose it was inevitable, though, that these two powers should eventually clash.  That happened about the time Joan of Arc was leading the French against the English.  Things looked bad for those otherwise innocent races out moving between the stars.  They did not look quite so bad for us, being as we were on the border, but technically in a back corner of Kargill space.  No one bothered us at first.  The Kargill would not permit it.

During those two centuries of interstellar war, once the war started, we were touched twice:

The Corsicarian were a people who lived and died according to their family ties, and far reaching, extended families at that.  They had a Patriarch and Matriarch and various relations such as uncles, aunts and cousins to the tenth degree.  Their planet, though, was badly overpopulated, and they felt with the Kargill distracted, they just might be able to spread out a little.  They wanted land, and one extended family saw the earth as a perfect opportunity for settlement.  After all, Earth came complete with a solid, working class. 

The Corsicarian arrived at Gibraltar in 1490.  The Patriarch himself wished Columbus the best of luck.  They had no chance to set down roots, however, not because we were a rebellious lot, nor because the local Kargill returned from the war and intervened, but because of the other species that was eyeing the earth along with eyeing any number of other worlds.

Dubbed the “Spiders” by any human who saw them and lived (and there were not many), these insect-like creatures saw the Reichgo-Kargill war as the perfect opportunity to pursue their destiny which in the short form was to destroy all other forms of intelligent life.  While not quite the mad fanatics that the Balok had been, they were nevertheless killers of the first order, and like insects, they swarmed and seemed impossible to get rid of completely.

The Spiders actually looked more like bent upright wasps without wings.  They stood on four feet and had two arms free.  Though a bit smaller than the average human, there was no chance that they could be squashed with a rolled up newspaper.  They were poisonous besides (though they did not sting or have a stinger) and they spat a kind of acid that could melt unprotected human flesh. 

Needless to say, the Corsicarian had their hands full, and eventually wanted no part of it.  The final battle occurred in the Caribbean where at the time there were pirates and privateers and all sorts of Spanish gold.  There was also the Flying Dutchman, but not at all like the Disney version.

The Spiders were beat back and I am sorry to say there is little information about what happened to them after that.   At that same time, the Corsicarian left for other, easier pastures, and they must have traveled a long way because when humanity first ventured out to the stars, most of the nearby planets that had life were devoid of any intelligent life… easy colonies for a while…

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Every creative writer must be inventive–even in crafting the most mainstream, realistic story.  The setting must be a world in which the characters can live and breathe and interact.  These posts are inventive, yes, but encouragement to think through your own work and flesh out your world.  Your vision will likely be different, but so it should.