write the story you'd want someone to tell you. I realized that that's exactly what I'm doing. For better or worse, lol.
That's exactly what I'm doing. I remember getting frustrated with Battlestar Galactica because the dramatic structure is backwards. The giant climax begins the story, then they sort of run away. That was the genesis of the story. "That was awesome--if only they did it right. Hey, why can't I do it?"
I wanted certain things in my story that I love. Ancient ruins where the only sound is the wind whispering through the grass, people struggling to survive on a lost and ancient derelict space ship, a mysterious prophecy, hideous monsters that only come out at night, a hidden world, an epic battle for the survival of mankind, a hot, green alien chick, true love, killer robots, gritty ship to ship actions a la the age of sail, space marines, secret weapons, a bad ass chick with a robot arm, a slippery hero always getting out of trouble with his brains, planet destroying weapons, and, last of al,l an epic "ride of the Rohirrim" moment.
I tweaked and plotted and world-built until I got what I wanted. Hell, I created a whole geo-political back-story because I wanted my ships to have the "HMS" prefix to their names!
I call this the "Princess Bride" theory of story-telling. No pirates, I'm afraid, but I never liked pirates.
