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I'm enjoying sharing the writing process here in my livejournal, so here's the latest update. :)

My story now has a working title... possibly a final title, actually. That's important, because I'm one of those writers who works best when I have a name by which to think of the story that encapsulates the mood and content of the story in some way.

My main character is fleshing out a bit more... still don't have a name for him yet, but I know more about him. He's the architect who designed the underwater colony. All of his life he's loved the water... swimming... dreamed of sailing the vast blue ocean, of losing himself in its embrace. His talents led him along the path of the architect, and when overcrowding on land pushed man below the ground and out to the stars he used his skills to bring his dreams to life... a haven for man in the realm undersea, which he also chooses to make his home once its completed. Unfortunately for him, the underwater realm isn't quite as he dreamed it to be... the dark depths and the strange creatures which make the blackness their home fill him with a secret terror. He admires the gracefulness and freedom of these wonders of the ocean, and finds their world both terrible and beautiful. It fills him with a longing he can't quite explain, and which scares him a bit.

Then there's his closest friend and companion in this submarine realm... the colony's engineer, a remarkable woman who works closely with him to keep his vision running just as he envisioned it. So when thing suddenly seem to start going wrong all over the place, the two of them have more than a slight vested interest in the matter. Maybe some of it is just accidents, but when you're living at a depth that the water above you could easily crush an unprotected human body accidents are not something you want occurring with any frequency. And the accidents are weird ones too... nobody's been hurt in them, though some could have easily harmed humans if they had occurred while anyone had been in the affected areas, and something difficult to quantify beyond mere feeling makes the two believe that there is order in the seemingly random events.... a pattern. Which, of course, suggests that some hand or hands are guiding them.

I haven't fully worked out what those events will be just yet, or what explanations these rational individuals might come up with for the irrational events happening to them. I also don't know what other individuals they will need present in the tale to help and hinder them. I still haven't decided if there will be death in this story or not... if it is, I think it'll be held off until somewhat close to the end... when events have progressed to the point where some violence or pain is almost inevitable. I also am thinking that there is an increasing need for one or more human antagonists, even though in some senses the environment itself will be antagonistic. It will help prolong suspense if there are a ready collection of "usual suspects" to place the blame for the accidents on.

Finally, I've come up with a good reason why the first colony of its kind was placed that deep... it's primary source of power could be geothermal energy, an abundant supply of which can be found at any geothermal vent. And the deep ocean vents are also home to a vast array of submarine life which scientists are itching to study, which could be one source of funding for such a vast undertaking, much as scientists who specialize in the study of space and other planets would find it in their best interest to fund an extraterrestrial colony.

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I'm researching my setting a bit more... since I'm using the dream theory approach to writing (yes, I know how weirdly appropriate that is) suggested by that article I quoted, it's rather important since it is a direct manifestation of a part of my protagonist's psyche. There are actually multiple layers to this setting, which makes it somewhat unique... first we have the organized, orderly world of the colony itself, designed by our hero. It's pleasant, comfortable, rational, and above all else safe. (When it's working right, anyway.) Beyond that, and engulfing it, are two other layers to our setting. The first is simply the physical environment... the rocky bottom of the ocean, the heat of the vents and the chemicals released in great eddies from them, the weight of the water above, and the primal darkness of the ocean depths. It is a harsh environment, utterly alien to man and utterly unforgiving of any human being which fails to show it proper respect when dealing with it. And then we have the final layer to our setting: the creatures of the ocean depths themselves, the denizens of the deep, living in an underwater ecology, bound by rules of animal society we know nothing about. Unlike the humans which walk the corridors of the colony, these beings are so utterly unfathomable that they cannot be characterized and instead become an aspect of the very environment. Though the Sea itself, the fuzzy blending of the physical environment and the living ecosystem will itself take on the elements of a character in my little passion play.

The hardest parts of the research into my setting are figuring out where to blur the lines between what is and what could be. Do I stick simply with the known creatures of the depths, or do I extrapolate into the realm of what could still be down there that we haven't found yet? Do I use known technology to come up with a way for them to breath and talk normally at such great depths, or do I fudge things a little for the sake of the tale? Do I dangle plausible sounding pseudo-science explanations for the unexplainable or do I simply let them... and the reader... go on wondering? I think the one thing that I am determined to do is avoid the "character" who is a personification of the writer himself and is in the story only to supply a wild theory which nobody in their right mind would ever suggest for what is happening to them which just happens to turn out to be true. Anyone have no idea what I mean? Go read or watch Stephen King's "Langoliers" sometime, it becomes painfully obvious. And it's a common device, I find, which significantly reduces my enjoyment of any book or video which contains it.

Another factor is also starting to shape the story, one I hadn't really thought of before... how much time the story has to take place in. Obviously there will be some leeway with skipping periods of time (nobody really cares about your protagonist stopping to take a shit unless it's somehow critical to the plot, as one example) but to maintain proper mood and flow I can't be heavy handed with the amount of time I skip, which limits the overall timeframe for the events in the story. At first the seemingly random accidents can be somewhat spread out and not effect mood or flow, but as tension builds time is going to telescope for our readers till eventually minutes seem to crawl by as they wait anxiously for our protagonist's choices and actions, and the consequences which may result.

On the bright side of all this, I already know a significant amount about colonies like this one... their basic needs, the modern solutions which may work for meeting most if not all of those needs, some of the major problems faced by humans in hostile, even alien, environments. I've been fascinated for a long time by the idea of man colonizing other worlds, particularly Mars, and as a result I've read a lot of material on the subject, both from the realm of science and from the realm of science fiction. When you get down to it, there are a lot of similarities between a colony on another world and a colony at the bottom of the ocean. Both have to deal with "atmospheres" which are entirely different from on the earth's surface. Both need to deal with the problem of breathable air, the problem of temperature, the problem of pressure in many cases. Energy, food, raw materials... and the undersea colony would have the distinct advantage of fast communication and relatively fast trade between itself and terra firma.

Well, I need sleep.... I'll catch everyone this afternoon sometime. And more will be written soon, either in my head or on the page, I promise.