I have a lot of ideas of scenes, plot progression, and I don’t think that’s enough. There needs to be some broader themes. It seems low hanging, but techno-religion keeps coming to mind. It is cyberpunk, after all. I’m thinking of a Tweet I saw six months ago, about Warhammer, of all things.
The Mechanus[sp] had a sort of techno religion, and someone pointed out that we already do that. We yell at the dryer and kick it to get it working. We pray to our code before we hit compile. Zoomers are technically boomers. The cell phone is basically magic. I already have the concept of Ghosts in Softbone, schizoid embolisms, so I’m gonna roll with this. there’s also a flood of Indians to the city, which is the goto for religios enthic groups.
I’m thinking some sort of techno religion, attracting the scammy downtrodden interlopers. And of course some nepo baby Russel Brant in charge. I did up a quick scene where he’s trying to recreate the flashout that Jake had in the first book, reach salvation. Also, strokes. It gives the character a reason to want to find Jake, as the Ghost will inform him he’s the only one who has been there before. Kind of like how Fatahl wanted Jake for the buzzer code. It gives him a ‘The One’ but very pedestrian.
Which leads me to a theme. If Softbone was themed with the types of family creation, then this can be about purpose and cause in a world without one. Also, since the Fem-law DEI surrogate is also a form of quasi religion (golden calf) theres a good change I can create some kind of holy war in the Temple. I don’t want this to be a derivitive, a Butlerian Jihad, so I’ll have to execute it in my style and for a different reason than saying man invents god in the absense of…
I have a scene in the beginning of a person who is jailbreaking tech, a troon who wants to detransition and whose parents died in the Retro. I want that to tie this together. That will be about a lost boy, a guy who wants to build his own identity, outside of his mother using him as a bougie status symbol with hormones. Maybe he has something that Cabo (the religious zealot) needs or perhaps just left the religion and they want to kill him now. I should make a DEI apostate as well.
The questions is, Jake has to have a reason to engage with any of this. being hired for an exfil for uku is a starting point, but then I have to ask, why does Uku want in on this? It’s a problem of motivation. Money, easy but hallow. The only family Jake has is his new girlfriend Nancy… I’m not sure if I want to use her, or leave her at home yet. Revenge, but for what? Survival? Again it seems hallow. In Softbone, Jake wanted to be free from opression and his wife, I need a driving motivation. I might make the apostates the main motivators and turn Jake into a serial hero (he doesn’t grow, he’s the hero, everyone else around him has the character arcs, similar to movies like I comme in peace, or other action schlock of the 80s)
I’ll probably write scenes that introduce the characters, build the new world, then see what pops out. I expect I’ll be rewriting a lot of this. Ah well, writing is rewriting. I wonder how the Fem-Law Amazon corporation can cause damage in all this? Corporate war with Samsung on home soil? Maybe turn the corporate battles into a quasi religious one? two religions and two corporations parallel the same issues? Is corporatism a religion?
If this were a strategy session, I’d ask Nick if this works and he always has the same answer “It all depends on the execution”
