Real Problems for a Plot

[patience]

I recently saw a video lecture that outlined a good case for 3 things hitting us upside the head at once in the near future, some of it underway.

1) Our industrial society having caused enough pollution to have irreversible climate change now underway--as in a warming Arctic alowing the release of methane clathrates (methane gas trapped in crystalline form deep in the Arctic ocean). Methane gas he said is 25X as bad as carbon dioxide for global warming. This makes food scarce, and much of the planet unlivable, eventually.

2) Peak Oil, bringing our industrial society down, grinding ever slower as less fuel is available and only at ever higher cost. This hits the economy right in the head.

3) Fiat money crash, due to credit saturation--nobody, not even nations, can afford to borrow any more, so we have to start paying off our debts, since we can't charge the payments on credit anymore.

This combination of griefs the professor said will end our modern society. For the prepper/survival minded folks, it is a very difficult challenge, indeed. The result would be something very close to the Dune series of books.

Question:
Is it too big a topic for a single book length novel? I am tempted to think so. Maybe take it in bite size pieces? Any ideas about how to give the reader some hope for the future?

[Jerry D Young]

I think all three could be incorporated into a single novel, intertwined as they would be in real life.

And the hope for many, I think, would be small farms near small towns that cooperate with each other to survive.

[patience]

That sounds right to me. I suppose it depends on the severity of each problem how it works out. The cooperative efforts are the only viable solution, and I don't see that happening in or near large cities. The small towns have a good chance IF they work hard on it. That takes some foresight and leadership.

And, it takes a big dose of creative thinking. I can foresee conflicts from those reluctant to change anything due to "normalcy bias". Then, there is small town politics, the spoiled well-to-do, the needs of the very poor, and everyone getting blind-sided by ongoing crises.

What I think is the crux of the whole situation, is getting people to see that "normal" isn't coming back. That is less of a problem with all-out nuclear war, or other supersize tragedies, since it gets to be obvious pretty fast. Not so with a creeping set of varied problems.

I haven't solved the need for manufactured goods yet. Eventually, those things get worn out beyond repair and need replacement. China is too far away, and US manufacturing is too large scale and inefficient for scarce energy. I have work to do there to make this believable.

[rvm45]

Well, if you don't mind a little advice:

I would start out with some "Present" (your Novel's "Present") "Slice of Life Views".

And in each one there would be a reference to conditions now, and in our day.....

"When Beerceegan was a boy, you never had to worry about getting caught in a Downpour of Syrupy Blueberry goo, and Everlasting Gob-Stoppers falling like so many potentially lethal hailstones.

But that was before some of the Weird--Almost Steam Punk--Nanites escaped from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, and had put the World at Sixes and Sevens....."

Depending on how many characters you have, you can spread it around.....

But--and this is one of the harder parts--you want to do this unobtrusively.....

Avoid the sense that your saying to your reader, "Stop a moment while I set the scene....."

One of the best ways to do that is to have your characters muti-task.....

Beerceegan is not only flashing back to before--But also pulling on his Galoshes to wade through the Blueberry Pancake Syrup.

.....RVM45

[patience]

Yes. Flashbacks are in order here. Can't overdo that, but it is effective when used correctly. I have one flashback in mind that is pivotal to the tale, but haven't decided when to let that particular cat out of the bag.

I may go with a journal/diary/dateline sort of thing for a lot of this. There is some background that might be best done that way.

Agatha Christie sometimes used a character list at the beginnings of her tales. That could be helpful in my case to handle a fairly complex array off them, since a couple dozen would be significant.

I am an admirer of Louis L'Amour's style in beginning a book. His hero seemed to always start out in one heckuva predicament, and had you rooting for him to get out of it soon, just so you could find out how he got INTO that mess. That takes careful handling to pull it off, though, lest you get into a lot of dull background later. He could do that and make it work, giving you bits of background as the firefights went on. I dunno if I could do it or not.