Updates:

Thank you for all my nugs checking in this month! I’ve finally progressed into the 50%-75% section of the Extoria edit. I’m trying something different with chapter and scene outlines to see if it aids my progress. Right now, I slated this section for ten chapters, and I already have one completed. The goal is to have Extoria ready for submissions to agents once I finish this round of edits. I’m also working on short stories again to get some published in literary magazines, so keep your eyes open for announcements.

What to Expect:

Every month I try to post every day, and so far, it hasn’t happened. I’m going to keep trying to post quality content for you on Instagram and other social media platforms, so don’t forget to check in there. You’ll see entries nine and ten for Frozen in Line this month, a book review on Sacrilege by Barbara Avon, and a writing journal entry. For the writing tips post, we’ll finish the PMESII-PT and then I’ll go further into world-building not covered by these sections. If there are any topics, you’d like me to focus on, please comment below.

Writing tips: Using PMESII-PT Part 6 Infrastructure Variable

Infrastructure addresses the facilities, services, and installations required for a functioning society. Sometimes we forget what it takes to run a society, and I’m thinking back to a short story I read in college where paint cans line the streets and each day you dumped the color on yourself that projected your emotions. (Or something like that.) The question brought up by the instructor was, how do they keep the paint stocked, when do they restock, who covers the cost of the paint? So how do you justify your societies beyond the reader’s suspension of disbelief?

Low Level Mechanics

Low level mechanics might include communication systems, water and electricity distribution, transport infrastructure, irrigation, land reclamation, hospitals, schools, etc.

One example is of transport infrastructure. If you’re using roads and motorized vehicles, then you’ll have less explaining than if you were to have hover cars, spaceships, personal rocket packs. Once you venture out of the known, you’ll need to help the reader understand how your devices work. Don’t forget, you’ll run into a range of readers. Some will accept all, and some will accept none. Most of the time, you can create solidity of your concepts with a sentence or two. But if the transport system is a major part of your story, it may take more information.

A great example of this is the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Even though this is a movie, it shows one way of sharing the information behind the time traveling car’s function. The story introduces a new technology, a flux capacitor, powered by a known material, first plutonium and then electricity from a lightning bolt. While a more scientific mind might challenge the functionality of this, your general audience usually accepts these explanations. The reason they validated the energy process was to wow and because time travel was the basis of the plot.

Questions to consider:

What infrastructure is important to your story?

If you’re using a school setting, what’s the decade? How have the cultures changed as each generation reaches that age? What kind of support did that schools require in that era?

If you have electricity powered objects that play into your story, what are your sources of energy? How long does the energy last? Is it infinite (Iron Man’s Arc Reactor) or is it limited (AA battery)?

High Level Infrastructure:

High level infrastructure addresses advanced technological capacities that enable research and development(R&D) activities. Research can span the gap between a garage lab to high-end government-funded labs. The more advanced your technology created above is, the more advanced labs are required. Are your characters like Robin Williams designing Flubber? Or like Tony Stark designing the newest Iron Man suit with advanced technology?

Questions to consider:

What level of infrastructure is required to make your technology possible?

Who owns the rights to those labs and how does that impact R&D?

How is your R&D documented? Are your characters designing pre-electricity? Or are they using something beyond our current technologies?

Remember, some see improvement as beneficial, but others perceive it as a threat. This can play into your storyline, and may be the premise of your novel. Either way, your infrastructure and capabilities will affect your stories.

Conclusion

Infrastructure is a large part of the story that can make or break that earlier mentioned suspense of disbelief. Don’t stress too much about it, because the story often reveals what you need to know, but if your Beta Readers, or other readers, start asking questions about how something works, then return to this post.

PMESII-PT Part 5 Information

PMESII-PT Part 7 Physical Environment