Young Writers Society

And this is why I hate posting stuff on Nanowrimo ( obvisaly no one notices my creativity. Anyways. Btw,I suck at names, but I'm going to change the name of my president and nation. )

I'm writing a science fiction story and I need major help with developing a nation. This is what i got thus far. Europea
My nation is called ( used to be Europe ) and the nation is impoverished. Their are no more country's ( they are now called Provinces ). Europa has a lot of uranium ore. I know that their are mutant animals due to radiation. ( for instance the albino badger is the national animal.) The goverment ( Marta ) wants to keep the nation self sustaing and impoverished. I imagine that Marta enjoys being in power and dispises America ( in my story America is very welthy and technology advanced. ) People in Europa are largely denied technology ( only the government and " rich people " have access to most of the technogeys.



So i have questions and I seriously need help.

Why would Marta make Europea self sustaining/ keep people in poverty?

Reasons for radiation?

Ideas for mutation in animals\plants\people?

And, my most important question...

My stories revolve around a very famous American medical doctor and inventor. She has invented several medical technologies as well as partcaly invented a force field and shrink ray ( this is research device. ) There are two teenage girls who are her apperintices, and are very Intelagent. Both girls strive to be like my scientist and want to follow in her footsteps. So why would my government want my scientist and two teenage girls? Honistly i have no clue.

Any ideas? I also would like more information on Europe and need help with further develuping my nation, so please PM me.

I'm tired of people on Nanowrimo acting like i have bad ideas etc. People need to realize that it's a story, and that it's sci fic and that it dosn't have to be 100% realistic.

Any good ideas for names?

Most of those questions are 100% something you need to think of yourself, otherwise its not really your story. If you don't know then you need to figure it out, it's important that you know the reasons of everything important to the plot, and that it comes from your head.

However as far as trends for naming are going, names are going further and further into references to objects and old gods (they used to but now people are directly taking on names of old gods rather then a name that references it) as people try to make their kids seem unique. So people of the future may continue this into very weird names for future objects or gods.

Woah, woah, woah! Spelling!

But, neat idea for a story. Here's my take on your questions:

Why would Marta make Europea self sustaining/ keep people in poverty?

Both are borne from the same desire to control the people.

The greatest threat to any government is food riots. People will put up with a lot, but starvation is where the line is drawn. For totalitarian governments, another threat are foreign influences.

So if Europa was not self-sustaining, the government would need to import food from other nations or face food riots that could topple the regime. Since it is self-sustaining though, the threat of both food riots and foreign influences is relatively minimal.

And by keeping the people in poverty, you ensure that their minds are more susceptible to both fear and indoctrination.

Reasons for radiation?

Over a hundred years ago, Russia launched a nuclear attack against Europe and the United States. Being further away, the US was able to intercept most of the missiles, but Europe didn't have enough time.

Ideas for mutation in animals\plants\people?

Shorter lifespans, more cancer, odd rashes, increase in number of conjoined twins, missing limbs, missing eyes, etc.

does it absolutely have to be nuclear radiation which causes the mutations? I ask because radiation eventually dissipates over time. it would only take a few decades before radiation levels were down to safe levels. and if the source is un-enriched uranium ore the worst you would see in terms of symptoms would probably be weaker immune systems and higher susceptibility to cancer. if you ask me a chemical or biological source would be a much more plausible source of mutation.

in real life in fact there have been several well-documented cases of widespread genetic mutation (children born with deformities and whatnot) among humans in the US and abroad due to toxic chemicals entering the ground and lake-water. but with this approach you run into a similar problem as with nuclear related illness. unless the source of the chemical exposure is constantly supplying the environment with the harmful agent it will eventually become diluted to the point that it is no longer dangerous.

now going the biological approach (viruses, mold, bacteria etc.) would be a bit more difficult because there are few biological diseases known to cause mutation in humans. however it could work out to your benefit logistically because, unlike chemical and nuclear weapons, biological pathogens can reproduce. what that means is that the infecting agent can become endemic (recurring constantly in the same general area) for centuries. and the pathogen can spread on its own without becoming diluted by jumping from host to host.

now that I think about it a biological source of mutation could also be a good motive for the government to keep the nation impoverished and self-sustaining. the government is simply trying to keep the disease from spreading to the rest of the world by keeping Europa cut off. greed and lust for power are overused in sci-fi as motives for governmental corruption if you ask me. good vs evil is not only boring but also unrealistic since very few (if any) people are completely moral or immoral in the real world. I think it would be much more interesting if the government actually had an altruistic motive which led them to questionable actions. it creates a moral dilemma for both the characters and the reader.

as a rule of thumb, if plot makes your reader question "is it justifiable to X if it's [for the benefit of/to prevent/to ensure etc] Y?" then you usually have a good plot on your hands.

something else. you mentioned that Europa contains a lot of uranium ore. this would be a poor choice as a cause of wide-spread mutation because decay of natural uranium from the earth, which is usually U^238 is alpha radiation which has short range. it doesn't even penetrate the skin. un-enriched or depleted uranium is actually more dangerous to humans because of it's toxicity than it's weak radiation.

so unless it's being slipped into people's food supply it's probably not going to cause a tremendous amount of genetic defects. U^238's radioactive daughters such as Radon and Radium may be more plausible, but still fairly unlikely causes of mutation in a work of fiction.