Who are your colonists?

Probably the most important thing in a colony type story is your colonists. After all the colonists are the characters and the characters create the conflict which drives the story. So when you are creating your colonists whether it's too another planet, the moon, or even if you are writing a historical or fantasy and just moving somewhere else on your planet here are some questions to keep in mind.

Who are your colonists? Are they all male? Are they all female? Are they family groups? Are they young? Are they old? Are the ages mixed?

Why are they going? Did they volunteer? Were they forced to leave by their society? Are they persecuted? Are they out for adventure and exploration? Is there something wrong with their homeworld? Did they even know they were going?

Where are they going? How far is it? Do they all want to leave or do some of them want to stay at home? If there are some that don't want to go why are they going? Are they younger people such as teens or preteens and they are forced to go by their parents? Are they going because someone else is going but would never go on their own? Are they starting a new colony or one that is already established?

For example, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy he has 100 colonists that are made up of mostly American and Russian scientists with a handful of scientists from other countries. It's a joint effort between Russia and the US to explore Mars and to see how well it would be for colonization. Only the best and the brightest of the scientists were chosen. They are both male and female and on the older side of the age spectrum.

In Monica Hughes young adult book Invitation to the Game the colonists do not have a clue.

In Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles there are a few different colonists. One man goes in order to avoid the censors and censorship that have taken over Earth. Another man moves there in order to plant Apple trees. Another moved there with his wife in order to make a lot of money.

In Paula Danzinger's young adult book This Place has No Atmosphere a teenage girl is forced to go with her parents to spend a year on an already established colony on the moon.

As much as I hate outlining and answering questionairres these questions will help you when writing your own colony story. Don't say just because I need it to go this way to work for my story. Give them a real reason. Remember fiction has to be more rational than reality.

I have a plot

After creating 122 characters I finally came up with a plot. It has internal conflict, external conflict that involves overthrowing the existing government power. I knew it would come to me eventually. Although I don't know if you would call this outlining. I'm not much of an outliner and when I do I seem to lose interest in the story.

In order for this story to work I'll only need the 1400 original colonists, the first generation and possibly the second generation. Of course they have by no means reached the new home planet. I smell a sequel and so it might just be a trilogy because they are oh so popular in science fiction and fantasy.

The ever popular question: Do you outline or wing it?

From the bookshelf - off world colonies

I thought I'd put up a list of novels from my bookshelf that have off Earth colonies. I haven't read for enjoyment for awhile. Being a history major is a lot of reading and writing and leaves little time for reading for fun. After looking and trying to remember what each book is about I found four books that deal with off Earth colonies. I haven't had a chance to read everything I own and while I have a lot of science fiction I didn't realize how few dealt with off world colonies.

Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card- While Ender's Game doesn't really deal with off world colonies it does open the door to the rest of the series which does deal with off world colonies or rather one off world colony in particular, the planet Lusitania. These three books are set far in the future after Ender's Game and could be read without having reading Ender's Game. They are, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind. Although it is recommended that you read
all four books.

The next set is the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson. Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars. It follows the first 100 colonists to Mars. It has politics, economics, science, culture, and religion. A must read for all people who love Mars.

My first adult novel about an off Earth Colony was Lear's Daughters by M. Bradley Kellog with William Rossow. My dad bought it for me at the public library for a quarter. It deals with humans studying an alien culture so a lot of soft sciences in this one. Sociology, anthropology, the study of the culture and religion. It is one of my favorites although I need to buy a new copy because mine is falling apart. I received it already used when I was in high school which was over ten years ago.

The next four books take place on Mars. I have a little bit of a crush on Mars and try and get any story set on Mars to see how other writers portray the planet. Mars Underground by William K. Hartmann is about looking for life on Mars and answering the question, did life begin on Mars? The next book isn't really a novel but a collection of short stories from the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Gordon Van Gelder. It is called Fourth Planet from the Sun. One story in particular jumped out at me it's titled "The Wilderness" by Ray Bradbury although the whole book is just smashing. The third book is a classic also by Ray Bradbury The Martian Chronicles. This book is a classic SF piece and should be read by all lovers of science fiction. The fourth book is by Greg Bear who is becoming a fast favorite of mine. If you like politics and revolution you'll like Moving Mars.

My last book on my shelf dealing with off world colonies is Saturn by Ben Bova. It's a colony ship story because they never actually go planet side but there are interesting things going on in the rings. This book is all about politics. A very fun read.

I have read all of these books numerous times. They are always a fun read when you want to get away for a little while. So, readers have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? Do you know any other titles about off world colonies? I'm always looking for more titles about off world colonies to read. What have you read lately?

Not much happening...

I did some more characters so I now have 110/1400 characters complete. My first 100 characters have American surnames. I've decided for my next 100 characters will have French last names. This is my attempt at getting some racial/ethnic/cultural diversity since the default especially in science fiction it seems to be white.

Does anyone know of any books where the main character is not a white American guy? The only book that comes to mind that I've attempted to read is Aftermath by Levar Burton who played Geordie LaForge on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I'm always looking for some great reads so if you have one please leave a comment.

My current W.I.P.

I'm currently working on a mult-generation space colony story. I do not have a word count as of yet as I am still working on world building and back story. What I am doing now is creating characters and doing research. I have 1400 original colonists while not all of them will be in the novel it is important to keep the genetics straight since I am not using cryogenics to get them to the new planet. So far I have: 52/1400 character profiles done.

I will post the links I am using to keep my characters random in my links list. One of them is a random number generator and the other two deal with names. One is common surnames and the other is a random name generator.

One book I'm using so far for research is, Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology by: J. Storrs Hall, PhD. Chief Scientist of Nanorex, Inc., Fellow of the Molecular Engineering Research Institute.