The Fiction Ideas of David H. Oswalt

This is a method I devised to help when in the process of creating a characters personality. It's probably not original, I have almost 0 doubt someone has done something like this. However I will put it here for posterity. It's not the only way to do this by any means, but it IS the way I will try and use going forward. So let's dive in!

Here you see a stratified diamond. I encourage you to make one as well. It doesn't have to be the same colors or be stratified vertically. That's not the point here. What it needs to be is 7 parts arranged from one point to another and labeled like it is above. Now you need to put a value(s) at the "top" labeled "Actively Supports". Which one? Well what does your character Actively support? What would they go out their way to protect and cultivate? Why? That why is what goes at the top. Preferably in one word, but if you need more use more. Now think of what the opposite of that is. The polar opposite. Can't figure that out? What would your character go out their way, put them selves in danger or under strain to attack, to stop, and why? That why goes at the "bottom" under "Actively Opposes". Now that you have those two things, what does the rest of this mean?

Actively Supports

This is what DRIVES your character. Why are they like this? Is it trauma? Grief? Love? That's for you to know and the audience to find out! Your character will act in way that best support this as far as they can see. If they can't find a way to support this in a crisis or conflict it will distress them in some way. Maybe make them angry, depressed, or unstable. Cause them to compromise on their morals somehow ect.

Encourage

This is what your character admires, They typically are synergistic and supportive of the things your character "Actively Supports"

Likes

These are things your character finds nice. They are typically the products of "Actively Supports" or Synergistic with the "Encourages" category.

Allows

These are things your character allows or permits. Typically things your character doesn't know, or has no strong opinion on.

Dislikes

These are things your character finds unpleasant. They are typically undermining of things in the "Encourage" category, or antithetical to the "Likes". They also include things like the products of the "Actively Opposes" category, or synergies with the "discourages" category.

Discourages

These are things your character despises or is disgusted by. They typically include things that are obstructive or diminishing of the "Actively Supports" category. They are also things that are antithetical of the "Encourage" category. They can also be things that Synergistic with the "Actively Opposes" Category

Actively Opposes

These are things your character will NOT stand for. Maybe they aren't normally the type to care, but if this happens or is involved they will care and they WILL try and stop it. They may fail, but they won't go down easy. This is often the opposite of the "Actively Supports" Category. It's typically diminished by things in the "Encourages" and "Likes" categories. If they can't find a way to oppose this in a crisis or conflict it will distress them in some way. Maybe make them angry, depressed, or unstable. Cause them to compromise on their morals somehow ect. If your looking for conflict, mix this in.

That's pretty much it. Make your character act accordingly. If you hit a snag, refer to the diamond to see if it's a conflict in how your character should be acting.

The method of "faster then light travel" drops the ship into "think-space" which is the plain of existence all the thoughts of all people exist on. Going their while awake is a no no, at lest on paper, you HAVE to (by regulation) be put under in timed stasis until the trip is complete unless your a pilot or crew member. Because raw exposure of the conscious mind to thoughts in think-space without special equipment and training causes the mind to warp and buckle under the thoughts immensely personal and relative scope, becoming obsessed with the thoughts.

Think-space is roughly laid out the same as real space, but it's bound by the all the laws of normal physics. The thing that really does the trick is a "psycho-transitive drive" that can be used to rapidly move to ideas with "mental resonance waves" of the pilots mind. Basically you think a thought and you end up at that thoughts location or the location of a thought like it due to a kind of "psychometric magnetism" that pulls you faster then light to the destination. So you can get to other places by moving to around their area of think-space and dropping out of think-space. course you need a clarity of thought and focus to do that. You would think that means "ADHD and other like wise neurodivergent pilots are bad" but hyper focus is actually amazing for navigation once you get the hang of it. Fastest ships in the fleet for some planets. Provided you can get them interested in "the thought of the destination" which is normally the "mind anchor" used on all the maps.

Course their are synthetic psych-wave transit systems, that use like thoughts captured from thought space to go from one port and back, then you hop on a pod and drop out of think-space. Convenient for well traveled locale like trade planets.

So why go into think-space awake at all? Aside from pilots?

Cause taking thoughts out of think space will turn them into a "pseudo-truth" when the ship drops back into real space, a crystal/stone/object/ really anything the shape is not important or constant, the dangerous part is that funneling energy into the pseudo-truth makes that thought REAL in an area equivalent to energy put into the pseudo truth. Oh is the thought about never being hungry or that good people are immortal (how ever the original thinker defined that)? Well that's TRUE and FACT now, provided you can keep it supplied with energy. The thought that people are evil and hateful by nature and need to be kept in line with violence? True now for as long as the powers on. Are you a good person by nature? Not any more. Or maybe you just don't exist. depends on how the thought is thunk. How ever, if you over energizes a pseudo-truth, it generates a "warped ideal", a black whole that leads back to think space and takes a whole area with it and then collapses into nothing. Very illegal, and VERY tempting for would be dictators and other evil douche wads.

Course their is high level tech to neutralize the influence of pseudo-truths, stuff made for FOB's and stuff to allow them to breach into areas under the effect of pseudo-truths and shut it down. The people tend to recover with some therapy and stuff. Still it's not pretty. The name the nerds calls it is "reality dissonance rectifiers" soilders and those who use it to breach into "faker zones" (areas under the effect or pseudo truths) call them "fact checkers" and/or "lie detectors"

The devices work by measuring out the wavelengths of the pseudo-truth's "psycho resonance field" that allow them to warp real space and then emit a counter waves of opposite frequencies. It's prone to make you nauseous the first time to feel it start. Like real and wrong just started fighting, but you get used to it over time.

Stronger waves need higher resonance, sometimes too high to be safe. When that happens. They call in the counter truth division. Who measure the wave and find a counter truth, a thought so antithetical to the current pseudo truth that they can be used to create smaller pockets of pseudo truth that counter the "bad truth". That's the easy part. The hard part is finding someone unaffected by that truth. Normally someone for whom that truth is a moot point, or that it's already true for. So that they won't be altered by the field

Don't be in the area when a thought becomes a pseudo truth or vice versa when a pseudo-truth goes back to being a thought by returning to think-space, it's an explosive process both ways. You need to contain it in super strict conditions or it can take out whole cities or countries depending on the thought. "violent conceptual realization" in scientific spheres or "the eureka moment" as it's normally called when it happens.