The Chequered Skipper

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How can I have my world full of massive floating structures in the sky and keep it safe enough?

I'm thinking these structures would be at least 300m in diameter and have several buildings. Just a single disaster could be horrible if there's say 5000 people up there and just as many or even more people in buildings and streets on the ground.

Obviously, the fastest way to eliminate deaths would be to have these structures over the water or empty ground. But that's still so many people left on these structures itself.

Nobody is going to build these structures if it isn't safe. A single disaster could toss out the entire project of doing technology.

Anyway, disasters WILL happen because they do, but just how much is tolerable before it's deemed too unsafe? I suppose that could be part of plot but I'm not sure how that even works in real life? I don't know about safety thresholds in real life I can look at, especially when this is obviously sci-fi and I don't know where to search.

Finally, I am not sure how to design them. Could they be using anti grav technology? Maybe it's massive ships hovering in the air, either permanently staying still or set to land every now and then so people can travel without needing transport.

Tex: Suspending disbelief is a writing mechanism that’s popular for a very good reason, and shorthanding technology and magic (which in some genres amounts to the same thing) can often help move the plot along better than examining every grain and molecule that makes up a world.

That said, every technology has had at least one disaster during its history. Planes, for example, had a brief period where they used square windows, which had disastrous effects on cabin pressure and kept crashing the plane - now we use rounded windows (Popular Mechanics). And yet, air travel via airplane numbers in the millions nearly every year (Statista).

“Safe” is often a risk assessment measure used to judge whether something is worth doing. It’s unrealistic to assume that a technology will never kill anyone, but historically the general assessment is to constantly improve and make sure any deaths or injuries are accidental and as close to flukes as possible.

I would look at the design of skyscrapers for reference, since they face the same dilemmas as your world, in terms of safety, intra-building transportation like elevators, and area allocation for number of people and utilities.

Ebonwing: Why do the people in your world want to build floating cities? The more pressing the reason, the more likely they are to tolerate safety issues. If living on the ground is for whatever reason extremely dangerous but floating cities are only somewhat dangerous, then people will be far more willing to accept the risks. 

As for how you can construct them within your setting, both antigrav and building them on the back of airships work. I would recommend not getting stuck on this too much. Like Tex already said, suspension of disbelief is necessary for readers to engage with scifi or fantasy fiction and most people won’t question it if you say that this world has floating cities powered by antigrav, or whatever you end up going with, and leave it at that.

UPDATE because apparently not everyone has seen this yet the new and improved version of this is a MEGA folder

Is this still being updated? Yes, although currently sporadically because I’m very busy with grad school.

Can you add X language? As long as you ask nicely and the language isn’t already there I’ll try my best, although see above. Sometimes I don’t find resources though but I try to keep a list and periodically check again.

Can I send you files to add to the folder? Yes, you can send me links to them or ask me for my email address.

The folder is empty? Is it the Google drive? In that case please try the MEGA folder instead. If it’s the MEGA folder please DM me so I can send you the link again.

It asks for an encryption key? I don’t know why it does that sometimes but if this happens please DM me for the key.

I found a mistake in the folders? Thank you for telling me, I will try to fix it with the next update.

Do the ko-fi donations pay for the server costs? For legal reasons, no. I don’t want me, you or ko-fi to get into trouble. I am paying the server costs out of pocket (49€ a year) but the donations are used to balance out that fact by allowing me to acquire resources for the folder or for my daily life (I’m a poor grad student lol), support linguistic diversity through charities. No one is required to donate and I hope that once I have a stable job I won’t need donations, but currently every little bit helps.

Isn’t this piracy? Not if no one finds out so don’t you dare narc on me.

Time is one of the many things that writers coming from a modern perspective have a terrible, terrible habit of taking granted when they attempt to write a premodern fantasy. Modern notions of the second, the minute, the hour, the day, the week, (the WEEKEND!), the month, often get copy-pasted into fantasy literature wholesale, and often the only sop to it being a non-earth setting is a hasty name-change.

(Like: Whoa shit, son! there can’t be a January if this world doesn’t have a Janus, so I’ll call it… uhm… Manuary. >_>)

As a fantasy writer, one of my preoccupations is how things might have developed differently. So obviously our current calendar, with its 28-to-31-day months, 7-day weeks, and 24-hour days is one way that it could have developed, as is proven by the fact that it did, but are there other ways it could have gone? We think of it as natural and self-evident because it’s what we’re used to, but might some other system work equally well? Or are there real, physical factors in play that would inevitably lead us back to the same calendar? Is there a reason for having 12 months? Is there a reason why weeks have seven days? Is there a reason to have weeks at all?

In short, how do you invent a time system that could have plausibly developed? Or should you just file the serial numbers off the Gregorian system and use that?

(a general guide, dedicated to anon)

For the purposes of this description I’m going to use the word Words to indicate whatever the character is saying and the word Attribution to refer to the dialogue tag (the bit where you write ‘she said’). Further details and actual examples behind the cut.

1. dialogue followed by speaker

“Words,” attribution.

1a. quotation that is a question or an exclamation followed by speaker

“Words?” attribution.

“Words!” attribution.

The only difference from the above is changing the comma to a question mark or exclamation point. 

2. speaker followed by dialogue

Attribution, “Words.” 

Attribution, “Words?” 

Attribution, “Words!”

3. dialogue with the speaker in the middle of the quote

“Words,” attribution, “words.”

“Words,” attribution, “words?”

“Words,” attribution, “words!”

4. dialogue without attribution (the speaker is obvious and doesn’t need to be named)

“Words.”

“Words?”

“Words!”

Additional note:

For 3 and 5, these rules are accurate if the dialogue is a continuing sentence:

“I known it’s dangerous,” they fidgeted, “if all of us go.”

If the second piece of dialogue is a new sentence, then you use a period:

“I don’t what you think you’re doing,” she snorted. “You’ve been an idiot from Day One.”

“I don’t what you think you’re doing,” she snorted, “you’ve been an idiot from Day One.”

—

Beware of comma splices (mashing two sentences together with a comma)! The best way to tell is to put the two phrases together and put periods after both. If it still makes sense, it’s probably a comma splice:

I don’t what you think you’re doing. You’ve been an idiot from Day One. ✔️

I know it’s dangerous. If all of us go. ✖️

I know it’s dangerous if all of us go. ✔️

English Surnames

Dutch Surnames

Spanish Surnames

Scottish Surnames

German Surnames

Italian Surnames

Irish Surnames

French Surnames

Scandinavian Surnames

Welsh Surnames

Jewish Surnames

Surnames By Ethnicity

Most Common Surnames in the USA

Most Common Surnames in Great Britan

Indian surnames

Indonesian surnames

Pakistani surnames

Bengali surnames

Japanese surnames

Filipino surnames

Korean surnames

Syrian surnames

Mongolian naming and clan names

Thai surnames

Diner coffee, sneakers against tiles, buzzing of a neon open sign, and red booth seats.

The feeling that something isn’t quite right, red glinted eyes, long claws tapping at the window, and the sound of chains dragging across the floor.

Leather jackets, band shirts, a roaring campfire, pitched tents, and a smooth singing voice.

Sitting in an empty room, confetti litters the floor, a birthday cake went untouched, and the sun slowly starting to set.

A dark theatre, ghostly apparitions flitting through the seats, the curtains rising, and a haunting violin melody.

Shimmering stained glass, the scent of vanilla from a lit candle, the sound of creaking wood being walked on, and shifting curtains.

Lanterns strung from branches, a large crowd flitting about, the smell of food drifting from stalls, and the sun setting after an eventful day.

Hey all, I added a new download to the Free Resource Library today!! It’s a world building checklist. If you’re already a subscriber, you can login to download it. If you’re not a subscriber, you can get access to the Free Resource Library right here.

Also, I’ll be sending out an email to current subscribers with the new download so if you can’t find your login details, don’t worry, you’ll be hearing from me soon! :)

Free Resource Library downloads:

Creating Character Arcs Workbook

Point of View Cheatsheet

Dialogue Checklist

Setting Checklist

Questions to Ask Before Hiring an Editor Printable Checklist

Proper Manuscript Format Printable Checklist

Short Story & Novel Submission Templates

World Building Checklist

Get access to the Free Resource Library right here.

Hope this helps!

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I have a few favorite resources for beginning language learning online, and since I got a lot of asks about where to learn ____, I thought I’d organize languages to show where they are offered! This is not a comprehensive list by any means, but just what I consider a few of the great places to start. (These are all marked for learners who speak and will learn from English.) 

Most of these resources are free or have free versions with the exception of Pimsleur, Falou, and LingQ (which all offer free trials). 

Most of these resources have both mobile and desktop versions. 

I’ve only included resources that are high quality, offer 10+ languages, and which I have enough experience with to be confident in recommending.

No resources that serve only as dictionaries or phrasebooks - only resources that have lesson-like learning structures.

There are 80+ languages on the list! :D Lots of variety for those who might feel like Spanish and French are their only options.

(For Memrise, only official lessons are listed - unofficial lessons vary in quality and accuracy.)

Afrikaans - Clozemaster, LingoHut 

Ainu - Drops

I’ve seen, shared, and created plenty of posts about how to make your writing better, but I’ve decided, fuck that. It is 2020 and everything feels like crap and here’s a guide for how to enjoy your own writing more.

(Obviously! Like everything! Not all of these will work for everyone! These are just reminders for people who feel they could be a little sillier in their writing!)

1. Write at your own pace! It seems simple but deadlines that you can’t reach won’t help you. (And don’t force yourself to do Nano when it’s not your style.)

2. Write fanfic! All types of fanfic! Shitty OCs, OOC interpretations of characters, self inserts, etc etc etc. Write it without the intention of posting anywhere.

3. Write fanfic… of your own stories. Canon is a construct but that soulmates AU is real if only you write it.

4. Mercilessly switch between WIPs! Abandon them whenever you get bored! Write only the most interesting scenes!

5. Write without a plot! You don’t need to have conflict to have fun.

6. Fuck plot continuity. Write the scenes that make you happy. If they don’t line up? Who gives a shit.

7. If you read something you wrote and it’s not finished, don’t feel guilty. Just. Don’t. Your stories don’t deserve finishing; they provided you happiness as you wrote them, and that’s what’s important. (It’s the process, not the product.)

8. If you write something that’s sad, make it cathartic instead of depressing. Angst is great and all, but don’t stack sad scene upon sad scene for the sake of sadness.

9. Fuck genre. It’s okay if you aren’t sure whether your story is sci-fi or fantasy, it’s okay if you include random paranormal aspects in your historical romance, it’s GREAT if you blur the line between realistic and speculative. Don’t trap yourself in history which has been built upon marketability.