I’ve been spending some time thinking about the much-neglected book I’ve been writing, and in particular, the worldbuilding. I have a terrible habit of neglecting detail, despite advising clients I edit to expand on theirs. So, I spent the evening looking up elements relating to:
A. How to destroy Earth (or make it as tough to live upon as possible, at the very least)
B. Non-rocket space travel
So, these are a few of the questions I typed into Google during my search session:
- Is Earth’s rotation slowing down?
- What might cause its rotation to slow down?
- Is Earthquake activity increasing?
- How climate change affects global weather events.
- Mass evacuations of Populus
- Flying aircraft carrier
- Can a hot-air balloon go into space?
- Can an airplane fly out of orbit?
- Space station on the edge of an orbit
- Space elevator/skyhook/orbital platform
- How to get to space without rockets
- How high is Andean Plateau in Peru?
- How high is Mount Everest?
- Layers of Earth’s atmosphere
- How long does it take to get to space?
- Does space travel contribute to global warming?
I came across multiple articles, most of which led me to ask another question, and although the list above looks random, it all makes perfect sense in my mind. I’ve made a shortlist, of sorts, of the direction I need to take the worldbuilding in, while also ruling out some of the dafter options (like the hot-air balloon option).
Actually, I’ve been curious about the hot-air balloon option since watching The Aeronauts on Amazon Prime (but it was never a serious contender for travel to orbit in my book). The Aeronauts takes place in 1862 and involves meteorology (the study of the atmosphere with a focus on the weather and forecasting). If you haven’t seen it and it is something that interests you, it’s well worth a watch.
I learned a few new things doing this research and went off track more than a few times, but I feel I have finally made up my mind about a couple of elements. I’m going to do a little more research and then I’ll incorporate the chosen ones into some of the chapters I have, weaving it to the current worldbuilding, with the hope of making it a little more realistic.
Wish me luck.
Credits:
Artwork: Madartzgraphics
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/climate-change-global-warming-earth-1908436/